My name is Cai, and I'm 19. I've been a fan of the Sims for about a decade. I'm an Asian American genderfluid lesbian who has been playing Sims since 2015. My first game was MySims before I graduated to the Sims 3.
I'm one of the maintainers of the @the-afterglow-archive, and I like retexturing hair and playing with Milkshape sometimes. I also like drawing Sims from time to time, but only when the spark really hits me.
To be clear, I'm an adult whose gameplay reflects that. Sometimes, I share CC or gameplay/pictures/stories that center around mature (but not sexually explicit) subjects. I really would rather only speak to people around my age, so I would rather not interact with people who are 15 and younger. Do not DM or try to befriend me if you're under 17.
I don't support harassment on Simblr. What people do with their game/with the characters inside their game is none of my business.
Do not monetize anything related to my CC - all of my CC is intended to be free of charge. If necessary, I'm always glad to share textures/meshes/whatever with others.
Basically, I adore this skirt. So I made 3 recolors for it using patterns from shabbyfabrics.com and I felt like sharing. I might make more at some point ^_^
I need to pay my internet and power bills. Internet is $85.34 and power is $139.27. I would really appreciate some help if possible. I still have a few days on both, as I managed to extend the power bill too.
I am trying and I know it's not enough. I should be doing, but my MDD and/or Bipolar 1 are currently making it difficult to even get out of bed. I'm having a severe depressive episode. Trauma cracks from taking care of my parents are showing through in my brain. I can't stay calm for the life of me, unless I'm so medicated that I feel a distinct cognitive decline.
Making a harsh effort to get some facility to pay for my GED if possible. I may not know anything about this until Friday though (writing this June 7 2026)
If you could please help me, here are my paylinks. I would appreciate any assistance.
Well it wasn’t just me, to be fair. I would have never been able to without @fireflowersims help and HugeLunatics trust in both of us. Thank you to both of them for their work and thank you @teaaddictyt for reaching out and doing the more public communication.
I’m super happy I got the chance to work to fix it. It wasn’t an easy undertaking. It seemed like every little thing would cause more errors, I fixed one and another thing broke. But now it seems stable, finally.
A lot of technical stuff below the cut, beware.
Fixing such an old forum is not easy. Documentation is rather sparse because the framework it runs on is old. There is however a more modern version, but updating is difficult. Here was the issue for the forum - upgrading failed.
A website (usually) consists of two different parts: 1 - The files. They contain the code, scripts, designs, images, attachment, profile pictures etc. 2 - The database. The database connects all the different parts and tells the website where to find something. Everything gets stored in tables, assigned IDs and given values. Everything written, each post and topic is also stored in the database. So without the database the whole page would be useless.
It was clear from the beginning that the database was the culprit for the failed upgrades. I got an earlier backup from HL and started working.
I set up a local environment with two versions of XAMPP. One running on php 7.4 (the last version having compatibility for the forum framework version and the upgrade script to the recent version) and the other on a modern 8.3, which was the same as the version the server @fireflowersims set up for GOS.
I ran the upgrade script (which consists of 4 separate parts) on the old backup and ran into errors right away. The script would just outright crash on me, most often without a log or message. The (local) server would just stop responding. My original plan had been to upgrade to version 2.0 first, then 2.1, since it was the recommended order. However the database backup had already been partly upgraded to 2.1. That was the reason my upgrade script failed. Reversing those changes could have been a possibility but extremely time intensive.
(This is the frontpage of the upgrader. I stared at it so much. Like you can see it has a ton of steps)
Instead I asked for the current database and HL provided it to me. This one was already further along on the upgrade and I could see the error HL had run into before handing over. I had to look at the upgrade scripts and source php files to diagnose what the framework was expecting - and failing - to find in the database.
That’s where I found the main culprit for *most* of the errors: Time tables. The framework saves every action that a user does in a log, a long table with the action, an id and a date. This was where everything had gotten wrong. The upgrader expected to see one column for the date, named *day*, while the current table had a different column for day, month and year. I tried fixing the table at first but that didn’t seem to work, so I completely deleted the table and created a new empty one myself. (By now I think the issue stems from forgetting to uninstall certain packages before upgrading, more on that later)
That was possible because the log actually doesn’t hold relevant information for the forum to work. It just records each step, probably for moderation purposes. Once I had done that step the upgrade script was finally able to proceed.
