Thumblesteen

In response to post #74406048. #74411398 is also a reply to the same post. That's called social conditioning, you're putting the cart before the horse. The reason we don't get donations anymore is because people assume the donation points system is working. Reality is, we generate thousands of pounds in ad revenue to this site, spend hours, days, even years keeping this place running, and they give us what? An Amazon voucher? This is a PR move, a platitude. It's just watered down scrip. Hardly a new idea, and hardly honest. EDIT: Not to mention that prior to this, people made mods because they liked it. Since then we've gotten for-profit modding, spearheaded by one DDProductions. Who, instead of helping modders, kept trade secrets and insulted people, and what did the moderators do? They let him get away with it for ages because of some excuse of ''meritocracy.'' In truth, it was about the ad revenue. That was the first corruption scandal, and there's many to come for as long as the same incentive and reward is given for doing it.

This is laughable, you didn't make the donation points to give something back to us. We had paypal links, and we got decent money. You made the donation points system for the same reason anyone invents a credit scheme - you wanted a cut of money that didn't belong to you.

I've never read one of these interviews before, but this was a fun read. And on a sidenote, must be pretty embarrassing to be one of those three people, I'm just saying. That's... that's not a list of prestigious people.

Really? An appeal to dominion? Capitalism isn't controlling modding right now. So that's hardly relevant. I could add some other pointers, but it might end up derailing the discussion if we end up talking about capitalism as a whole. Made me stronger. Again, it's not gentrified in modding right now. Not to mention that everything starts with the small stuff and builds upwards. You can't change the world unless you begin on a small level. So if "That's just how it is", then do your bit to reverse it when and if you can. If I just gave up and said these things I'd probably be dead now. Didn't change overnight, and it didn't begin with the big picture first. I demonstrated that most successful companies are amoral, and how that will have an impact on how the modding community will work. Which it will. The rest is just details. Only difference between Rockefeller and Pablo Escobar is that Rockefeller could hire thugs and gun down his rivals and their wives and children without the police getting involved, because he owned them. We will get our own Rockefeller, and he or she might not have people killed, but they'll certainly ruin things for everyone else. Unless you're richer than them, or have some sort of insurrectionary force, I doubt that'll do much. It's a nice sentiment, though. Really. I know one highly influential character in the community who slandered and lied about one of my friends. To the extent of accusing them of criminal fraud, in front of thousands of viewers on Youtube in an effort to get a nomination discredited and disqualified in the nVidia modding contest so one of their friends could win. I contacted this person, and they nonchalantly dismissed the whole thing and refused to publish a redaction. I'll gladly send you screenshots of the email exchange in a private message. Because I do have evidence. Doesn't count when one person can out-vote an entire country. It's literally called plutocracy. A word made with very clear distinction in mind. I'm actually of Romani descent. I think that might be possible. It wasn't in any way aimed at you. It was strictly rhetorical. Fair enough.

These are long term effects, remember? That means that the industry will grow and manifest as institutions. Which means advertising. Which means that traffic will be commodified. Right now mods get attention because they're good and people like them. They get attention because people put effort into them. Next up they will get attention because people on the top are greedy, and would rather exercise privilege than doing the hard work. Good that you could afford it. I quit school at 13 because I watched my father get killed in front of my very eyes, and my family fell into poverty. I would not be a modder today if that was the case, and neither would several others. I will gladly defend and represent those people. Even if I am no longer at risk of being alienated. Gentrifying modding will only reduce content and it's quality. A moment ago you were outright denying this reality, I simply provided examples. I have several more examples, and not to mention that these all involve large and extremely successful industrial institutions. I can tell you all about what JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Apple and even Microsoft have done to reach the top. This isn't a few rare cases, this is a widespread pattern. What mod authors may or may not do remains to be seen. But greed is a toxic thing, and I for one am not interested in spending my time having to deal with character assassinations, bullying, threats and other coercion. I want to mod. We both know that's not how this place works. In fact, you said so yourself. I am simply saying that appointing these people to receive large scale influence through the forces of financialism is not only incredibly undemocratic, it is also self-destructive. A figure of authority, in whatever form that is not elected and who have no responsibility to work in the best interests of it's community, is a figure who will ultimately be a lessening influence. Both directly, and in principle. Have you ever published anything without demanding things from others? Because if so, then no. Clearly not. I'm sorry you took that personally. I was talking about what the community would be in the future, and what members it would encourage to join. It's only an ad hominem if I specifically pity you in an effort to discredit you. Ad hominem isn't just a synonym for an insult, it's an appeal to (ad) man (hominem). I simply said it because that's what I think, and I do have a right to have and express opinions. No problem. I understand. I am well aware that this is my personal philosophy. I was simply explaining my motivations. Glad we're on the same page. EDIT: Sh*t, I missed a bunch of things. I would certainly say it's a terrible idea to get into software development if people aren't addressing these concerns. They're not going away. I watch some of MIT lectures on Youtube about sociolinguistics. It's somewhat relevant. I can write tutorials on how to avoid it, by pointing out obvious mistakes like semantic ambiguity. Which is really all that's needed in the current state of things. Since the Nexus is regulated by policy. As opposed to law. Policy is all about judgement calls and common sense. Law is about interpreting political scripture, and exacting power accordingly regardless of what common sense might dictate. Very different climate. Just look at the gun debate in the United States, it can more or less entirely be traced back to a comma in the constitution.

