Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[kleetus92]

28 minutes ago, Czasior said:

Despite hundreds of comments from people frustrated / disappointed about what you did with the site, we have to face the fact - Nexus staff worked on it for some time and won't throw weeks of work into a trash bin. Unfortunately, because (I am not original here) the new layout is terrible. Everything is too big, there's too much scrolling, it loads slower than the old one. Nevertheless, we can all complain, curse on the devs, cry, show them our disrespect, but they won't do anything about it and we'll have to get used to it. So, dear developers, since we're stuck with this tragedy, can you at least add navigation bars to switch the pages also at the top of the mod list, not only at the bottom? Maybe the bearings of our mouserolls won't wear out so quickly.

I wholeheartedly say BULLSHIT to this notion. 

If they don't want to play ball, fine, TAKE THE BALL AND GO HOME. 

The only thing these people understand apparently is money, so, for anyone that pays for premium, IMMEDIATELY cancel the membership. Not just turn it off, I mean ERASE IT. 

Modders should post their mods to Discord or literally any other site but this one. Let the cell phone PC modders carry the day... by downloading to their phones, then to their computers, or... whatever they do. 

I'm honestly not sure what youtube channels there are for mod discussions, but a contact needs to be made to several of the content providers and apprise them of what's going on and Nexus' piss poor response in handling this self inflicted disaster. Get game reviewers to publically note the User Base's utter disgust and displeasure with the Nexus leadership. When the negative press hits, someone will start asking questions. 

It's no longer time to play nice with the Markus of Queensbury rules with these people, it's time to bring the shame and well deserved ridicule right to their front door. 

Drop a bomb on their facebook and X accounts, let "Black Tree Gaming Limited" Nexus' parent company get a wiff of the s#*! they're shoveling, and give them the biggest marketing black eye disaster since the New Coke and Bud Light disaster... they have obviously completely lost visibility of their user base. So let's kick them back on track. There is absolutely zero reason to take this abuse when THEY make money from US. 

Finally, if someone really wants to make a go of it, visit the internet archive, and grab the old website code and start another platform perhaps 'Suxen Mods', clearly they copied another abysmally awfully designed website, turn the tables and make something useful and get paid in the process. Start pulling over users one by one. Even if it's just the PC community, it's enough. 

Not to use a cliche' but 'Game on' never meant so much than it does today. 

https://www.facebook.com/nexussites

https://x.com/NexusSites

 

[Illius]

I do not know if others have this happen to them, but here I am mentioning it.

 

Firstly, I actually do like the new look, however I noticed something weird on the front page of Baldurs Gate 3. I saw that the bel had a 1 on it so a mod from BG3 that I use/used had an update. But when I clicked on it, I saw no mention of which mod was updated? I had to scroll a bit down and check the updated tab to see which mod it was. After I clicked on that mod I could download it, and also only on the mod could I completely remove the notification? (I think it was on the mod page and not the BG3 Front page.)

[HollownessDevoured]

I was very vocal about the profile/forum style spreading to the rest of the site was a huge concern (most of my forum activity was about it), from the high contrasts which hurts my eyes to the wasted space, I even basically, stepped away from nexus due to it. I only came back to post this because another user who agreed with me PM'd me.

A year ago we were shut down when they locked this feedback post, I wonder if they will just do the same to this one, when they stop wanting to listen to the feedback. I made more posts and posted on the notice board, and some were deleted/closed/ignored.

I specifically warned the Nexus Devs that once this theme spread to the rest of the site and forced on every one, and not just the profile/forums—there would be much more backlash.

Edit: Summary of last year's feedback:

Quote

So  I did some analytics today, I am gonna round up the percent FYI just to make it easier. There may be a margin of error when I was compiling. Literally took every poster who wasn't staff put in a spreadsheet. Searched each one to see it a modder or not, read each post to see if they overall like or dislike the update and then listed top concerns or if they only asked about something that got fixed or is says is going to be fixed.

• 98 (42%) post were users/viewers (13 (13%) Disliked, 46 (47%) Liked and 39 (40%) Neutral/Did Not Specify) 
• 136 (58%) were modders (17 (13%) Disliked, 53 (39%) Liked and 66 (49%) Neutral/Did Not Specify)  
• 234 total (30 (13%) Disliked , 98 (42%) Liked and 107 (46%) Neutral/Did Not Specify)

Now Neutral/Did Not Specify either gave pros and cons, asked a question, gave suggestion or feedback instead of simply saying they liked or disliked. For example I was considered Neutral/Did Not Specify. Also 24% of the Neutral/Did Not Specify feedback was just asking a question or complaining about issues fixed/expecting a fix. Someone actually had to say I like/love/hate/dislike/or something a long those likes to be in the like or dislike categories.

