HUZZAH! Banned from Rentech.com!

[J. M. Pescado]

I would just like to point out - and I have to risk this looking like I am taking sides - that at VS there is no statement naming Pescado as the person who is suspected of trying to hack the system.   If people have drawn that conclusion it is far more likely to be as a result of reading *this* thread on MATY than anything they might have read at VS.

It's hardly difficult to reach this conclusion when you observe the previous patterns: The first "hacker scare" began shortly after I left: Front page news, "Hackers may have stolen your password! Everyone must change their password if they joined prior to 07/10!" Conveniently, the date the hacker scare began coincides precisely with when I left, and the date given as the "compromised" date conveniently happens to be the day of the security lockdown when my server access was sacked. The obvious implication was the fact that I was in possession of a DB backup from that time (despite the fact that passwords cannot be extracted from a DB backup by any means short of brute-force cracking). I wasn't the first to reach this conclusion: In fact, I was only made aware of it when somebody pointed it out, after which I immediately drew the same conclusion.

The second "hacker scare" began, coincidentally after I had been quietly banned from the site for no particularly obvious reason. At that point, of course, I created a quickie account routing through another proxy server instead of my usual one, and sent out a few quiet PMs to individuals not including Rentech. Unsurprisingly, the next day, that account had been deleted, the practice of mandatory email verification was instituted, and the "hacker scare" message was posted as front page news.

Coincidence or cover-up? I'll let you decide.

[Inge]

I'm not saying your conclusion was necessarily wrong, but I'm not sure of your motives in trying to make sure everyone else knew about it?   Wouldn't it have been good style, and better for the community, to simply go about setting up your new (and very nice) site in dignified peace?

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm not saying your conclusion was necessarily wrong, but I'm not sure of your motives in trying to make sure everyone else knew about it?   Wouldn't it have been good style, and better for the community, to simply go about setting up your new (and very nice) site in dignified peace?

Well, that was sort of the original plan. Then Rentech went and banned me for no apparently good reason. That's always fun. But hey, like I said, I'm willing to go back to getting along anytime she's willing to stop with the nonsense. After all, I haven't actually done anything in response, like, oh, say, blowing up the site in a big fiery ball that is visible from space or anything.

[Liss]

I think the "durrrrr" was probably supposed to come across as "duh."  How literate do you have to be to spell "duh?" sheesh.

[jrd]

Feh. Petty politics.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I got the PM too, and I've been off-line for hours and hours!

Who is this Detective moron!  If he/she/it wants to inform us of something, surely the open forum is enough!

[DrBeast]

Flashback: one week ago: Well, what do you know...I leave on vacations and the best modder for TS2 goes AWOL! At least so I thought. So after a brief search I find out that he's set up his own shop...and it's a pay site?!?! No wait, something's fishy here! I don't quite know what, but something is just out of the picture...anyway, I'm at a netcafe and time's running out so no further investigation is possible...
Today: here I am again, at a netcafe. The JM issue must be clarified. But wait a minute...where's the link that was available a week ago? Gone?! Damn! Anyway, off to MTS2. There, one of his mods. "Click", "register". Fair enough, I do that.  No pay site after all! My intuition didn't fail me then. But wait...he's been BANNED from the previous site?! A quick glance at the posts, and the conlusion is solid: their loss. Not only did they lose the best modder available, they've lost all my respect as well.
The moral of the story: I don't give a rat's fuck what kind of person JM is (finally, free speech!). I DO know that he's the best damn modder for TS2, and I'll follow him wherever he goes! Period!
I also get the feeling that when this whole vacation charade is over (sure enough, the beaches and sea of Greece are wonderful, but I HATE THE SEA!), I'll extensively use the forum too. You'll see more of me in the future, that's for certain.

[SimMoon]

Beats me. I don't think he's actually a representative of rentech.com, however. He's too stupid. They can't possibly have fallen that low that fast.

I have no idea who he is but he sent me the PM. I read it and gave it all the respect it deserved... I deleted it. As to this person I'd like to say:

GET A LIFE ALREADY!