First off, due to how 2 v 1 debating rarely works out well. I will disregard Arthmoor's reply. Nothing personal, Arthmoor. EDIT: Actually, did not see this until after I made this post, and I would like to address it: You're the one trying to introduce a policy in which people can use capital to influence the modding community. Right now everyone has an equal voice. If you're going to resort to further personal attacks, please make them accurate, Arthmoor. There's more aspects to it than that. The net is never actually truly neutral, and I get that liberals make a big deal about defining it in regards to ISP policies. But net neutrality as a phrase could be used in this context as well. Commodifying traffic is just as detrimental to fairness in modding as commodifying bandwidth is. Not to mention that simply redefining a word doesn't actually address the issue I brought up. But before modding is commodified, and after modding is commodified, there's going to be less education about modding publicly available. Just because some of it remains doesn't mean that it still won't cause detriment to new modders, which will ultimately reflect both the amount and quality of content. What? It happens literally all the time. There was the GPS-SatNav conflict a few years ago which resulted in the most absurd legal battle to con a scientist out of his patent. There was the Iranian coup d'etat in which the Anglo-Iranian oil company literally had an entire democracy overthrown to keep oil from getting nationalised. As thousands died. There was the Nestlé baby formula incident in which African women were given free formula until their breasts stopped producing milk, during which they had to pay for it all of a sudden. Due to the lack of clean water and some women not affording to pay for the formula, baby mortality rates spiked. Nestlé literally killed babies for the financial incentive in it. Ford motors invested in the holocaust. The Nazi prototypical gas chambers were fashioned using their engines. The Coca Cola company used a Mexican shell corporation to hire cartel hitmen. Who then assassinated union representatives among Coca Cola's field workers. The reward is usually extremely high, and none of the aforementioned have even faced jail time. In fact, happened right here in this thread. The mere mention of money have produced insults in an effort to discredit the critics. That's still worse than the current situation, though. Actually, it has. I can think of two names right now who outright sabotaged newcoming modders. With financial resources, they'll do more than name calling to maintain that hierarchy. Even worse, that hierarchy will actually have a meaning all of a sudden. It's not just about popularity. Those people will be able to lobby policies and actually influence the community. So a rectangle with soft edges is not an abstract idea? It happens already, and it's getting worse every day. I'm fairly certain that any contract written without the review of a legal expert is far more prone to exploitation. In fact, I've seen several and even written tutorials on how to avoid it. Where did I write anything to which a No True Scotsman applies? Not to mention that for it to be an adhom, I would have to point at some kind of quality or vice of the speaker. I simply pointed out behaviour that will be encouraged in general that wasn't aimed at anyone or anything other than the sheer hypothetical. That's far from the same. Social engineering through profit motives is a scientifically demonstrable concept. It's not an adhom. As for the emotional appeal, so what? Most people aren't psychopaths, which means that emotion demonstrably plays a large role in how we make our decisions, and if I'm passionate about something, I will articulate that. I can even go further and ask you this: Suppose you have one healthy man, and five sick people. We can kill the healthy man, and harvest his organs in an effort to heal the five sick people who would otherwise die. Give me one reason we're not willing to do this, other than emotions? From a strictly objective and utilitarian viewpoint, it's the "right" thing to do. Five lives, one dies. Seems only logical. If not for the fact that we'd be living in a society where everyone would be terrified of getting randomly killed and having their organs harvested, or seeing that happening to their loved ones. That's entirely an emotional appeal to fear. We do all kinds of vital things because emotions matter to us as much as anything else does. That being said, I know that in most contexts they end up being too subjective. So I'll refrain from doing it again. But I stand by what I said. This is a matter between whether modding should be a commodity, or an artform. That's entirely motivated by emotions to me. Art can't be anything other than that. And small note, Reneer. In spite of how we see different sides to this issue, I appreciate the positive tone of this discussion. Much respect.