There were a few more errors where I had to look at what the script was doing, find the corresponding code in the sources and edit the database myself. Thankfully the code is relatively well commented and named, so I was able to find what I needed.
Finally I got the upgrade script to run to the end and I was actually able to open the forums (local) page. I hadn’t been able to for now so it was a first. But a lot of stuff was still missing, like all the topics. I could see that the posts were back, but not sorted correctly.
The fix was simple but annoying. The forum framework comes with a repair_setting.php file which I had run several times to fix all the paths, but apparently it didn’t fix *all* of them. So back to the database I went, ran some queries and fixed them myself.
Then the forum finally worked again!
(This is what the forum looked like when I first opened it. It ONLY had recent posts)
(The working local forum, no files yet with the default theme. Seems wrong to look at GOS without the dark theme, right?)
There were still a few things I needed to fix but the database seemed to work fine now. I had never done so many queries in my life. I know SQL, and had to fix databases before but not this intensely. So I guessed I learned something new haha.
Next was the exciting step to upload my clean install to the server. @fireflowersims and I had some directory issues, but I was able to fix them manually once again.
Then I had to take a look at the files which mostly consist of avatars and attachments. They didn’t work at all once moved to the clean install. Once again I took a look at the code and realized that the upgrade script would have changed those files as well, but because I ran it on a clean install it didn’t actually do this step.
I didn’t want to run the upgrade script again, worried that it would mess up a now working database. Instead I wrote a script myself that sorted through all the attachments, looked for the IDs of the avatars from the database so it could move and rename them.
Last were the attachments. This was an easier fix. They just had to be given the ending .dat. @fireflowersims ran a command through the console and then the attachments worked too!
We were getting closer!
Next was the theme. The old theme didn’t work on the modern framework anymore so @fireflowersims looked for a new one which I customized with CSS, trying to get it closer to the way the forum looked before. I think it turned out quite alright, hope you guys think so too!
(Trying to find out what CSS class addresses what? Make everything red and green!)
(All the spider webs)
Next was packages, or mods, to the framework. Fire and I encountered some hiccups here too, since there were some leftovers in the database. The packages hadn’t been properly deinstalled before running the upgrade script, which was another source of the errors. I tried fixing them manually but one of the packages would continue to just break the site no matter what I tried, so we settled for an alternative.
Some more work was put into SSL and making the forum secure. Once again some settings seemed to just break the page and each time I had to go back in the database and manually fix what had gone wrong. It was tedious but by now I knew my way around quite well.
@fireflowersims handled a lot of the server administrative work and DNS settings. I know very little about that part so having @fireflowersims there was great and they made sure the page is reachable at the correct address.
So yeah, I hope the site stays online for a long time now. It’s such a big part of our community and communities history. I used to download so much from there when I was younger. I wanted to give back to the community I love so much. That was the reason I spent many many hours digging through code and old forum threads.
Jules, I cannot emphasize enough just how cool you are for having done all of this work to get GoS back online! I'm glad I was able to provide a good new space for GoS to live from now on and assist with all the DNS. It was a trip alright, and I'm glad we could work together on this!
You are a hero and I (and I bet so many others) am so grateful for your skill and dedication! ♥️
**I am editing this post based on feedback in the comments.**
I would still like everybody to stop, pause, make some really tight fists with their hands, now shake them out, and do some deep breathing.
I would still like to ask people to sloooow down. The internet moves fast but sometimes, life moves more slowly.
There are still efforts going on behind the scenes to get GOS back online (and Sims 2 Artists).
New hosting has been secured. The website php needs upgrading and this has not been working, but people are working on it.
I know its hard when things happen and you don't know what's going on.
Instead of panicking, jumping to conclusions, making angry posts, it's time to offer support, be patient, wait, ask what's happening without getting mad.
And please, remember kindness and empathy. Lunie has been trying to update GOS for months, and she is exhausted. It's down right now, but not dead (yet).
I do not deny this situation has been handled badly. I do not condone hateful or aggressive language FROM anyone directed TO anyone.