• 14 out of the total 98 (14%) Likes had concerns
• 20 out of the total 30 (67%) Dislikes had concerns
• 50 out o the total 107 (47%) Neutral/Did Not Specify had concerns
• 84 out of 234 (36%) total had concerns of the sample beta feedback community

Posters who had either a concern or just said revert it back. Some people had up to 3 top concerns so there is overlap. Only the top five concerns listed. I almost added a sixth about the endless scrolling but I don't think that is the direction they are going this is meant for mobile-friendly-land sadly

• 16 17 want to convert to Classic
• 16  17 18 had concerns about the High Contrast/Difficulty to Read/Eye Complaints
• 20 want their 5 tiles back and in some cases more
• 29 had concerns of wasted space
• 37  38 had concerns it was Oversized/Too Big

 

Edited 22 hours ago by HollownessDevoured
added last years feedback summary

[m661]

On 3/19/2025 at 5:02 PM, Iluviel said:

Thanks for the clarification. Would you be able to expand on what isn't smooth or what feels jumpy/laggy?

A video capture would be ideal, but I appreciate that may be asking a lot. Would be able to share more details on your setup so we can reproduce this problem? What browser are you using? Do you have extensions installed? What page are you specifically seeing this on? What elements of the page are not performant?

Might I suggest if the allegedly affected user(s) are willing and the team can support it including writing guidance to retrieve some actual user metrics as in HTTP Archive Format (.har) or even a trace file? It would require a secure upload due to the session information and user permission understanding under privacy law (GDPR etc) but it should show exactly what is happening during the up and downstream and if there are any delays happening due to server requests, due to for example plugin injection or CPU, memory shortage or outside partners. Most modern mainstream browsers should support it pretty much out of the box these days.

A video rarely provides the necessary data to verify source performance issues. It is a great medium to catch user errors or perceived slowness but beside that your blind as to what is actually happening on the back-end. I would not want to subject a dev team to video footage for these kind of issues but that is of course my own opinion.

As for general performance issues:
I just did some tests myself and I am sorry to say but the metrics are not looking good. desktop 52 mobile 22 on lighthouse.
Up to 10 layout shifts reported during the test significant numbers of to many redirects from ad partners causing bulks of in browser errors as well as reported forced reflows during trace.  I did my test in chrome guest mode no plugins and on the device the entire hostfile emptied as to not block any sources. Test where run on a stable 150mbit fibre line and no CPU, Memory or bandwidth limitations imposed in client session.

The team might want to review some Lighthouse metrics when time permits it as well as running a browser trace on mainstream browsers in house to verify the lighthouse findings.

[toostruus]

Hmm. This is only ten minutes up. Maybe listen for once to Nexus Members?

 

[Cridow]

Thought I'd chime in with feedback for the redesign, sorry to say it's mostly negative

I experienced a significant performance drop when browsing mods from a search when compared to browsing  search results with the old design

The new UI with the trending mods is... pretty ugly.

Honestly, this will sound pedantic, but... I also hate the new font so much, it's too round and it makes it look... childish, somehow. The old one looked more mature. Does that make sense? lol

I feel like I have to scroll a lot more in the search, trending page, etc. Lots of empty space.

Before, games (or at least more popular games) had a unique color. I would really enjoy having that again. Every design elements seems to just blend into each other with the new look. It's an amalgam of blurry grey to me.

 

On the positive notes, I did like the blur effects on headers and new icons. the new quick search is also nice VISUALLY. I think a few adjustments would go a long way such as making mods be the default, or adding some manner of preference setting to give us the option to have it search only for mods by default

[wiindigo]

Lurker showing up just to add my own voice.

While I don't like the trend towards 'sleek' and 'modern' designs for anything -- be it company logos or websites or what-have-you -- I can generally tolerate the design so long as it's only a visual update. For example, I do actually really like the super dark background (though I get why it would strain some folks). This is how I tend to style my own desktop.

But it's not just a reskinned UI with new colors and slightly rearranged elements. I don't want to rehash what others have said -- search mechanics, so much empty space, lag, etc -- but I do agree with much of what has been said here.

