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Sakorona

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  1. Yeah, that's why I thought of dark patterns. It was probably just plain misleading. Which is something different. <_<
  2. I feel this ties into a point I kinda get: People don't think the Nexus has 3/mnth or 50/site lifetime value. Or they might not have ever felt it. I feel the problem here is really this (from an interesting write up on .. ha, making more freemium conversions:) https://www.onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/37737/Secrets-Of-Freemium-Pricing-Make-The-Cheapskates-Pay.aspx and, incidentally, http://www.charleshudson.net/thoughts-on-free-powered-business-models-and-why-time-beats-features I think that's actually a good thought - the longer something is free, the more nags and not-free is introduced, the more it sounds wrong. (Although the conclusion of you should use free trials over free is.. hm. I'm not sure that works for all web startups, honestly.) Personally, I'm not adverse to premium conversions because the Nexus needs revenue to stay afloat. By the same token, it's not really something I think I could advise on value vs reward. Some people just can't pledge, free users bring word of mouth and traffic, etc. etc. etc. But my point in this thread is : you really shouldn't be surprised that people are upset over this. They have reasons to be. The decision to put a 'rapidgator' style nag screen as well as increase ads without any warning (Even now, there's no post about it!) was handled poorly, even if like me you can kinda see the point while not agreeing with it.
  3. https://blog.asmartbear.com/freemium.html I'll quote the relevant bit:
  4. 18 million total members, but an active month to month user base of maybe, 5-5.2 million members. Please don't use total usercount when it's a useless metric for month to month.
  5. "I wasn't wrong! You're just nitpicking, and also I was thinking of a completely different thing that I wasn't replying to and didn't mention." wow lol yeah, i think that's enough for me. i'm out I mean, I'll cop to not being clear at all. I won't apologize for my dislike of semantic arguments to avoid the point. You *are* just nitpicking if you think that these aren't at all confusing. (Maybe dark patterns wasn't the best term? Regardless.)
  6. Oh man, nitpicking over definitions, my favorite argument (I'm also pretty sure this qualifies, if I'm *very honest with you*, but I don't really care to get into an argument with that.) . No, I was more thinking of the register screen which makes it not obvious how to sign up for free (and was responding to the general attitude instead of just the download screen)
  7. Yeah, I'd have appreciated something out of them about this by now.
  8. Dark addressed the change in the Mod Authors Discord a few days ago. The rate at which users are upgrading to Premium membership has increased significantly. Don't believe the lies and distortions by forever free users; the change has so far proven to be a massive boon to the Nexus. Well, looks like the Nexus is making enough money now that they can turn this off. I know they won't, and well, congrats on 5% freemimum conversions? 3%? I don't care which. Um... First of all, if you can't afford to spend US$2.99 for a month of Premium membership (which includes the Supporter role for a lifetime), playing games and downloading mods aren't going to lead you to the promised land. Second, the Nexus shares a percentage of Premium membership revenue with mod authors across the network in the form of Donation Points (DP). 89.9% of the payouts to mod authors is sourced directly from Nexus revenue. The 10.1% remainder comes from the Mod Author Donation Fund. So if they can pay out 101k, why do they need money? No, seriously. (If you're thought is: it's a business, they exist to make money, I'll remind you that CAN is not SHOULD.) If after reading the download screen people are under the impression they NEED Premium, then I suggest they take a class in reading comprehension. Nowhere does it imply that premium is Necessary, it only compares the benefits and drawbacks of both. All I see are people doing Olympic Level Mental Gymnastics to come up with reasons why they should never "have to" pay. https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/01/wtf-is-dark-pattern-design/ https://medium.com/beautiful-code-smart-design-by-10clouds/5-common-ux-dark-patterns-interfaces-designed-to-trick-you-61fdede9718c
  9. Okay, so I wanted to address these in a go. The problem with the ad is that you're basically going "It's for-profit, so it has the right to do this." Sure, it does. The entire point of this thread is people going "Maybe you shouldn't.". And sure, I guess I get the point that I don't have to view this as a community site. And I don't think I'd have chosen the choice to go "we're just a business". But hey, you do you. As I've stated, they (Nexusmods) have their right in how they conduct their business in order to keep it all afloat. It's in their own interest, and I hope yours as well, to keep the their company (and site by extension) operational. Nexusmods haven't cut off access to mods so it's quite pitiful for this cry of injustice. And look, if you don't care one way or another about the well being of the site operation then that's fine too-- just don't complain about the changes they make, at the end of the day, it's not you who is footing the bills for all of this. If every site owner followed the sort of mind set you and so many others like you have proposed that being treating business as a charity, then more than likely those sites would go belly up in due time. Please, just stop with the entitlement, it's getting old and fast. Holy extrapolation, Batman! Anyway, this is a great example of my argument (can-should), and I usually duck out when people start strawmanning what I mean, so I'm .. just going to drop it.
