MTS2:Features
Over the past five years, Delphy has improved, modded, and generally screwed with MTS to bring it to a point where it is largely unrecognisable as a vBB forum. As a result of this, there are a great many nifty features which new, or even very old, members may not be aware of. This article will list those particularly useful features which are often overlooked. For the purposes of this article, the features will be divided into groups roughly according to which "type" of user is most likely to wish to use them - there is, however, some overlap.
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Creators
Profiles
Everyone likes a pretty profile, and MTS aims to allow customisation to the point where profiles are close to being individual mini-websites. As such, we have plenty of customisation options for creator profiles. Most of these options can be found under User Links -> Edit Profile, and are only available to uploaders with one or more approved uploads (unless otherwise stated).
• Custom profile title
The first step to making your profile distinctly you-ish is to name it. The custom profile title option is under Additional Information in your edit profile screen, and allows you to set a name which will display in the breadcrumbs - as seen on Numenor's profile, Numenor Moddings.
• Custom styles/colours
Once you have one approved upload, you can choose any of MTS' colour themes to display your profile in, as seen by daysies' use of the Hello Kitty theme. If you have ten or more approved uploads, you can set up custom colours yourself, using hex codes. See here for a screenshot showing which lines in your edit profile options affect which parts of your profile (it's an eyesore, solely for demonstration purposes - please make sure the colours you choose are readable and don't hurt the eyes, or you may find the colours reset.).
• Subdomain
Want to put on airs? MTS provides all creators with automatic subdomains, which lead to their profiles - such as opeu.modthesims.info. Do be aware that the subdomain may not work if you have special characters (@, &, * etc) in your user name.
• Policy boxes
Attaching your redistribution policies to the bottom of all your upload posts is all well and good, but displaying them on your profile is even better. User Links -> My Policies allows you set up preset policies using checkboxes, which will display underneath your downloads on your profile, as seen on EsmeraldaF's profile. If the checkboxes don't go into enough detail, you can also put your policies in the About Me box in your profile options - this displays at the top of your profile, as seen on Lethe's profile.
• Journal
Creators can start journals, which can be used to keep your rabid fans up-to-date between uploads. Journal entries can also be commented on by the aforementioned rabid fans. To start a journal, go to User Links -> Edit Journal; journals can be public, or you can choose which members can access your journal. If you have a journal, it will show up in the Journal tab of your profile, as seen on V1ND1CARE's profile.
• Guestbook
If you have a journal, then you have the option to make a journal post a guestbook using the checkbox on the new journal entry page. This will then show up as a separate tab, for people to leave general comments for you. See it in action on Delphy's profile.
• 3 Personal Picks
Everyone has a favourite upload of theirs, and you can set up to 3 uploads as personal picks, using the checkbox when you edit an upload post. These will show up above your regular downloads on your profile, as seen on sims2cri's profile.
• Articles
You thought creators are just people who upload, huh? If you have some expertise but don't want to upload here, or if you're an uploader who wants to share their knowledge, then you can post tutorials in the Create forums - as well as being a huge contribution to the site, these will show up on the Articles tab on your profile, seen here on Flabiliki's profile.
Featured Creators
Featured creators are the absolute best we have on MTS - so they get a couple of extra pretties.
• Banner
Featured Creators can upload a banner which displays at the top of their profile, and at the top of all their download pages, such as Fresh-Prince's banner.
• 8 Personal Picks
Featured creators can also choose eight personal picks, instead of the regular three.
Learning to create
The site is ModTheSims, after all - we're all about learning to customise the game exactly to your liking. So, enjoy our collection of resources designed to help you learn to mod!
• Tutorials
MTS is primarily a modding resource, and as such we have a huge collection of tutorials, for all types of Sims 2 and Sims 3 modding - all available on the Wiki. Anyone can post tutorials - simply write your tutorial and post it; either as a thread in the appropriate create forum, or as a wiki article. Adding a tutorial to the wiki is as simple as going to www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorial:YourTutorial, and typing away.
• The Creator Feedback Forum
Two pairs of eyes are better than one, and a few hundred are even better than that. If you've been working on something, and especially if you're planning to upload it, then the Creator Feedback Forum is the perfect place to get comments, tips, ideas for improvement, and constructive criticism from other creators before you upload. A load of experienced modders, keen-eyed downloaders, and moderators frequent CFF - so it's a great opportunity to get your creation absolutely polished to perfection.
