Suggestion: Encourage constructive criticism through reviews

[SylvanniRae]

I have a suggestion that I have been thinking about for months now of browsing Nexus mods. You see, I am a very cynical person and in any other environment, I like to take in the negative criticisms as well as the positive, so I have an idea of what I am getting into. Now I have done a tiny bit of research and know that allowing for any type of system enabling criticism has been a complete ****storm and I completely encourage and support never going back to those old system, but I would like to suggest that Nexus as a whole is lacking quite a bit in this area.

See, I mod mostly Skyrim SE and Fallout 4, and one thing that most mod pages are lacking is any kind of critical feedback. When I scan through a popular mod, I often do not see any mention of past bugs, criticisms, or really anything helpful. So, though I have a hundred and one ideas to fix this, I know that all of them could be too easily abused for grief and whatnot and detract from what nexus mods is all about.

 

Therefore, I propose making a review system.

 

The system I am proposing is one I have seen in use in many places, including the Google Play Store, and I think it would do very well here. It has three vital components:

 

1) Reviews that are not censored by mod authors.

 

This is vital for it will build trust of those reading the reviews and avoid mod authors deleting helpful but negative reviews to create a false consensus.

 

2) a way to upvote and downvote the reviews

 

This is arguably the most important aspect. This will help filter through trolling by pushing the most popular reviews to the top, encouraging thoughtful and helpful reviews both positive and negative. Many places use this model because it is not an easily digestible number or rating. A downvote on a review is not going to have the same problems as a downvote on a mod.

 

3) A way to report reviews that violate nexus TOS.

 

This is an obvious one.

 

In short, providing an independent review system in which helpful reviews can be rated and rewarded will allow for and encourage a safer outlet for constructive criticism, more third-party feedback that doesn't clutter up the mod authors' inboxes and forums, increased web traffic and overall clicks.

Thank you for your time. Be kind and have a good day.

[showler]

I find the easiest way to get positive and negative views of a mod is to simply google the mod's name.

 

Even Steam has difficulty managing the type of system you describe and they are huge and rich.

[Reneer]

The system I am proposing is one I have seen in use in many places, including the Google Play Store, and I think it would do very well here. It has three vital components:

 

1) Reviews that are not censored by mod authors.

 

This is vital for it will build trust of those reading the reviews and avoid mod authors deleting helpful but negative reviews to create a false consensus.

No. This is a bad idea because Nexus Mods simply does not have the number of support staff needed to deal with all the horrible negative reviews that would pop up overnight. 'Reviews' would simply offer a place for trolls to attack mod authors and other users of the site. How do I know? Because I've seen it, both on my own mod pages and the mod pages of other mod authors.

2) a way to upvote and downvote the reviews

 

This is arguably the most important aspect. This will help filter through trolling by pushing the most popular reviews to the top, encouraging thoughtful and helpful reviews both positive and negative. Many places use this model because it is not an easily digestible number or rating. downvote on a review is not going to have the same problems as a downvote on a mod.

The trolling will still exist, downvotes or no. Upvotes and downvotes don't deal with trolling behavior, they simply mask it, and ineffectively at that. And as anyone who has visited Reddit knows, 'thoughtful and helpful' isn't usually in the lexicon.

3) A way to report reviews that violate nexus TOS.

 

This is an obvious one.

As stated previously, this would not work because Nexus Mods does not have the support staff to deal with the deluge of reports that would come in. That's the reason mod authors have moderation control over their mod pages: Because Nexus Mods support staff simply can't handle the volume of attacks and trolling that goes on.

In short, providing an independent review system in which helpful reviews can be rated and rewarded will allow for and encourage a safer outlet for constructive criticism, more third-party feedback that doesn't clutter up the mod authors' inboxes and forums, increased web traffic and overall clicks.

This is not what would happen. Why? Because a large number of users have no clue what mod causes their crashes, bugs, etc., and will blame whatever mod they think is the problem. Any reviews coming from those users will be tainted at best and completely misinformed at worst.

[Arthmoor]

Not much to say other than Reneer hit all the nails on the head.

[Deleted92948618User]

ibid

Hopefully they are coffin nails so we can inter this idea.

[Zorkaz]

What Reneer said.

 

Also you can already review mods via Facebook, Youtube, Wordpress and such

[HadToRegister]

+1 to what Reneer said.

 

Downvotes were already a thing at one time, there was also a 5 star rating system.

Guessed what happened to them, and why they're not in use anymore?

[BigBizkit]

I get where you're coming from but - for the reasons already pointed out - we do not think it would be beneficial to the modding community as a whole to implement such a system. Not to mention that this would require resources (mostly time) that we currently do not have as we're focused on other projects.

[Zanderat]

+1 to what Reneer said.

[Ethreon]

A way better suggestion - learn how to provide feedback/criticism before you demand you're given a platform to spew nonsense.