More about the comments

The comments have been switched back.   I got an email earlier from ID and they are working on the problem so for now it's back to the old comments.

I saved a backup of the ID comments and will try adding them to blogger tomorrow - that's all for now.

New ***Trial*** Comment System

OK more updates on the new comments...

I've emailed ID about the comments disappearing from the front page and I'm just waiting for their response.

I got the comments to display on the main page through ID.  Comments now open in a new tab.  You can still click the title if you like the look of the other more.  Still playing around with everything... end of update for now:)

Both comments enabled is not going to work.  I'll just leave the new system on for a day or two and see what happens. You can just click the title of each post to get to the comments page.  I'll keep this close to the top until I figure out whether or not the new comments are here to stay.

I'm Not crazy about some things and love other things.  The main problem I have is how the comments display with IE.  They overlap and just look bad but I never use IE and haven't updated it in so long it just could be on my end.  Firefox works perfectly but I will not keep this if others have problems with IE.

This is the first post with the new comment system, so try it out and let me know what you think.  All the old comments will remain as they are and you can still comment using the blogger system.  To update the old comments to the new service would hide all of the old comments and that's not an option.

Anyway, some are going to hate this, some will like it, but for now I'm just trying something new.

Some of the good things about the new system is the rating system, replies and top comments.  Then there's the  forum style commenting, so no popup comments window. :(  I'll look more into that if it's possible.

You don't have to register for anything and can just comment as usual.  You can sign in to blogger, etc., with OpenID.  As for Anonymous comments, I tried leaving a comment using another browser and was asked to fill out the name/email/optional website form once, but the second time was not asked for anything and it posted as Anonymous.

Anyway, I'm craving cherries, so I'll post this now and check back to see what you think in an hour or so.

Parsimonious Needs Your Help!

You can take a quick survey at Parsimonious to help them keep their site up.

I'm fairly new to The Sims myself (about 3 years) and I believe Parsimonious was the first site I found when I found out about CC.  One of my best friends was playing The Sims 1 and she really wanted me to play the game.  At first I thought it was really stupid, but after finding out about CC, I pretty much went on a downloading spree and  was addicted to building and decorating.  Quickly moved on to The Sims 2 and of course now The Sims 3:)

Anyway, Parsimonious is looking for at least 2,000 people to take the survey.  This blog gets that many visitors in around two hours, so help if you can.

Please save us from quite certain death...

Kate says: in addition to a lot of administrative chaos, I'm now faced with a big financial problem which only YOU can solve (yes you...). I shan't bore you with the specific details here (you can read those in our Support pages) but I am now begging each and every one of you to give up a minute of your life to fill in this survey.

It doesn't matter if you've filled it out in previous years, it requires no information that is specific and personal to you, no tracking, no sign up, essentially it is completely harmless, but absolutely vital for us in order to keep a huge portion of our funding (no funding = no Parsimonious or any of the other 27 Sims sites who get free hosting from us). In spite of a really quiet year we're still chowing our way through well over 100Gb of bandwidth each and every day, thanks to some canny thinking and some help from our web host, costs have actually gone down in spite of rising traffic for the first time in 7 years BUT it is still a great deal more than I can personally afford. So please just take it - it won't bite and there's a good chance that it help if enough people respond (I am looking for at least 2000 responses in order to stave off disaster, but getting more responses would be very helpful)

Please help Parsimonious if you can

Thank you Lotus:)

Just click on the area below "Please save us from quite certain death" to take the survey.

And while you're there you can download this stuff and a lot more if you missed it the first time around:)

No It Didn't Happen Again

In case you're wondering why you're seeing things that were already posted:)

I'm trying to re-post what was lost over the past couple of days since only 4 or 5 of the lost posts were restored. 

I'm really sorry to all the people I replied  to about the affiliates and links being added.  I guess they were lost in this mess and around two months of requests were added on Thursday and are not showing up.  Figures, this happens the day after I added them.  But what can you do.  Unfortunately, I delete all emails right after so I have no way of adding them unless you email me again.  I'm very sorry about this.

Just in case this happens again today

It looks like Blogger had a major meltdown and posts from the past two days were removed and supposedly backed up, but not yet restored. I will re-post whatever was lost if all are not restored.  As of now it looks like only one post was restored.  If you've been ripping your hair out over the problems with your blog, keep an eye on this thread in the Blogger forum.  I added the available updates to this problem below. 

We are very sorry that users are unable to publish to Blogger right now. We have rolled back the maintenance release from last night and as a result, posts and comments from all users made after 7:37 am PDT on May 11, 2011 have been removed. Again, we apologize that this happened and our engineers are working hard to return Blogger to normal and restore your posts and comments. We will post a report once this work is complete.

