Just a question to the mods out there. I've made some tuts, seen others make great explanations of TSM, but all our stickies are outdated (or totally wrong), and some great info is being left out. We,TSMer's, are willing to work with you, but none of your moderators seem to pay us any attention anymore. If you don't want to police us make Chickie and I moderators for TSM. We deserve at least the abiilty to stickie good threads.

What stickied threads do you propose be unstuck, and what new threads should be stickied? (This is a question open to all TSM posters.)

One note of caution: since TSM has only this subforum to work with, stickies should be of general, high-level interest for gameplay or modding.

I'd like to see Grim's Medieval Custom Clothing Tutorial stickied.

A new stickied thread (Something like the List of TSM mods thread that Srikandi started), since some are spread throughout threads and not easy to find. Having one place to link all downloads and be able to mark which version of the game they work for etc, plus Shimrod has his mods elsewhere, I have a couple elsewhere. Things like Delphy's sliders for TS3 are in use by quite a lot of us but unless a newcomer finds the specific thread/s that mention them they're basically left where we were at a couple of years ago. There's so few mods and modders for TSM that knowing where to find everything and what TS3 items DO work and how to make others work etc would be a nice feature, especially if you're new to the game and the forum.

I'd also like to see 'Sims medieval pictures' (stickied) thread unlocked, so people can post when they've updated the actual pictures page, so it can be highlighted on the main forum page when something is new, which would hopefully then encourage more people to use it.

The TS3 to TSM hair conversion tutorial sticky has inaccurate information in the actual tutorial.

How to start a new Ambition with same kingdom sticky, I've never tried the method, and although I assume it works as outlined, there is a much easier way to do it and one that doesn't involve cheats to get quest points etc back.

The How To Mod Your Game For Beginners is perhaps the only 'still relevant' sticky, although the most persistent questions are from people who've tried and can't get it to work. The instructions in the sticky are accurate but they perhaps need rewritten in a simpler format in that first post instead.

A sticky for links to TS3 tutorials that work well with TSM, given that a lot of TS3 tools won't work with TSM, it can be a chore to find relevant tutorials. This could also include a list of tools that do work, and what their limitations are when used with TSM....also a link to the version of S3PE that works with TSM could be included in here too.

There are questions that come up over and over in other threads but to know how best to break those down plus have the things we'd like to see stickied, could you let us know how many stickied threads are allowable here so we can decide how best to place the most relevant information.

Is it even possible to make someone moderator of just this sub-forum and nowhere else on MTS?
I agree with Grim that someone who's always around and knows the ins and outs of all the threads and where to find what, and someone who's up to date with changes etc and also someone who knows how the game works from the ground up, should perhaps be allowed to moderate this section of MTS, even just the ability to be able to add/remove stickies as they gain/lose relevance, and to have a sticky locked to save it from becoming bogged down with irrelevant posts but still able to be updated would be very welcome, but I sure wouldn't want the ability to do anything other than this sub-forum. It gives me visions of having the power to break the whole internet

Yep Chickie, I started writing pretty much just what you said, and got distracted. You've hit everything I was thinking about when I made this thread.

Only one other thing is, how to get a thread we feel deserving to be stickied. I agree that "stickies should be of general, high-level interest for gameplay or modding." That's the reason I question the current state of the stickies.

Grim's Medieval Custom Clothing Tutorial stickied, per request.

While I wait for the admins to weigh in on the moderation issue, please note that I can't sticky new threads if new threads don't exist. That is, if there are replacement threads available for the TS3 to TSM hair conversion tutorial, how to start a new Ambition with the same kingdom, and how to install mods, link them and I shall sticky them.

Ditto "a sticky for links to TS3 tutorials that work well with TSM" -- does a thread for this exist?



In the absence of a dedicated TSM moderator, PM Srikandi or me.

Thank you for your attention. I'll work on some updates.

DeeDawg has a new thread about script modding. It's a good thread with updated information. I think it should also be stickied. The only other thead here with this information is lost in the pile, and his tutorial fully explains getting a script mod into TSM. So since we're here, I thought I'd ask instead of PM for The Scripting Thread to be stickied. It's new, but it's accurate and valuable. And I wish I had had access to it when I was trying to figure this stuff out.

