moho25

Ugh. 27? Which modder is this?

No, they haven't. But, they've specifically laid out a situation saying, "Look, we're going to give you time to get your stuff". If they lock people out so they can't access their blogs, projects, etc, then they might as well just close the sites next week rather than taking them read-only. I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm saying that it doesn't make sense, and I doubt it will happen. But whether it does or doesn't is irrelevant as far as this project goes. The crunch time right now before next week is simply because authors are most easy to contact. Once things go read only -- and I'm assuming PMs won't work at that point -- then it becomes *much* more difficult to reach out to authors. There's a real possibility that we might not be done by late October when the sites are taken down. That's what the backups are for and why Tarsh and I have talked about their integrity, workflow, etc. We'll be working from that come October if we aren't finished yet. Hey, if you want to create a list, b/c that's easier for you; that's no problem. I'm only saying that it isn't necessary as far as the project itself goes, and the intent is for the gaming community to work off the spreadsheet. Games are organized by tab, which is pretty straightforward. The mod names are clearly listed under a "BSN Project Name" header, Ctrl+F works on a spreadsheet as it does in any other document, and when a link is hosted on Nexus, it's very clearly associated with the mod. Also keep in mind that even once the inventory is completed, links may being updated on an ongoing basis by mod authors and other folks. That's part of the intent. It's a publically-editable document and the community can help keep it up to date. Any alternate document will end up outdated when that happens, unless it's kept up to date with the spreadsheet. Since you're talking about thousands of mods, that's quite a bit of work. This really isn't something we need to worry about. BSN isn't Nexus and traffic there is minimal -- even with the closure. 1. The goal is to catalogue all 417 pages of mods. We're prioritzing b/c that's the smart thing to do, but the goal is to catalogue every mod that's been released. The chance that a mod will move between pages at the exact time that we're cataloging it is exceedingly slim. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's very, very unlikely. 2. I can tell you that logging out changes the mod count from 4170 to 3964, so if BW does remove the ability to log in come next Thursday those will be the ones we miss. There is no way to know which mods those are and we won't be able to ensure they are part of the inventory. 3. A static search afterward won't do much good because we're only cataloguing mods that have been released (which often doesn't correspond to the "released" category). It won't be a simple apples to apples comparison. We also can't use a "missing" project ID to know whether we've missed a mod, since project IDs are apparently not sequential (or there have been a lot of deleted mods). In short, we get one shot at this. I agree that starting with "A" would be the best way to go about it, if we had infinite time and staff. We're short on both, and we're counting on having access to BSN through October. The goal is to be done with the initial inventorying by then. That means we need to prioritize and make sure we account for the most used mods first. Hence ordering by Downloads. It is important, yes. And, please do :smile: I'm sure Creeper and Tarsh would like the help!

@Shades -- I would work under the assumption that we're still going to be able to log in. BSN has been read-only for 2 years now, and we can still log in. More importantly, BW has to maintain that log in ability until they implement whatever their plan is for access to DLC and Patch files. My guess is that plan is going to go live on October 25th... and I'm guessing it involves Origin. BW has also said their intention is to give folks time to get their stuff. Many player blogs are set to private and are inaccessible *to that player* unless they are logged in. Removing the ability to log in renders the extra time they're giving us moot. I don't see that happening. --- As for mods, visibility, and accessibility, the spreadsheet is the way to go. There's no way to make a quick and easy judgement call (via 4170 mods) as to what we'd lose access to if we can't log in. The inventory is a large job, which is why we need as many people working on it as possible. Spreadsheets aren't hard, it's just entering data into cells. Click & type. If you can do that, you can edit a spreadsheet. The complicated thing is how to determine permissions, contact authors, etc, which is the bulk of the instructions. It's not a simple project, so the instructions aren't simple, either. Unfortunately. The current intent is to not make a second document from the spreadsheet as to mod availability. Folks will just consult the spreadsheet, locate the mod, and click the link to be directed to the page, if present. There's really no need to create another document. Folks can also download the sheet if they want, but they'll of course lack any succeeding updates. Don't do this. We need to make sure we give the mods with the most downloads/views the highest priority. There's a separate sheet where people communicate what page they're working on and it's been working out well so far. Just use that to claim some BSN pages and start plugging along :)

We're officially known as the BCN. BioWare Continuity Network. --Website has been fully updated. --The new favicon should be showing up soon. --All article names and contents have been polished a bit more; no URL changes. I still need to put up the new author page. Will get to that tomorrow :)

Folks reblogging may or may not even play with mods. They might just be trying to spread the word about the closure itself. Either way, more people reading about it at least increases the chance that we might get more help :)

Lol, Tarshana... I like BCN - BioWare Contingency Network :D Perhaps we shall go that route when I get the site updated later. Yeah... I didn't get around to it yesterday. Ack.

