#curseforge boycott

[yooniesim]

Statement from Overwolf

...Okay, first of all, this whole statement is sadly nothing but them taking the same exact route as before: misdirecting & changing the narrative to only be about "victims" when their Home Support initiative is partnered with the ILF, an openly Zionist organization. This isn't about innocent parties only when they're partnered with an organization that contributes directly towards IDF Military Intelligence. All of the money from the fund goes to the ILF's bank account to distribute, per their own FAQ page. And even without that, the association alone is enough to boycott. Overwolf and Curseforge cannot be "clean of politics" while their CEO partners with and therefore directly supports Zionist parties.

Screenshots directly from Home Support website & ILF website

This statement overall stinks because it puts the blame fully onto people with legitimate concerns by calling them all harassers. Have some people gone too far towards creators? 100%. I know that well. But Overwolf is clearly using that to deflect off of themselves, and this is why it never should have been done in the first place. Y'all focused on the wrong shit- the smaller targets instead of the big ones, and the wrong claim that they're directly funding the IDF with CF revenue, and now they're doing exactly what I said they would: once again using the fact that that's not technically true to weasel out of people's concerns. They even directly call out the fact that it's misinformation like I said they would! They clarified fucking nothing, they repeated the same shit they already said because they know they can. We need to change the focus of the boycott so that they are forced to address their actual wrongdoing! Stop spending all your time sending threatening messages on anon and instead spread factual information with sources and reach out to creators in good faith effort to get them to speak without the fear of being attacked. They will stay silent as long as the negative consequences (financially & socially) is all on them and not Overwolf & EA.

I'm still working on a comprehensive post with everything, but in the meantime, please spread this post around.

[maxfaiden]

I'm back with an update for this post. Sadly, after 3 weeks, none of the blogs I approached about not reblogging posts with Curseforge links ever responded or took action.

But before I get to that, one thing I want to say about this is that some of the aggregate blogs out there have drawn the line at reblogging posts that include link shorteners or content that is still in the early access period, but can't find it in them to exclude direct or indirect links to Curseforge. Most of them aren't getting paid for running their blogs in any way, so they have no financial/livelihood stake in perpetuating the proliferation of Curseforge links across simblr, and yet...

I don't know if it's laziness, apathy, or ego, but, whatever the basis, the end result is still inhumane.

This, of course, is not to say that creators that still use Curseforge are absolved because they do have a monetary stake in it, but that the aggregators have such a low bar for advocating for the resistance and still cannot manage it. It's disheartening and makes me angry.

Anyway. I know there are loads of aggregate blogs out there, but I limited my list to ones that I actually use or follow. There are 2 others not listed here, but I haven't decided how to address them yet. That said...

sssvitlanz - no response, no blog policy update, still reblogging posts with Curseforge links (up to today)

ts4-poses - no response, no blog policy update, still reblogging posts with Curseforge links (up to yesterday)

maxismatchccworld - no response, no blog policy update, but no new posts since Jan 6th - NOTE: The blog runner has their own Curseforge account for their own CC, so…

public-ccfinds - no response, no blog policy update, but no new posts since Jan 11th; one of the blog admins is on hiatus and the other hadn't been active since a couple days before my ask, but popped up this month

Do with that what you will.

[wildmelon]

I'm sorry to sending this ask to you, but I don't know where else to say it, my blog has like negative number of followers and no one will hear me there, and I remember you reblogging that post about curseforge supporting israeli army? You know the Wix site some simmers upload their cc to? It's an israeli company with hq in tel aviv, listed in usa. Maybe some people would want to stop using it if they knew.

thank you for bringing this up again anon, i was wondering yesterday if some missed that anti-curseforge post... wix is also on the BDS list of companies to boycott for supporting Israel, but i haven't seen much discussion of its role in our community specifically.

DON'T USE CURSEFORGE

DON'T USE WIX

Wix asked their employees to create pro-Israel content and fired an employee for condemning Israel

Wix offers "Stand With Israel" website badges

Wix is Israel's most valuable company

Wix employees have been called up to reserve service in the IDF

[armoricaroyalty]

Why is the Sims community boycotting Curseforge?

I've seen a lot of posts going around calling on Simmers to stop using Curseforge, a modding platform that enables creators to monetize their downloads, with plenty of outrage directed toward modders and CC-makers who are still on the platform. But I've also seen a lot of people who are confused about why there are calls for a boycott.

