Starfield Community Patch: DP Split for October

[Pickysaurus]

Hi everyone.

So this is something we thought I'd try out. 

The Starfield Community Patch earned 42,595 Donation Points in October which is worth around $42.59 - it's not a massive sum of money, but as the patch is a community project I thought we'd try putting a poll up to decide how you all think the points should be shared. 

Depending on if this is successful (or if you think it's a fair way of dishing out the points) we may do this every month. 

It's fair to say a considerable chunk of the DP should be directed to the tool creators for these first few months as the entire patch hinges on them creating things like xEdit, xTranslator and BSArchPro to build and share the mod in the first place.

When considering the contributors, take a look at the changelog to see what they shared. October saw versions 0.0.1 and 0.0.2 release. 

Just in case anyone asks, I am automatically disqualified from earning any DP as I work for Nexus Mods - but even so I'd forfeit my share as I am a humble compiler of fixes contributed by the community. 

Thanks to  @Argonil @ElminsterAU @mcguffin @Noggog @wSkeever @Krevil @Aurelianis @rux616 @Monitor144hz @zilav and all the other contributors to the patch! 

 

What do you think is the fairest way to share DP for the project?
 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Pickysaurus
Poll has been removed, that wasn't a well received idea. Post edited to match

[Pellape]

I really think it is a very good idea. All these programmers and coders makes it possible for the community to create, at least some more simple stuff that actually works. We where in the same position with Skyrim 2011 and the beginning of 2012, where a few low level tools made modding possible at all.

[Thallassa]

Personally, I think it would be a lot simpler to just leave DP off. Then the pool is bigger for other mods, and all the listed people are going to be earning DP on their independent projects.

 That said, this mod wouldn’t have been possible at this time without Elminster and his tireless efforts decoding the plugin format in Starfield, so my vote is that 100% of Oct go to him.

In the future, maybe track contributions and split the dp evenly per contribution? I think regardless of size because that gets too hard to judge. So if you have 8 contributors and two of them made two contributions each and the rest each one, the two people who contributed two would each get 20% and the others would each get 10%. I imagine this would be hard to track as the project grows or as fixes have multiple people working on them, but all the more reason to start now. 

[Livelynightmare]

Donate this sum (and whatever else you make) to something like Doctors Without Borders. Opt out of DP. It's the only way this works.

There is no way to quantify the importance of fixes or how much someone is "worthy" of getting. You'll have someone feeling left out (hi, you didn't even mention me in the original poll, which is strange and unsettling), or you'll have someone feeling like they earned less than they should have, etc. You'll also end up with contributors pinging discord servers to go vote for them on the poll or whatever, and I'm not remotely interested in yet another popularity contest.

Opting out is the only way this doesn't backfire. If contributors don't like it, then 1. they're contributing for the wrong reasons, and 2. they can release standalone mods to make DP.

[Pickysaurus]

I do agree that it should be split by effort. But it's a difficult thing to quantify. I'm just not entirely comfortable making the call of who gets how much DP - and I don't really think any SFCP project lead should have that power without accountability for their decisions. 

Turning DP off might be a move to consider - the initial rationale of keeping it on may have been based on a faulty assumption that this mod would generate a lot of DP. 

[Pickysaurus]

Just now, Livelynightmare said:

Donate this sum (and whatever else you make) to something like Doctors Without Borders. Opt out of DP. It's the only way this works.

There is no way to quantify the importance of fixes or how much someone is "worthy" of getting. You'll have someone feeling left out (hi, you didn't even mention me in the original poll, which is strange and unsettling), or you'll have someone feeling like they earned less than they should have, etc. You'll also end up with contributors pinging discord servers to go vote for them on the poll or whatever, and I'm not remotely interested in yet another popularity contest.

Opting out is the only way this doesn't backfire. If contributors don't like it, then 1. they're contributing for the wrong reasons, and 2. they can release standalone mods to make DP.

Just so you're not feeling left out. The poll was specifically for contributor's whose work was shared in releases during October (the month of points are for). The first release with your contributions was in November, which would put you in the next round of contributors

[HeyYou]

1 minute ago, Pickysaurus said:

I do agree that it should be split by effort. But it's a difficult thing to quantify. I'm just not entirely comfortable making the call of who gets how much DP - and I don't really think any SFCP project lead should have that power without accountability for their decisions. 

Turning DP off might be a move to consider - the initial rationale of keeping it on may have been based on a faulty assumption that this mod would generate a lot of DP. 

I have no doubt the mod will accumulate a boatload of DP, which is precisely WHY it should be turned off. Divvying that out is gonna become a full-time job.

[Argonil]

So this is the new forum? Looks nice. 

I'll reiterate what I said on Discord: I would personally vote for charity as I donate all my DP to charity anyway. I split it between Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross and Ukraine Relief Effort, but if I had to choose just one then I'd pick Doctors Without Borders. But I'm a bit worried that presenting that option would rob people who want the DP of the opportunity. It's a bit risky when we don't know what the contributors actually want.

The same could be said for whether to leave DP on or turn it off. It doesn't seem right for others to decide on the contributors' behalf to turn DP off. Some of the contributions took considerable time and effort, it's not unreasonable for someone to want to be compensated for their contributions, especially not if they are to keep up that level of effort going forwards. If you're particularly cynical then you might even accuse those other people of wanting DP turned off just so that there's more DP for them.

If it was entirely up to me as a contributor then I would turn the SFCP into a charity project. But it's not entirely up to me.

[aurreth]

What Argonil said.  All mine goes to charity as well (if I get any, which I seriously doubt ).  I don't want to profit from my mods and fixes, and I don't want anyone else profiting off my work either. 

Doctors Without Borders is the most neutral politically, give it to them.

[ScytheBearer]

Donate the whole thing to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Boarders.