  10. Assuming my low ball estimates hold: 94.4k per month is a yearly income of 1.132 *million* before the lump sump shots and supporter buys and what little ad revenue they get. Are you *trying to tell me that the Nexus has expenses in excess of 1.1 million!?*
  11. Premium is US$2.99 for a month. $30 > $2.99. When Premium expires, you'll be a Supporter for life. But if you can't afford Premium, that's fine. Nobody's being forced to buy Premium. If you can't afford the items in a store, do you complain to the store manager that you can't afford anything? No, you just don't buy anything. Affordability is the most ridiculous argument I've seen here. "Free" today never means free. You always pay something. Want free social networking? You pay with your information.Want free access to a media outlet? You pay with your attention.Want free file sharing? You pay with your time.Free users have had a good run of the Nexus for more than a decade, but it's not sustainable. Nexus has grown significantly over the years and yet, as of April 2019, only 0.7% of the Nexus' 18 million users were paying customers. Something had to be done to course correct. Now, free users pay with their time. This is good for everyone. Uh-huh. Man, I didn't realize I had to treat everything as a transactional resource. Good to know that the Nexus thinks of itself as a business, and not a community. I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but I've seen several people make similar comments in this thread, and I'd like to address those sentiments. The Nexus offers its essential services free-of-charge; it always has and hopefully always will. It gives mod authors a place to share the fruits of their labors with an international audience of eager recipients in an atmosphere where their intellectual property will be respected and supported, and a knowledgeable community will be there to help support would-be users who experience issues trying to get the mods to work for them. It offers a massive catalog of game enhancements of every kind imaginable, tools to manage them, and tools, examples, and support for those trying to create their first mods. It hosts forums where people can discuss a wide variety of topics - some gaming and technology related, some not - and maintains a staff of moderators who show up day after day to tidy up the place. For some, the Nexus serves as pseudo cloud storage for the mods they use. It's stability and longevity means that users who typically employ hundreds of mods can delete them to temporarily free up disk space, and retrieve them again as desired. They charge nothing for any of this, yet they have expenses to cover. Expenses covered by those who voluntarily contribute to keep the doors open, lights on, and mods freely flowing. They also monitor monetary exchanges between authors and end-users, discouraging commission offers while providing the means for users to freely contribute to authors. Overall, they've taken a number of steps to keep mods freely available to all. For my part, I purchase very few new games, preferring to instead re-play games already in my library, and Nexus mods greatly enhance my ability to do that. Instead of buying a new game this year, I chose to purchase the premium membership here, as I want this site to continue to thrive. It's not about the premium features. The increased download speed means nothing to me, and I still have a link at the top of the page inviting me to Buy Premium. I use Firefox and block ads on most sites. As far as I'm concerned, the premium features afforded to those who contribute are really just minimal minor perks, token appreciation so the Nexus can say they give something to users who contribute. I'd also like to say how very grateful I am to those members who have built and supported the site long before I came along. And I'm especially glad the Nexus has never resorted to fund-raising campaigns or slapped annoying banners on every page begging for donations. Instead, they (mostly quietly) offer premium memberships, which comes across to me as much more professional and business-like. (Note: I can't comment on the current state of pushing premium memberships, as I haven't downloaded anything recently.) All that said, to those trying to justify their "reasoning" for not contributing - just don't. If you can afford games and the hardware to play them on, you can probably toss some money at the Nexus. Yes, there are exceptions. Some people have internet and sophisticated hardware for work. Some people have banking / credit / identity / general payment issues. Thing is, most mods are luxury additions to luxury goods. They aren't food, clothing, shelter, or health care. First world problems, eh? If you - or the dictates of your situation - have determined not to contribute cash up to this point, just own it. The Nexus will serve you mods, tools, and support regardless. TLDR: The point of supporting this site with actual cash is not the premium features offered, but keeping it open for business. Okay, so I wanted to address these in a go. The problem with the ad is that you're basically going "It's for-profit, so it has the right to do this." Sure, it does. The entire point of this thread is people going "Maybe you shouldn't.". And sure, I guess I get the point that I don't have to view this as a community site. And I don't think I'd have chosen the choice to go "we're just a business". But hey, you do you. Oh, no! One more button!? Whatever shall we do! THE SKY IS LITERALLY FALLING. :rolleyes: You could also argue that "ad-free" applies only to third-party ads in the ad rotation. As of April 2019, only 0.7% of the Nexus' 18 million users have Premium accounts. 