@Inventoriers -- A couple things: 1. Nexus has given me a heads up that nobody involved with this project will be banned for making a mistake and and accidentally uploading a mod without permission. That said, keep doing what your doing and try very hard not to make a mistake :) 2. There will probably be another new column or two incoming, to help make coordination between us and Nexus easier. 3. IMPORTANT. Mods hosted on file-sharing services. These are NOT okay for upload by default. Nexus is not okay with this unless more explicit permission is given. --- A couple other general things: 1. Tumblr post is at 1300 notes, which is fantastic. 2. Anyone have some good ideas for the website name? I've changed it a couple times now... can't come up with anything I like. Blarg.

@Inventoriers -- I popped a new category into the Permissions column. "Granted" will be for perms we receive from authors to upload to Nexus. We still prefer they handle this themselves (less work for us), but if they really want you to handle it (and you're okay with that), then that's the correct category to use. Also, once a Nexus page has been created, but that page into the External Host field, rather than into the Note field. The new "granted" helps clarify what's going on with that.

Up to almost 500 this morning, which is great. Seems like quite a few folks have no idea this is going on. Likely in part to the timing of the message.

Okay, post up on the TM tumblr. http://thanemod.tumblr.com/ If you use tumblr, please reblog to spread the word :)

@Tarsh -- 1. I'm going to put up a post on the TM tumblr today. It's very hit or miss, depending on who reblogs. Sometimes there are 25 likes for a post and sometimes there are 200 or 700. So, it may help, it may not. 2. Apathy abounds. It really does. I think it's especially hard when it's so clear the game developer is so clearly disparaging it's core player base. Hard to find motivation after that. 3. "Thought: On authors who do not host on Nexus: can we create some sort of download for "Mods you might like but are not here" so that people can still search here but be directed to their sites?" You'd have to have permission from those authors, regardless. Otherwise, you're distributing their mod w/o their permission. If they have something against Nexus, specifically, then they are still doing their userbase no good by only hosting on their personal blog, Mediafire link, etc. There's just no good way to support your mods via that method.

@Creeper -- Thanks much for the update. Will include that info. @Tarsh -- If you have a copy of the ME1 site, can you send that to Creeper, too, for redundancy?

Thanks, Tarsh!

@Tarsh -- 1. Fextralife -- Okay, so she *is* importing Mass Effect stuff as well? I've heard some language from other folks regarding their intentions being DA-centric, so I want to make sure Felexea isn't falling into this camp. 2. Workflow and Accessibility -- Okay, give me an update when you know more. It's important we know how we're going to be able to access the content of the archive :) Thanks!

Nah. Everything important can be boiled down to a tweet, FB post, or two minute conversation at a Con. Jeez, you old-timers. /sarcasm

@Site Archivers -- Can I get one more update as to who has backups to which site? I want to update the WP today: 1. BioWare Forum -- Creeper, this is what you're working on, correct? Currently sitting at 450GB and still going? 2. BSN (social.bioware.com) -- Tarshana, you have this site in it's entirety, correct? Anyone else? Tarsh, I know you answered this for me before, but can you verify for me. Is it possible for you to dive into the backup files right now, locate "Dragon Age Redesigned" and access the ZIP file for that mod? I need to know if that workflow is possible, as we could still be working on uploads and contacting authors once BSN is gone. Also Tarsh, what info specifically DON'T we have? Private groups? Private blogs? Are there private mods? 3. ME1 site (http://masseffect.bioware.com/me1/index.html) -- Tarshana has this, I think. Anyone else? 4. Felexea's Port -- Tarsh, I know you posted something about this yesterday. I still need to look it over but I know you mentioned Felexea didn't port the entire forum, only part. Do we know why? ---- A couple ideas regarding the WordPress: 1. Mod Author Advertising -- We could put up a page with the running list of mod authors we're trying to contact. It's possible their friend will see and pester them to respond to us, or provide alternate contact information. 2. Blogs & Forum Guides -- We could also use the WordPress to host some of this content, if we want. I can give folks posting abilities if they want to move some of this content. It'll kind of be like creating a wiki article, though. You'll need to copy the text, upload the images directly to the WP, make the formatting pretty, etc.

