Just spent time clicking agree on all the ‘not a fan of the new image layout’ posts. The different sizes, frosting and lack of easy scrolling make it harder for me to view and use. I don’t find it helpful on my phone because I can’t scroll through pics on the phone. They open individually in a new tab. Also, I don’t usually look at MTS on my phone because I can’t download cc on a phone.

The already downloaded check mark is nice.

Although I’m not thrilled with recent changes I do appreciate that admins work hard to maintain and improve the site. Thank you.

@Tashiketh Tagging you so you can see all the feedback. Is there any chance you'd reconsider at least the picture changes? It's so inconvenient looking at pictures now. The rest I could probably get used to even if I don't like it, but the picture changes are a massive bummer.

More constructive notes
- If you view a post with say 30 pictures, having to scroll back all the way to the top to close the view-many-pictures view is annoying. In the past if you clicked to bring up a picture, clicking anywhere but the picture or arrows would go back to the page, could we maybe incorporate that in to the view many thing?

- Even in posts with few pictures where you don't have to scroll, having to find and click that tiny little X to close is annoying. I'm only 29 and it bothers me, can't imagine what it's like for older users (which at least the TS2 community has a great deal of)

- If we're going to have that view-many setup, could we at least make it have less rows and slightly bigger pictures? The three rows makes it less natural to follow along than the scroll, because you have to go first horizontal, then back and down one line, which means you constantly have to change direction on your eyes. With the old one there was only one direction so no need to move your gaze back and forth, you just followed along as you scrolled. This new one would be better if there was just one row, and maybe increase picture size max 20% so that you can see better but don't have to scroll forever either.

- Some uploads have frosting, some don't. In some you can't see any picture clearly unless you click, because of the frosting, and that additional step feels very unnecessary. Can we maybe get some kind of uniform size pictures that are actually visible without having the extra step?

The new layout is slightly buggy as well with regards to the comment section.
If you visit a download and click to view the comments then the thread loads so that it takes up the entire width of the page which is great. If you access a download comment section by clicking on it from your subscriptions then it loads the comments as if you are looking at the main download page so it still has the pictures at the top and the info box on the side with the comments squashed to the left of screen which is not so great.

Just going to put this out there - the vast majority of people do not use MTS on a phone (trust me, I looked at the stats). I did notice the oddity of having it open in a new tab, but the old view did the same thing as I recall, so I don't see the problem there.

Also, you do realise that the different sizes is actually because of the uploaders, not the layout? Thats one of the biggest headaches I have when I try to do anything on the site, is the fact that people upload all kinds of wacky aspect ratios, image sizes, and what not. Previously it was a giant horizontal scrolling mess, at least now you can see the images much better. So, there's no fixed image size like on most CMS systems, which makes it much more difficult to actually design a layout.

This is a bug, and has now been fixed. Thanks for pointing it out!

That's something I've tried doing but due to the way the overlay works, I haven't gotten it working yet.



If there was one row then you're back to scrolling horizontally again, which I do not like like. The idea of the new picture layout is so you have *one* main image that the downloaders can see quickly (along with some other images), and then the rest you can click to view much larger anyway (rather than having to scroll through - as you said yourself - much smaller thumbnails). So I think in general it's much easier to see larger, higher resolution pictures here.



If there is an upload that has the frosting on the first picture, thats a bug, and I need to know about those. As I explained above, there is no such thing as a uniform size picture on MTS, because people are allowed to upload any picture size and aspect ratio they want, and so forcing it to a specific size causes issues with stretching etc (which you can clearly see in the thumbnail gallery).

While I understand the logic in putting the Thank button right under the Download Files one, as *the next best step* this won't change how people behave. I personally don't need a reminder about being polite or thankful, but if we are lucky, this might make a difference...
The ratio between uploads and thanked is still awfully uneven, and this is true for just any sites and I'm afraid, not much can be done about it.
I found your explanations very helpful Tashiketh, thank you very much.

According to the thanks click stats (which I've been checking), the thanks click has gone down significantly, however, that's possibly because people need to learn the layout, which is why I'm giving it a few more days and then I'll move it to the infobox.

Yes, it is new of course. But I meant that as it was this way before the change occurred as well. The ratio was never even. Take Sim File Share for instance. You cannot have more straight forward than this..the heart(thank) button is right next to the Download one, heck, there is only these 2 to click. And yet, the ration is not even.
This is why i said, whatever the change, it won't change how people behave. Let's just hope MTS will be different per this new layout.

I disagree, that's a big change for me and encourages me to thank more. With the previous layout, the thanks button would roll out of view and sometimes I would forget to thank the author, or just be too lazy to scroll up. With the new layout, I don't have to put in more effort to thank the creator, so I do it more often.

Yes, I agree with you @Heodez . I often go on a downloading spree and then realise some time later by looking at my Downloads history that I forgot to thank. So having the button right there is good.

I also like the new layout for the images- having the first image larger means that you don't really need to put them inline any more. And I really like the infobox on the main page.

With what..logic?
It improved your experience, and will for sure make a difference for others as well. My point was and is, the ratio downloads/thanks is a behavior thing, not a layout thing. Otherwise, then explain to me why it is the same on every download sites? Are they all having layout issues you think?
Next time you follow a link to SFS, take a good look. Not clicking Thanks is done deliberately.
Regardless of any layouts, there will always be people who don't bother with this.

