This group was created by the desire for people to have a place to submit or grab some foundations to build on. The whole idea was inspired by the site contest "Foundations" that was run by HystericalParoxysm.

If anyone can think of a set of guidelines that should be used please post.

Here are my ideas so far:
Each foundation should be in it's own thread and anyone who builds on it should also post their pictures in that thread.

This should be for Sims 2 and Sims 3 players just specify in the thread title which game the foundation is for.

Can be Residential or Community lots.

To be less confining in what can be used there is NO limit on what type of custom content can be used. Just remember if you think you might want to upload your lot here in the end that you have to follow the sites guidelines concerning CC.

Each member can post 1 Foundation to build on per month.

I believe the general consesus is a maximum of 20 photos is sufficient and making collages of shots is definitely encouraged

Why hello there!

Thanks for creating the group

I was happy to lol
And thanks for joining

Is it going to be so that we can also create community lots on the foundations? Like Yogi_Tea's awesome boutiqe, just without the living parts of it

Yeah I see no reason why not. No need to be only residential.

This is wonderful, I can't wait to see what we all can come up with.

Hi there. I'm in. Thanks for creating the group. I was looking last night to see how to do it but was too tired to work it out!

So are we doing one foundation at a time or can we add a foundation thread whenever?

Also, do I assume we have to stick to the 'No CC' rule or can we use 'Free CC' only?

Just add a foundation thread whenever. Anyone who wants to build with that foundation can post in it's particular thread.
I think more would like it if we use Free CC. The No CC rule was fine for the contest but this is a more casual type thing.

Make it less restrictive

That's great. Using no CC was by FAR the hardest part of the contest as pure ea content is so restricted! I'm about to load up my game and see if I can come up with a foundation!

How about lot sizes? Personally I quite liked the idea that we all had to work in the same size restricted lots, it was cool to see the variety of lots produced from the same little square so I'd like to keep that rule but I would like to see more variety than 30x30 so I'd suggest that when someone uploads a foundation they specify what size it should be...anyone agree?

How about orientation? Would that be up to the individual builder?

I love the idea of using CC....I'm still a bit confused about TSR though...I had an upload refused before because there was TSR objects in it, even though they were free objects. Does that mean we can't show pics if they have free TSR stuff on show?

Also, should we have a random chat thread too? I don't mean you should restrict people from gushing over entries in the foundations threads (unless you want to) just that it'd be nice to have a place where the usuall suspects could have a chin wag....or is that against the rules?

Um...think that's all I have for now.

Oh no, wait....on more thing: Is there a time limit on each foundation like for instance, each one runs for a couple of months (though multiple run at the same time presumably) or do they just keep going forever?

Hmmm...I don't really know about the TSR stuff cause I never get or use anything from there.

About the lot sizes I agree with specifying what size it was built on so whoever chooses to snag that foundation and build with it can basically choose whether to place it on the same size lot.

I think a chat thread would be alright.

I was originally thinking since each foundation would be in it's own thread that we didn't necessarily need a time limit. So that people could build at their leisure or whatnot since this isn't like working on a contest time schedule. I'm welcome to any suggestions or ideas though.

Cool, lookin forward to the first lot of pics but might not hve the time to join it myself for acouple of weeks

Agree on the foundations size. I want to try upload an 10x10 foundations

TSR is not allowed because even if there is free content on the site, it's still considered a paysite as the premium content and majority of the quality items is pay.

Great idea - was feeling a little lost for inspiration to build before this started

I suppose in theory, we could make a foundation for both games - I think TS3 roughly matches TS2 in terms of lot sizing (so a TS3 30x30 would be equal to a TS2 3x3)?

Looking forward to seeing what new foundations come out!

Love this! saw it in the chat thread and ran over to join. WOOHOOO!

I like the idea of sticking with a set lot size and orientation. By limiting those 2 things it makes it easier to understand what others did as you look at their creations. Each foundation could have what ever size the creator wanted it to be and what even orientation he/she wanted. We will still get lots of variety with the different posted foundations.

Indeed. We've already seen proof of how different things can turn out working with just a foundation as a base lol

Ok guys I'm out for the day. But tonight when I get home I intend to make a foundation to post in the morning.
I have one in mind and it may be kind of odd but I think that's the beauty of it sometimes. To use your head and come up with a creative house from it.

Should we make a limit of how many pictures a person can post of their lot when they go to show it in the thread they got the foundation from? Not as restrictive as the contest was, but if there is no limit, I'm sure there will be some people who will go picture crazy and make some of the threads crazy long with 20 or 30 different pictures of their one house.

1 picture each of the bedroom, kitchen, living room, dining room (if applicable), bathroom, front view, garden, floorplans.

That would be 8 by default, some added on by multiple ones of the floorplan.
Then maybe 4 or 5 you choose yourself?

Then the total is 13 (+ multiple floorplans). And of course in this group I think we should be allowed with collages so multiple bedrooms etc can go into stuff like that

IMO anyway

Just joined the group, yay
Rules sound good so far.
Though I have to think about a way to distinguish free from pay content, I have tons of downloads and didn't bother to categorize them so far some creators upload to multiple sites, including paysites, it's hard to distinguish who has uploaded to which site. Are those pieces of CC that one can get from a blog or other site as well as TSR automatically considered pay items?

I think there should definitely be a minimum requirement of pictures one has to include and I agree with the collaging, but do we really need a limit on the number of the pictures?
I guess some would like to include many pics, while others only need a few extra ones. What do you think?

I agree actually. As long as noone has an insane amount of pictures (like 30) that are all single ones then it shouldn't be any problems.

Don't know about the TSR rule. Think you have to see site rules here and why TSR items are not allowed as I don't know. Or ask a mod!

I don't know for sure but it would seem sensible to me that if an item CAN be got for free off another site then it shouldn't matter that it also happens to be available on TSR? The idea is that people can have free CC..which they can in those circumstances. Thats just my thought anyway..I'm sure 'someone who knows' will soon let us know!
As for distinguishing free cc from pay I had that problem in another contest I entered. So I made the major decision to totally 're-do' my downloads and carefully re download and re-package them so that the very tiny amount of pay CC I use can simply be removed from the game while I built the house. It took a day but it was worth it because not only did I not have to worry about accidentally using pay cc but it was an opportunity to weed out all the things Id downloaded 'because they looked cool' and then never ever used or things that simply didnt look as good in-game as Id expected!

I don't think it matters if the CC we use in houses that we show here we got from a pay site or not. So long as we're not uploading the house to MTS then it doesn't go against the rules as far as I can tell. If you plan to eventually upload the house for download to MTS, officially, then no, don't use CC from TSR or other pay sites. And I merely say that about limiting the amount of photos because there will be people, not saying us, who might not think about it, and we all don't have great internet that can handle a large amount of photos on one window. So if there's a set limit, say maybe 15 to 20 at the most, including collages, then it's not something that needs strict enforcing.

I would think 20 is plenty, especially if collages are allowed. I can't imagine anyone ever needing to exceed that number. Also, I forgot to say in my last post that I agree with specifying the lot size and orientation.
Now I'll go and make a foundation - lol- I started up the game before to make one then got caught up playing my new Sim family who seem to have really captured my attention for a change. Its funny how sometimes a family just 'clicks' with me and other times I lose interest in them after a couple of sim weeks!