[veilchen]

(sure enough, the beaches and sea of Greece are wonderful, but I HATE THE SEA!), I'll extensively use the forum too. You'll see more of me in the future, that's for certain.

Greece is so very lovely too (as long as I don't have to participate in the olive harvest :D). I seem to have a mediteranian tilt, Italy, Greece etc. I'm trying to build the Parthenon; thanks to Inge at Simlogical I can now use columns with reckless abandon. Too bad the only statue in the game is Venus... as if the ancient world didn't have more strong and powerful goddesses to choose from.

(I will now return this briefly hijacked thread to its regular scheduled program)

G.

[laeshanin]

Well, one thing is that those who need JM can not find him from Various' site anymore, they would have to go to MTS2 for that. I just went through the site and found that all the posts he made have been deleted. It's actually quite comical sometimes, people seem to answer themselves or respond to something that is not there. Even the individual posts that had a link to this site have been altered in some way or other.

Interpersonal difficulties should not be carried this far as to deny those in need of help access to it. It is the hypocrisy of this that is very annoying. To proclaim that a site has been set up solely for helping fellow simmers, but providing forums as well is one thing, to deny information or direct access to the most talented modder in the community is quite another.

If you want to implement rules, be consistent. The avatar in question did not bother me in the least, but they have at least one member there who delights in calling people "crackhead", makes constant references to 'crack' and has in his/her signature under location the following: "Where do you think, CrackHead?"
I find this far more bothering than everything else I have come across since the break-up.

Censorship and hypocracy are the two things I deplore the most. Having been involved in the former discussion about the issue (and receiving a very defensive non-answer), and witnessing the latter now in more than one way is rather disturbing.

G.

Strange, the links were there the last time I checked but I rarely go to MTS2 daily.

All I can say is that there must be some exceptionally immature people out in the simming community. As for my own experience, I have noticed that there are a few on MTS2 forums that are quite disturbed and have a knack for not taking any responsibility for what they say. Worrying...

Censorship has its place, but hypocrisy does not. I have a personal issue with the mods that are available for guns, as I am, and I'm proud to admit it, fully in favour of having every weapon destroyed. (Yes, I'm a bleeding heart, tree-hugging hippy.) This worries me as it takes the game one step too far in my opinion. Cartoon violence is ok (Tom & Jerry anyone?) but bringing reality into something that's essentially marketed for kids? Kinda makes my skin crawl...

As for the "disturbing" avatar...I've seen far worse than a gay couple snogging. (Having been round the blocks more than once - a fairly slow stroll - and (jokingly) known as a "fag-hag".) Sexuality merely is. And, provided everyone is enjoying it and there is no coercion then I fail to see what the problem is. Both of my children have gay men as role models and it hasn't done them any harm, and it has done no harm to those young people adopted by gay couples of either gender.

My, how, I have gone on. Please be aware that these comments are the opinion only of the writer and bear no relevance to anyone else.

[Inge]

Anyone thinking that links to this site have been purged from VS, here is the pointer to the MATY thread in the Site Links section at VS, where I too have a link to my site in common with several other sites.  It seems fairly standard in the community to allow one link per other person's site?   MATY on the other hand, has *nowhere* for other sites to post their links.   One "censorship" battle point to VS, I think.

http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=1570

[veilchen]

The link to MATY has been on VS, yes; it's hardly comparable to the other site-owner links, but that is beside the point.

Censorship is one of the issues that can't be compared with not having a place to post a link to your site. There are several things this site does not have yet, a donation button is one of those things that come to mind. It's only about a month old, although the ever increasing membership, despite JM's detour via the paysite main page, could be misleading.

Censorship would be if JM absolutely forbade any mention or link on his site to any other site, and that just simply is not the case. On the contrary, he keeps telling people to check simlogical (although he calls it Ingelogical, but there are not many here that don't know what that means), MTS2, and VS for fixes and hacks they ask for and that are not his. Censorship would also be if JM would start telling people what they were allowed to say, or telling them to get rid of their avatars. Sure, he's quick to tell you that your avatar stinks, or that your post is the epitome of silliness, but he does not stop you from using the 'stinky' avatar, or stop you from keeping on dwelling on your 'silliness'. That would be censorship. (Note: the 'you' is meant universally and is not implying any particular person).

