☢️ CAS Filters, ethics, and expectations. -- Fine. Let's do this. -- [4/26] ⚡ THE FALLOUT! DUN DUN DUNNNN!

THIS IS A RANT.

THIS IS LIKELY THE MOST "TOXIC" RANT I HAVE EVER DONE ON PATREON THUS FAR.

YOU'RE WELCOME TO IGNORE THIS.

I DO THIS FOR PERPETUITY.

THIS WILL BE MESSY.

—

The drama surrounding "CAS Filters" is a few things cobbled together.

So let's unravel it from my perspective.

Indulge me for a minute:

Do y'all remember when the individual who runs that website apparently had some long-winded rant or something about EA hiring them for a 6-digit figure?

Whenever I reach to this point, I sometimes wonder if this is the moment when I fully lose the plot and say the absolute dumbest !@#$ possible.

You don't need to agree with me by the way, and you should also maybe not heart this post or comment in agreement of anything I've said, because there are some in the wider Sims community who hold grudges.

Let them hold a grudge against me. Not you.

⋆⋅ FOREWORD - WHOA, NELLY:

I did not think that "CAS Filters" - a mod I created with the general community in mind - would lead to me finally addressing the creator community.

In all sincerity, I know that the criticisms I'm about to direct at the creator community is not reflective of absolutely everyone, but it is reflective of some.

This has been a long time coming. In fact, I have had a post in draft since early 2024, but that one concerns our abysmal response to the malware incident, which, if you have been paying attention to, is still a concern over a year later.

This one though, this one is all about "us", and me to some extent.

Now before you read this, I know that folks have a way of taking everything personally, even when they're not guilty of anything - I also personalize this post a lot by saying "you" a number of times in the post.

We see this happen often with men when another man is accused of something heinous. Suddenly it becomes about them. Suddenly they're personally being victimized. Suddenly any rational matter in their skull drops all the way down to their intestines, and suddenly we are expected to stop giving alleged victims the benefit of the doubt, all because some man's totes favorite man, whom he has likely never met, was accused of something. I know that "society" has a way of taking things too far with "public opinion", but if I am supposed to stop believing women and children when they claim to be alleged victims, then I sure ain't gon' believe no man when they claim to be the alleged victim. Equality, baby!

I digress.

This isn't about you - it is to some extent, but only because despite the numerous Discord groups dedicated to modding, there is still misinformation, misunderstanding, and gaps in our knowledge TEN (10) YEARS on.

The gaps are reasonable because EAxis never gave us a manual, that I know of.

It is also reasonable for you, as a creator, to not understand or know some things.

It's even reasonable for you to be misinformed about some things, because obviously.

It is not reasonable that when someone corrects you, your response is a pearl-clutching meltdown.

⋆⋅ THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM:

"CAS Filters" was announced about a week before the release date.

You can verify this by checking the oldest comment on the Patreon post.

During the week of development, I @ tagged every creator I added to the list on Tumblr, as I added them, so they'd be immediately notified about what I was doing.

To be fair, there are a few who are not on Tumblr - or I haven't found a Tumblr for them yet.

The response I got was all-around positive.

It ranged from creators saying it's a "cool idea", "it's an amazing idea", "the community has wanted something like this for a long time", "I don't think I'd use it, but it's still a good idea", to some creators even going so far as to say publicly even before the mod was released, that they were giving simmers who use their content the permission to modify said content and add the TAGS for their own use.

You can verify this too, because there's a link to my Tumblr post in the Patreon post for "CAS Filters", and that post contains links to every post I made to @ the creators I added to the list - I have to do multiple posts because Tumblr appears to have a post @ limit.

⋆⋅ ENTER [X]:

While I was in the final stages of completing the mod, I decided to ask in a few of the big Discord groups if anyone would like any names to be added to the "INITIAL RELEASE".

It was a simple question.

What followed was a discussion on PartFlags and how they work, started by a curious individual, which gradually devolved into a giant waste of time when other individuals joined the discussion. It ended with one of them implying I didn't know what I was talking about, and that I should "come back after I opened my game and created a trans sim".

Whoa, Nelly. Did I control myself there. Shall I control myself here too or can I let loose?

Instead of arguing that I didn't know anything because it went against "the norm", maybe S4S should have been opened and the settings that I was trying to explain could have been, I dunno, tried?

Is TEN (10) MINUTES or less in S4S unreasonable? Apparently so.

