What makes a good mod page? User opinions wanted.

[genolune]

That's actually a good point. One which I realize now, that I violated when I switched the Crater of Atom to Children of Atom Overhaul, although I did leave just the Crater file up for legacy versions.

[tarsis31]

Ah, Legacy changes. When you make a Legacy change, be sure to put a note about that everywhere, so when you keep getting bug reports about it from people doing exaclty what you explicitly told them to not do, you can point them to here, here, here, AND here where "I told you not to do that."

 

I mean, they read enough to install it, and update it. So.. what's after that?

 

My personal thought on pages is KISS. Write it at a 6th grade reading level, most important at the top, least at the bottom. Keep in mind that most people seem to have about 25 seconds attention span and read about 25 words per minute. I went fairly long and in-depth on RRS and about 1/3 of the actual downloaders likely never got to the 3rd paragraph.

 

Changelog.. I hate the changelog. Why do I hate the changelog? Because it is a great and wonderful tool that I use carefully and well. I post my changes before updating the file. Then I get asked what changed when I post an update. I get asked where is my list of changes. Really? I have to tell people that changes are in the changelog? Who's the numpty putting changes in the descript so everyone needs it spoon-fed to them there? All these great organized tabs and relegate yourself to spoiler tags, or not even do that and just put them at the bottom of a 30 page syllabus? Doesn't matter how cool your page is if I can't find what I need.

 

 

Now my descript pages are just going to be something like: Read the title.

I don't do install instructions until it goes beyond normal NMM/manual install. I also don't do tutorials on how to turn on your computer.

 

In case I've not offended someone yet, Comment tab, and bugs tab.

If you are too damn cool to let the users of your file comment on it where they can easily find and read other's experiences with your file, I won't be downloading it, sorry brah, your file is just too cool for me.

 

If you are too scared of bugs, or would rather let people suffer the effects of them and not worry about fixing them, that you have no bugs tab, I won't be downloading your file. I'm smart enough to look at your bugs tab and see that the first 1/3 of your bug reports are from people who can't be bothered to read the description, and 9/10 of the remaining bug reports are mod conflicts. If you can't put on your manties (or big girl panties for the fairer) and deal with a bug, you won't be wasting my time either.

 

Endorsements. If you beg for endorsements, I feel obligated to not give you any, otherwise, if your mods works like it says on your page, I think I can take the half a second to endorse it when NMM reminds me. If I really like what it does, or it does something different, I'll come to your page, endorse it immediately, and throw you a comment. "Atta boy, really like what ya did thar!" Wish everybody would.

 

Rant off, coffee wore out, going to bed.

[speedynl]

most things are just a waist of time, 90% of the so called community members here don't even read( or don't know how to read ) its more like oww look a cool mod dl it and then come back and say your mod bug/sucks/don't work, simple because they din't read anything

 

as some of you know its 1 of those reasons i never release anything, i can't stand those d'asses

[Crimsomrider]

My usual guidelines are :

 

- First - it has to look nice and pleasant to the eye. If a mod page has a wall of text, people will definitely not read it and will not bother with the mod. This is best achieved by using different formatting options you have at your disposal. Use of BOLD letters, underlines, text size and color.

 

I personally write everything in bold letters while my main colors are light-blue (for the description or stuff that you can be without) while the important informative stuff is in gold color. The extremely important stuff I write in red color while NOTES such as something you should be aware of I write in yellow. Keep in mind that some users are dumb as an oak and no matter how or what you write, they'll never read the description because they think they're the smartest people on the planet.

 

- Second - Apart from looking nice and pleasant, it has to be informative. Divide your mod page into sections, like Description/Required Mods/Recommended Mods/FAQ/How to install.... all that stuff. A mod page which just throws everything in your face under a single paragraph is quickly ignored.

 

I personally made images for my mod pages so that they are divided in nice sections, while keeping it very informative for the user. You can also increase the titles of your sections by using formatting.

 

- Third - Don't over-complicate things. Don't write a novel about how the mod does this and that. Keep it short, but extremely informative because people don't like reading ever since internet came into use.

 

- Fourth - Don't expect people to read your front page because some simply never do.

 

- Fifth - Make use of the TABS. Don't write all updates on the front page or the post section. Write them in the CHANGELOG tab that is designed for that.