@Creeper -- I don't see it as a problem for a few reasons: 1. Even if we miss something, there's literally no way to figure out exactly which mod has been missed. Not without paging through all 400+pages and cross-referencing. Doing this is both impractical and time-prohibitive. Searching isn't viable since you can't search for something when you don't know what you're searching for. 2. The best way to determine if a mod was missing would be to search by Project ID. However, this only works if all projects ever created are still present. This doesn't seem to be the case, considering that ThaneMOD's ID is 9042... out of 4170 projects. 3. Ultimately, unreleased projects are irrelevant in a modding context. I'm not saying the ideas aren't worth preserving, but there's a lot of ideas worth preserving that will be lost in the form of blogs, forum posts and more. So, moral of the story... be careful, lol. We get one shot. @Tarshana -- I actually put together that post pretty quickly and am seeing mistakes. I'll need to give it an edit after dinner, lol. Thanks, though :)

@Inventoriers -- I meant to make this post last night, but got side-tracked. Last night I did a QA through all the sheets and found quite a few errors. It's not a huge deal, things have been becoming better organized, you guys are just starting to use the sheets, and it's to be expected. That said, it's pretty important that the data entered into the fields is accurate since players will be using this spreadsheet as a reference from now on. Most mistakes I fixed had to do with filling in the wrong data for a field, but I'll highlight those and other issues below. 1. Ready for Upload. Due to continued confusion about valid data (I fixed a lot of errors yesterday) and to expand the utility of the column, "Ready for Upload" has been changed to "Upload status". Valid cell values are in the column's comment header, as usual. Please take a look at these and be certain you're using them accurately. 2. Permissions. This column probably had the most errors. Please review the column header comment instructions for proper usage. "n/a" should be used for mods that already have an external host. This saves time by preventing you from having to comb the project description and download(s), when permissions are irrelevant. The sole reason we are tracking permissions is to see whether we need to upload the mod. If the mod is already hosted, we don't care about permissions."Absent" should be used only when there is no external host, and, after looking, permissions are indeed deemed to be absent.Also, be certain you are referencing the Contact Mod Author (we're going to call this "CMA" from now on) sheet when filling in permissions. If an author is prolific and they've already gotten back to us (like ELE), then all their mods should be listed as per their response ("closed" in this case). This has been discussed already and added to the Instructions tab, but I realize the column header lacks this info. I'll remedy that shortly. 3. External Hosts. Make sure you use "none" and not "no". This triggers the conditional formatting in the cell. 4. Miscellaneous. Remember not to list a project if it's never been released. If you want to track it, personally, that's fine, but don't put it in the sheet. We need to keep things uniform. Plus, it's less work, and we're in a time crunch.Making notes regarding author aliases on the game sheets is fine, as long as it's a precursor to contacting that author. Upon contacting, that data should be relocated to the CMA sheet. Please don't make notes about an author's identity on another site, if it's not necessary to contact them. Again, this is a privacy issue.I've decided to use "RWR" as shorthand for "Resolve When Read" regarding comments. All this means is to click resolve after you've read/dealt with the comment. Generally, things are looking great. Now that things are more organized and starting to move along, I'll check in only once or twice today to see if folks have any questions :)

It definitely will. Sorry, I had that window minimized. Let me pop that tab into my other browser window :) I'm working on the newest blog post atm.

@Inventoriers -- I think the sheets are finally re-organized. I've re-edited most of the comments, added some structure to the Instructions to make sure things are clear, and the Contacted Mod Authors sheet has been tidied. This manner of organization is how things should stay for a good while. I'm going to finally get to that final blog post about the inventorying :)

Just in the notes field on the author contact sheet, Tarshana. I don't think chat is an option unless you're logged into a Google account. Also, I'm seeing lots of "ready for upload = yes" for DAO mods that have absent permissions. PineappleTree, RoyalWeddings, Morrigan/Leliana faces and Forced Deathblows. Ready for upload should never say yes unless permissions=open. What's up with these?

Okay, if you want to do that, that's fine, but please make a note on the author contact sheet :smile: Right now I'm seeing a lot of contacts for mods that are clearly already on the Nexus, which then seems weird. Btw, I've been adding some authors to the contact sheet that you missed.

@Creeper, @Tarshana -- Looks like both of you might have contacted DahliaLynn. Also, if you are contacting an author when their mods are already hosted on Nexus, please use the note field on the new mod author contact sheet to explain why.

@Tarshana -- No problem. Send them another message apologizing for the mistake, though, please!

@Creeper -- Why are you contacting Dheuster, MikaelaM, and jaylo101 if their mods are already on Nexus? Are there missing files or something?