We all know that JM is not a mesher or web-page designer, he is a premier modder and game-fixer, and he is first one to tell you that. Give him time, like I said, this site is only about one month old.

Personally, I love your stuff, Inge. I woudn't enjoy playing without the teleport shrub, your hiders, your school-tables, your apartment-stuff....your goodies are to many to list. I also love TJ's mods and hacks, and I enjoy playing with Carrigon's mods and hacks. There are also modders and meshers over at MTS2 that I like very much, and I check their contributions regularly, and if I want some easily understandable (for non-modders or non-meshers) advise, I do a quick search for Daysies contributions. There are more then I can list here, but these are the people that immediately come to mind. Even the official board has some good sides to it with contributions from good people, Reg and Kmlough come to mind there. There are direct links to many places on this site, they are just not organized, but JM has not deleted them, nor has he told anyone to stop doing that.

G.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I totally agree with that, veilchen, and would add that links are in any case of most use when included in the thread which deals with your problem - far more convenient than "go to the links page for the link"!  I think for sites which are primarily for downloading objects and skins etc., then a page of links is a courtesy to ones' visitors, but in a forum which deals primarily with game-play problems, the visitor will look first for a thread which addresses the issue he/she is having with their game, and if the answer appears to be a fix available at another site then a link in the same post is all you really need.

[Inge]

Well that's a great speech, all of it perfectly true about this site - but what about my actual point?   Has Rentechd censored her forums so that people can't see links to this site on there, or has she not?   I don't mind who it is, which side it is, if I see an untrue statement or misleading comment I am going to chime in.   I doubt if she left the link there by mistake, which means she has taken the decision to allow people to find this site in the same forum they find all the other sites - the very place they'd think of looking for a link to a site in fact.

I appreciate your kind comments about my objects, but this is not about who makes the best hacks, it's about fair representation of facts.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Can you tell me why Pescado has five red squares for his Reputations - other people appear to have green squares.

[Inge]

Do you mean on his account at VS?   It could be an unavoidable software side-effect of being on moderated status, or could be the side-taking phenomenon.  I don't think either Pescado or Rentechd are that petty minded, but some younger or less well-grounded people might have started playing pranks on "the other side" as they see it.

[Brynne]

Cartoon violence is ok (Tom & Jerry anyone?) but bringing reality into something that's essentially marketed for kids?

Even as a kid I knew that hitting someone over the head with a frying pan would do more than produce the doingoingoing! sound. 

As for the "disturbing" avatar...I've seen far worse than a gay couple snogging. (Having been round the blocks more than once - a fairly slow stroll - and (jokingly) known as a "fag-hag".) Sexuality merely is. And, provided everyone is enjoying it and there is no coercion then I fail to see what the problem is. Both of my children have gay men as role models and it hasn't done them any harm, and it has done no harm to those young people adopted by gay couples of either gender.

I'm far from being a "tree-hugging hippy", but I am also (jokingly) a "fag hag". Two good friends of mine are a gay couple, and they have adopted a son (he was 11 at the time of adoption, and is now in high-school), whom they "suspect" is also gay (and also why their home was seen as a perfect fit for the child). My son is friends with their son and didn't blink an eye when we went over to their house for dinner one evening and the son was dressed in a long velvet gown and full makeup! And my son adores the two men. Although at first I didn't know how to answer my son's "Why does so-and-so have two daddies?" question, I answered with the truth, which my son accepted and went back to his crayons. That's reality, and I've come to the conclusion that shielding my son from what some deem "socially unacceptable" would be the best recipe for creating a mind which considers such things "socially unacceptable". There are things that deserve that label, but this was not one of them, in my mind.

Wow, five red squares??? Someone got a little trigger-happy with the anti-rep button, it seems. This is getting sillier by the day...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, unless they're hacking into the site to do it, they must have some official standing, surely?  At SimFreaks, I can do certain things as a mod, like move posts, post warnings, etc. but I think only Heather could actually make those kind of changes (and maybe one or two other mods with a similar understanding of how things work).

