holbrook Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) i'm still a little shaky as to what the stance is because there are a lot of conflicting comments, but it looks like it's cleared up as well as i could reasonably hope to expect. while the way i've been taught (or have learned) to write might get under your skin, i implore you to grit your teeth and bear with me for at least this last post. a "summation" of the post that was focused on my feedback. i'll do my best to keep it short. as i was explaining with your comment on tabs and why you didn't choose that locale for adding this, the site often already has issues with the tabs of a file not having enough room for a single row when viewed on 1024x displays. it starts out well enough, but as the numbers for images and comments grow over the lifetime of that file, things get further pushed and run out of room. examples of 3 different levels of this effect are provided here... http://home.insightbb.com/~ljhinc/images/misc/1024overlap.jpg i thought it might be useful to point it out to you, but honesty i think it was better to have this located at the bottom of the description anyway. it was much harder to overlook when it was there and quicker to get to and see than if it were on its own tab or exists where it does at the time of me writing this. what i'm more concerned with however, is the belief that you could greatly improve this new implementation by using readily identifiable and simple graphics (of which the ones i use in my demonstration attempt to match the look and feel of the site's current appearance), which would allow greater ease of use and be highly distinguishable. much to my own amusement; i'm suggesting a "TLDR" equivalent for permission options. this would allow users to "get the point" of what the author allows for a file at a mere glance. something like these... http://home.insightbb.com/~ljhinc/images/misc/buttonexamples.jpg lastly, while the graphics are of great help to our more "familiar" users; which of these "categories" an author picks to have their work listed under would also cause the file to display a specific bit of text nearby. clarifying to new or unsure users what this "graphic" represents, and what concern it holds for them. obviously the "general text" in my examples are just examples i wrote, and probably possesses the ability to grate your nerves to which i apologize for; i only wish to illustrate how much more simple and easy to understand that this "permission information" could be displayed to users. if you do nothing else, please... just look at these 5 examples... http://home.insightbb.com/~ljhinc/images/misc/flaguse.jpg finally, in the event that what i've presented here holds any appeal to you or can offer any use, benefit, or save time; i'm offering you access to the source (photoshop) file. you may do whatever you please with it, if it holds any value to you at all. http://home.insightbb.com/~ljhinc/images/misc/nexusbuttons.psd TLDR - if you read nothing else i ever write, and even if it compels you to ban me 6 ways from tomorrow after suffering through it; please just read this one post and look over the links. cheers. Edited October 31, 2010 by holbrook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaldir Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 What I think would be best is:If you can't reach the author after trying for a long time, contact a moderator, who will grant you "Temporary Permission" until the author of the original mod comes back? That is, if there's either a Permission Statement telling you to contact the author for permission, and no mention of what happens if you can't reach the author or no Permission Statement at all. - If neither of these are true, and the author has written that no one will get permission to use the content, or Requires Permission - If no contact can be made with the author, Permission is not granted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herculine Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 What I think would be best is:If you can't reach the author after trying for a long time, contact a moderator, who will grant you "Temporary Permission" until the author of the original mod comes back? That is, if there's either a Permission Statement telling you to contact the author for permission, and no mention of what happens if you can't reach the author or no Permission Statement at all. - If neither of these are true, and the author has written that no one will get permission to use the content, or Requires Permission - If no contact can be made with the author, Permission is not granted. That makes a great deal of sense and I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginnyfizz Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 What I think would be best is:If you can't reach the author after trying for a long time, contact a moderator, who will grant you "Temporary Permission" until the author of the original mod comes back? That is, if there's either a Permission Statement telling you to contact the author for permission, and no mention of what happens if you can't reach the author or no Permission Statement at all. - If neither of these are true, and the author has written that no one will get permission to use the content, or Requires Permission - If no contact can be made with the author, Permission is not granted. I'm still uncomfortable that it seems to be assumed that authors who cannot be contacted just don't care/are in a strop and that therefore it's OK to use their stuff. What if, as I keep saying, they are working away/on active service/ill/no internet due to ISP madness/lack of funds/etc? They then come back and find their stuff has been used because they didn't respond. All very well to say that OK, if they then come back and say Whoa!!! I did not consent to this, what the heck is going on here? then the temporary permission will be withdrawn. The damage has been done and a modder is hacked off. It almost feels as if you cannot be a modder with any other commitments, without risking your stuff being used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaldir Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 True, and that is what makes this such a hard nut to crack... It's important to keep Modder's Rights, by protecting peoples mods from being abused.But on the other hand, it is a shame to see great mods being forgotten because the author is gone, and no one is able to continue working on it because there's no way to get permission to do it. That is why I suggested a Temporary Permission, though you are right, the damage has already been done when the modder returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surenas Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) The staff isn't the testamentary executor of protected material by modders that are already gone or that keep silence on the airwaves by means of whatever. There is no such testament. Thus the ownership, the right to publish and to grant or to reject permission are clear and not to be diluted. Try to understand that an uninhabited villa doesn't mean a legal invitation for squatting. Edited October 31, 2010 by Surenas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 I'm still uncomfortable that it seems to be assumed that authors who cannot be contacted just don't care/are in a strop and that therefore it's OK to use their stuff. What if, as I keep saying, they are working away/on active service/ill/no internet due to ISP madness/lack of funds/etc? They then come back and find their stuff has been used because they didn't respond. All very well to say that OK, if they then come back and say Whoa!!! I did not consent to this, what the heck is going on here? then the temporary permission will be withdrawn. The damage has been done and a modder is hacked off. It almost feels as if you cannot be a modder with any other commitments, without risking your stuff being used. No. You simply need to provide a very small snippet of information in your ReadMe or description re: usage rights. Then it doesn't matter what you do or where you go and for how long. Ergo this doesn't affect many people at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted133263User Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 When editing File Details, why does the drop down selection Yes/No for the question....."Does your file contain assets used from other authors (that you have permission to use) that can't be redistributed without permission?"Always have Yes selected, even though previously you have set No? Makes you feel like the site is hinting at something, but as far as I can see I have used no assets from anyone, just jpgs/pdf's made by my own fair hands :) (see signature linky) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginnyfizz Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 There will, though, be people who are absent right now and haven't seen the new permissions options. Or, who when they wrote their original readmes, never thought about New Vegas and the prospect that people would just simply take their stuff and re-upload it for New Vegas. The reason that I can see it becoming more of a problem now, with New Vegas, is that there is a sizable group of people who detest Steam and other such forms of third party activation, of whom a substantial number are modders. On the other hand you have a group of people who are so impatient to get "their" favourite mods from Fallout 3 into New Vegas, or to receive kudos for making them available, that they think that this desire of theirs supersedes the normal etiquette of modding/usage. Who have forgotten that modders do us a favour by sharing their work. Some work had been used and re-uploaded for NV so quickly that modders can hardly be said to have had the chance to alter their permissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surenas Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Only people that haven't yet learned to distinguish between "mine" and "yours" or that have elsewhere experienced that robbery randomly remained unpunished will run into trouble, hopefully. Anyway, when I've registered myself in 2002 on the Nexus predecessor forum it was clear to all of us that we have to ask for permission first, no matter if there was a line in the Readme that deals with the usage rights or not! When it was actually the intention of the modder to leave the stuff free for further usage he has told you that explicitly in the Readme. Time has changed, and people have changed. The next generation is in game. Would the actual raider event to be backdated into say 2003 - most of us had to play vanilla since the days of Oblivion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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