Curseforge is owned by Overwolf, a company that is donating money to the IDF in support of its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

In late October/early November, Overwolf posted a graphic on their social media asking followers to "defend our defenders" by contributing financially to a fundraising drive for the IDF. They were met with backlash and quickly took the graphic down, replacing it with one that used language about raising money for "those affected by the violence in Gaza" (my phrasing may be inexact) but the money is still going to the IDF and not to any agency actually supporting civilians or doing humanitarian work.

You can see the original graphic on this change.org petition, which provides some additional context.

If you are using Curseforge in any way -- by hosting your content there or downloading from it -- you are giving money to a company that is raising funds for an ongoing military campaign against a civilian population.

This is why people are calling for a boycott. If you are a modder or CC maker for the Sims, you should remove all of your content from the website and redirect people to other DL sources. If you are a consumer of mods and CC, you should stop clicking curseforge links and send (polite!) messages to modders and CC makers to urge them to pull their content from the site.

ETA: Here's another link with more images of the original Overwolf Tweet!

[therichantsim]

So many creators are out here just blatantly ignoring the call to boycott Curseforge after being informed that they fund the occupation of IsNOTreal therefore supporting the genocide of Palestinians. AND YALL KEEP SHARING THAT SHIT! I'm going to start calling you out.

[blackmagictrait]

you won't download a hair off curseforge because idf but you'll still use an hp computer and eat mcdonalds. lolok. performative ass.

I have an asus and no actually! I don't eat at mcdonalds! :) hope that cleared things up for you! weird nasty ass.

like goddamn not actively using a website that supports the IDF is such an easy thing to choose to do, idk why you're so irate over it? if you wanna use it go ahead. personally I'm not about to. no I can't realistically boycott every single pro-israel brand but holy fuck dude I can at least do this one small super easy thing.

[simverses]

would you consider releasing your newer cc for download somewhere besides Curseforge? due to the company's support of the IDF and Palestinian genocide many simmers including myself are choosing to boycott the platform and not download any content from there :-)

Everything is also available on my Patreon (for free): https://www.patreon.com/simverses

To add a political comment, I just want to say that I differ Hamas from the Palestinian people and I also condemn all antisemitism and racism over all - I also think it's time for a ceasefire now. I will however also differ between the Israel government and the people. War crimes and terror are to be condemned in all contexts and the laws of war should be respected.

Edited to add: also do NOT FORGET the ongoing brutal war in Ukraine, which Russia started. Think for a moment about the birthday gift Hamas gave Putin with the terror attack on October 7.

[virsancte]

hilarious 2 me when people are like "if you're pushing modders to not use curseforge why not boycott sims altogether. why not pressure people to not buy packs" because maybe i'm just in a very insular community but i'm pretty sure we've all been spreading the piracy agenda for years

[jewish-johnnycage]

Saw your post about overwolf.

It's honestly crazy that people supported an Israeli started and owned company and then had surprised Pikachu faces when they learnt that the owners support israel.

Like oh wow the people who started the company are at a risk of dying from a terrorist organization and they want to fund money so they can live? Boycott them!

You said it best nonnie - about a year ago everyone was migrating their mods to CurseForge, hyping it up to no end and how easy it is to install mods with it, only the second the owners are like "hey we don't wanna be killed by a terrorist organization" suddenly the platform is 'supporting genocide' and 'anyone who still uses it should not be trusted'.

Hopefully they'll find out a lot of technology and apps they use are made in Israel, including the processors on their phones, and stop pretending to boycott shit to look cool in front of their friends and touch some fucking grass.

[squishiifishrose]

Regarding my last post: Don't ignore the big 3 (McDonald's, Starbucks, and Disney) because of BDS existing, and don't ignore BDS because of the big three exsisting.

I can link the official BDS list of companies to boycott since they are directly involved with Israeli security, and because you probably only know about the Big 3 (so actually read the pages on the BDS website)

I have tips for avoiding both groups, I just wanted to clarify that I want you to avoid both groups.

Direct Links to those post so you don't have to scroll through my blog:

Post with tips on BDS boycotts (Scroll past the part with the picture of the stock, that's not important here)

(Scroll past the tweet. I think you already know boycotts take long amounts of time.)