[Brynne]

Do you mean on his account at VS?   It could be an unavoidable software side-effect of being on moderated status, or could be the side-taking phenomenon.  I don't think either Pescado or Rentechd are that petty minded, but some younger or less well-grounded people might have started playing pranks on "the other side" as they see it.

I'm thinking that a lot of this silliness has much more to do with the new, younger posters over there than it has to do with either Rentechd or Pescado. Stirring the proverbial pot. Makes life fun, doesn't it?

[veilchen]

Well that's a great speech, all of it perfectly true about this site

Thank you Inge, I was always good at making sensible points and speeches. Maybe I should try for the Diplomatic Corps, they certainly get paid better than I do :D

Anyone thinking that links to this site have been purged from VS, here is the pointer to the MATY thread in the Site Links section at VS, where I too have a link to my site in common with several other sites.  It seems fairly standard in the community to allow one link per other person's site?   MATY on the other hand, has *nowhere* for other sites to post their links.   One "censorship" battle point to VS, I think.

I might have mis-read this, but to me it seems the point was censorship. Which does not exist here. As for the missing links (no pun intended), that is also pretty well explained in my speech :D.

I don't think either Pescado or Rentechd are that petty minded, but some younger or less well-grounded people might have started playing pranks on "the other side" as they see it.

Posted by: Brynne
I'm thinking that a lot of this silliness has much more to do with the new, younger posters over there than it has to do with either Rentechd or Pescado. Stirring the proverbial pot. Makes life fun, doesn't it?

I completely agree. I'm assuming (I know, don't assume) that this is the pool our little flamer crawled out of. Things like this most certainly keep this thread alive and breathing. And let me re-state JM's view on the flamer. He does not believe that this was done with either Rennie's knowledge, much less with her blessing. The red squares also add fuel to the fire that is trying to die down. I read Rennie's sticky on the 'reputation' thing. It seems to me that she does have the means to either re-set it or turn it off. That would take the wind out of the little ones' sails, more or less (hopefully more). I'm assuming this (again with the assuming, sheesh) because she states that "Not only can users reposrt a poster for begging for rep which will ear them an immedate -1000 other sit members can give them what they want" --this is a direct quote from the sticky. It does make it seem that she can manipulate this on her admin end.

G.

Edit: And please, I'm not at all claiming that Rentech even knew (or knows) about the reputation issue. After all, she has been very busy with all her new outdoor stuff meshes. Love the Gazebo by the way.

[Inge]

I'm not really all that keen on ranks and reputation points and all that.  It seems to encourage people to focus on the wrong things.  I got rid of the posting ranks, and everyone is just "registered" from 0 upwards.   On my forums the ideology is I'm boss and everyone else is equal under me lol. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, "he (she) who pays the piper calls the tune"!  (Or should do!)

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm not really all that keen on ranks and reputation points and all that.  It seems to encourage people to focus on the wrong things.  I got rid of the posting ranks, and everyone is just "registered" from 0 upwards.

I don't really do reputation points, either, unless I were to rewrite the entire system for my negative-points-only system, and there are no real "posting ranks". You just get different insulting titles.

On my forums the ideology is I'm boss and everyone else is equal under me lol. 

My ideology is that you all suck, and that I will insult you, rip your lips off and make fun of you.

[Brynne]

My ideology is that you all suck, and that I will insult you, rip your lips off and make fun of you.

You love us and you know it.

[veilchen]

I'm not really all that keen on ranks and reputation points and all that.  It seems to encourage people to focus on the wrong things.  I got rid of the posting ranks, and everyone is just "registered" from 0 upwards.   On my forums the ideology is I'm boss and everyone else is equal under me lol. 

Too true, they don't pay the rent do they?

Posted by: J. M. Pescado
My ideology is that you all suck, and that I will insult you, rip your lips off and make fun of you.

I'm glad to hear that, seeing as I was pondering going into the prosthetic-lip business. My first sale was going to be: "Buy one set for the price of two and get a second set free!"

G.