All of them are fine-the only NPC's that are dangerous to befriend, let alone click on, are the universal ones, that are generated with every game, and this article discusses which ones are:
https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Game_g...e_to_play_as%3F

Thanks Fran! Super helpful article

Does anyone know what these are? They are present in the original Maxis version of this file as well as in empty, cleaned versions. I want to make an emptier, cleaner version, but I can't figure out what they are. I tried looking for the GUIDs but I am really bad at that. If anyone can tell me how to find them, that would also be much appreciated. I've looked at a number of different hoods. Only one of these shows up consistently, one instance of 0xEC44BDDC seems to be found in newly created hoods.

If those are present in clean neighborhoods too, I suggest you leave those values in.

And now a Gramma question: some people express a need for a particular pet, or unique Sim. I make a lot, but am not ready for prime-time (upload requirements). Can I PM a person and offer to make something for them? Or is it not that difficult to upload? I know I would have to re-learn picture posting. But Sims would still be a problem, since I mostly make aliens with custom skins. I've read upload directions but am still unsure.

Uploading is really not that difficult and MTS usually encourages people to upload things, but I see nothing wrong with making stuff for people and sharing it with that person. It's really your choice in the end what you want to do.

Shokran. The Masters frighten me...

Creators very often leave in resources because they just don't know what they are or if they are safe to delete. We see extra resources in packages all the time. These are not present consistently and I can easily remove all except the one instance of 0xEC44BDDC just by creating a new hood and moving the essential bits to it (https://modthesims.info/t/468987). I just want to know what they are or how to find out.

You could always make a Tumblr and upload to places like fileshare, you don't have to upload to MTS. The upload Wizard is somewhat anxiety-producing and still makes me anxious. And that's with bypass. Obviously some people it doesn't worry but if you're an old worry wort like me then yeah, it's stressful.

After the set of sims I uploaded here I had a PM request from someone to make them a few sims & I'm too darned nice so I said sure. I just uploaded them to box and sent them the link in PM. We started a lovely friendship out of it, and I now send them their sims via Twitter.

Tumblr scares me, and I'm a still a youngin', although 25 may be old depending who you ask I only go on there to download, I don't think I'd ever want my own.

Yeah, be careful with Tumblr. I only use it as it's the place to go for CC in the simming community these days. Not sure how long that will last since I have heard complaints.

But my grievances with it:
I already had my account hacked by someone advertising Rayburn sunglasses and had to change my password so make sure to use a really good password etc.
Expect questionable Tumblrs to post on your feed/follow you. I have had about 5 now that I blocked. There is no way I would allow a child on there. But at least blocking is effective and easy to do.

Expect to see a lot of stuff that you are simply not interested in. I pass by dozens of posts on my dashboard since some people seem to post everything to one Tumblr, not just simming stuff- which is what I am there for. I wish people would keep Simblrs for sims and/or use cuts, cuts would help since it makes the post shorter and you need to click the cut to show the rest of the post, it really isn't hard. I mean if I can do a cut anyone can. Also, use appropriate tags. Some people don't and I grabbed some sims 4 cc thinking it was sims 2.

I also have to put up with the occasional flashing side gifs which to me is really more than annoying since I have epilepsy. I should be able to easily turn them off, but nope. Bad strike Tumblr not thinking about us.

But if I want to quickly upload something Tumble is super handy as the place to share the link and I have found all kinds of cc and other files I might not have done. It's also a good place to share simming pictures even though I don't. I do stop and look at some of them. I use my Tumblr to either post uploads (I don't want to rely solely on MTS to safeguard my files) or reblog other people's uploads. I like to promote others people's CC and I think Tumblr is an effective platform to do that than anywhere else due to the amount of simmers and reblogs. It's also handy if you yourself want to find something again. Say you want to download something later, just reblog it and you can find it again more easily. I like it when people put out lists of CC, like someone made a list of gym wear or plants.

How do you guys handle the placement of big/strange skill/hobby objects inside a home? I sometimes get sims who wish to get into robotics or something similar, but I never know where to place the darn thing. I like for it to make sense, but often times my houses are small and if I DID have a spare room for a study/skill area, it often has to be turned into a child room, or is often too small to include many things.

