Creators, Please Consider This

[JCSpencer]

I imagine the biggest reason people turn off comments is because they can't handle criticism or having their feelings hurt. Sorry. I'm a creator, so I feel I have the right to be blunt about it, because I've been through it.

 

The problem is this decision creates a serious problem in my opinion. I have been using the comment threads to evaluate mods based on user feedback. I've encountered several mod offerings that looked great, had numerous endorsements, thousands of downloads ... but there were some pretty serious and unaddressed problems some users were reporting, such as conflicts with newer mods, missing files, or what have you. Basically, the comment system is the best and apparently only place to find out if this mod you are interested in is still compatible, particularly useful if the mod was uploaded three years ago, has never been updated and the author is MIA. Thus, the comment thread is a great tool for finding out if this mod you are interested in still works, if there are restrictions, such as being incompatible with other mods, or if there are serious issues from day one that the author never came back to respond to. If I see people have reported problems, and the author has never replied, I know that's it essentially no longer supported, and I skip it.

 

The reason I am mentioning this is as a plea to fellow creators to consider the limitations you are placing on user feedback when you elect to disable comments. Don't worry about the butt monkeys that are bound to show up; chances are they'll get their comments removed and possibly banned anyway. Honestly, you are causing more difficulties for more users simply to avoid seeing a negative comment from some troll with no life. I imagine there are other reasons to disable comments, but I can't think of any that are good enough to warrant disabling the best feedback system this site has. The feedback isn't just for you, the creator, but for everyone else that might be interested in your mod. I would argue the feedback is actually MORE for other players than the creator; the endorsement feature is the one that's primarily just for the creator's benefit.

 

There are too many mods I have sadly elected to skip because I couldn't see if there were any known compatibility or CTD issues, for example. If a mod makes a single, simple alteration, then you can probably bet safely that it's still fine to use; but if it makes numerous, large scale changes to various areas, with several common files, the chances for problems increases, especially the older the mod gets.

 

Please, please consider this before deciding whether you are going to disable the comments feature. Don't let the few jerks make it difficult for the rest of the community.

[ptbptb]

The problems are:

 

1. Disabling endorsements automatically disables comments.

 

2. If you disable endorsements it does not appear possible to enable them later.

 

3. If you create a comment thread in the Discussions tag they do not show up in the Comments tag. Also it does not change to Discussions(1) (or similar) so there is no indication that there are any discussions present.

[Pronam]

I think the authors are fully in their rights to decide if they want to disable comments or not. When they do so, they probably did for a good reason. Trust me, if you've met the wrong side of the forum you'd understand, otherwise probably not. I know I don't, but I've seen enough people getting pushed down to the ground. It doesn't matter that those people get banned. The time before a report can be handled with all the amount there are anyway or the way that trolls will find a way to re-register and troll/flame once more can do enough damage to let a modder take away all their mods. I'm not saying to be happy without being able to comment, but a second option could be that a modder decides not to host their mods here at all...and they do that..within a day. Besides all than that, you can always contact the author of the mod by sending a PM. That way you can explains stuff more thoroughly and you'll have a bigger chance the fixes will done. The general comment is 'This mod doesn't work'. Something I'd hesitate before I'd send a PM to the one having the problem in an attempt to fix it. If someone sends me a PM immediately, they can count on it that it'll be fixed in a couple of days. One thing that shouldn't be forgotten though, people have made the mods and choose to share them. It's not that they solely gather endorsements. Another note is that if endorsements are enabled, you can choose not to endorse files and state the reason why, turn it back in an endorsement whenever you want to.

[JCSpencer]

I don't disagree that they have the "right to decide." In fact, I never said they didn't. I am merely pleading with creators to consider the full ramifications of what happens when they do disable the comments (and I had assumed the endorsements were connected to the comments, which seems odd; why aren't they separate?).

 

And I have met the "wrong side of the forum" before, and at first, I was hurt, angry, and I actually quit modding for a while. But I received several e-mails and PMs from people that enjoyed my mod and I realized that I was being selfish. Yeah, some people are asshats. That's the way the world is. But I'm not making mods for them, I'm making them for people that enjoy the game and enjoy using my mods in it. So I learned just to ignore the people who seem to have such pathetic lives they can only feel better by insulting and bringing others down. If I let them get me down, they win! So screw them.

 

You said that trolls will find a way to "do enough damage to let a modder take away all their mods." That's only half true. There's an old saying that says, "Nobody can hurt you unless you let them." The only way trolls do any damage is if the creator pays more attention to negative words than to positive words, and if they then pull their mods, they are letting the trolls win. I'm sick of all the trolls and flamers (not the gay ones, lol), but I'm also sick of seeing AMAZING talent take their marbles and go home just because of these bad apples. I've been a member of the community for about 8 years now, and I've seen some amazing people give up because of trolls and leave, and the community has lost a lot because of it.

 

Why let the trolls win? I guess that's my point. If 100 people told me my mod was retarded, non-lore, or just plain crap, but 1 single person told me how great it was, how much they enjoyed it, and that they recommended it to their friends, well that 1 person is enough to make me happy. One of my first mods for Morrowind was a silly mod that added a UFO and a quest to obtain it. It was barely lore in that I made it a Dwemer design, but many people attacked the hell out of me with some unpleasant remarks, especially the purists. But to this day I still get positive remarks and e-mails about that mod, and it makes me feel good and inspires me to keep going. I also upload videos to YouTube also, and I get plenty of really nasty remarks, but I get a few good ones too, and those are the people I make my movies for and the ones that keep me going.

 

I'm just tired of seeing people run away because of critics. In the world of art, there are always going to be critics. If you want to succeed, you have to just accept them and move on. No musician, actor, painter or author is without critics; even the greatest have critics. But they keep on creating because that's what they love, and they share it with the people that appreciate their work.

 

I can only offer this piece of advice to creators that are harassed by asshats: Think first of the people that love your work. Base your decisions solely on them.

[Vagrant0]

The problems are:

1. Disabling endorsements automatically disables comments.

Not so.

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24146

 

Blocked endorsements, but comments are still possible. Turning off comments is a separate option from turning off endorsements. Although, IIRC, the mod was uploaded when the old rating system was still in place, so things might have changed in the meantime.

 

 

At any rate, people often turn off comments because either they don't know much english, and won't be able to understand what is being said about their mod, or they simply don't want to deal with the hassle of keeping aware of who's posting what on all their mods. For those who have many popular mods, you can have 3-4 comments a day.

 

But, it's mostly just because people don't want to deal with all the flaming and drama that happens when others disagree with the content of a particular mod.