I don't hold with the idea of sticky's.
There are some forums out there where the stickies took up the whole 1st page. Which kinda dilutes the concept of a sticky if it gets ignored when you're numbed to its existence, and people just move on to page 2.
And people do get numbed to the stickies, believe me! Just look at the Help section where the stickies gets ignored.

If it needs to be stickied, I'd prefer that the information be extracted and wikified. And the thread can be the Q&A thread for that wiki article.

1. In this way, if the information gets outdated, then anyone can log in and edit and make corrections on SimsWiki. No one other than staff and the OP can edit their posts in a forum post, which again makes "stickifying" an outdated/incorrect thread counter-intuitive, and defeats its purpose. Especially if the corrected data is on other pages, i.e. other than on post#1 page #1. Because most people DO NOT read all posts on ALL pages of the thread.
2. Which brings me to the 2nd reason for this - the fact that new members do not need to read pages and pages of the thread to get to the gist of the matter. Those that do, anyway. All the relevant information they need to know are all laid out on the wiki article.

When all the useful threads have been wikified, then the only stickied thread needed is the one that have links to all that useful and still relevant wiki articles. Which holds with the motto of Wiki first and forum second, in terms of getting help with stuff.

If everyone is agreeable to having the information wikified, I can start the process rolling with the Powers that Be for a Sims Medieval section on our SimsWiki.

I would be willing to vote to have someone to handle all the work needed in the wikifying process, and creating an FAQ wiki page for Medieval on top of moderating posts in the Medievel Subforum section. Else, all the stuff that is needed for a mod in TSM currently is to keep an eye out for errant posters and such. Which is what all the Social mods are already doing anyway, albeit not in a most timely manner as this section is normally filled with well-behaved folks.
I do read stuff on here, just not on a daily basis; nor do I contribute as I don't play the game. But the stuff about Medieval and CAW does intrigue me.

You can also PM me if you need help...
- with threads on here
- with writing and navigating the SimsWiki
Or...come on to #create/#social chat and open up a private PM window or ping me to get my attention there...that works just as well.

If wikifying is too large a step , a compromise could maybe be one or a few sticky's. Each just listing links to informative threads. For example a TSM Modding sticky that lists links to threads with mods or information about modding TSM in general. So instead of adding more and more sticky's, you only modify existing sticky's once in a while.

I love the idea of a community modify able stickie - wiki. I'm not familiar with how it's done, but I agree it's the best way to distribute this information. I'm kind of holding back because I don't really know how it works, or if it would fit well with our small community.

We are a much smaller community than TS3, and I have a feeling that less than a half a dozen of us will really work on the wiki. The ones who will, already work together on things of a tutorial nature. Like my clothing tutorial, which I know needs an update, and stuff added, but if someone specifically mentioned that it was wrong or no longer worked, I could change it.

I think at this point, for our community, good and useful stickies are the best solution. I love the idea of a Medieval Wiki, but I'm not sure it would work.

Truly, if we have a respectable means to add or change our stickies I'm happy with that. I know not every thread should be stickied in this forum. In fact I think only tutorials should be stickied, and accurate ones at that. I'm willing to work with the current mods, I'm actually happy to do so, to look at, and recommend threads that are of great value to be stickied. I know ChickieTeeta would also be a great TSMer to ask to review threads for being stickied. I'm open to hearing other regular TSMer's who you feel might voice a good constrained opinion. I will not ask for random threads to be added to the stikies. I am questioning the current state of the stickies due to wrong info being distributed, or lost in the thread. I'm offering to mediate. Not as a full moderator, if that were the case I nominate Chickie as a better choice “if she's willing”. If someone thought a thread should be stickied, I'd look at it, ask some of the TSMer's I know, and PM a real MOD or not.

I guess, if I can PM Mangaroo and Srikandi, and give recommendations, I'm happy. I also think ChickieTeeta is an awesome TSMer, and is a great voice on what should be stickied here. I will probably never recommend a stickie without consulting her. (Even the scripting mod, part of my reason for recommending it was her support on another thread. She approved the idea of the thread, and I verified the accuracy of the thread.) Not that everyone here at TSM shouldn't be listened to, but I think we'd be better served by some major modders reviewing and recommending stickied threads.

If you TSMer's are for or against my ideas for stickies, speak up. These threads are about what helps you. If you don't like Chikie or I being the middle man, then post. This is something I think we should figure out, to benefit us, and to alleviate some strain on our current mods.

