Why I don't feel welcomed by the Nexus (critical critique of site, not complaining)

[thaelite1]

After reading countless tales of issue after issue of bannings happen over some of the most minuscule issues, it's honestly sad how easily you can get banned on this site.

Heck, I once said a sarcastic comment about the uploading of copyrighted material, and got banned until I sucked up to a moderator.
Now I understand that the moderator's job is to keep the site safe from large companies suing the Nexus, but I can't help but wonder if the ban hammer is still used all too much.

Today I tried to find a hair mod that a good modder I admire uses.
Than I learned he was banned.....
It was a fricken hair mod. and he was banned.
This is both frustrating, and really scary, because I feel like I could even get banned over this post were I am voicing my opinion.

Look, Nexus, I don't want to cause any trouble, and I thank you guys for your site and everything. But when a 2 year user feels unwelcome to post his opinion, there is something wrong here.

I get what you guys are trying to do, but it would be much more beneficial for everyone on the site if instead you guys did something like simple warnings first instead of only using the hammer so frequently.

Thanks to the current system, I am even cautious about making this comment.

[WursWaldo]

Your concerns are nothing new. The staff is right by default and you're not allowed to question their decisions. "Our interpretations of the rules, not yours."

However ridiculous that might be, we all agreed to it when we registered here. BTW, there are other mod sites.

 

*random staff member locks thread*

[Oubliette]

Ah. Another one of those 'I don't understand why I can't get away with anything' threads. Must be that time of the month.

 

It won't be locked but there's nothing really to discuss in it.

[WursWaldo]

It won't be locked but there's nothing really to discuss in it.

True, it's been tried before. Accept it and move on. No one is chained to Nexus other than Dark0ne. Everyone else is free to walk away if they don't like it. :wink:

[SirSalami]

Your concerns are indeed welcome thaelite1, thank you. I regret that you feel stifled and please know that these perceptions are something we're working to change.

 

I understand that our current terms and rules are somewhat hard to digest, so I aim to educate faithful members and newcomers alike by providing clear and concise rules and enforcement documents that will be posted to prevalent sections of the site sometime in the future. This includes a reworking of all site agreements and policies as well. I'm well into this process and will be announcing these changes sometime later. My hope is that by distilling our current and admittedly sporadic rules and policies, I'll be able to better convey the nature of the Nexus and what we expect from our users in order to prevent these mishaps from happening in the first place.

 

That being said, while I'm not sure about the particular mod or author that you are referring to, one thing we pride ourselves on here is promoting accountability. If the mod author in question were to, for example, use content without permission, or perhaps slander other users, we take what we feel are the responsible measures to ensure that the rest of the community can continue to thrive. By enforcing these rules in a transparent manner, we hope to encourage an environment where authors of original works can distribute their content without fear of perjury or the like. These moderation practices are the result of countless personally handled, case by case investigations, some of which set precedents for future incidents in order to expedite the process more efficiently. This can at times lead to misunderstanding / miscommunication but we do our best to respond to disputes quickly and reasonably.

 

Please remember however, that our tireless volunteer staff of moderators are individuals who make considerable contributions of time and effort daily, many of them for many years, to ensure that we can continue to provide a valuable service to our users. It's a varied and oftentimes thankless job that I feel can get overshadowed by our transparent terms enforcement.

 

Should you want to discuss anything with me personally about moderation, policy issues, or anything else, feel free to send me a message anytime. Honestly, I'll be glad to hear your thoughts.

 

Thank you for your support and understanding.

[Ethreon]

Care to tell us the name of that modder you were looking for?

[WursWaldo]

@SirSalami

I don't think anyone here truly faults the staff, though in the past there have been questionable decisions. That is to be expected on a site with 6,000,000 plus members and a skeleton staff to oversee it all.

From what I have seen of banned members the vast majority had it coming. That being said there are current members here whom deserve to be banned by legal and forum standards yet they are still active; and some of them are very popular.