Is melting down and being a !@#$ing !@#$ the reasonable response? Apparently so.

AND OH, THE CAPS! THE HORRID CAPS ARE HURTING MY FEELINGS!

What the actual !@#$?

I CAPS certain terms or words when I'm explaining things to ensure the proper attention is given to the thing. I'm sorry if that triggers you, but this, this is extremely juvenile.

⋆⋅ CAS OVERRIDES AND PEARL-CLUTCHING:

During the discussion about PartFlags, the topic of my "CAS Overrides" came up - because obviously I want folks to understand that I know what I'm talking about because I've been doing it for years - and I mentioned intending to do a few "Custom Content CAS Overrides", which caused another meltdown.

It's as though overriding content is a crime.

It's as though overriding PartFlags is theft.

It's as though no one understands how an override works.

IT'S AS THOUGH IF I OVERRIDE SOMETHING, THE ORIGINAL SUDDENLY NO LONGER EXISTS AND/OR EVERYONE SUDDENLY HAS MY OVERRIDE AND KNOWS MY MOTHERF@#$IN' NAME! YES! <GASP> WHAT SORCERY I WROUGHT! I DID NOT KNOW I HAD SUCH IMMENSE POWAH! WORLD DOMINATION IS SPINE! <CACKLES MANIA- What was that? I-I don't have such immense power?! (╯'□')╯︵ ┻━┻

I need someone to draw some lines in this sandbox and tell me where this ends, because "Creator Kits" contain items that were made by members of the creator community.

Am I not allowed to override those either?

Am I even allowed to override EAxis' items to fix their abysmal PartFlags?

Is anyone ever allowed to fix anything anyone else does, ever?

Is this why after TEN (10) YEARS we still have improper PartFlags on custom content?

Or is it because some of y'all are transphobic and just don't want to allow "transframe" sims to wear your precious custom content? I have refrained from asking this question, but here we are, and I am finally fed up of the behavior enough to ask it plainly.

Is this why after TEN (10) YEARS EAxis is still selling content that is improperly PartFlag'd and taking years to fix it, and the wider community is still willing to pay for it?

Is all of this because no one wants to point out what's wrong and how to fix it?

Or is it that no one wants to listen or try a different approach because "they know what they're doing" and no one can tell them otherwise?

—

Just so you know, I could probably override PartFlags without doing a "CAS » Override" of the item itself.

Maybe we should petition Sims 4 Studio to remove the override feature altogether?

BUT WAIT! I could probably create an override using a clone of a basic item!

Maybe we should petition Sims 4 Studio to shut down altogether!

No?

What would the argument then be if I could - that I'm overriding your item identifier?

—

As a creator, when you think about your content and your creativity, what comes to mind?

Is it PartFlags?

Are your PartFlags your creative property?

Do you even understand them?

Don't take that the wrong way, I do not expect everyone to understand PartFlags the way I do, because I've spent years digging into PartFlags so I could better understand them, because I mean to fix all of CAS one day. If you search my old posts on EA Forums from Answers HQ, you will find numerous Bug Reports and Feedback posts where I dissect entire packs and point out what PartFlags need fixing. You won't find any recent ones though, because I realized I was wasting my time. It's reasonable to not know who I am or what I do, because I'm relatively new to the modding scene and I only recently started "putting myself out there".

When I think about creative property where CAS custom content is concerned, I think about your meshes and your textures that you work so hard on.

I don't think about your PartFlags, except from the perspective of "these PartFlags are wrong."

How is it that after TEN (10) YEARS and numerous Discord groups dedicated to modding, there are a number of CAS content creators, including popular ones, who still don't know what they're doing with their PartFlags?

It is, in fact, reasonable that a CAS content creator might still not understand PartFlags and are still making mistakes even after numerous years of creating content, and do you know why?

BECAUSE FEW PEOPLE CARE ENOUGH TO TAKE A LOOK AND POINT OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO FIX.

Instead, it's "join my Discord group!"

There is a wealth of knowledge in these Discord groups, but you can only access it if you have a Discord account.

You do know some folks don't want to use Discord, right?

What's the point of the Sims 4 Studio website?

It should be a hub of publicly available knowledge.

Instead, it lacks even tutorials for things about Sims 4 Studio.

⋆⋅ "ETHICS" OR SOME !@#$:

This whole exchange in [X] somehow has now culminated into:

"'CAS FILTERS' IS UNETHICAL BECAUSE THIS 'SEJIAN' CHARACTER DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO CONSULT THE CREATORS AND ASK IF THEY WANTED TO BE A PART OF IT!"

