MrJohn

What is the reasoning for the user-rate limiting?

In response to post #48298197. #48305212 is also a reply to the same post. Thanks for the reply. I agree that my handing out the "Big bad wolf" card might have seen hastily and of course I wanted more information on your side of things, hence the questions, and the addition of "cynically seen". But personally I believe what you are presenting here isn't quite the "giveaway" as it is a lottery ticket for reposters. "That value comes in the form of leverage. Having a massive social media following can be used as a bargaining chip when talking with game developers and other companies about doing cross-promotion events, or when talking to a developer about why Nexus Mods would be a good choice for their modding community." "When I approach a game developer about a cross-promotion event, in which we use social media to give away game keys, and they see a site with 12 million members and a massive social media following, they are far more likely to want to participate than they would be if they just saw a site with 12 million members and no social media presence." - From the page you've linked. This is inherently my problem. The reason you are given keys is by "bargaining" your members out. The intentions might be good, aiding up-and-coming developers with their content, but the execution I think is wrong. This method of "giveaway" same as giving content for "donations", when in essentially you are gating off content/prizes for a paid/reposting user base. (Ref. Cry of Fear, donations for Famas and "donators room"). You could say that those who want to be part of the "giveaway" should also lend their social voice in support, but then there are people like me who prefers to keep their business private. Again I raise the issue that @indycurt presented, those who doesn't use social media or are maybe even unable to. This "bargaining chip" should rather be used as pressure against oppression (like paid mods and the likes) than used for publicity to games. A unified voice for a better experience. I repeat my point, why not let the whole nexus userbase participate in the giveaway by default, thereby maybe garnering more members, and nudge those interested into reposting and giving out publicity to the game, thereby leveling the playing field and letting those good of heart and interest help the project. Or even better to limit your giveaway crowd to those interested, have them post to you specifically @Nexus or something where they can say something that they are interested, eliminating random people even unaware receiving something they might not bother with. Then you are not pushing people to broadcast this to everyone just because you said so, as might be intended. It might seem as I'm trying to "enter the contenst by doing nothing", but to be clear I am just pointing out my view of this whole thing. Using the second example I would probably not have bothered with the ordeal. A giveaway is a giveaway, free to enter without something in return and have a chance to be given something for nothing. This is more a trade, a social media repost for a ticket to your "lottery". A (better?) example would be the recent giveaway on ModDB, where you posted your mod suggestion in order to have a chance at some games. You found your mod and posted it to them (using @Modlove or something) and they took those in. The site got publicity through the giveaway, the mods got the publicity through people voicing those mods and the community might win something. I didn't enter to be given something, but because I wanted to share a mod I liked (Improved Atmosphere for Dragon Age: Origins was my pick). In contrast, you are forcing us to both "follow" you and a developer, as well as broadcast something. "You *MUST* do this". I am not against Nexus doing these types of things, just personally disagree with your handling of it. It might not be a "deep conspiracy / seedy ulterior motives" but you got to admit you are handling real power here and using it. Nexus support of a game could save a failed project or ruin a guaranteed success. (E.G. paid modding could have worked with full Nexus support, what could community really have done with a Steam/Nexus collaboration?) And as you've said: "The bigger picture is the continued growth of this community and relationships with more game developers." We've come to see that more and bigger developers/publishers care less about the end user and more about their monetary gain. A "good" relationship with a developer/publisher is one that gives them more, and I don't think that should be the focus of Nexus. A good relationship with developers/publishers should be better integration between your service and theirs, effectively helping modding and mod hosting/managing becoming even better for the end user. The end result shouldn't be gains, but delivering a better product. I am not judging the game itself by any means, by the description I don't think I would be interested and it sounds like a niche game for those who prefer "cult classics", which isn't my identification. I hope I don't give out any wrong impressions of my support for your intentions, about helping and nurturing modding in games, mod development and aspiring developers. Other sites might do the same type of content, but the reason I post my opinions/critique here is because I do want Nexus to be better than other sites. To aspire to something greater and be a better example. And also be free and fair.