You flat out don't know what you're talking about here. NONE of that was necessary AT ALL to sell mods on Valve's platform. They do not require you to register as an LLC. The only thing they do, when the time comes, is mail you a 1099-C form telling you what was withheld from your sales and sent to the IRS. That's it. No, I'm not going to scan in my 1099-C to show you. Either you know I'm right or you're just here to spread entirely false information about how this worked once already. tl;dr: You weren't there. You know nothing. 1. I don't live in America. I live in continental Europe. Very different laws. But, aside from how people are therefore excluded from paid modding due to the practical and legal limitations of registering as self-employed to report income, there's some long term effects to consider as well. 2. I was there, and I watched the disaster unfold first hand. 3. Making condescending remarks like "You know nothing." says more about you than it does about anyone else. Now, since paid modding abjectly failed before we could see the long term effects of industrialising mods, I'll just list what would have happened: - Good bye net neutrality. Now you've commodified web traffic. The meritocracy is dead, and you need to buy an audience with competitive advertising. Survival of the fittest becomes survival of the fattest. - With market competition, the atmosphere will change drastically. Newcomers will be completely shut out, as tutorials become trade secrets, and there is a direct financial incentive to withhold helpful information. Before you know it, you need to take modding courses and pay tuition to learn how to mod. - There's also a financial incentive to hinder, sabotage and otherwise limit rival mod content. The community will have far less choices as a result. - An art form becomes an industry. Which is how Citizen Kane turns into Snakes on a Plane. Expect a flood of commercialised low quality nonsense intended to appeal to the most broad and vacuous demographics possible. - An industry as small and unregulated as paid modding is stupidly easy to monopolise if someone just generates enough revenue. Before you know it, three or four "modding studios" will control the majority of content and traffic. Warner Brothers, Nestlé, Ubisoft, and so on. Every industry has them, and with paid modding it will be even easier to establish a corporate aristocracy. - How long before people begin to patent modding techniques and methods to assure nobody makes free equivalents of them? Asset protection is a massive part of financialism. Expect more and more legal obstacles as time passes. - Unless you're a lawyer, then chances are that your Terms of Service is full of exploits and ambiguous language that predatory modding companies can use to appropriate and even copyright your assets. Moderators on the Nexus operate on common sense to protect assets; Lawyers don't. And most importantly of all, modding is a fun hobby. It's something people do to express themselves, and share content with other players. To hold it for ransom, or to create a toxic environment in which people fight one another over immediate gain will completely ruin that. The community who once got content for free is now expected to pay for it. The modders who once were driven by inspiration and joy of creating, are alienated only to be replaced by people who are motivated by their own selfish gain. I develop games commercially as well, and to me, modding is about getting away from that horrible climate and just focus on what truly matters. Namely, creation for creation's sake. To actually have fun, and do something with some kind of meaning. I don't see why anyone would possibly take away the many virtues of modding in an effort to turn it into yet another business dominion. You can find that literally everywhere else. This is an oasis for all intents and purposes, and if people can't see the benefits that come with sharing a fun experience with others for it's own sake, then, I feel sorry for them. I'm extremely grateful to the people who use my mods, I could never think of demanding anything from them.