Also, I believe at some point, someone got it into their head that "CAS Filters" contains overrides for their precious custom content.

Let me make this absolutely clear one more time:

NO ONE IS "A PART" OF ANYTHING HERE AND THERE ARE NO OVERRIDES FOR ANY CAS CONTENT, CUSTOM OR OTHERWISE, IN "CAS FILTERS".

I made a mod that allows simmers and creators alike to filter their content in CAS.

I started a database and devised a way to assign a unique identifier to those filters for every single creator in existence (if the override allows), AND THIS MONUMENTAL UNDERTAKING IS THE ONLY WAY THIS HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE ABLE TO WORK IN TEN (10) !@#$ING YEARS.

I, ME, DID EVERY PART REQUIRED TO MAKE THIS MOD WORK.

ME.

MINE!

ALLSPARK!

M-E-G-A-T-R-O-N!

How does that toxic saying go?

I need to adjust it a bit for context:

"If you don't like it, you're welcomed to create your own mod."

⋆⋅ MAKING THIS ABOUT CREATORS:

The "ethics" criticism goes so far as to say I'm placing unrealistic expectations on CAS custom content creators to now add this TAG to their items.

So let's make this about creators even more.

Is adding a TAG so difficult when I have literally provided everything including a personalized JSON for each creator filter, that I had to go on an "egg hunt" in order to figure out how to do, because no tutorial exists on the Sims 4 Studio website (that I could find)?

The few creators who I've discussed this with say no, it isn't.

Some of them already do custom TAGS and know exactly how to do it.

I even said this in the oh-so-very-long-totes-can't-read-so-many-words post:

We can't reasonably expect that every creator will or even can update their entire catalog, but it takes little to no effort for to include the new TAG in their new content. Instructions are provided in the next section.

Was that me placing unreasonable expectations on creators?

Shirley I could have worded that differently, but I won't change it now - except for that "for" that I forgot to backspace.

Was my response of (paraphrasing) "you can only do what you can do" to a creator saying they wouldn't be able to TAG all of their old content but can TAG their new content, me placing unreasonable expectations on them?

—

Is it unreasonable to expect that the custom content provided to the community, especially those that are behind perma-paywalls, or exclusive to ModCo and their "ModCoin" shenanigans, or that go into Early Access (which I have no problem with), have proper PartFlags?

Is it unreasonable to expect that custom content have all LODs?

Should I continue with the "is it unreasonable" line of questioning?

—

The things most other folks won't criticize anyone for are the things I will criticize everyone and their dog for.

Take a gander at my Patreon. Notice how everything is free?

Take a gander at the many links I share. Notice how none of them have any ads on them?

Do you know what that means?

It means I can !@#$ off tomorrow and not lose a thing except the headache of fighting the internet - and the busted iPad I'm forced to use because I do not have a monitor for my computer and I'm currently unemployed in a country hell-bent on stifling out small businesses and freelancers - daily, hourly, every other !@#$ing minute for the past year that I have been modding.

The only people who would be impacted by me !@#$ing off are the simmers who now rely on some of my mods, because for some part of the past TEN (10) YEARS, simmers have pleaded with EAxis to remove the annoying UI effects from the game, and they refuse to - in fact they keep adding more - and simmers have pleaded for someone to mod it out, and no one has... before me (that I know of).

This is going to sound bad, but I don't care about your feelings towards me patching your mods when this is something that affects people's health and well-being.

You could simply ask how it's done and I will gladly tell you so that I can erase some of my workload. ⚡ Speaking of which, I haven't checked if any of those third-party mods I patch have updated recently! Whoops! In my defense, I've been a little more busy than usual.

⋆⋅ IS THIS BECAUSE OF MY "PERSONAL REQUEST":

Is not using brackets and other special characters in filenames too unreasonable?

I am a simmer first, and you know what I hate having to do?

I hate having to waste my time renaming your !@#$ because you won't do the proper thing, because no one wants to call you out on it.

Shirley you have seen the many posts about those special characters in filenames.

If you have proof that it doesn't affect launch/load time, please provide it PUBLICLY (a.k.a. NOT IN A !@#$ING DISCORD GROUP) so we can all get on the same page.

If you genuinely haven't seen any of those posts, then you're excused, but you know now.