So cynically seen it's an abuse of your followers to gain "free" publicity for yourself and another product? Not so much a "giveaway" as a "purchase your chance to win by letting us utilize your social media account for free publicity" That is quite the scumbag way to do things. And yet everyone is supportive of it. Why not make the requirements lesser, but nudge people to help raise publicity by retweeting or reposting stuff if they desire? A more fair way to do things, and being open to people not having social media accounts, as @indycurt mentioned. I can't help but feel theres something in the background at work here. Nexus has no business (far as I'm concerned) being someones PR department. Why this game of all the games? Did they contact you? Sponsor this? And just 10 keys for your million of potential entrees?

A small question, what happens when people use VPNs or TOR? Do you still get "Impressions"? And what would their value be? Because to me it would seem that if you used VPN to connect to a server, download the ad-supported site from Nexus, then snip the ad out on the VPN server and redirect it to you, from Nexus site someone still visited and saw the ad, even though the end-user didn't.

In response to post #45637070. #45640620 is also a reply to the same post. I see your point. I know the site has to be paid for, but again. Sure he owns it, but he has opened it freely to the community. Running ads is a way to monitize, and I don't have a problem with it per se. I have not contributed to the site in any sort of way (other than trying to be a helpful mod user), but then again I am not hired by the site for any sort of job. And we are not taking advantage of Nexus by "Being freeloaders". I never imposed on Dark himself asking for it. Thereby calling us freeloaders for going to a page open for all without giving back is sort of what I have a problem with. Your concern about paid membership and restrictions are valid, and you could use your argument as "we helping, you freeloading", but expecting people who aren't directly involved to contribute is, well. Ludacris sorta. You could drive people around who need it for free, and someone might give you a few bucks. But then turning on those not giving you cash would be quite unreasonable. And is the site really free if you have a hidden payment every time you visit? What of those on restricted, mobile or otherwise paid broadband who directly pays for the bandwidth used, including the ads they wouldn't take if they chose? Ads are already the end of a "free site". Consider the ads donations, and premiums are paid products. Not everyone donates, and trying to pressure someone to donate because "it's the right thing to do" or to "help out" is really not the way to go.

In response to post #45634790. #45635625 is also a reply to the same post. A fair point. But there are other variables than just ownership. Consider it an open house. To enter you need to bring posters. But the house is open for all. No entry fee. So you arrive without grabbing that poster. Does he have the right to smack you for not taking the poster? The house is open, after all. He could plead you to bring the poster. A form of begging, if you are cynical. But the fact is this that the road you use to travel to said house, the car/transport you use and so forth you cover yourself. Only the end-point is "owned", so to speak. But ads are like a baggage that rides along with you. Like a poster you need to bring with you. This boils down to opinions, but really I don't think ownership of a site would also give you right to force ads people do not want to see. What would be a great idea would be choice of ads, where you could see the ad options and tailor the ads based on color, contrast, type and so forth, to actually give a personalized ad service that could be unintrusive and maybe even helpful. I don't blame the users of ads, but rather the ads themselves. It's like producers like EA f*#@ing companies over, the same as advertisers f*#@ the companies using them over. It's all greed.