1. You should look up UI/UX stuff. Adding extra clicks is usually a bad idea. 2. I'm pretty sure it just says "ad-free" not "third party ad-free" 3. Assuming that all 18 million users are active (I feel this is a foolish assumption), let's see what that yields : 18 mil * .007 is 126000 users. A quarter of that is still 94.5k a month. (and in this scenario, assuming 90% of the rest paid for their premium in a lump sum of roughly 60 dollars, given sale prices: that's 5.67 mil in cash. I'm REALLY worried why the Nexus needs more money than that aside from "they're a business, they want more money." However, when I looked around for "freemium" conversions, I saw that 1-3% is considered the standard. So... let's return to the calculations. From the 2018 end of site, we get this interesting nugget: "Nexus Mods averaged 4,996,242 unique users each month in 2018, up from 4,582,755 in 2017, representing a 9% increase in users." 126k premium members in 5.1mil (added some more to give a margin) is .. 2.47%, well within average freemium conversion rates. Imagine that The point of this breakdown? If Nexus is unable to stay afloat at this monetization rate (note this didn't even factor in monthly supporter microtransactions) .. uh.. words. Words need to be had. In any case, you can see now my doubt as to why this premium screen is needed. 1. A passion you don't care enough to pay for. 2. Well if my math is correct, (Somebody correct it if I'm wrong, math is not my strong suit) as firendubh has said 0.7% of Nexus' 18 million users have Premium accounts, that means that 126,000 people actually PAY to support this site while 17,874,000 just use the site for free. Right there is your answer as to WHY NExus has made it more obvious that the other 17,874,000 of you should help out the site so it can stay online. 17.8 million free users uses an awful lot of bandwidth, and 126,000 users paying for the site, isn't enough to keep it online. So, all of you keep arguing about WHY you don't have to pay, while this site is drained away bu all of the people taking the site for granted. 3. But, you're going to stay a non-paying member right, as you said in your other post, right? I don't pay for a lot of my passions. I shouldn't be expected to. Not everything you do in life should be reduced to the monetary value of the transaction. This is a terrible mindset. AS FOR THE REST, see my above breakdown.
  12. Just because you can afford A and B does not mean you can afford C. A game is my entire "fun" budget for a month, for example, and after doing some budgeting, it's actually a fun budget for more than a month. Some people, for example, might only have 30 spare dollars a month after bills. That's just the first-level analysis of the problems with that statement, ignoring a larger issue. What exactly is so terrible? As it has been explained NUMEROUS times now, (that people keep ignoring) the countdown is to prevent people from SCRAPING THE SITE. I.E. downloading ALL THE MODS, and posting them elsewhere If you read the Forum Warnings, Bans section, you'd see that it is a problem. I'm not entirely sure a 5-second countdown stops scrapper bots. :thinking: In any case, the problem here can be seen as two fold- making an appeal that one should support the site as a matter of morality ignores the fact that people may not view things the way you do, and the second issue is that people may not agree that they received 50 of value from the site. The costs of the site are irrelevant when customers make a purchasing decision - they look at their value. .. And that ignores the fact you may not wish for people to be making purely transactional decisions when they use a community website. (Also: Also why do you want to look and act like RapidGator?!)
  13. Speaking as a mod author, I.. can't really say I approve of anything that makes downloading mods more annoying. Speaking as a person, I appreciate that the Nexus has bills, but a MEGA/ad-fly style page makes me almost want to not download.
  14. You may have better luck going to the stardew valley discord and asking. However, my guess is you need to run verify file integrity, because your furniture.xnb is what's causing it to crash on load.
  15. That is a known issue with Stardew Valley 1.2.29. Press Alt-Enter twice.
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