Reviewing mods

[Sergio1992]

hi,
I'm wondering: is it ok that my reviews in some mods' pages get removed? I'm the kind of guy that does reasonable reviews; I do not insult, nor put them in bad light (unless they are well, bad, according to my subjective point of view).

Honestly, I find extremely annoying seeing an author removing a comment I made, a review I made, just because he is only prone to getting kudos by people. Am I a bad person if I say your mod is bad and it doesn't deserve the ratings you got? Because losing time to write a review, and contributing to this website, each day becomes more and more of an hassle.

And after witnessing today that a mod author probably removed a mod (because I criticized it) made me actually smile. :D

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sergio1992

[Oubliette]

Author discretion is author discretion. If you want your 'review' to remain for posterity I suggest a blog or a youtube channel.

[Sergio1992]

Indeed. Thank you for this post.I won't post anymore reviews on this website :)

[Roscaria]

If an author removes their mod from Nexus because of a review you made, it makes you happy? Why? Did you offer the mod author some constructive criticism or just rubbished the mod they spent time and effort on (in a perfectly polite way of course) and made them feel bad.

 

Despite not being a mod author myself, I can at least imagine how they felt. Imagine if most of the budding mod makers pulled their mods and made no more, because of something like this. Who is to say that this would not lead to the loss of future mod makers like Arthmoor, Chesko, Isoku, Sharlikan, Jaxonz, to name just a few. I doubt that anyone produces a brilliant first mod without any glitchs, bugs or whatever. I am just glad that there are mod authors who do at least try and get better as time goes by.

 

Hopefully that mod author has just pulled their mod for some revision and not given up altogether.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Oh, I witnessed incidents such as this in the past already. A so-called "reviewer" with a huge following on YouTube released a review video of a rather well-known mod from here, based mostly on half-truths and/or obvious lies from what I could see, up to the point where its author stood up and politely requested them to take it down. They denied, called them names, and sent their army of loyal fans and bully friends over to their every mod pages to make them understand how worthless they are in comparison. This then quickly got as far as the author, in self-defense, taking down all their mods, leaving the scene, and isolating themselves for the sake of their mental peace, perhaps looking for a more pleasant community elsewhere.

 

What most people didn't see, however, was what was going on behind the scenes. 3 more rather high-profile mod authors quit and left at the same day, taking all their mods down and their knowledge with them, just out of disgust about the events or due to "feeling with them". Every single time something like this happens the community loses authors, whether they'll immediately see it or not. And if not already one or more leave outright, those who remain will still make another tally on their sheets of how much "s**t" they can take until too much is too much. Everybody has their very own personal limit, but not every author's limit is as high as another one's. And every incident still counts.

 

To me personally these multiple events have left a sour taste in my mouth and forever tarnished the name "review", especially when done on YouTube, since then. As soon as a review of a mod is considered more worth than the mod that's reviewed, which is what some people openly keep proclaiming even today, everything becomes pointless, as at the end of the day there'll just be nothing left for them to review, if they keep that mindset up and tell it to every author the work of whom they review.

 

 

At the end of the day a mod review has to be done with the affected mod author's consent, and if they say 'no' it means 'no', no matter the reason. If you then "disregard" their wish, "the others" will see, but all they'll see is your disregard of an author's wishes, neither your reason or intention nor their's. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a multitude of authors, maybe a majority even, who'd be delighted to have a review written about their mods by someone like you. Stick to these, leave the others alone, but always "ask" first.

 

You're not doing them, or anybody, a favor or service, if you do it against their wishes. Some users may disagree, but they also don't know the direct implications of their way of thinking in regards to authors these days. As long as it's only "a few" who leave, "they" sure can't have done anything wrong. That it inevitably means "all" authors consider their own leave now one point more than before, somehow mysteriously completely escapes their minds.

[Oubliette]

Honestly to my mind mods don't need a review. I've never sought one out and I've never wanted one. At best I might look for a nice comparison between lighting mods or an sweetfx preset, to get a better side by side visual of what I'm looking at then what's available on the mod page. The endorsement system is generally all I need as a recommendation if I'm going to take one at all.

 

But I must admit I'm not terribly fond of someone that uses the hard work of others to make a name for themselves with the simple act of negativity. That is not helpful, it's just mean. No matter how long someone has spent crafting a negative 'review' I can almost guarantee it's a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the amount of time someone spent making the mod and attempting to help users with problems.

 

It's a very sad fact of life that it takes far less time to destroy or consume than it takes to create.