The latest update I have is that the site PHP is ancient, and it will be extremely difficult to update it so that the site can be rehosted, but people are trying.
I'm even probably roping in my IT dude husband who does web hosting and deals with this sort of thing, but who is not a simmer and has no idea what GOS really is.
I will try to actively post more updates as I receive them so that communication can be clear and we can all know what's going on.
I have amended my post a little to hopefully better express my stance on everything. There is a lot more discussion in the comments if you care to read more closely, and you are welcome to join, but keep it civil.
My main problem with this whole thing is that Hugelunatic is acting like it's the hardest thing in the world and like it's a cross to bear to update a BBcode/VBulletin forum, or whatever to a modern web system. Additionally, the fact that Garden Of Shadows and Sims2artists was just taken offline without much warning to the people who were uploading content to these boards is just a very shitty decision. There could have been an email about this or a big announcement post on Modthesims and Tumblr or a humongous sticky post on the forum itself telling people to back up their CC. I do remember in the past several months that Hugelunatic was posting about the increasing web hosting costs, but I do not remember them ever having a call of action for people to back up their custom content. I don't think that that was ample enough warning before they took down these two forums.
Hugelunatic does owe some people an explanation, actually. You owe people explanations when you suddenly drop out of group projects, and you owe people explanations when you pull essential funding and framework away from a study or a program. I don't see any problem with holding huge lunatic accountable about this and holding them accountable with their just frankly unprofessional behavior. I'm in my third year of university and Even I know that this behavior is just unprofessional beyond belief. I can understand being overwhelmed by the amount of emails or messages about how you took down the website, but It comes off as really suspicious and weird when you decide to suddenly deactivate and remove all of your methods of communication except for messages on modthesims.com after you just quietly took down years of messages and direct downloads to CC that other people made.
I don't think it would be such a huge problem for everyone if Hugelunatic decided to take down their websites that only had their custom contents on it. It's unfortunate, sure, but ultimately, that's on them. However, I think the main crux of the problem is that Hugelunatic is taking down other people's content without warning the original creators. Off the top of my head, I can think of several contributors to Sims2artists that have had their work just removed because their add-ons were exclusive to the website because they expected it to stay up because it was a community effort to make the CC. I don't expect someone like, I don't know, Michelle to post exclusive Sims2Artists community custom content to her Modthesims page without much warning that her custom content was being taken down. Hard drives fail all the time. People unfortunately don't make backups of their stuff, and in the Sims 2 community where some people have been around for like 20 years at this point, It's impossible to know what exactly can be backed up.
I believe the main problem with your original post is that you're speaking to us like we're toddlers. It's not constructive or helpful to speak to a group of grown adults primarily like we are toddlers. It's extremely patronizing and it implies that we are being unreasonable like a toddler would be about this topic, which is taking down other people's custom content without consent or warning. If your post was just a simple message telling people to stop dedicating a lot of energy to this situation, I think it would have gone over well. But I don't think it was a good idea at all to implement the text describing DBT methods that are commonly used on children. I believe that is the reason why your original post received so much backlash. Also, I'm not trying to be rude to your husband, but I really don't understand how he could possibly supply any additional information to this. I think that the only way to address this is to actually try to get a response out of Hugelunatic, which obviously isn't happening right now. So many people are angry at Hugelunatic because they're not being transparent enough about why they decided to take down these websites that hosted other people's content.
🎸 melodie9 fat conversion - metal postcard for AF and TF ⋆.˚
HEY, HIIII, yeah, I did the unthinkable: I beat milkshape. And I made one of the things that got me into cc in the first place: bodyshapes! I love them, especially this one, but I almost never find clothes I like :( sooooo I decided to make my own, and here I am! I hope you guys enjoy it!!
★ INFO
⋆ for ATF only, fullbody
⋆ fat morph for both, preg morph for AF only
⋆ compressed and BSOked
⋆ 4 original recolors
⋆ CREDITS: gelydh for mesh and textures, monilisasims and mayfair for WSO actions and blue haven sims for his tutorial!
★ DOWNLOAD
mediafire / sfs / dropbox
⚠️ NOTE: the mesh may contain some errors since I'm a beginner, I apologize in advance!!
