Moral dilemma with uploading mods.

[Perraine]

I'll start off with a statement. I'm not a great modder, not one the "elite" and my mods aren't anything wonderful. I make mods because I enjoy mucking about, and I enjoy the creation process (like most modders I guess) Mostly I just mod for myself (my Skyrim data directory is about 18 times larger than a vanilla install, and barely resembles "Skyrim" any more. But sometimes I'll decide that someone might like what I've created and upload it.

 

I'm not an attention junky by any means, but, like most "creators" I do like to get feedback and dare I hope "praise" for things I've done.

 

To the moral dilemma ...

 

I notice that some modders have a habit of uploading mods "piecemeal" or "one at a time" it's particularly noticeable with texture mods (which I have done several of, and am still working on) I know this has been brought up before, but what are peoples thoughts? Does this type of uploading constitute "spamming" or trying to "exploit" the "hotfiles" and get extra endorsements?

 

I ask because I know from my own downloading history, I usually don't got back to a mod I've already downloaded, just to endorse it straight away, and if the mod is working perfectly, I may not even revisit the page at all, so the only way that file gets endorsed, is when I download something else and I get the popup box with the buttons. I know this isn't great behavior on my part, but I also know that I'm not the only one who does it.

 

Sor should I do the right thing and simply keep compiling my mods all on the one page or add them continuosly as separate files, and keep linking back to the older one? (like many other modders do) I also worry that people will not know about updates unless they specifically go back to those old pages frequently as the "new recently" link doesn't include newly updated files, only completely new mods.

 

/ramble

[cdcooley]

For those using NMM and Mod Organizer there will be automatic notification of your mod being updated (assuming you update the version number).

 

Personally, I like the single page, all in one place, scheme especially if the mod gets updated fairly regularly. I don't want to have to download dozens of mods especially if each is just a handful of textures. And I really don't want to have to go to the authors profile just to make sure I didn't miss part of what should have been a set.

 

Whether it's spamming really depends on how you do it. Releasing every texture or item as its own mod certainly is. Releasing them on a daily, weekly, or other regular schedule is a sign of bad faith too. But if you wanted to create themed packs then I see no reason you can't release a collection of things over time.

[Perraine]

I stopped using NMM, when they changed to the new format (vers 6.xx? or something) and it completely F'd up my mods and installs, and I had to start all over again. And the latest version CTD's whenever I try to use it

 

How many mods get lost because of the "spamming" of small incremental uploads? How many times do we see mod requests for things that have already been done, simply because the mod got buried?

 

I agree that's is much easier to grab one file, rather than 15 or at the very least mod authors should have one mod page with a "Compendium" file and then perhaps single download options for what are essentially the same group of mods.

Like I said Texture Replacers seem to be the worst offenders, and although I'm not an expert or artist like some, I KNOW that it doesn't take a month to retexture 1 flower, yet we get these "dribbles" of one flower at a time or one vegetable as separate mods, that push other mods out of the Hotfiles, and into oblivion (no pun intended).

 

I'm in the process of doing retextures of clothing items and have a "Re-tailored and Cleaned" mod page, but no-one has visited it in several weeks (it got buried by goats farting, yet more single item retextures and yet another dozen or so Fing race menu presets), and now I'm wondering if the other outfits I've already completed should go up as an update, or whether I should upload them as a separate mod ...