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Old 04-12-2007, 12:24 AM   #4
Greg
Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint
 
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Texas
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There's an interesting discussion on the Sims 2 Mesh Mall regarding the question of these criminal activities. Bloo was wondering why there is so much hostility between sims fans, especially on this issue.

Here's what I had to say about it:

After seven years of this, I'm pretty much convinced that it stems more from personalities than from rational thought. Among Sims fans, there seems to be a disproportionate number of people who really enjoy stirring up bad feelings in others. There's really not much we can do about that except ignore them.

That's not to say that there aren't also ill-advised business motivations for troll events, even though the trolls greatly amplify nastiness fomented by unethical business behavior.

There are some amusing stories about that. The first I experienced was when one webmaster whom I was hosting for free on Moon Sims decided to see she could make some money from running a subscription site. She and a couple of cohorts on her staff spent a couple of months covertly setting up the new site and then in the middle of the night, deleted their site from the Moon Sims server and replaced it with a bunch of nastygrams.

The web log from that night was filled with hacking attempts where they also tried to wreck the other sites we hosted at the time as well as the primary web server itself. (Didn't work; they were blocked by the server's security system. It was a silly thing to try anyhow; server space for Moon Sims is donated by CyberTeams, the guys that wrote the security system for World Bank.) Then for the next few weeks I was inundated with all sorts of irrational attacks all over the Sims community.

When I asked the webmaster why she did this, she outright told me that she didn't want to have to explain why they left a "free" host to set up a "pay" site. (Let's be serious; there are no "free" sites. Somebody has to pay the bills for every site on the net.)

This same event was repeated many times after we got SimsHost going. Several webmasters decided to go off on their own with dollar signs in their eyes. They just didn't believe when I told them that SimsHost wasn't earning big bucks; and in fact never reached break-even. Many of them elected to follow a scorched-earth policy on their way out. They just didn't want to explain why they left a $2-a-month host where members could download from 100 sites to set up an $8-a-month site where members could access only their stuff.

The most amusing side effect of all those troll events was that each one resulted in an increase in the number of SimsHost subscribers. Such is the value of free publicity.

The tragedy is that not one of those sites lasted very long. The webmasters got discouraged when they discovered that Sims sites aren't the money machine they expected, and they one by one, they closed.

I really disagree with the notion that money is the root of all evil. The original saying is that the love of money is the root of all evil, and I would argue with even that point.

Myself, I value honesty above all else, and hold considerable disdain for dishonesty and unethical behavior. At least one of the big donation-based "free" sites engages in what I see as reprehensile marketing practices, beneath contempt; however, my greatest disgust is reserved for the criminals who are out to wreck "pay" sites just because they get their jollies from destroying things.

I rarely speak up about these things because it's just more fodder for the trolls, but I think it's worth doing once in a while just so that those who still have their personal ethics will know that they are not alone. That's why I posted this bit of silliness over at Insim (and also on my site, Sun Sims). It was really a promise I had made to Kathy, that I would fire a broadside at the criminal philosophy that was arising in the forum. Of course, being me, I couldn't resist loading the canon with joy buzzers and Groucho glasses.

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Not surprisingly, this evoked a response from folks who continue to attempt to rationalize their criminal behavior. It always does, and that's what we should expect. People don't like to face up to their own crimes, so they invent increasingly absurd rationalizations to protect their own egos.

But really, face up to it guys: You're either a crook or your not. If you're a crook, pretending it ain't so won't make you any less guilty.

Worse, it's a very self-destructive thing to do. The longer you continue to build up rationalizations for your behavior, the more it will eat at you.
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