Except it requires none of this and we already had a working example of that in April of 2015. You're literally making stuff up. Really? Show me any legal reference, anywhere, within UK/EU/US law, which states that all modding is exempt from declaring income when conducting commercial transactions unlike every single other enterprise. To declare income, you need to register as a company. Doesn't matter what business you run, or what product you sell, you need to register as a company. Because not only is income tax pretty much universal in most legal systems since the 1930's; There's also the possibility of VATs and sales taxes. EDIT: Also, to clarify how I'm not making this up. Aside from a quick Google search, I also asked my wife, who have worked both as a banker, and an accountant, to confirm this. She said that no matter what product you sell, however minute, you still need to declare income. Only way to declare this kind of income is through self-employment. Which means registering as a company. I too can confirm this since I have had my own company as well. I can even confirm it a third time, since I know a business lawyer who explained this to me very carefully. He was quite motivated to make me understand, since he served a four year prison sentence for breaking these kinds of rules.

I am a mod author, and I think Bethesda.net is awesome. It provides insane amounts of traffic, and a whole new audience who can enjoy my mods. I'm having lots and lots of fun there. I think the real issue here is that some people have mistaken modding, a hobby, for a career. If you want to make money developing video games; Then make your own video games. That and if you want to genuinely make mods into a profitable avenue, then you need to pay taxes. Which means you need to start a company. Which means you need to file tax forms and make annual reports. Which usually requires an accountant. Which on top of that requires a budget. Which then in turn requires revenue projections, and at that point you're basically running a game company so you might as well make your own products. That's all I'm going to say. Bethesda.net is an amazing opportunity, I hope to port all my mods there when I find the time. I couldn't care less about Bethesda's corporate agendas, and it seems like the only people who do, are people who aspire to one day have their own corporate agenda. At which point, double standard much?

So, if you know me, then you know I rarely visit these forums unless I have a good reason. Nothing personal, I'm just a bit clinically diagnosed with lots of personality disorders shy. But I had a good idea that I thought was worth sharing. What if the screenshot tabs, instead of "author" and "users", is just "verified" and "unverified"? I think that would make a lot of sense. A good screenshot is a good screenshot, after all. Particularly helpful for mod authors who have lower-end PCs and perhaps lack the graphics card to make good looking and presentable screenshots, to have the community's contributions at their disposal. Plus, we've all seen how this constant distinction between authors and users have created a lot of strange social friction, like some kind of informal caste system or something. Might help undermine that. Since mod users do a lot of nice things for the Nexus as well. Most of our mods would be completely overlooked if it wasn't for the Youtuber portion of our users, for instance. I think these kinds of things might help create a better atmosphere by legitimising people's contributions no matter who they are.

I'm the same way with 3d modelling. I can only assume that's what you're talking about. Someone else has the same issue right here: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4608770-ctd-after-placing-static-items-ive-added-to-the-game/ I also can't help but notice that it never happens instantly, meaning that it renders fine. It happens a few moments later, leading me to suspect it might have something to do with the new navmesh generation in Fallout 4. I'll have to see about that.

These are my settings right here: I even halved the resolution because I thought that's what was causing it. They're at 2048x2048.

I get the feeling we're about to reach some kind of conclusion here. Because I just used the regular vanilla flag nif with a material swap. Is that not a thing anymore? Unless the nif tree is inside the GECK and I've misunderstood this. EDIT: I found that the Flags of the Old World mod uses the vanilla mesh with material swaps and no comments mention crashing. So, what is the nif tree exactly?

Hey, so I recently began work on a mod involving some new settlement things to build. Including new flags. First flag I made is fine, and I can build as many as I like. But then I made about seven or so more derived from my first flag's entry. Basic replication technique we all use by now, I'm sure. I'm most thankful for any information you could provide to solve this. Thing is, though, that for some reason, even though these flags are derived from my working flag right down to the bgsm files. They crash the game. I can make about five of them, and then, usually with a one second increment from building the last one, the game crashes. With all the settlement mods on The Nexus as it is, perhaps this is a common problem lots of people face at some point. So I hope someone has the answer. Here's some snapshots of the data entries, I only included three of the workshop ones since the post is getting bloated. I can provide more info if needed. I am also using the manual material swaps since my presets did not appear in the listing. Not even when I unchecked valid only. I don't know if that's relevant in any way.