Hi All,

It has always been the intention from the beginning when founding this site that MTS2 would have the best quality items from the best creators in the community. We've seen some fantastic uploads from all our featured creators, and many others of an excellent quality from others too.

In the interests of keeping to such a high quality standard, we have recently been reviewing and modifying our Creator Guidelines section to add in more emphasis on quality. All uploaders should take a look at this forum to read the latest rules and suggestions.

To bring the rest of the site up to this quality level, I have decided to implement a site wide Quality Control drive. This means that any uploads on the site that don't meet the guidelines will be removed. Any such items will be tagged as such and will appear at the top of a download thread, and also within the download browser. Please note this will be an ongoing process that applies both to old, current and future downloads. If you upload something that doesn't conform to the guidelines, expect it to be tagged. All current tagged items will be removed automatically 2 weeks after they are tagged by the staff.

If you see an item of yours has been tagged, please do not take this as an insult. This is your opportunity to look back upon earlier uploads and revise and improve upon them. If you feel you can remake an item better please do so and edit your post. We want to see your new and improved skills as modders to this community. You will be able to remake your items and edit your posts with the new and improved versions if you wish.

Some of you may not like this cleanup (especially those who have items tagged) but please take a moment to think about the following: MTS2 is a free site, offering free downloads. While we have let many things be uploaded, and while we have many great items, from time to time we need to prune off some things that don't conform to the guidelines in order to raise the general quality level to a new high. There are places such as the exchange that don't have such quality controls, and we advise for those of you who feel particularly upset by this move to seek alternative hosting.

I realise that changes can be unsettling, but as mentioned in the first paragraph it has always been my intention to keep MTS2s downloads at the highest quality and have the best in the community. We hope you'll agree that doing this will achieve that goal.

Any comments please feel free to reply. Please do not reply saying "Why was my XXX tagged?". Read the Creator Guidelines forum first - the chances are that your items do not conform to these guidelines. If you have made edits to, and improved your post, to bring it up the quality guidelines, please post here to notify us here: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=143231

I hope you appreciate these changes that will bring MTS2s download quality up to an even higher level.

Regards,
Delphy

Here is a list of what we have been tagging for so far: (Please note this is an ongoing process)

• All walls and floors that are not seamless, use bright untextured colors, or use photographs have been tagged. These types of uploads do not fit our quality standards. If you want a picture on a wall please learn how to recolor a painting,
• Any sims that are predominantly maxis content AND use nothing but a standard maxis face sculpt from body shop have been tagged. These sims are easily replicatable and do not show off the true level of your ability at making sims.
• All clothing that appears to have blurry or pixelated textures, or lack of texture, has been tagged. Please read Faylens tutorials to learn tips and tricks for how to create sharp realistic clothing for sims.
• All uploads that do not have pictures on them have been tagged - If you wish to keep these uploads here, and they meet our quality control guidelines, you must reupload in game screenshots that work.
• All uploads must have clear and well-lit IN GAME screenshots - there are no exceptions. Try and showcase the quality of your item with your screenshots.

For more information, see the Creator Guidelines forum. Remember that in order for your download to have a thumbnail picture on the download page it must have a screenshot attached through Manage Attachments. photobucket or other hosted pictures will not show on that screen.

Please note that these apply to the normal Downloads section. Game Modifications/Hacks have seperate rules.

Regards,
Delphy

For recent news regarding specifically Walls and Floors, please also read http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=143225

Firstly, I think this is a very sensible direction. MTS2 should be a celebration of the best a community can make, and this sounds like a very good way to make sure it stays that way.

Secondly, are these tags visible to everyone, or just to the creator of the upload/download?

And finally, would it be possible to get a screen shot showing what one of these tags looks like, just so we all know what to look out for?

Echo,

The tags are visible to everybody, and look like this:


Additionally the download browser shows a little stop sign:

I can imagine that this move can angry some people.

Actually, I was going to suggest that when MTS2 changed the rating system, but I was affraid that some people might not be happy about that system. :p

I guess eventually it is the way ... :D

However, what I was going to suggest is a three class system, instead of two

The ideas of 3 classes are:

1. Good - those items are approved by MTS2, but will be removed in 2-3 weeks
2. Very good - those are much better than those in "good" class, and will be removed in 2-3 months
3. Great - featured items, very unique, and won't be deleted.

Oh well, but now we have a new system, and the new tagging system should be good and acceptable. :D

KKai,

Only some of the sections are moderated. This tagging mostly affects non-moderated sections (although we will be looking at older downloads within the moderated forums too).