Doesn't have to be horizontal, it can be vertical. It'd just be nice if there's one row rather than three, because three forces your eyes to move in a lot of directions to skim the pictures and while it sounds ridiculous to talk about eye movements as work it is work. It's much harder to get a general idea of the thing now, because you just go all over the place. Having the pictures in one row that you scroll down vertically would make it less all over the place, I think.



Okay, in that case I will report it next time I come across one. Have seen several, but can't remember which ones now. And yes I know sizes do vary, but personally haven't really noticed stretching or anything like that, not on the upload gallery or in the threads themselves. I get what you mean though, it's just the different sizes and only being able to see some pictures from the start makes it hard to focus and again hard to get a quick overlook of the upload. Having to view every picture full size is inefficient, especially on lot uploads that can have tons of pictures. Would be nice if we could find a common ground where there's an option that lets you skim as well as look up close.

Would it be possible to move the info box so that it's either above or below the main text? Having it on the side like that really squashes the description. If the order was changed so it has two columns or something it could fit in between the thumbnail gallery and the description and tab-buttons. Something like this


On the thanks-debate, would it be possible to have it in both locations? I see merits to both sides. Having it next to the download button might make more people realize it's there, whereas having it in on the front page makes it easier to see if you go back to a page later, and all of us oldies who are used to it will remember to click. But either way glad to hear you are paying attention to stats T, I did wonder whether or not it would make them drop or go up.

I haven't been here in a while, so the new layout totally confused me. I had to hunt up this thread and read through some of it before I knew where the thanks button had been relocated.

Apparently I use the thanks button differently than most of the people in this thread. If I thought something was interesting enough to open up and look at it's thread, I hit thanks. Some of these things just do not suit my play style at all and are things I would never download because of that. But the creator put time and energy into it and I looked so I thanked. Other times I just didn't have the time to download, but did have the time to browse. Again if I looked, I thanked. I liked having the thanks button right there at the top of the page, because unless I'm actually downloading something, I seldom hit the files tab.

I like the idea of the already downloaded check mark, but suspect it will only mark anything I download going forward, not things I've downloaded in the past. I'd be happy to find out I'm wrong about that though.

Sorry but I don't understand you here. A "row" is, by definition horizontal, not vertical - you don't scroll down to view rows, you scroll across. Right now it's actually dictated by the image size - it's 1 big image, left-aligned, and then X rows (where X = 1 or more) of thumbnails that "fit" into the remaining space on the right. This provides, as I said, a quick way to view the large image plus some others.



That's why I made the thumbnail gallery.



I'd more likely choose one location - I'm not entirely convinced of either one yet. I won't have it in 2 locations because thats duplicate information.

I assume this sort of thing shouldn't be happening with the thumbnails?


From this thread> https://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=608330

Well excuse me for being ESL I am talking about the thumbnail gallery. Right now, if I bring up thumbnail gallery I get three vertical columns of pictures. I am saying having three columns means my eyes have to move both horizontally and vertically to view pictures, which means skimming them is more work. In the past with the scroll bar there was only one direction, horizontal, so you'd move your eyes along as you moved the scroll. I can't do that now because I have to go sideways and downward, so it breaks the flow and forces me to keep going back which then sometimes leads to losing track of where I was and makes getting through all the pictures take much much longer than it used to.

It's been a LONG LONG time since I played around on MTS. I used to create in Sims 2 but haven't done that in forever. I am now a Sims 4 player and have downloaded a few items. I was on the forum looking for a way to view my most recently downloaded content - not items I used to create but stuff I downloaded as a user. I know we used to be able to view the last 30 days of downloads but I can't seem to figure out how to do that anymore. Is this option still available or has it become obsolete? Just curious as I have some content that isn't working since the seasons update and I am looking to see if the creators have updated or not.

Thanks in advanced.

My Links>My Downloads

Is that not it?

Yes!!! Thats it! I was looking for it under user tools... Thanks

Voted helpful however lots of info on this website seems outdated and too much to process. I haven't been here in ages and lost my old account, now I registered mainly because I would like to upload Sims2 mods and so far I don't see any option where I can even start with. Also whatever I fill on the user control panel nothing saves, I tried twice and both times it erased all my info, so that was a nice waste of time that I will never get back ...

You should post general site problems you are having in site issues https://db.modthesims.info/f/24/ or if you are having issues with uploading your created content in creator issues https://db.modthesims.info/fd.php?f=492 There you can also see questions or problems that may have been asked before and possibly how to deal with them.

I am having a really hard time downloading Mods/CC on my Mac. I have downloaded what I think is the free version of WinRar, but I cannot unzip any of the files I download from this website and I honestly have no idea what I am doing. I am brand new to this, and seriously struggling. Any advise, or tips would be super helpful. I cannot seem to find a walkthrough for Mac anywhere on Google/Youtube/Reddit. Thank you!!!!

He @montanasims I use 7zip on Windows and there's a Mac version available (scroll down to 2021-12-26):
https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

There's a MacOS guide for playing Sims 2 on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sims2help/wiki/mac/