TOU Standardization Ideas
My boyfriend is a computer scientist and has worked in and tangential to tech for almost 20 years now and long story short: The anarchic nature of cc creator’s TOU’s is a MAJOR pet peeve of his. I’m not a big fan either, as my autistic brain would like more standardization and fewer unknowns, too.
For example, if the person didn’t mention something at all in their TOU, does that mean yes or no? There’s ~0 chance I’ll actually message someone bc ~anxiety~ so I’ll assume no where maybe there would have been a yes except the creator just didn’t think to add that bit in. Also, it’s hard to keep track of who has which of the literally infinite variations of TOUs out there. But if there were standardized TOU types out there, then people who wanted to participate could just choose the one they want, and having multiple people using the same, explicitly stated TOUs would just make things lowkey easier.
Also i hope that maybe it would encourage more open TOUs? Some people don’t realize that their strict TOUs are contradicting EAs TOUs, and maybe seeing all their friends and favorite creators choosing X tou could encourage them to maybe use that one too? (A simmer could hope..)
So anyway, the BF & I sketching out ideas of what a standardization of TOUs might look like, and we’d love some input! Questions we’d love to hear answers to:
What would a fully open TOU allow? We have the following, but lmk if i’ve forgotten anything!
> Recolors
> Mesh Edits
> Including the Mesh
> Converting to other sims versions & other games
Should “Converting to other sims versions” & “Converting to other games” be two separate points (for any type of TOU)? Idk if there are people out there who allow converting to ts2/3 but not other games..
The most common TOU to me seems to be “Recolors are fine with credit (and no paywalls, etc) but don’t include the mesh, and don’t edit my mesh”-- do you agree? Do you see any other types that seem particularly common?
What kind of TOU do you have?
Do you have any thoughts on TOUs / the idea of providing some standardized options for people ?
Oooh, and if this were to come into being and had its own little site, we could include templates for emailing creators, and maybe encourage creators to specify why they want tot message them &/or what information to include when they do. Like this is def my autistic brain speaking, but I'd never email someone asking for permission to edit a mesh (so i just wouldn't) bc it'd make me too anxious. & I think it's because I feel like I'd be like "Hello i am seeking to be judged worthy of editing your mesh but i have no idea what your criteria are and so i don't know if i qualify and I might have some sort of rejection here and that makes me wanna barf."
Reducing vagueness + increasing explicitly stated information is SUPER VERY MUCH an accessibility issue (for autistic/adhd, anxious, &/or ID folks at minimum), and one that doesn’t get talked about enough!