• Create forums
If you need help before the polishing stage ("wtf, it's floating six feet above the sim's head!" "Ack, no, it looks like a fricking snowflake, I dunno what's wrong with it!"), then we have an extensive Create section, covering all sorts of modding, where you can get help with your modding mishaps, or advice when you're stumped. The various Create forums are found in the Create menu on the navbar.
• #create and #ts3mod
If you've never used our live chat, do so now! In addition to a social channel for general chatter, we have two modding channels - #create and #ts3mod. #create is a great place to hang out if you're a modder, to trade pics of and suggestions for your latest project, get inspiration, take part in mini-contests, and generally have fun.
If you're a more advanced modder for TS3, dealing with file formats, C# programming, and the like, then you may find a place to bounce ideas and figure out the latest EA travesty in #ts3mod. Be aware - this channel is for very advanced modding discussions, usually about writing new modding tools and the like; for chat and help on the subject of normal modding for TS3 - meshing, texturing, building, sim-making, etc - you want to be in #create.
Finding content
Sim and lot creators in particular will know well the pain of trying to find exactly the right bit of content for a project. But all is not lost!
• Content Lists
It's exactly what it says on the tin. The Content Lists for Sims 2 and Sims 3 list custom content from all over the community, grouped by theme. These are incredibly useful for finding just the thing you need - and if you know of a great site which should be on the lists but isn't, just add it!
• Hair gallery
There's a huge amount of hair out there, and sim creators will know well how impossible it may seem to find just the right hair for your sim. Thus, we have the Hair Gallery: a gallery of all sorts of hairs from some of the best-known, and less well-known, creators in the community. Sims 3 version coming soon!
• WCIF
Have you seen it, got a picture of it, know exactly what it is - but have no idea who made it or where you can download it? Or are you looking for something very specific, which you can't find anywhere? The Where Can I Find...? forums are for just such a situation; post what you're looking for, and members who spend far too much time downloading stuff will see if they can find it somewhere for you.
Uploading
• Visibility
One of the most attractive features of MTS for creators is visibility. MTS is the most popular site in the sims community, and while we don't have the specialisation that is the forte of some smaller sites, you'd be hard-pushed to find someone in the sims community who hasn't heard of us. Uploading to MTS exposes your work to thousands of viewers every day; there are usually around 2500-3000 people browsing MTS at any one time, and if you have your own website, then downloaders who find your stuff on MTS are in turn more likely to visit your site as well. For those who don't have their own website, MTS is a simple way to upload your work on a free site where you have total control of your content, and which is designed to give the best experience possible for downloaders; without you having to learn html, css, php, or whatever other crazy moon language is used to write websites nowadays.
• Quality Standards
MTS is well known for having high standards of quality, and it's obvious how this benefits downloaders. However, its is also a positive thing for creators; for one there's no chance of quality uploads getting lost in crap, but most importantly high standards encourage creators to improve. At MTS we believe that creators should always be trying to improve their skills, and having such high standards enables us to push creators to do the best work they can - which in turn inspires other creators to push themselves further.
• Picks & Features
One of the ways we try to encourage creators to make awesome stuff is by showcasing uploads that are awesomefab. Featured items are the absolute best of the best, perfectly implemented, or technologically incredible uploads - things that make the mods' jaws drop, and are all hand picked and tested by staff. Picks are uploads which are not quite incredible to be featured, but still pretty bloody excellent; the most popular items on MTS.
• Upload Wizard
One of the most technically remarkable features of MTS is the Upload Wizard. It has been developed over several years to make uploading as straightforward as possible - it gives clear onscreen instructions every step of the way, and if you run out of time, you can save your upload partway through the process and come back to it later via your User Links -> Subscribed Threads.
• Constructive moderation system
Hand in hand with our quality standards and ethos of improving our work goes MTS' moderation system. While we appreciate that sometimes the idea is quite daunting, and that having an upload rejected can be discouraging, we really do fee that the moderation system can help creators tremendously. One of its functions is to catch mistakes or omissions that you may have missed when uploading - the added layer of checking ensures that everything about your upload is perfect when it hits the downloaders. Its main function, however, is to keep a handle on quality: and to make sure that uploaders who have work rejected or who recieve a changes required know exactly what they need to work on. If we have to reject an upload, we tell the creator exactly why it was rejected, so you'll never be left with no idea what's wrong with your work.
• Creator Issues
Usually, if you need to communicate with the mods about your upload in the queue, you can use the text box under the "I'm ready for this to be reviewed by a moderator" checkbox. However, if this isn't possible, or if you have another question about about the uploading process, we have a forum specifically for that purpose - the Creator Issues forum. This forum is private; that is, only you and the staff can see threads you make, so we can discuss issues which you don't want aired in public.
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