So please, TSMer's, give us your opinion. These are my thoughts, but we need to work with one another to make this section of MTS the best it can be.

As an addendum, I know some great threads out there, Forsaken's (ChickieTeeta) Mods, Simmodder's, Shimrod's, mine, etc.... I'd never stickie those. They're great mods, and threads, but they are not about making mods. In my opinion MTS (Mod The Sims) is about modding. You can make the best mods, but I will always give higher merit to those who teach. The old give a man a fish thing.

I agree that our community is too small to warrant a wiki being of much use, and with the handful that do contribute, is probably too large an undertaking.

I also like that, because the community as a whole, is small, that everything is all in the one place. I do think we'd be better served by a handful of good and useful stickies. (by handful I mean around the same amount we have now)

I think also people are less likely to come here from the wiki to comment or post, and again with the small size I think leading people away from this sub-forum is the wrong thing to do for it.

Also for newcomers, at the moment, a google search brings people here where access to everything is, we could use all the numbers we can pull in, so again leading them elsewhere I think is the wrong thing to do for this little community.

I do think that 1 sticky that covers useful links in separate categorized entries would be a good thing to have though. Links to tutorials in one entry (since not every useful tutorial can be sticked), links to mods in another, links to useful tools in a 3rd and so on, that way all the really useful info can be spread around the forum but still contained in 1 thread. Like an ocd index of usefulness lol (sorry)

I don't really agree the forum is more about modding than mods, I think it's equally about everything we have going on here, since it's the only real valid place on the internet we have as a community (and thank you, as always, to mts for that =D) I do agree though, that when talking about stickies that tuts should take priority over everything else. I'd hate to see the ones that don't make the cut get lost though, which is why I'd like to see a catalog type sticky.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on a wiki for TSM.

Alrighty, brace yourselves. As I'm gonna address all your points, this is going to be a TL;DR; post.

TSM is special in that all the Downloads, Game Help & Tutorial threads are housed in one sub-section, on MTS anyway. Unlike for the other 2 games. So, this "non-separation" can prove to be either a curse or a blessing, depending on how we handle the threads. I, for one, like that it is all "under one roof", because it is easier to gauge the status of the game. If there are new downloads offered, new patch or new tutorials.

My view is for long term. Things are fine and dandy as long as the person(s) who post the useful information in a thread that is to be stickied, is to be around for years on end and forever and ever. But no one can guarantee that their interest level in a game won't wane or RL stuff won't take precedence, in the future. And if that happens to the current group of active TSMers, MTS staff is faced with the same issue yet again. I might not even be here then to point this out, but I'm thinking of 3 years from now, we will be back at this point, potentially.

I'm talking about the simswiki - it is already there. Not to create a separate wiki that MTS hosts just for Sims Medieval. If the wiki pages are there, I'm sure it would be in use. Well, because the threads would link to them. I'm saying that we could have 3 games listed instead of 2, in Tutorials:Select_Game^wiki.
The community's size is in no way indicative of how useful a Wiki may or may not be. If your wiki article gets a lot of views, then people like it and find it useful. If you get no views, then edit and present it another way. Do you guys see how many edits any of the Game Help pages get? I'm forever tweaking them, with more info as they come up, removing outdated info, correcting typos, thinking up and testing various presentation styles. And I'm not the only editor, that's my point. When I'm not around someone else does it.

And it was just brought to my attention that wiki registrations are off (I totally forgot that, thx to mangaroo who reminded me), so if anyone wants to start wikifying stuff, just PM or write in here your preferred wiki username and Staff can create your wiki account for you. And we can start the ball rolling on a TSM section.
If you need help in working in a Wiki, just PM me or grab me in Chat. I started off knowing nothing on Wiki-ing either, and I 'm still learning. If you're afraid of messing up the wiki, just test first on your own user page or create as many sandbox subpages as you need, like I have in http://simswiki.info/index.php?titl...&action=history You can see there all the things I experiment with...but the wiki is as easy as learning Ms Word for the first time, I promise!

Here are some examples where the pair of wiki+Q&A thread has worked very, very well...the list is not limited to just these, of course, there's lots more out there...

Plus, the Game Help:World Routing Lags^wiki for all the world fixes downloads I put up. That is an AIO in major proportions! It covers ALL the downloads in that whole single wiki series. Saves me from repeating myself, well less than I needed to if I don't have the wiki articles. There's bound to be folks who skim and never read in full, anyways, so the repeated questions are inevitable.