 

 

As far as I write my mod page, I go with :

 

LORE (Before I say what the mod does, I prefer to tell a story if I have one) > DESCRIPTION (what the mod does - the most important part of the mod) > REQUIRED MODS (if any) > RECOMMENDED MODS (if any) > FAQ (I write questions and answers I expect people would ask) > CREDITS (if any) > Everything else like my links to other mods and so on.

 

AN EXAMPLE

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20638/?

 

ANOTHER GREAT EXAMPLE

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20105/?

[gamefever]

So how do you keep good, organized files for version control to help avoid losing any builds you have? I like what you said about the version numbers so I'll definitely keep all that in mind.

 

I keep a second drive handy or even a portable storage stick works too.

 

Some people keep "Old Files Section"

I don't keep this section full of files myself, just the last known good version.

Reason there is that if you store a whole lot of versions of files in your file section it can lead to user confusion as to what they should actually download.

 

For similar reasons I don't like to keep an update file for very long, its best to roll updates into the main file soon rather than later or never. Of course there will be end-user's that find that troublesome as they don't want to download big files for an updated version.....The thing is you have people that wont download updates even if they turn out to be critical, so comments sections change into "Did you download the update?"

I'd rather deal with comments about people being irked about downloading the recent main file than see people not applying "Hotfix" or "Critical Update"....

 

For the most part keep updates to only extra flair basically, if its essential for the file to work correctly it just sets you up for more pain.

 

As far as other serious modders go some keep a Gethub, that has online storage for "Lagacy Versions" and "Branches"

 

You don't really want your mod page to be the storage for different versions, that sets up your Comments section to get confusing for you and your end-users real fast.

[genolune]

So this shotcut software: What does it do? I need video editing software mainly to cut out portions of a video that are dead space like the clip for the institute settlement where I spent 5 minutes chasing down a settler. I looked at Shotcut for about half an hour to an hour. Then I used YouTube's editor.

 

The OBS worked perfectly though.

 

I need to work a lot better on my version control on my hard drive. I'll start labelling folders stuff like Version 1.0, Version 1.1, etc. Just in case a change I make screws something up.

 

 

I don't know if it's been said in this thread as I just skimmed over it but here are a few things of note:

 

1) Ideally, only upload a finished mod or something close to it. No sloppy half finished mods to the best of your knowledge.

 

2) Expect there to be bugs such as a wrong file path or something missing, right off the bat. Expect that there should some updates such as mods used or mods that go well with the mod that you didn't know about.

 

3) Slow your releasing of mods, simply to allow for the adjustment of the previous mod.

[Athanasa]

I'm sure this has been said by other people, but I'll dump it in anyway.

 

FYI, I have no idea what code mod pages use.

 

If supported, use internal linking (<a name=Info>) etc on the page to allow quick navigation.

 

To be honest, if that isn't possible on the mod page, I'd then suggest putting the basic info on the mod page and providing a link to somewhere else for the detailed information.

 

 

1) Basic info on what your mod does (and maybe a little on HOW if appropriate) at the top.

 

2) Instructions

 

3) Known issues and compatibility stuff

 

4) FAQ

 

5) Complimentary mods

 

6) Videos

 

7) Credits

 

 

Probably not exact. But I'm stick of scrolling through 20 videos before I found out more detail of what the mod does.

[DoctorKaizeld]

Probably not exact. But I'm stick of scrolling through 20 videos before I found out more detail of what the mod does.

 

I agree. Far too many commit this sin and it is infuriating.

[StarMystyk]

Same. There is a Videos tab but not many seem to use it.

 

With my mods I've been using the same template for years. One of the staff here made a readme generator back in the Oblivion days. Over time I've added some colour and a few other sections. But it was a good starting point.

[genolune]

a) FYI, I have no idea what code mod pages use.

b) Probably not exact. But I'm stick of scrolling through 20 videos before I found out more detail of what the mod does.

 

a) The mod page uses the same BBCode as the forums. BBCode

b) Yes, I'm exactly the same way. After the recommendation for using OBS, instead of a wall of text there will be ONE and ONLY ONE video explaining the mod in 10 minutes or less. All other videos go to the video page. If I ever make hot files, that will go to the images section. Keep it simple, for my sake and the users' sake.

 

I didn't know you modded State of Decay, star-mystyk. Maybe I'll switch all my stuff over to my desktop with more storage so I can play State of Decay again.