It has been over a month now and our new Sims 3 forum is still a hot mess. Notifications are broken, no custom avatars, and no subcategories (at least for Sims 3). We have been told there won't be pages, which really are necessary for good story telling threads. It's getting to be more trouble than it's worth to come on here and see what everyone is up to (my opinion).I can think of two options.Ask the NRaas folks if they would allow us to have a creative section on their forum, orMigrate over to the MTS forum, which has a Sims 3 section with subcategories and threads with pages. (screenshot of all the subcategories)I don't know if you can do a poll here so I will just ask you to post with your opinion. Those of us who love our Sims 3 community, would you be willing to switch? If so, which one appeals the most (that's IF NRaas would even agree)? Or is there another option I'm missing?MTS Sims 3 forum link: Mod The Sims - Sims 3Us Sims 3 players have never been short of opinions so please give yours. 😜

My hope here is that most of the issues raised about this site will be addressed, soon-ish if not soon. I don't know that they will be, but reading between the lines of various posts from EA_Nils et al, many of the problems would take real time (conversations with the forum host, dev time, testing) to solve. Some features may have to be built from scratch. The fact that we haven't seen changes yet doesn't mean those changes are off the table. And this site is new, and many new projects don't start out with the full complement of features even when those features are anticipated well in advance. I'm not suggesting that people keep using this site in the interim if it doesn't feel good, or right, or fun. But I do hope that people looking for a Sims forum experience will at least check back here and there to see how this site evolves as time goes by, if it becomes a place worth using again. The worst outcome I can see would be that everyone gives up and stops advocating for the features we know we want, and EA doesn't implement those features because it appears that no one still around considers them important. So for everyone uncomfortable and unhappy here, please keep having these conversations, even if it's for the moment the only reason you show up at all.

I don't like MTS community site. I also feel this site is a dark and lonely site. It feels like it separates in a way I don't understand. I wouldn't mind the old TS2 site format (with pictures) or TS3 site. This site feels unwelcoming.

We need pages. We need pages..... We need pages.I can spend my 30 minute lunch break trying to get to the newest post in 2 threads on this site! I blame the bloopy, null hot mess.It's a skippy glitchy mess.I might be back.The old forum is still there and ready. Just admit Defeat EA! You know I can't even think of options right now because it was good on the old forum...just let us go back home. I feel like this is the end. This forum is a foreshadowing of the game's demise.This place aint gonna last 10 yrs! 😯ZeeGee1Thank you. I had to get some stuff out. I might be back.🙂

If we do decide to migrate, I think Mod the Sims would probably be a better idea because it already has a structure very similar to the one we are used to. If the majority of the Sims 3 community decides to migrate I will follow wherever the majority decides to go. But I would actually prefer to stay here for a while and, as @puzzleaddict suggested, continue having these conversations in the hope that they are listening. I do play a little Sims 4 too, and I like to see screenshots of new content when it comes out regardless of whether I'm going to buy it. I'm interested in reading news about the Sims 5 too. For these reasons I would prefer to stay here - and also, the Sims 3 is a game that is still being sold. I would like new Sims 3 players to be able to find us!(As for story threads, I'm trying out something in my own story thread to make reading easier: making links to all my replies in the OP, as well as making all the replies link to each other. It means that whenever I post a new update as a reply, I have to edit both the OP and the previous reply. It's a little more work, but I think it solves the problem of individual story threads. It doesn't help with communal threads like What Happened in Your Sims Game Today, though!)

Hi, most of you here probably won't know me as I tend to only lurk in the Sims 3 area (as I still play TS3) but am much more active in the Sims 4 area.Anyway, I am really sympathetic with the issues you raise here and along with others I've been quite vocal myself about them in the feedback section of this forum. I wondered if you're aware that some simmers here took the initiative earlier this month to set up a forum called Sim Creatives for just this reason? It was set up by SnuffyBucket and some others and is being mainly used for storytelling and screenshot threads at the moment, though I hope it'll grow and expand.It doesn't yet have many separate sections for Sims 3 as such, but it's only just got going so you might be interested in having a look anyway. It's another option for you to consider. To me, it works and feels just like our old forum, and so is a very calm and restful place if only to hang out for a while 🙂PS I should add that while I am a member at Sim Creatives, I haven't given up on this place at all and I really hope that with time it will improve (even if we know we'll never have pages). While there are still simmers here, I'll still keep coming back.