This is for CurseForge, not part of either group of companies I'm talking about, but I thought I would add it anyways:

I do heavily encourage reblogs.

[aion-rsa]

Massive Twitch Leak Reveals Stunning Streamer Payouts

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

You might want to update your Twitch password and activate two-factor authentication ASAP. The streaming platform confirmed this morning that it has been hacked.

“We can confirm a breach has taken place,” reads a tweet from the official Twitch handle. “Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.”

We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.

— Twitch (@Twitch) October 6, 2021

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Although Twitch did not go into detail regarding the extent of the breach, reports by Kotaku and Video Game Chronicle reveal the gravity of the situation at the tech company today, as it wades through the chaos of a massive leak posted in the form of a 125GB torrent link on a 4chan forum. The leak contains not only the source code for the platform itself but a detailed record of the millions of dollars in payouts earned by Twitch’s most popular streamers since 2019 as well as information on “Vapor,” which is allegedly the Steam rival being developed by Amazon.

The user who posted the torrent link outlined all of its contents on the forum:

Entirety of twitch.tv, with comment history going back to its early beginnings

Mobile, desktop and video game console Twitch clients

Various proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch

Every other property that Twitch owns including IGDB and CurseForge

An unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios

Twitch SOC internal red teaming tools (lol)

“Creator payout reports from 2019 until now. Find out how much your favorite streamer is really making!”

Images of a spreadsheet revealing that “81 Twitch streamers have been paid more than $1 million by Twitch since August 2019” quickly found their way to other social media platforms, according to VGC. It’s a major breach of privacy that could have long-reaching consequences for the streaming service as well as its talent pool, which already finds itself on the receiving end of attacks by Twitch’s most toxic users. Ultimately, it’s too early to speculate how this will all play out as everyone navigates the chaos that’ll continue to unfold in the next few days.

The leaker claimed that today’s leak was just “part one,” promising more leaks to come to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space” beyond the “disgusting toxic cesspool” of Twitch.

The breach comes at a tumultuous time for Twitch, which has not only seen boycotts for its inability to stop “hate raids” against streamers on the platform but also recently faced reckonings for its allegedly toxic workplace culture as well as its handling of sexual misconduct cases within its community of streamers.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

The post Massive Twitch Leak Reveals Stunning Streamer Payouts appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3Fmfh7g

[yooniesim]

[maxfaiden]

Regarding Curseforge

"Alternative Download." This creator's post from the Summer of 2023 (before we were fully aware of Overwolf's allegiance), only had the DOWNLOAD link which landed you at a similar destination; more recent appearances of "DOWNLOAD" on their posts go to Patreon). I would much prefer people be upfront about their greed and disregard for humanity than try to obfuscate it.

For anyone not aware, download URLs that begin with the above/following URL are Curseforge direct download links.

https://edge.forgecdn.net/

I wanted to add this to the conversation since I haven't seen it mentioned/reiterated where the Curseforge boycott was concerned.

That said, I am pretty observant, but recently, I had two incidents that made me realize I needed to be more diligent when it comes to engaging with CC. I have a side blog, half of which serves as a cc finds blog, but it's more of a read later because I only spare enough of a glance at the cc to determine whether I'm interested or not before I add a cursory tag or two and reblog it.

The first incident was when I was about to reblog a post and realized that one of the download options read Curseforge. Why in that moment did I notice? Can't say for sure. How many others have I blindly reblogged since the beginning of November '23 when I was made aware of Overwolf's stance? Not sure about that either, but both are at least partially due to DL links often being under a cut and me not wanting to spend more time on a cursory task than my brain currently has the wherewithal for. Also, since the beginning of the EA partnership, Curseforge was quite tedious for me (I'd rather go vault diving), so I generally ignored it.

Executive function deficits aside, I still feel a sense of responsibility and will hold myself accountable for my lack of due diligence. I've promised myself that I'll begin taking the same care with CC reblogs that I do with topical reblogs on my primary account.

While moving ahead with deliberation, the second incident occurred and that was how I encountered the post at the top.

Since both posts were courtesy of aggregate blogs, I decided to check out the FAQ/About/Bios of those blogs as well as a few other finds blogs to see if any of them updated their info with a statement about Curseforge links. None had. So I decided to submit the following ask to them:

Can you commit to no longer reblogging posts that include a link to Curseforge?