The Apartment Life heavy metal barstool and dining chair are another eyesore set in the game: they look promisingly grungy, but IMO end up too cartoony for good dive bar vibes. So I've made an alternative!
Worn polyester seats that will definitely stick to the back of your sim's legs.
I borrowed the metal frame from Misty-Fluff's Resident Evil 7 chair and then meshed the cushions myself. I stretched and rearranged the texture mapping so the chairs would have some scuff marks and look as lived-in as the originals.
Now the set is a better fit for your gas stations, your laundromats, and your biker bars :D
hiya! I have something a little different for you today. :) I have compiled over 500+ patterns from spoonflower that I made seamless and saved as .png files. They are sorted into folders by artist and in numerical order of my sorting through them. Some of the folders may have only 1 image inside but I wanted to keep it as neatly sorted as possible.
the image above shows a small sample.. maybe some look familiar! :P
feel free to use for whatever purpose! I suppose it could also be used as a way to request it if you wanted specific patterns on something idk haha.
all credits to the artists, I just made seamless, re-saved and sorted. I hope it can be some use for your creation needs. :D
enjoy!
download
(yes it's a reference to the ultimate collection because...it is indeed an ultimate collection)
The Lighting Mod Ultimate Collection is a lighting mod/framework that allows players to switch lighting configurations on a lot-level basis.
Now, the game itself already utilizes lot-level lighting as far back as Nightlife for Downtown lots, and some lighting mods have combined this with the usage of cheat aliases to use different lighting configurations that potentially suit different lots of neighborhoods, or using different lighting color definitions (as in Cinema Secrets's implementation of World Lit by Fire), or the lighting direction changes in Maxis Match Lighting Mod.
However, Lighting Mod Ultimate Collection takes this a step further and features five lighting mods in one setup. This means one installation and you can switch from one config to another on the fly.
A mix of things - mini table sign add-on for Mr Generic Sign, two wooden stands, XL version of Tibetan Desk (three tiles long), condiments basket plus recolors for NL napkin holder aka "A Bit of This And That".
Wooden donation box has a recolorable 'note' subset, box part pulls textures from Cozy Colonial Endtable, I recommend to use it with these recolors by @goatskickin .
I also threw in my dark brass handle replacement for Tibetan Desk.
Again some more recolors of things I didn't want to make multiple uploads for. Some had been sitting in my folder for a year and I took a break from playing and making cc.
A couple of Ikea objects in cluedo colors. Swatch:
Fredrik Workstation
Strind End Table from the Ikea preorder things. These also come in colors from @withlovefromsimtown 's The IKEAning. Additional Swatch
Seasons tiki seating cushions in flower child colors. Swatch:
Bamboo Chair By Island Lumberjacks
Stranded From Nothing Atoll
A BG recliner and BG sofa in watchmen colors so they kind of match. Recliner texture is an edit of slig's edit of the original textures. on their defaults. I then made the fabric texture for the sofa from this. Swatch
Cheap Eazzzzze Puffy Recliner. I made the wood for the handle black, but it turns out it the wood is a separate non-recolorable subset. I haven't seen a cep extra to make it recolorable but I recommend this cep extra that repo's it to the craftmeister bookcase.
Durable Value Sofa
All files are compressed with included Strind table mesh, preview and swatches.
@lucilla-sims 4t2 SP64 CK006 Denim Lace Skirt for CF
Another piece of clothing I thought would fit kids! It has fatmorph, comes in the original 12 colors (swatch is stolen). Paired with shoes converted by @rudhira :)
Name: Derielle by Simsimillian
Description: The best Twinbrook adaption I found so far. The lake is boatable, lovely references to “True Blood” and updated for all expansions up to Island Paradise. Also scenery was greatly improved and neighbourhoods and housing rebuilt/replaced.
Info and DL Link
Size: largest (2048x2048)
Number of Community Lots: 84
Number of Residental Lots: 102
Required Expansions: all
Store: Riverview
CC: no
Populated: no
Savegame available: no
Further Links: Full thread
They're both versions of the Frederick Workstation with the top part removed. Version 1 (right) still has the metal bar across the back and version 2 (left) doesn't