-The Blogger Team

Sabine from Blogger
Google Employee
9:11 AM
Best answer - Eddie from Blogger (Top Contributor) Go to this answer
We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon.
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Lisa from Blogger
Google Employee
1:21 AM
We’re making progress and hope to be back soon. Blogger will remain in read-only mode until work is complete. Sorry for the pain.
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Lisa from Blogger
Google Employee
3:07 AM
A quick reminder: in order to get Blogger back to normal, we’ve reverted back to a stable version. All posts since 7:37am PDT on Thursday May 11 have been removed. We’ve backed up those posts and we expect everything to be back to normal soon.
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Sabine from Blogger
Google Employee
6:11 AM
Quick clarification: Wednesday, May 11
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Sabine from Blogger
Google Employee
9:11 AM
Best answer - Eddie from Blogger (Top Contributor)
We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon.
178 of 284 people found this answer helpful. Did you?

Happy Mother's Day!

Even you stubborn mothers who know your son plans to take you out to dinner... and when he arrives at your house to bring your gifts, the first thing he smells is all kinds of things cooking in the kitchen.  And then is greeted with an "oh, I forgot."

Stubborn, stubborn moms:)

Well I have to go back to my mom's now and have dinner with her.  Have a great day!

A note from Winterhart

Hi,

I want to thank you for putting Kylie's request on your blog. I also want to thank everyone who responded.
Twallan helped me make a mod that works! I just sent it to Kylie.

Thank you all,

Winterhart

A note from Winterhart

Hi,

I want to thank you for putting Kylie's request on your blog. I also want to thank everyone who responded.
Twallan helped me make a mod that works! I just sent it to Kylie.

Thank you all,

Winterhart

Help with a mod???

I got this email from Winterhart and thought I'd post it here to see if anyone could help out one of her readers.  If so you can email Winterhart at winterhartsims3@gmail.com. 

I got the following request on my website, Winterhart's Sims 3, from the mother of an autistic child. I don't know if it is even possible.

Rather than send Bethnell all over the place ( she's gotten enough of a run around from EA) I am asking anyone I can think of for help with this.

If you know of anyone who might be able to help with this please contact me here: winterhartsims3@gmail.com

Thank you for your time.

Jeannie Bucher aka Winterhart

About the mod

Hi there. I am asking this for my autistic daughter named Kylie. She does not like when the words "no interactions available" pop up when she clicks on an area that has no interactions. For her, just not clicking on an area isn't an option. Just the fact that there is the chance that those words may come up creates extreme anxiety to the point of tears. We have called EA and are always told to go to the forums but we haven't gotten any responses. I am not computer savvy and have no idea how to create a mod to remove these words from the game. I'm reading through MTS and it seems they have very specific guidelines and I can't find anything related to this subject. Your post seemed like the only person who is willing to try something like this if it's even possible to do. If you don't do mods like this, is there anyone that you know of that does this type of modification? Thanks for your time.

Help with a mod???

I got this email from Winterhart and thought I'd post it here to see if anyone could help out one of her readers.  If so you can email Winterhart at winterhartsims3@gmail.com. 

I got the following request on my website, Winterhart's Sims 3, from the mother of an autistic child. I don't know if it is even possible.

Rather than send Bethnell all over the place ( she's gotten enough of a run around from EA) I am asking anyone I can think of for help with this.

If you know of anyone who might be able to help with this please contact me here: winterhartsims3@gmail.com

Thank you for your time.

Jeannie Bucher aka Winterhart

About the mod

Hi there. I am asking this for my autistic daughter named Kylie. She does not like when the words "no interactions available" pop up when she clicks on an area that has no interactions. For her, just not clicking on an area isn't an option. Just the fact that there is the chance that those words may come up creates extreme anxiety to the point of tears. We have called EA and are always told to go to the forums but we haven't gotten any responses. I am not computer savvy and have no idea how to create a mod to remove these words from the game. I'm reading through MTS and it seems they have very specific guidelines and I can't find anything related to this subject. Your post seemed like the only person who is willing to try something like this if it's even possible to do. If you don't do mods like this, is there anyone that you know of that does this type of modification? Thanks for your time.

Happy Holidays To All

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  Have a great day, guys:)

First Snow... YAY

I'm not sure why the pictures came out like something out of Sleepy Hollow but these are pictures of the first snowfall, taken from my bedroom porch just minutes ago. 

Too Much?

I'm not really sure how I feel about the "Top Posts" thing.  I kind of like the idea but having three different ones for "week", "month" and "all time" seems a bit repetitive.  Anyway, let me know what you think...it probably will grow on me.

The new "Broken Links, etc" tab at the top is for just that - broken links, dead sites, etc.  You can report anything you want in there and I'll definitely see it, since the posts get buried in no time.  I deleted a bunch of posts today, but could have missed some things.