Interesting article, much better content than the others I would commend. The problem I have with the advertisements are mostly their annoyance. As far as I knew, you had removed the "lifetime membership" option back when you announced the "final sale" of them. But my opinion is not gained a positive spur from this article. Viewing picture 5 and 6, I would like to say a few things. Beginning with picture 5, the banner advertisements aren't too bad. The bright background mitigates my first issue, which is contrast. The second square ad really breaks this. The first thing that pops up on the site is a bright white box, clearly disrupting the otherwise gray and pleasant to look at information, trying to squeeze my eyes to look at it, interrupting my viewer experience to push their product. It doesn't fit, and thereby becomes an anomaly in an otherwise good site. We scroll down, and see what you see in picture 6. Not too bad. Banner ad holds the color of the page, it can be ignored successfully. But there it is again. Bright colors, clearly attempting to gut at you. "Look at me!!!!" it screams. Which is the purpose of an advertisement, to gain attention. But right now my attention wants to be on modding. Which brings me to the 2nd point, targeted advertisement. I am not condoning the art of cookie tracking, am quite strongly against it and any form of advertisements, even though their "wooo eviiiiil" is necessary. But there are a few simple steps that could help. Using your examples for picture 5 and 6, only one advertisement could be uniformly helpful to anyone viewing your site. The first banner ad, Discord. Something for the gamers. The rest are about christmas presents or traveling, nothing that you would come to the Nexus for. I doubt Github would have as much success putting up ads for puppies as you would for traveling. Understandably, you do not control the ads yourself as you've said, but it doesn't help. A minor tweak would be to add more focus on gaming related advertisement, or to push your ad-provider for more things closer to home. Gaming equipment (keyboards, mice, Logitech/Razer etc.), computers (such as Origin PC), games or games media. These things would be interesting to your demographic (gamers/modders), and would maybe persuade more to help out. What I would rather fear is that it would cost your bottom line to restrict advertisement content. As far as I am concerned, most of these ads are just as bad as any other "bad ads", only "less frowned upon" so to speak. I can only speak for myself of course. Generally, pages without ads are just better, cleaner and smoother. Less bandwidth is used, if you are on a metered connection, than if not. It all eventually boils down to ethics and morals. What gives you the right to show us ads? Because you own the site? It is an open internet and you've made this site as a free resource. Some people pay for their bandwidth (such as mobile internet), and would probably not want to pay for the advertisements themselves given the choice. Is it right to push advertisements on them? And if we have the magic switch that says "no thanks", is it right for others to slander them because they don't give out money instead? Should we be expected to hand out cash for sites in exchange for ad-free nature? Ads that they push themselves. In closing, I commend you for this article. The look into the backside of Nexus is always interesting, not always positive, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. You also avoided the "we needs monies, pls help" side of the story, though whenever a site mentions the "ads", they usually want to spark some feeling of "Maybe I should help", which is quite cheap. Personally I am torn on the issue regarding finances, as I know it is difficult.

In response to post #45164085. #45177030, #45180970, #45190555 are all replies on the same post. Everybody likes the sound of Gopher's voice.

In response to post #45164085. #45177030 is also a reply to the same post. Thank you. Though there are already several outlets that highlight mods, some dig deep and some find the featured. Guides written by the pages. This is like butter on fat really, though the argument for "it isn't hurting anything" comes to mind which is fair enough.

I don't know how I feel about these new "staff picks" and "Sunday discussion" posts that you guys are putting up regularly now I guess. Usually, Nexus news have been useful information regarding games that have extensive modding for them or more major changes to the Nexus itself. They are interesting reads often, though at times not always agreeable. For instance Dark0nes information about the page or how he prefers to run his business side of things, which is interesting and insightful. But these more "tabloid" articles really start to clutter. I can see the trend in later articles about Nexus wanting to expand from just modding side of things to bigger and broader, such as news, articles and the likes, but I feel as if the broader the strokes will get for Nexus, the less will be given to the specific areas. Games are becoming more and more hard to mod, except for a few developers who incorporate the values such as Bethesda, although you could also call it "lack of responsibility" by pushing the doing of fixes to the community in some cases. (I truly believe Bethesda should've contacted the authors of Unofficial Legendary Patch and SKSE to incorporate some of their work, even if for a fee, to make their game even better, but that is just me in my world of dreams I guess). I understand the want for expansion in a company, to become bigger and better, and offer more services, but that usually comes at a cost to your core services with the broader audience. The content often become "bloated", as I fear with this site. It happens to many YouTubers (Including Gopher, I feel) where they go "all in" on YouTube and their content starts lacking with the increase of content. A quantity over quality. Using Gopher as an example, a quite upstanding internet persona (as I do not know the guy personally), the older series like Fallout 3 Will and earlier seasons of Skyrim with both Richard and Stiv are better than the later seasons of Richard and the New Vegas series Jack. It may not be visible, the technological side is quite better with the recording and the quality of the videos, but the feel of his content became lacking as it wasn't the thing he did with his spare time where he put not just effort, but also some of himself into it. Now it has become a job. Might be joyful, he might enjoy it (and more power to him), but as the viewer I felt a disconnect, a shift. More pushing on ads and Patreon, as he of course needs to feed his family. But that has impact, in my humble opinion. And so I conclude this post. Personal apology for singling you out Gopher, but you are the one I recall watching and enjoying until the expansion of Twitch and full-time YouTubing, and after the shift in Googles policies to Google+ enforcement I fell off the YouTube wagon. In essence, the work and effort that the Nexus staff puts into it's content is good, but I feel as more effort has become focused on different areas, with the new site design being more oriented for a bigger stroke of content, rather than the simple site of Nexus we have today which is heavily onto modding and basically that. Anyway, good riddance if you read all this.