Maybe I need to start making bigger houses..

You could add a shed or a lean-to.

I figure that's what hobby lots are for. I just renovated all of them, so they can go there to do robotics or obstacle courses or whatever if they want. I also use communityskilling (essential, imo) so I put them on regular community lots, too.

I have this one question:

What's the criteria for some pixels to get the dusty old lamp? Are there any?

According to the Sims Wiki :

Receiving the Dusty Old Lamp
To be awarded the genie, one or more Sims in the household must have high enthusiasm in a hobby and high Lifetime Aspiration, which will summon the Gypsy Matchmaker to deliver the lamp. For each Sim with a Lifetime Aspiration level of 7 or higher, there is a 2% chance (per day) that the matchmaker will bring the lamp. The Gypsy Matchmaker may eventually deliver the lamp even if it is meant to belong to a Sim's dormmates, roommate, neighbor in the same apartment, or even a visiting Sim.

He is part of the FreeTime expansion.

Build a shed in the garden? If that's not possible, then some sort of attic conversion? Sometimes my Sims extend their property to the rear with the aid of the Lot Adjuster. (Provided that that doesn't interfere with another property of course!) In some cases, if objects are only used occasionally, they are kept in inventory until needed. One Sim just got and used a ReNuYuSenso Orb. Since she was living like a Romance Sim, she thought she might as well become one. Once she had used the Orb it went straight into Inventory -- there was no way she wanted that thing permanently in the middle of the living room of her 2x1 single storey house!

The Sims who have the greatest difficulty in my game are those who live in the old houses in Eastside Veronaville. It's a conservation area with strict planning regulations, and it's hard to get permission to make any changes that affect the external appearance of the building. Garden huts are generally OK, though the Council prefers them to be in the "Veronavillesque" style. Otherwise it's probably inventory.

Do you ever, late at night laying in bed, wonder about all the potentially amazing sims 2 mods that you are missing out on simply because you have never seen them and therefore don't know they exist?

This thought is spurred by watching sims YouTube videos and seeing all types of objects in the misc misc section that I know are mods but don't know what mod and it makes me wonder what it does and if it is something I would want if I did know.

The irony being that I've got a note on my phone of a few mods I wanna delete when I wake up because their features aren't useful to me anymore. Of course I wanna get more can't delete something without replacing it tenfold.

That is exactly what I do. Most of the garages I build in my game are for the sole purpose of hobby and career reward objects - my sims walk.

My long lost twin! Welcome to CC addicts anonymous, I'm Mookie.
Theoretically, I'm cleaning up my dl folder and sorting stuff that isn't in game yet this month. In reality, my game has gone from just under 8 gigs of cc to almost 9 and a half and the stuff I'm not using yet has had a similar increase. I think it's intervention time.... hell with that... I'mma blame my sponsor soon as I figure out who that is.

what does CASIE mean in simPE? I'm putting in some BodyShop hiders and I keep running into that label, I never actually figured out what it meant

Create a Sim Internet Explorer (as in, CAS Online), I think. Something to do with pre-game Bodyshop or sharing Sims when using "Package to TheSims2.com" instead of "Package to file."

Interesting! I've been going through jordi's hiders for the past few days and I wondered if these change anything in Bodyshop, thank you for the answer :D

No, CASIE is just the former name of Body Shop. It stands for Create-A-Sim Independent Editor.

Yep, I've heard it theorized that those were some of the first outfits made for the game, or something along those lines. I found a "preview" version of bodyshop off archive.org and it did have a lot of the CASIE_ clothes, but also some others. It was from 2006, though, I think from around when Uni was released. It'd be cool to find an early-early version, if it exists, and maybe know more. I've done a lot of digging in jordi's hiders as well, plus digging in the game's skins.package files to make my own hiders that I like better (sorry, shameless plug). There's so much stuff I find and wonder "what's this for? Why'd they do it this way?". I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when some of that was being worked on, even though I'm not a programmer and would understand precisely none of it.