The dead sites removed

Adelyne Sims
Aarin's Spectacles
Sim National
Trinity2005
Noir-Ange

The rest of Sims Art Gallery old posts

And a few others:)

Blogger is improving a lot of things

A few people were wondering why their comments 'got eaten' and didn't display.  The comments that were not spam have been published.

Anyway, blogger has improved their comments section and added a spam filter.  It's a huge improvement and makes managing comments a lot easier.  The only thing is some comments get sent to spam that are not spam. So check it out on your blogger account. 

Little changes with the blog

No, this isn't going to become a blog about (my new) Chinese Water Dragon, but some things are going to change.  I'm probably not going to be adding as many Sims and stuff just because it's out there.  Especially Sims with no links to CC used. Brandon will no longer be doing the majority of the updates.  He will still be updating under my account, just not  adding EVERYTHING.  I'm only going to be adding things that I'd use, things I think people will actually use, and good quality content in general.  I'm sorry about this but I really need to organize this blog.  You can still add your stuff in the "your updates here" section above and I'll leave what I don't add up for a week or so.  In the process, some of the older stuff will go.  Hair, of course will still pretty much all be posted.  I know I should have had this done a while ago, but this summer has been the worst for allergies, sometimes to the point where I can barely keep my head up .  I've never had to take medication for allergies until last month.  I don't know what's going on, but for the first time in a long time I'm actually looking forward to snow storm after snow storm.

Anyway, this is Dexter or Rita, depending on what sex he/she turns out to be.  I bought him/her three days ago and he/she's just a baby.  I was told he/she is two months old... So, if there's any CWD experts out there that want to offer advice about them, go right ahead:)

I also check my blog for CC

I was building an older house earlier and needed a few more things, so I started searching the blog and found some things I didn't have/forgot about. Anyway, here's a few pictures that came up in the vintage search. If you use the search box at the top left, what ever you type in (as long as it's in the title or post) will come up...creator names, sites, etc. There's two pages, so be sure to click older posts. I'm sure most of you already know this, but some might not. It's just another option like the categories. BTW, the other search box with the big red X through it will be deleted as soon as I post this, since that search doesn't display pictures, and that's pretty useless. I only added it because the current template hid the Navbar.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Joe's father died three days ago, and he has given full control of the blog and email to me for now.

Hopefully he will be back soon.

Just wanted to let you know

Sorry about the lack of updates on Saturday and the later updates like today. Some of you already know that my father is very sick and it has taken a turn for the worst. I will not stop updating the blog, but there might be days when the updates are later in the day, since mornings and early afternoon are usually a busy time for me.

A couple of weeks after this blog really started getting popular, he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, so those who were around then, probably noticed my interaction with the comments went down. Doing the updates has kept my mind busy when I'm not busy, so I thank you.

Well, I have to go back to the cancer center, so see you later today:)

A word from some readers about the new patch

I still haven't installed World Adventures because I am actually deathly afraid of losing my game like I did when I updated the last couple of times. Anyway, some nice readers have sent me their stories and they want to share with others.

....................................................

A word of warning for Windows Vista users:
Do NOT download the latest pc patch v. 1.6.6 for sims 3. Neighborhoods now take up to ten minutes (whereas before it only took seconds) to load and game performance is much slower.
It ruined my game performance wise and now I am having to reinstall.

thanks, anon:)

....................................................

And now from Robbie:

Hey just a heads up that you may wanna post about the new patch thats out, there are only 2 mods that seem to be causing everyone problems/crash's.
The Awesome mod is the biggest one and also for those who used there online custom setting thing that file is called aweconf.

The other one that I found out on my own is the facial hack from MTS2 named facialhack_patch127.
Here is the the link to that hack-
http://linna.modthesims.info/download.php?t=344369

Also people who have World Adventures seem to find that moving there mods to C\ProgramFiles\ElectronicArts\

TheSims3WorldAdventures\Mods
Rather Than
C\ProgramFiles\ElectronicArts\TheSims3\Mods
Also it seems that moving the Resource.cfg to C\ProgramFiles\ElectronicArts\TheSims3WorldAdventures makes the mods work.

That seems to help a lot with mods working right with people who have WA installed, however I do not have world adventures installed yet so I can not confirm if that works.
I can say that since updating with the newest patch taking out awesome,aweconf,and facialhack_patch127 made my game run again.

Thanks, Robbie:)

Thanks a.....................

MILLION! Some time during my early morning sleeping hours this blog hit 1 million visits and I just wanted to say thank you:) So, thank you United States, France, Italy, Brazil, Netherlands, Argentina, Venezuela, Russia, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, India, Finland, South Africa, Czech Republic, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Guadeloupe, Croatia, Estonia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Venezuela, Malaysia, New Zealand, Lithuania, Mexico, Uruguay, Romania, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Chile and Philippines! And any not mentioned/unknown. These stats change by the minute so thank you to all others not online when I posted this. And thanks to all the creators who make the great additions to our games:)