Honestly, I would even be happy with even just a way to opt into a format like the old UI but keeping the colors/style of the new. That's really just my main gripe. It's not the idea of change (okay, I will willingly admit the need to make everything sleek and shiny is a design pet peeve of mine, but even then) so much as the fact that everything feels a lot more inconvenient. And not just due to it being new.

It's a real shame that I dislike using the site and the new layout so much. I used to just have fun browsing mods for games, a bit like a modder's version of windowshopping, ooh maybe I'll get a little something for myself, but I have no desire to do that now. I log in, see if there's a specific mod for what I seek (ex. QoL on some game, bg3 dragonborn faces, whatever) and if not, I leave.

I am a casual user. I like downloading files like i'm playing with a new toy. But I can't see myself browsing through the site like I used to. Browsing, sure, I don't doubt it. But enthusiastically going through 40 pages for an hour or two? Not at all. I do not want to spend more time on nexus than is absolutely necessary, now.

[TOKIMEKIwav]

I usually remain a lurker on all of the sites I visit but I think this time I'm annoyed enough to scream into the void.

I'm extremely against this new design. It achieves less while taking up more space and the contrast/design actually hurts my eyes. It screams mobile UI and takes away a lot of the website's uniqueness, it's just like I'm looking at Crunchyroll or Curseforge which are UIs I'm also not very fond of. Some particular things I'm taking issue with, in no particular order and off the top of my head:
The game at the top of the page is unnecessary; I'm not stupid, I know what game I clicked on, and I can see it anyway in the top bar. The hot mods section shows 6 instead of 7 mods. Hot mods and collections are far too large and I am forced to scroll down to actually browse mods. Collections are useless for anyone who isn't using Vortex. Mods on the front page are displayed as rows of 4 and only 16 are shown, less than the old UI. There's big portions on the side which are completely empty. Several parts of the site are still using the old UI and it's extremely jarring to go back and forth between designs. Game-specific colors are gone.

I don't understand what was so wrong with the old design that we needed this new one. It worked, and worked well. This feels like change for the sake of change rather than actually contributing anything of worth, and there are issues on this website which need fixing, such as comment search, that are far more important. Again, this screams mobile UI and I don't know why you're going for that when this is a website for modding PC games. I wouldn't have been so upset if this was a mobile-exclusive UI/look, but this works nowhere near as well on desktop. I'm using CSS edits made by others and it's made things better, but not by much. It's hilarious that now I have to mod the modding website.

At the bare minimum, this UI needed a lot more time in the oven. It would be great if we could have an option to revert to the old UI much like how Reddit still has old Reddit, even if you don't support the old UI anymore/as much as the new UI. The short time that the /games/ trick was available shows you can have both UIs up at once. I know that for now I'm definitely not going to be buying Nexus Premium.

Edited 22 hours ago by TOKIMEKIwav

[WndMll]

8 minutes ago, toostruus said:

Hmm. This is only ten minutes up. Maybe listen for once to Nexus Members?

 

Is this on f*#@ing DISCORD? Not the WEBSITE ITSELF???

Completely mental, I mean I'm glad we got a poll but it's in the dumbest f*#@ing place they could put it besides like.. their Youtube page or Bluesky or whatever.

I'm very apprehensive about joining discord servers but I might just have to if that was actually posted on there by a person of "authority".

[FarmerAva]

I have to agree that the new design misses the mark. I do sort of like having the filter panel on the left when looking at search results, and the actual results from searching do seem a little better. That's all I can say for it. The overall UI is a mess. 

The color story doesn't seem unified at all anymore. Where did this random blue tone come from? It doesn't match.

The homepage for games is clunky, with sections not being very well defined at all. Trending vs Collections and so on are just thrown on the page.

The giant ad for premium in the middle is jarring and annoying. 

I don't want a weird overlay when searching. I don't want a stopgap page with top results and the option to 'view all'. Just show me all of them. 

This seems like a failed attempt at the trend toward sleek minimalism or whatever we're calling it, but it ends up looking cheap and lacking design instead of adding to the experience of browsing. 

I'm sure everyone worked really hard on it and I feel a little bad that I don't like it. It must be really disheartening to receive negative feedback, but it's also important. It's so common for people to stop using websites due to bad UI changes. I'd prefer that not happen to Nexus! It's too valuable.