TSR v2 Launches!

It was a very sad day for TSR 3 weeks ago when the announcement came from MGON that the free site of The Sims Resource had to close down. Visitors to the site are still climbing every week and have shown no sign of slowing down since we launched over 3 years ago. Although this is great news for me and the site, it�s not such good news for the bandwidth bill. Serving over 4 Million downloads weekly doesn't come cheap! Advertising is near non-existent, as free site visitors will have noticed during the last few weeks. The only ads making any money these days are for adult content and casinos, none of which are really suitable for our audience. But after working hard on new ideas to save the Free TSR, I feel that we have reached a fair alternative to closing down the free site and going subscription only. I realise that it won�t suit everyone, and I have to accept that TSR will loose some of its long-time visitors. To those people I can only apologise that we can no longer support the free site, and thank them for visiting. There is no need to flood me with hate mail, I already appreciate that we will loose people over this move, but it was financially unavoidable. So, what can free users expect to see at TSR now? Well, free users will notice that they now share the bright new site design of TSR. This includes an easier navigation system and faster loading static pages. They will be able to browse the entire archive of almost 40,000 downloads, and will be able to download around 3% of them at any one time. Just look out for the colored padlocks on the downloads pages, or just view the free content only. They will also be able to view much of the additional content at the site, including members profiles, tutorials etc. The free content in the databases will be randomly generated every 3 days, and that content will not come around again until the whole archive has been free. This means that over 2000 files will be free for download during any week. It also gives every file the same amount of published time to allow for fair download counts. Forums will remain free as part of MGON Forums. And what does all this mean for subscribers? Our paying members at TSR are keeping the site up and running, so we are working hard to reward you all with the best quality content and systems that we can provide. Sorting and searching has become more powerful (and reliable), and the Download Basket has been enhanced to show your list as it grows! We have big plans to develop that feature even further too, with an �Auto Install� into your game! More dynamic features will begin to appear during the coming weeks, such as the new Interactive Polls, which you can take part in testing now. More Community Features have been included in this new version of the site too, to put the spotlight on some our more dedicated submitters, and our dedicated subscribers! Check out more member profiles and leave messages for them in their Guestbook or Private Messaging. Make use of the User Profile in the databases too, by selecting which expansion packs you own. You can then choose not to see anything that you can�t use while browsing the site! A new points system will soon be added too, along with more planned new features. Regular competitions with great prizes (as we have seen recently) will continue, to give the competitive of you plenty to do, as well as some special events that we have planned for the coming months. So what can we offer the creators now? �Create & Share� was always the ethos behind TSR. We give people the tools and tutorials that they need to get started in creating for The Sims. We then offer them a platform to post their work for the public to download. They then get feedback in the form of download counters and ratings, and with a personal Guestbook in the member area. We will continue with that plan, and will enhance it too so as to reward our regular submitters. We now have 2 active Featured Artists at the site who are amazingly talented and skilled at making Sims objects & sets. But we also have an army of dedicated submitters of high quality work. These creators will be given free access to TSR so that they can keep up to date on their downloads and creations, while making use of their Guestbook�s and Private Messages. They will also be featured on the home page of the new TSR. There will also be another level of frequent submitters who will be given free access to the site in reward of their commitment to us. But what about subscriptions, how much and how? A lot of effort is going in to making it more affordable and easier than ever for people to subscribe to the member area of TSR. A new shop interface has been implemented which makes it easier than ever to subscribe, reducing some of the common problems we had in the past. Check payments can now be accepted for US and UK subscribers. On top of all this, we are reducing the subscription fees slightly as well, so there has never been a better time to subscribe to TSR and make the most of all of the new features and content available here at the oldest, biggest and best community site The Sims has ever had! Do you have your own opinion? You can discuss this news post here.