I browse the uploads here and I immediately recognize content ripped from ElectronicArts, BioWare and CDProjektRed games. Some of them are obvious, others are not unless someone owns the game they came from and are familiar with the base files and how to extract them. None of the game companies I mentioned allow porting or rips to other game platforms. Their individual EULAs and Regulations state this specifically and differentiate between modified content, 'fan art' and what they consider a violation of a licensed agreement. There are mods openly hosted at Nexus that violate those agreements. I attribute this as willful intent by the uploaders and a lack of awareness on the part of the staff.

The biggest covert offenders are the plethora of gun mods available for the Fallout games. Simply looking at the RGB and Alpha layers of the textures that are packaged with these gun mods is enough evidence, not to mention the meshes themselves. Even without technical aspects of the files the trademarks are enough to get those mods removed. They are as illegal as mod that turns FO NukaCola into Coke/Coca-Cola. S&W (Smith and Wesson) and FN (Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal) have trademark restrictions like The Coca-Cola Company yet the FO gun mods remain and NukaCola to Coca-Cola mods get banned. Why is that? The presence of a licensed trademark is enough to get these gun 'mods' removed. I placed mods in quotations because the uploaders didn't do anything other than rip existing models and textures from one game and make them work in a format a Bethesda game can utilize. That isn't modding, that's theft; and it's there for all to see and nothing is being done about it.

 

EDITED FOR SPELLING

Edited February 11, 2016 by WursWaldo

[SirSalami]

@SirSalami

I don't think anyone here truly faults the staff, though in the past there have been questionable decisions. That is to be expected on a site with 6,000,000 plus members and a skeleton staff to oversee it all.

From what I have seen of banned members the vast majority had it coming.

 

Thanks for that. The empathy is sincerely appreciated.

 

This is not the proper thread to discuss the merits of ported content. Enforcement of other's intellectual property rights, especially as it pertains to derivative works, is something that must be handled case by case and is best discussed elsewhere. Feel free to message me if you'd like. Regarding CDPR in particular however, they have indeed granted usage permissions in public communications. Additionally, we have a healthy working relationship with them and we assume that means their approval of our current moderation policies, unless they decide otherwise of course. A dedicated moderator maintains the ported content wiki for more information.

[Thandal]

I'll just add that BioWare have also given their permission to use their content in mods, (limited to mods for the same game-series). We were in direct contact with them on this very issue when such mods first appeared.

 

Also, the Staff do not, and are not expected to, review, vet, or validate in advance all the content upload by our members. With tens-of-thousands of files, and less than 20 Staff, we couldn't possibly look at it all. We rely on the membership to bring things that need attention to our attention. That's what the "Report" button is for.

 

As the ToS make clear, "If you see something, say something." :thumbsup:

[FackRules]

 

After reading countless tales of issue after issue of bannings happen over some of the most minuscule issues, it's honestly sad how easily you can get banned on this site.

Heck, I once said a sarcastic comment about the uploading of copyrighted material, and got banned until I sucked up to a moderator.

Now I understand that the moderator's job is to keep the site safe from large companies suing the Nexus, but I can't help but wonder if the ban hammer is still used all too much.

 

Today I tried to find a hair mod that a good modder I admire uses.

Than I learned he was banned.....

It was a fricken hair mod. and he was banned.

This is both frustrating, and really scary, because I feel like I could even get banned over this post were I am voicing my opinion.

Look, Nexus, I don't want to cause any trouble, and I thank you guys for your site and everything. But when a 2 year user feels unwelcome to post his opinion, there is something wrong here.

I get what you guys are trying to do, but it would be much more beneficial for everyone on the site if instead you guys did something like simple warnings first instead of only using the hammer so frequently.

Thanks to the current system, I am even cautious about making this comment.

 

 

Yeah, that's really hurt my feelings. I have an old account, let's say DB and another new one, say it MW. What I want to do is to change username from DB to MW, but the forum has no option to change username directly so I had to create a new account.

 

I created that and announced in my old account, saying "This is the elder account of MW, please directly contact to MW." and so the new one "This is the new account of DB, please do not contact the old one." Do you know what I got? Banned. Said in the ban reason: multiple account abuse.

 

OMG, I have my mods in DB and I can't even touch mine!

 

One doesn't simply trust Nexus Mods. It is just like a friend that stabs you to your back.

 

Yeah, I know. I will get banned in seconds.