It's really to try and improve the lowest quality. Stats indicate that only about 5% of all total downloads have been tagged so far, so I see no need to extend it to a multiple tiered system.

Downloads that are featured already comply with all the upload guidelines and are excellent in thier own right, so they'll never get removed, the same with the vast majority of other downloads.

Hope this clarifies things.

Regards,
Delphy

KKai, that sounds like the exchange - everything but 5-star and featured content gets deleted 2 weeks later.

That's a great idea! I hope none of my uploads are tagged...

Okay, ...

I don't know anything about the exchange :p

Delphy

i suppose this kind of thing would have had to happen sooner or later.

is it possible to have downloads voluntarily tagged?
i got a download that i made so long ago it's not really generateing much interest.
and it can easily be removed and if i want to share it. it would be in with a house that i upload instead.

in a way this is all sad but i'm sure it's for the best.

mike19: Sure, if you want. Just drop one of the staff a link. Or you could just delete it yourself using edit post

This is a little scary I hope mines don't get Tagged all of a sudden.

If you followed the guidelines, it wont be tagged.

Can we tag if something isn't properly labeled for expansions or is infected with hacks?

alkaloid,

Tagging is only available to staff. Lots uploaded to MTS2 wont contain hacks as we don't allow those to go through moderation. (Unless it's REALLY REALLY old)

If it's inproperly labelled, just leave a note in the thread. No need for tagging.

Can I make a request for readmes to be included at some point? For people who have to reinstall for some reason, digging through a mound of old downloads with no idea of what they are, other than that you once thought they might be interesting, is a little tricky. I know that a lot of people feel that after spending a lot of effort in making and testing the item, they don't want to spend time on a readme too, but they're usually willing to write enough in the download post itself. So, possibly they could just compose the post offline, paste the intro into a readme then paste the text into the post itself? There's probably a better way, but it's just a suggestion.
Besides, we don't need much - just where in the game it shows up and a quick idea of what it is.

Please keep discussion only to this particular topic (ie the tagging and removal of downloads that conform to the current quality rules).

With that said, it's up to the creators as to how much information that want to include. If they name thier packages properly then you would know what it is.

All suggestions about new site features need to go in the Site Suggestions v2 thread in Site Issues.

Thank you.
Delphy

As someone who is not a creator of any of these downloads I don't know if my opinion matters but I use only this site for downloading because of the quality of work by "most" of the modders here. I thouroughly applaud this action! Since I don't have the ability to affect any change in my game except through the work of others I depend completely on the integrity of the site and its contributors for the downloads I use and this action raises my already high opinion of this site into the stratosphere. Thanks so much!!

Well, I'm pretty new here, and I must say that I'm for this action a lot more than I am against it. I couldn't make an object for my life, so I download. I prefer going here rather than anywhere else because of the quality, and to kick up the quality of everything here even more seems like a great idea. Thank you!

That's not true. I've uploaded content in July of last year and it's still there now despite only having a rating of just over 4.

As for this change, I am in favour of it. I've downloaded some clothing before that looks ok in the screenshots but when I get it into my game it's all jaggedy with seams that don't meet.

If this change is going to improve the quality even more than I say "I".

Let me just add here, If you all are wondering about what gets flagged and what doesnt- read post #2 and please look at the updated guidelines. (Creator guideline forum)
In the unmoderated forums, there were many recolors and such that were not done to the best of the creators ability- New rules have gone up to further help you create the best you can.

I'm all for it. I don't have the talent or knowledge to make things of my own. So this site has been my main resource for new things. There are so many talented creators here, and while i feel bad for some of those who may be tagged, it'll help them to step up their game. With the bar being raised, i can't wait to see what some of you guys can come up with.

When the low quality downloads are being removed, you guys are making sure that some high quality download didn't use their mesh? I'm just worried that this tagging and removing, might make a mesh needed for another download unavailable. There's quite a bit of stuff that was so-so that I downloaded, because it was a mesh required for something awesome.

lol I actually have a question. I feel stupid asking, but is all this basically just saying that if you upload something thats not moderated, such as a mesh, then it can be deleted by a moderator/administrator? And I'm assuming that means no sending messages to ask why? :P

Maybe, if this isn't adding too much work, that those things could just simply have to be checked before upload as well, and would require approval before uploading. If that makes any sense. It could potentially be a hassle and extra work to those in the roles that would have to check everything, but I actually think it might save more problems than cause them.