Ï guess time will tell. With the current outlook that leaves us with two husks of Mod Managers that doesn't work in its full potential, disregarding MO1 if that will even work with Skyrim SE. Both managers are in a 50% state (NMM 0.6+ not working as it should, MOv2 in a beta unstable stage), and now comes probably the biggest push for new modding this year, considering all mods will probably to some degree need a SE update to work with Skyrim, which is the biggest mod platform on Nexus (unless I missed a huge reveal of "The biggest modifiable game ever" somewhere else). Of course these concerns are only for the Skyrim release. I am not against a new from-scratch manager (I am always for reworking things that wouldn't be feasable anymore from scratch), but if the new manager follows the new site design (which I do not like the direction of), then I am afraid for the future. But I digress. Only time will tell.

The "Random" mod feature is quite brilliant. I hope there will be more focus on tracking centre, and making it easier to keep collections of mods, remove and manage these. However, I do agree with many others on issues like the direct-download double-edged sword. I am not sure how many that care too much about the news on the Nexus, more than a read and occasional comment. The comment section should be the bigger focus, as you do not run a journalist site (unless that is what you are trying to implement......) Furthermore, having more features in the comment sections would be a huge improvement, things like being able to easily find your own older comments, get more response or notification when someone replies or otherwise handle your comments/replies and so forth. That old comments on mods get bumped to the top when there is a reply is also something that is strange, as the replies should have the bigger focus, rather than the original content. As well as how some comment+replies could drone down a whole comment section of some pages. Some things are more intuitive in the new design, but the focus on cross-game mods and favoriting games may have impact on the special "dedicated" mod pages, unless those will remain with new design. I wonder how that will look. Having everything more "centralized" sounds good on paper, but I do think I would prefer the current solution instead. My two long cents.

Checked some more. Windows 10 Tech Preview Build 9879 actually has an earlier build of .NET Framework 4.6 Preview. Version 4.6 is now out for 8.1 (I don't know if this is compatible with NMM version 0.52.3). The build number for .NET Framework 4.5.2 is: 379893. Framework 4.6: 381029 Windows 10 Tech Preview: 381024. This can be checked by running Regedit and checking the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full Here is a Microsoft Answeres link, they've provided no answer but it may seem they know about this.

Maybe because of that revision number, NMM is looking for revision number 4.5.2 and tries to access it, then it throws a access-denied because 4.5.2 does not exist. Probably gonna have to wait for next win 10 build to fix that. Windows Defender for great justice. EDIT: Seems Windows Tech Preview Build 9860 is actually running .NET Framework 4.5.53343. its 4.5.5, not 4.5.2. Release version: 381023. The release version for .Net Framework 4.5.1 Release version: 378758 So either there is a major change to come in the next .NET Framework that will break NMM, which would require NMM devs to get to work, or the Tech Preview is broke or the version is so new and fresh, its a Z or 4.5.5* (in dev), which would require the Windows team to get a finger and fix eet.