New forum options, please vote! | EA Forums

DivinylsFan
New Scout
5 months ago
There's also a different way of sharing stories, on the My Page through the memories pictures. It takes a bit of getting used to and can be really tricky to get the pictures into the smaller area or pan, and you have to clean the pictures out of your sims' memories every now and then to make room for more, and watch for the limited word space. After a while you can get pretty nifty at it. And your friends can all be logged in to see the new episode posted live, or review it later in the studio as can public if you have it set to that.
It might be too much bother for you, but its a suggestion for an option for you for in the meantime for your fix of storytelling.
Here's an example of mine when I was into it.

https://au.thesims3.com/memory/memoryExchange.html?persona=DivinylsFan&sortField=created_at&sortOrder=ASC&position=1900&index=191
and another page of them:
https://au.thesims3.com/memory/memoryExchange.html?persona=DivinylsFan&sortField=created_at&sortOrder=ASC&position=5530&index=554
There's some columns you can sort the pictures from, these are best viewed when the Date column has been clicked to be sorted, and these links are for into oldest first. The Plunkett family I had were like a soap opera maybe, and there were a few people following it. Kinda popular or special at the time. It was pretty effective, I got very practiced at it. And I could post it from my game. I think as long as The Store is enabled, the memory feature will still work. As for saving it, the only way I've been able to do that is open each picture from my My Page on the web page in a new tab, save that and copy and paste the text into a Word document, for each one, but I wonder what for. I tried finding out if there was a way to go into the game and fish out the memories from the scrapbook with a mod for saving on my computer somewhere but there's not, so manually saving from the My Page is what it takes if I really really want it.
There's a few other stories I went on in there. Lotta history. Memories ... there's a song about that.
OneSmugPuggo
Rising Traveler
5 months ago
Honestly for me, the fact that there are no pages is a dealbreaker already. It doesn't feel like forums. The site layout is ugly and unintuitive, in my opinion (but isn't that just like all the rest of EA's new features?)
After reading that post they made about updates, I don't think it'll change my feelings about the site even if they fix the performance issues. I would be more than happy to migrate to a site like ModTheSims since their forums are easy to navigate.
I've always been more of a lurker than a poster even though I've been playing the sims for years, but I've wanted to be more active in the community for a long time. This new forum change is a bummer :/ why couldn't they just leave us alone in our little corner?
Gitte2001
Seasoned Rookie
5 months ago
I've made an account on simscreatives and posted everywhere where I have a reason to post - unfortunately, it's mostly TS4 players so far; so I'd really love some fellow TS3 players to migrate there!
I also posted a bit on MTS, but mostly in the "casual" threads. I have an ongoing story but their rules make it hard for me to post there.
- emorrill
  Hero
  5 months ago
  Gitte2001Yeah. It seems MTS is not as preferable as a place to go instead like we all thought... But maybe that's just me? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I've LOVED MTS since The Sims 2 days because they have the BEST and safest cc out there. But I didn't frequent the threads, except for the WCIF one. People there are always so helpful. 💜
  - Gitte2001
    Seasoned Rookie
    5 months ago
    It (MTS) has also been pretty much dead for a while...It would take decisive action to enliven it again.
graceymanors
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
To me, It would have been easier just to keep the other forums open instead of shutting those down to create this hot mess. These forums are annoying, not user friendly and doesn't feel like the place for a storyteller.
- DivinylsFan
  New Scout
  4 months ago
  It so that we'll move on.
  #5 coming.
  its probably also to join the mass production just like vertical timber slat cladding on every building, shopping centre, tavern, television studio, cafe, university, community centre, in every city.
  Canva looks like these forums.
  ABC News recently changed to look like these forums. But they said its a fresh new look ...
  Everyone looks like these forums.
  Individuality, and artistic expression is on the way out. Originality, uniqueness ... pretty funny when one of the biggest features of The Sims is all about creativity.
  Universalism. That's what this is.
  - charlottekn
    New Rookie
    4 months ago
    I think EA just has no faith in their games. Imagine another huge game studio getting so mad about people still playing an older game that they make it impossible to still buy (sims 2) and try to shove people to a new version? Both Skyrim and Witcher 3 have had recent updates and we can still get all the older games in those series (a couple for free!); people still play the crap out of older Zelda games, Final Fantasy, etc. Obviously those studios don't feel threatened by their older games. EA seems to have a very weird attitude towards its own games and it's pretty sad to see.
    
    I really hope Sims 5 is going to be good and not another Sims mobile game (I just don't play mobile games and there are already more that one mobile game!) but the only way EA can fix a lot of their problems is a change of attitude (okay, and a QA team).
Damienf519
Seasoned Rookie
4 months ago
There should at least be a Sims 3 creative corner for people who still create stuff like the Sims 3 and like to share it with other people here.
Miataplay
Seasoned Ace
4 months ago
The sims 2 site is also lacking... It needs some development.