I've built a spaceship for my aliens, and I'd like to show it here, if possible. I took lots of photographs, packaged the lot and condensed it. When I tried to upload it here, I was told I had to instal something called Coupon Explorer. I don't want that. Is there any way round it?

Sorry - I've just realised this is in the wrong place. Would some kind moderator please move it for me? Thanks.

Never heard of 'Coupon Explorer', sounds fishy to me.

So you went above to create, clicked it open, Upload items and what then? Did it open the upload wizard? You should see a screen where you choice Sims 2,3 or 4, then your category.

Yes, it sounded fishy to me, too. I tried again, and this time the advert did not appear. I still didn't get very far. I uploaded the .rar file for my Scoutship, but could not figure out how to upload the images. I had uploaded them all to Photobucket, copied the URLs, and pasted them in a Notepad document, with titles like 'Front', 'Back' and 'Layout'. I was hoping I could paste these URLs somewhere, but apparently I have to upload them as files, and I'm rapidly running out of enthusiasm. Nearly ten years I have been coming to this site, and have never succeeded in uploading anything. It's just too complicated!

See where you uploaded your rar file to? The link to upload your photos is below that. They need to be jpg format. I use free Gimp to change mine. You can then upload 8 pictures directly from where you have them stored on your computer. I use FRAPS which has it's own folder on C drive.
You can also use photobucket photos in the body of your post, I just did tonight when I uploaded my lot. MTS do want the overheads to be uploaded with their file upload because photobucket pictures can go missing. It does take a time or two to get use to that upload wizard, but it's not nearly as difficult as out 3 TV remotes!

To add to what jo said, the cap is not 8 pictures for one thread, but I imagine that's how many you can bulk upload

Just take it slowly - I have not been uploading for long, but it is only the first try that really takes time.

Like Jo, I put my pics in a folder, name my folder after the lot, change them all to jpeg and rename them - before uploading.
You can upload up to 100 pics, I believe - which is probably not necessary - and 4 can also go inlne.

Patience will help - good luck

Yes, at one time. I think you can upload 50-100 but no one needs that many.

And now JP's post shows up...

It is 100 now (I still have to read the guidelines quite often )

Thank you, JustPetro. I am taking it slowly, and being patient, and hardly yelling at all.
I opened my pictures in Paint, eight of them, one after another, and saved them as .jpg files on my desktop. Then I went to the Upload page, uploaded the Scoutship.rar file and the first picture, Front.jpg. When I went to add the seven other pictures, the Upload page could not see them. I could see them on my desktop, but it could not. My brain is buzzing, but I'm hanging in there. How can I get the other seven pictures to upload?

Are you sure that they are saved as jpg's? That's usually my problem when it's not seeing them. I know you said you went and saved them in jpg, but sometimes I think I did but apparently didn't.

I'm making progress. I jiggled the pictures around on my desktop, and this time the Upload page could see them all. I was able to Ctrl-click on them all, and upload them. So far so good.
Now I'm stuck on the custom content page. Most of my cc is by Kate at Parsimonious, so that was not too difficult. There are three that have me flummoxed:

1. Milano Royale Dining Table Extra Long by Ailias. I could not find that in my Furniture folder, though that is not surprising, since it has 992 items. I've no idea how to find her link.
2. e917982b9b12f248648f9346876c1c37_0001.package - Recolour
3. feeb8de1a11abee427d54d51e3e29dc8_0001.package - Recolour
I really can't guess what they would be recolours of.
[Edit] Oh wait: I'll guess they belong to the meshes above them. That just leaves Ailias to hunt down. Does anyone recognise the name?

I'm sorry to be such a wimp, and will be pathetically grateful for any kind suggestions.

Keep in mind you have to link to the actual file, not the site or the creator. If you can't link to the file itself (like with for example simwardrobe) you need to tell people how to navigate to the item. Also keep in mind the guideline that you must be sure that everything in there is actually used in the lot, since packaging lots tend to pull all recolors of an item and not just what you used. Extra recolors is a one-way ticket to rejected upload.

