nexus hate?

[Yoshh]

I think it's pretty obvious that piracy is equal to you taking the whole book from the library with no intent to pay them for it.

 

Pretty far-fetched, but still an analogy nevertheless:

 

Imagine if you had access to replicaters, something that could copy a physical object flawlessly. While you didn't have to steal the original, you get access to an identical copy of the object without paying for it. Now imagine that object was the product of years of hard work. You'd be making use of something someone deserved to be paid for if they wanted to do so. It's their product, they're entitled to do so if they intend to.

 

While this is all sci-fi blabbering, the idea is not far from the truth. Given the opportunity, people would definitely do it. A lot of people say these kinds of multimedia products we make use of (movies, music, entertainment) should be available for everyone.They want it all, and they want it now.

 

Say hello to Consumerism. :turned:

Edited January 26, 2012 by Yoshh

[Shantih]

What I personally find very irritating is that many people are recycling and stealing ideas from others and don't even bother to credit them. I mean look at The Lord of the Rings and the number of books, games and movies that have been inspired by Tolkien's books. Of course Tolkien didn't create everything out of nowhere, he found much inspiration in existing myths and legends. Still, if we take most heroic fantasy games and stories with elves and dwarves (not to mention halflings) there is no denying that some strong cases of plagiarism can be made (for instance take the Forgotten Realms and D&D -just one example out of many).

 

I also find very amusing that the Grey Wardens in the Dragon Age Series bear so many similarities with the Night's Watch from George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire... I guess that there is truth in the phrase that says that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

 

Libraries are only legal because they were already around and were more or less grandfathered in. Imagine if someone tried to invent the concept of a library today, they would be sued into oblivion.

 

I think Q definitely has a point here.

 

We've come to a point where we can't even sell old games because they are tied up with accounts that require online registration. Soon we won't even have physical copies of games anymore.

 

Sometimes I really miss the old days when you just had to put your CD in the drive and play the game. These were simpler times.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

If a practical reasoning is needed for not supporting\allowing pirates here, consider the amount of bs we would have to put up with just in helping support their glitchy, un-patched game versions. "Help plz dis mod dosnt work wit the torrent I jus dled".

 

But if we are just discussing the concepts of intellectual property my opinion is this;

 

The line of intellectual property is drawn when other people use your idea to make profit.

[LadyMilla]

What I personally find very irritating is that many people are recycling and stealing ideas from others and don't even bother to credit them. I mean look at The Lord of the Rings and the number of books, games and movies that have been inspired by Tolkien's books. Of course Tolkien didn't create everything out of nowhere, he found much inspiration in existing myths and legends. Still, if we take most heroic fantasy games and stories with elves and dwarves (not to mention halflings) there is no denying that some strong cases of plagiarism can be made (for instance take the Forgotten Realms and D&D -just one example out of many).

 

I also find very amusing that the Grey Wardens in the Dragon Age Series bear so many similarities with the Night's Watch from George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire... I guess that there is truth in the phrase that says that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

 

Libraries are only legal because they were already around and were more or less grandfathered in. Imagine if someone tried to invent the concept of a library today, they would be sued into oblivion.

 

I think Q definitely has a point here.

 

We've come to a point where we can't even sell old games because they are tied up with accounts that require online registration. Soon we won't even have physical copies of games anymore.

 

Sometimes I really miss the old days when you just had to put your CD in the drive and play the game. These were simpler times.

 

In the old days, you borrowed books.

Then you were able to rent VHS tapes.

Today, you can rent DVD movies.

[Thandal]

Libraries are not legal because they were "grandfathered". Libraries are much older than any notion of copyrights. They were originally private and/or academic and/or religious institutions. And most charged a substantial fee, one way or another, to pay for the materials.

 

Modern, "public" libraries are much more recent inventions. And the rules (laws, in most situations) about how they can lend their collections were hammered out precisely because of the 18th Century versions of piracy concerns -- allowing the use of IP (books, back then) only with the permission from, and compensation to, those who's work the books represented.

 

This same misunderstanding of the history of creative work and how it is paid for occurred earlier when someone mentioned the Sistine Chapel. The Pope did not commission that work as an act of public patronage. The chapel was used for private Vatican functions, and the "public" did not obtain the benefit of experiencing that expression of Michelangelo's genius for centuries.

 

Is that the kind of system we want to encourage today? I think not.

[Halororor]

Back to the original topic, though. It's something I feel rather strong about, but I've got quite a few concerns regarding the way moderating is handled on the Nexus forums. I've thought about voicing my concerns numerous times over the past few months, but due to the site's zero tolerance policy of questioning moderators' actions, I've refrained from risking my account in such a manner, even though I'm probably risking it with this post. I can also honestly say, giving the site's track record, I don't see it helping anything or encouraging change anywhere.