Even if they include an alternate link, the creator is still in a position to benefit from a company whose parent entity supports the genocide of Palestinians.

You can find more context here: https://armoricaroyalty.tumblr.com/post/739972677769510912/why-is-the-sims-community-boycotting-curseforge

Initially I asked them to "consider", but I realized that for this, consideration was not enough, so I changed it to "commit".

I'm not trying to get into it with anyone--I prefer to leave the drama on the page--but I felt that asking was the least I could do. I'm not naming any names until a reasonable amount of time has passed. You'll either read an announcement from the finds blog or see an answer to my ask on your dash or I'll take their silence as complicity and post that X-amount of time has passed since I approached X-blog and they still have not responded.

My ultimate goal here is just to share what I've encountered as well as be a reminder to anyone who may have similar scrolling and cc habits and would prefer not to support genocide, to try be a little more deliberate in their actions: Go under the cut, hover over links before clicking to confirm where they lead, and maybe ask their local finds blogs if they will commit. Every little bit counts.

[yooniesim]

I came across some of your posts after seeing them shared on X, and wanted to share my perspective as someone who was born and raised in Israel. October 7th was the day a part of me died. My father was killed that very day, and my brother is still missing. Our home was destroyed and we are living in temporary acc, only because of charity donations. We are innocent, we do not condone ANYTHING our government are doing and continue to do in Gaza, they do not represent us. /// 1

Hello nonny, I appreciate your perspective and for the record: no, in no way do I think innocent Israeli civilians are undeserving of help. The problem with Overwolf is that they aren't disclosing what they're doing clearly & there's no way of truly knowing what the money is going towards. The FAQ is vague, and Overwolf already admitted to wanting to donate to specifically military efforts in the beginning before suddenly switching to Home Support.

It's difficult to trust a company that is wishy washy and non-transparent, and it's especially difficult to trust one that calls concerns of this nature "drama". I fully believe that civilians such as yourself deserve help, but it's always important to hold charities under strict scrutiny due to rampant fraud and misappropriation of funds, and myself as well as many others simply do not trust Overwolf. Charities must be audited and, as far as I know, that information is not available to us at this time and Overwolf has not offered it.

I'm so sorry for your loss and wish you the best. I hope you're able to get in a better situation soon.

[yooniesim]

Saving this for my own reference and anyone else that needs it- I'll make a more comprehensive post later with everything I've found, but these are just some screenshots from the Home Support website and the ILF's (and a few others). AKA, the clear connection from Overwolf -> Home Support -> ILF -> IDF.

Home Support:

ILF website (zionism + IDF connection):

Overwolf & CF Support statements saying home support doesn't fund the IDF:

(Of course the statements are worded very particularly, they don't denounce zionism or genocide in any way, just state the bare minimum "facts" that CF revenue doesn't go to the IDF and that they're "focusing on victims". But if this Home Support money goes to the ILF to handle/distribute as they please, it can be assumed at the very least that some could be going towards their program dedicated to IDF Military Intelligence. So much roundabout shit it's appalling. More on this later.)

[yooniesim]

I don't know if you will agree, but I mainly use curseforge to keep me a float every month. I don't really get any messages about it, but I see the passive aggressive posts people reblog all the time.

I just thought, how entitled people can be to say that I should stop using curseforge. If I do, I may not be able to afford rent. How is that fair? I have two jobs and I create cc every now and then and those two jobs do not pay enough right now.

So is me potentially losing my home worth it to these people??

First, nonny, I'm so sorry you're in this situation. I know what it's like to work two jobs and still struggle, and I know how you must be feeling knowing that if you didn't use CF you might not be able to survive. It's truly an awful fucking feeling. And it's a very complicated and difficult topic overall.

I, obviously, understand it's a matter of survival for you and probably many other people. I hope that you can get to a better financial situation at some point and not need CF anymore. But for now, I would boycott in any other way you're able- EA and/or the targets on the BDS list. See what you can do irl to help the cause and raise awareness outside of CF/the Sims.

I don't think people are being entitled, I think they just don't see it from your viewpoint. I definitely don't think you losing your home would be worth it and I don't want that to happen. And I don't think most other people think that way, either. There are a few people that are vile and cross the line, but I think most are just doing their best to do the right thing here. So all you can do is your best, nonny. Take care of yourself.