The Clean Installer shows you both the catalog name and the file name of the things in your package. Find the dining table in the list and check the file name there (it's the last category, to the left on each item), then you can just search for it. The recolors you can try looking at the texture and see if that helps you at all. Clean Installer can usually show you textures, but it if it can't, Delphy's download organizer might be able to. SimPE definitely can.

You're not a wimp. Uploading the first time can be tricky, especially with a lot upload that uses CC.

Okay, I found the glass table in Clean installer: its file name is ailias_3tile_glasslofttable
I searched for it in MTS Downloads, but no result. Where else could I search for it?

It's here http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=230682
Found it by checking profile page and going to downloads. Happened to be lucky that it was on the first page.

Did the textures tell you anything about the other two?

Hope it is going well because I'd like a spaceship for my aliens

Actually I have seen many lot uploads where people just link to a site. If the cc in not included in the upload that is hugely annoying though because then people have to hunt it down for themselves and they are likely to just toss your lot in annoyance. So yes always give a direct link if you can or say "This thing" can be found on page X.

It's always a good idea-if you can, to use AGS for building with a limited amount of cc. Easy then to know what you used. Often I will go find what I want as I build and put down the address of the page in Word. This makes it very easy come upload time.

Also you will need to check through Clean Installer to make sure only the cc the lot is using is coming with it as some things like stair recolours will try and piggy back with the lot, even if you used no cc and had cc off under options. Only rar it once you are sure you have the cc that was used.

I actually bookmark the pages where all my installed CC comes from. I made a bookmark folder just for TS2 CC links, all neatly organized:

I know. It's one of my peeves with the moderating staff, because the guideline state that you must link to the thing, not the site, but it appears they don't have time/energy to make people follow it. Understandable, but super annoying to come across as a downloader. Still, no excuse to not do it as the guidelines state just because they might let it slip

That's pretty impressive ScaryRob. Although that would quickly get out of hand with lots of CC. But I seem to recall you have fairly little? Something about loading times and finding them annoying comes to mind.

I have humorously little compared to most of you, mostly just some build-mode CC.
I'm a straight guy, so I find things like CC hairstyles and various makeups as laughably silly.

What do you mean that it would get out of hand with lots of CC? You just need to adopt a policy that if something isn't worth bookmarking, it probably isn't important enough to have. Yeah, I know, who am I kidding, since there are people here with over 2,000 hairstyles alone.

I do think that my bookmark method seems easier than Jo's method of saving URL's in Word, since she has to open that separate program to do it.
I'm using the Firefox browser, and to bookmark a page I just have to click on a little star near the top of the page. At some later time, whenever I feel like it, I then put the link into it's proper folder and I'm done.

I have very little content in AGS, although since I placed Polgannon in there while testing there is rather more cc than usual. Now the final version is out I will move it to my regular game. 3Gb right now. That would be from builds and decorating contests and Polgannon.

She means it might still be hard to see what you used on a particular lot.

Not hard at all, I have a ton of bookmarked pages, finding pages in there can be rather difficult. Plus most times I do up a Word page for lots that I am building anyway. I often put a few pictures of the building style/garden style I am going to do and put the URL's of any cc I use. Most times instead of going to my game and using the cc I find there, I do it the other way around. I see if a maxis item can't be used (EG needed a taller column that was still one story high in my pet park), then I go and hunt it down. So since I have the download page in front of me it only takes a few seconds to grab the URL and paste it into the Word document I have set up. Overall I try to use none or very little cc when uploading lots. I use Word a lot so I have it open pretty much all the time even if it's just as a spell check.

I guess everyone has a method that works for him/her. Mine is to have a thin downloads folder

I make a list in Word with all the links for each download but I prefer to include the CC if I can. I nearly got that right with Polgannon though I spent several days hunting down stuff I'd forgotten. For stuff I make for upload, I always have a folder in My Documents where I keep all stuff related to the item (Polgannon's folder is huge).