 

I've spoken to quite a few people (who I'm not going to name, to protect their privacy) on other forums, and quite a number of them share some, if not all, of my concerns. And most of them are people who still frequent these forums, so it's not people who got banned here and have vendettas. On one of the forums the thread I made actually got deleted after a bit of discussion, because members were scared what the repercussions for their accounts here might be if someone from these forums were to come across it.

 

Back when I started here in 2007, I loved this place. I considered it my 'primary' forum. I can't even count the number of times I almost got thrown from the IT class in tenth and eleventh grade for checking up on these forums when I should have been working on my abysmal programming. :P

That's why I hope the moderating team takes this post for what it is. Honest concerns from a member of five years. I don't have any reason to bear a grudge against the forum or its moderating team. If anything, I suspect I'm one of the members who has been giving quite a bit of leeway and second chances when it could have been just as easy to justify a strike or a ban for some of my actions. It wouldn't do me any good to raise concerns if they didn't genuinely feel strongly about them.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Halororor

[Dark0ne]

You said you had concerns but you didn't really mention what those concerns were. Perhaps a PM to me would be a better option than making it public.

 

The way I look at it is pretty simple; if you wouldn't say what you write here to a total stranger in a pub, you shouldn't write it. If I said a lot of the things that people get banned for here to some one I didn't know in a pub where I live, I'd expect to get glassed in the face. Unfortunately we cannot glass people in the face over the internet (yet, *fingers cross* though..), so we ban them instead.

 

The anonymous nature of the internet has created a generation of people with alter-egos who say one thing online, because they can get away with it, and say another offline to people's faces. I don't agree with that. If you can't be nice to people here, you're gone.

 

The two biggest reasons, by far, that people get banned is (1) admitting to piracy and (2) telling authors they don't like their mod because it doesn't fit in to their personal tastes. With (1), you're an idiot for admitting it, with (2), no one cares what your personal tastes are so why share it with others? You don't walk in to a pub and tell random people you hate what they're drinking. No one forced you to look at that drink and there are plenty of other drinks behind the bar for you to choose from that you will like.

 

Too many people act like utter idiots on the internet because they can get away with it. We don't want that here. And that's my take on it.

[myrmaad]

You know, in my view, it's really worse than going to a bar and heckling people's drinks.

 

It's much more like going to an Artisan's Craft Fair, where they are giving away free samples.

 

The artisans set out their creations behind booths and you stand in line to pick up your free sample.

 

Most people pick up the sample and leave, not even thanking the artisan.

Some actually get their sample and say something nice before they leave, like thank you, or great job.

 

But some people, for reasons I cannot fathom*, stand in line only to loudly heckle the artisan.

 

My question is, "Why are you even in this line?"

 

 

 

*My conjecture for this unreasonable behavior includes questioning whether its related to possibly: being part of the self-entitled youtube iGeneration? Is it the same mysterious statistic that results in

? They seem to think, in spite of the fact that almost none of them has ever tried to be an artisan and they know almost nothing about the craftsmanship of such products, that their opinions matter. Their opinions would only matter if they actually were interested in paying for that product, but they've already stated that it isn't what they want.

 

In fact many times when I'm moderating the chat room, I see this same behavior, an inability to resist announcing my 'score' in the course of my duties. http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c117/SeaBlossom/nexstuff/Judges_Scores.jpg

 

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c117/SeaBlossom/icons/facepalm.gif

 

I'm going to assume the biggest issue is the Zero Tolerance on File Comments. We know this causes heartburn, but under the circumstances, (small staff and unprecedented site growth) we have been the very definition of overworked and underpaid, and that includes Dark0ne. And we've been talking about it and there are changes coming with the process that will be built in to the new site, to make it easier for us to use other methods before resorting to big ban. And you might have noticed we have several new staff members, who know their way around the sites, and who are going to be a huge help to all of us. These people are long term members who've already demonstrated their integrity and loyalty to the site.

 

So I think you'll see things get better.

[Ganon2020]

Well, at risk of sounding like an a**-kisser, I really appreciate all the work the staff put into these sites.

 

Where would we be without The Nexus?

That's something (some) people tend to take for granted as well.

[Ecoman15]

I've never had a problem with Nexus. Been downloading here for years. Only thing I could say that is a real small issue at best is that people are thumbs down happy on here other than that this is a good site. Only way I can see you getting banned if you do something to intentionally get yourself banned over. I mean use common sense lol. Edited May 30, 2012 by Ecoman15