As a simmer with a Male / Feminine Frame "transframe" sim, as I refer to them, I hate having to waste my time fixing your improper, unnecessarily restrictive PartFlags.

Maybe you ought to put in the necessary time required to learn how each of them works?

Is that too unreasonable?

How about this then!

How about I, me, who understands PartFlags to some extent - somewhat better than some other folks - dissect and override your content, and you as the creator, download that override so you can see the changes in action, and then you can open up my override, right, and you can compare my PartFlags with yours, and maybe ask a question if necessary, and maybe, together, we can fix the unnecessary plague of improper and incompetent PartFlags plaguing our CAS content.

What a groundbreaking idea!

Did I really have to spell that out? Apparently so.

'Cause y'know, we all saw in [X] how useful just reading about it goes when it goes against what you know as gospel truth. It was truly amazing how that played out - one individual telling me I shouldn't override because it's unethical, and I should explain instead, and another individual immediately blowing a fuse because my explanation didn't align with their gospel truth. Thanks! Really.

Alternatively, y'all can put up a big banner stating "DON'T DOWNLOAD CAS OVERRIDES FROM SEJIAN! THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! ALSO, 'CAS FILTERS' IS UNETHICAL AND YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PERSON IF YOU USE IT".

At least you'd be doing something useful with your banners, since it's not like anyone bothered to put up any banners when websites were compromised with malware, y'know, to ensure the simmers who download your !@#$ were aware and took the necessary steps to protect their personal data and identity.

Have you any idea how many folks messaged me during and after the malware incident to thank me for my Reddit post that highlighted the issue and tried to keep everyone up to date on what was happening?

What the !@#$ were the rest of you doing?

⋆⋅ IN CLOSING - I MIGHT EDIT TO EXPAND OR CLARIFY:

Is this the appropriate response?

Probably not, but I don't have the time to drag this !@#$ on.

Also, hear this right, if your name is on the list and you don't want the "expectations", you can ask me to remove it, and I will strike it out from the list and remove it in the next update, and we can just bar simmers from filtering your custom content. How does that sound? They could always use one of my THREE (3) filters, or one of the NINE (9) generic filters I created.

Also, to clarify something, the 9-digit number does not define the name. It is created from the name and is unique to the name, but the name seen in the game is defined by a STRING VALUE. I could change that to say anything.

IN FACT, you can even create an override of the STRING KEY contained in my mod to change the name of anyone, including me!

You can totes rename my filter to "The Toxic Destroyer".

Actually that sounds kinda cool.

IN FACT, you could add a STRING KEY to your custom content that removes your name from my mod, so that any simmer who modified your content to add the filter TAGS would no longer see your name in the filter list if your content loads before my mod.

Maybe I will make some more instructions after I'm done with the "QUIK N' DIRRTY".

—

Shirley all of this !@#$ can't be because I highlighted the issue with Sims 4 Studio, can it?

At this point everything seems kinda possible.

—

[4/25/2025] ⚡ Indulge me for a few more minutes:

Y'know what's amazing to me? It's comparing the reception I've gotten for "CAS Filters" from members of both the modding and simming community on Tumblr, to the reception I've gotten from members of the modding community in [X], a.k.a the folks who should be helping refine a mod like this if they know a more efficient way to do it, instead of bickering and squabbling amongst themselves in Discord.

I really do feel like someone already knew how to make this mod, because it's very simple - time-consuming and Maximum Effort™ to make a reality, but very simple - and probably has known for quite a while, and just chose not to do it, because "too much work", or now that someone took apart "CAS Filters" and saw how easy this has always* been to do, they're jealous they didn't figure it out first.

Because really, how hard is it to add a TAG to new items when I've provided you with everything you need? THERE'S THE UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS!

If Sims 4 Studio allowed us to make custom BATCH FIXES, you'd have one o' them too, because I'd put in the necessary time to learn how to do it, and do it.

Keep it in mind that this mod was not made explicitly for the creator community to utilize. That is why there is no "opt in" or "approval" process.

Everyone gets added if the override can handle it - living, dead, active, retired, new, veteran, etc., even the folks who only have one little piece of CAS custom content and don't consider themselves CAS creators. If you have shared CAS content, you're getting on the list, because the simmers who use your content might want to filter your content now that after TEN (10) YEARS we finally have a way to filter content by creator in CAS.