Everyone knows MTS.info and simswiki.info are interlinked by now, I believe. Well, I hope they do. I don't have any fear of leading people offsite. Folks are welcome to be part of any community they like and fit in; unlike some forums who ban the act of linking to other sites, which is absurd. The Internet is not a bubble. And MTS is not a dictatorship. Delphy welcome and even seek our feedback on running it.
And I've always believed that the great and useful information for Tutorials and Game Help for any Sims games offered here would pull them back, not to mention this polite and helpful community. Only if MTS fails in providing said info and help, then we would lose our community, when people who are led offsite don't come back.

But with every person who lose interest in the game, or who has gain enough knowledge and confidence to start their own Sims forums and subsequently left or become inactive on MTS, there's always more to pick up the slack. Just look at the mods that folks have help update when the original creators have moved on. Or those who answered questions on the tutorial threads even though they didn't originally write it, but they did follow and used it to create something based on the guide. And those threads with wrong, outdated information and have had no new replies are then push further back when new threads take their place; but if it is stickied, it is going to be perceived as still pertinent and spread misinformation, which we want to avoid. I'm in the process of updating the Stickies in Help (the forum that I have maximum control over), which is why I'm so against sticking more and creating that scenario of needing to update stickies all the time. Time that I could spend modding, or answering more Help posts, update wikis, etc etc...which I'm sure applies to you guys as well. The time it takes to maintain said stickies can be spend on learning or creating more mods...and so on. And instead of only a handful who has edit rights to help maintain said stickies, ANYONE can edit a wiki page, so the load is shared and is not dependent on just one person.

It is this scenario of people moving on that I want to handle, preemptively, with my suggestion to wikify.

I completely agrees with ellacharmed. A space for TSM on the wiki would most certainly help, as it would also be clear to everyone where to find the tutorials.
I have alot of experience with wiki-editing, and would love to help out on that part with as much time as I can spare.

As I'm new to the TSM community here, I don't want to step on anybody's toes though.

So ellacharmed, how do I make my clothing tutorial a wiki? I'd admit I think it's an awesome idea. I'm not sure of how to go about it. I have most of the information there, but I've discovered some new stuff. I think I'm ready to make a wiki post about it. Unless you can give new people access to modify the wiki I still don't see how it will work, but I want to try. My clothing tut, I thing I'm ready now to make a wiki entry. Other wise the new stuff I've discovered will have to be put in my stickied thread.

I get your preemptive, if I leave for months again wikify. I just don't know how to do it. You said something about having to get approval,

"And it was just brought to my attention that wiki registrations are off (I totally forgot that, thx to mangaroo who reminded me), so if anyone wants to start wikifying stuff, just PM or write in here your preferred wiki username and Staff can create your wiki account for you. And we can start the ball rolling on a TSM section"

My user name is grimreefer24601.

I don't know anything about wiki modding, but I'd love to bring some of the information I've discovered to every TSMer who wants it. I can't just ask for an account, because I don't know how to ad to it. But I think I need said account to figure it out. If you don't respond here I guess I'll PM you to give me an account, but I'm still really unsure about how it works. Actually, I'll PM you anyway.

As I informed @grimreefer24601, anyone who wants a wiki account, PM me with

Preferred Email address and Password, and I'll create your accounts for you (using MTS username). As a temporary measure, as Delphy is still tinkering with the site.
Once the Wiki User stuff is settled, you can reset your password if you so wish.

I'll create the Medieval section now that there's interest. Don't want a blank game section.
That'll take me a few days, while I install the game and extract the Logo and stuff...but you guys would have plenty enough to do to study up on how to create Wiki pages and read up on Wiki editing.

[ETA]
I've just extracted the main logo for this page http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...als:Select_Game

So, you guys need to supply the rest... because otherwise, it would look like TS3 sections like so http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Medieval:Modding

The links like http://simswiki.info/index.php?titl...M_CAS_Tutorials are also not set in stone yet. And because of that, I have not done the Headers (reason why "Template:TSMModdingHeader" is in Red). So, if you guys don't like those, input your preferences in the Discussion/Talk tab of the Main Medieval:Modding page. Remember, this is a Community effort! And in order for the Wiki to be of any use we need your .
So, get Wiki-ing! (well, after you have wiki accounts, that is)