Y'all don't like getting called out, and I have refrained from "calling out" anyone except EAxis unless it's a really egregious situation and I'm aware of it, like with TwistedMexi, but those shackles are gone now, because it finally clicked in my head that the "TEN (10) YEARS" criticism I throw at EAxis for all the incompetent !@#$ they continue to do, is also applicable to all of us who create custom content and mods. Thank you for opening mine eyes - I wear glasses, so it's always helpful when someone shines them for me. 🤓

Y'all better start adding those "DO NOT OVERRIDE MY PARTFLAGS" to your CAS custom content and your Build Mode content - because I hear Build Mode custom content is a right mess too - and you better come up with a damn solid argument why someone overriding "your" PartFlags is wrong, and when you're done with that, you need to come up with a solid !@#$ing argument for why someone reviewing "your" custom content PartFlags is wrong, because one way or another, with or without you, I am going to fix CAS, and I'm not waiting another TEN (10) YEARS for EAxis or custom content creators to get on board with the idea of using proper !@#$ing PartFlags.

Heck, maybe I should make a whole new Patreon and name it "Sejian's Custom Content Overrides" with the tagline "Helping creators fix their incompetent PartFlags, one content release at a time!".

That sounds like a marvelous idea, doesn't it?

I can set aside the time, and I'm more than willing to help you understand "your" PartFlags better, so that we can all benefit from proper PartFlags.

—

[4/26/2025] ⚡ "GUESS WHO'S BACK, YOU ONE-EYED !@#$%!":

I love that scene from Pacific Rim (2013). It's an awesome movie from start to finish.

After TWENTY-ONE (21) MONTHS, TwistedMexi has finally updated "Expandable BuildBuy Catalog". Shirley me reviving it in the form of "My Beautiful Squishy" on 3/9/2025, then creating "CAS Filters" and becoming a household name like dishwashing soap, then going ape !@#$ on the creator community with this post, had absolutely nothing to do with it.

You're welcome either way.

No quips this time thanking those who had patience and telling others to g-g-g-get some?

No?

I suppose when the mod in question hasn't been updated for damn near TWO (2) YEARS, saying it would be like putting your whole foot into your mouth.

Should I pause work on "CAS Filters" now?

Do you think we might finally see that CAS mod that was teased back in February 2023 now that someone else - me again - finally went and did a thing?

I think I need to put back on at least one catdamned shackle, because holy !@#$ there's a part of me that enjoys being a !@#$ing nightmare. Modding is supposed to be a safe space from it, but boy, oh boy, did I choose the wrong game. 😹

Part of my personal journey as an individual was that I stopped trying to "fit in" during my late teens and early twenties, because I realized that I was trying to "fit in" with bullies and bigots, and I was turning into a bully and a bigot. I still struggle with the bigotry sometimes. It's hard to get rid of all traces of that programming once it's in your head - which is why they start you off as young as they can get you. The bullying part though, that became 🎙️ this nightmare I've become, because I realized that love and kindness and meeting people where they're at, doesn't always work. There needs to be opposition to BS, but not everyone is cut out for it, so those of us who are, need to do it, because the wave of BS ain't stopping.

I was told that sometime after the PartFlag discussion ended - everyone went silent so I assumed the discussion was over - and I went about my business, something concerning me transpired, and it didn't stop until someone pointed out that I'm still a member of the Discord server. Now, I haven't verified it because I already wasted HOURS on that discussion and I'd rather spend that time being awesome, but if it's true, then it means that the behavior on display during my PartFlag discussion is "the norm" and they're accustomed to folks not sticking around after being spoken to like that.

What a wonderful environment you have there for learning.

Do not ever mistake my politeness, patience, and helpful nature as an invitation to come to my house and !@#$ around. For all intents and purposes, this Patreon account is my "Creator Home", and you are a guest.

Valid criticism and feedback is always welcomed, but foolishness is not, and just because something is "the norm" don't mean it ain't foolishness.

You know what the funniest part of all of this is - to me anyway?

I linked this post in the "CAS Filters" Patreon post, and I made sure to add a note to my new Tumblr posts so that folks know there's criticism surrounding my mod, so that they can inform themselves before downloading my mod. I like full disclosure, even when it might make me look bad, like when I said publicly that I did not ask permission or notify anyone when I revived "Expandable BuildBuy Catalog" as "My Beautiful Squishy".

Anyone who reads far enough in the "CAS Filters" Patreon post will find the link to this.

And guess what?

I ain't ever deleted a rant before.

Good job paving this road for me.