Why are mod authors allowed to ban people from seeing their mod?

[Mightandmarine]

Yeah I know nothing will change because Nexus has always greatly valued mod authors over users in literally anything forever to the point of insanity, but it's ridiculous that somebody can simply block others from using their mod when the other has done absolutely nothing to provoke it. I pay for a premium membership because I want to use mods and support the site, but I find parts of it blocked off even though I have not contributed to the community in half a decade. On the list of noxious things mod authors are allowed to get away with (as a mod maker) this is really at the top.

 

For instance, I found myself banned from using a mod, I had never spoken to the maker, seen any of his mods, or interacted with him or any of his friends. So I asked him what I had done, hoping to maybe resolve the issue and assuming there had been a mistake, or I had slighted him in the past (in which case I would have asked for forgiveness like an adult).

 

But neither of these were the reasons:

 

http://i.imgur.com/UGhsdmB.png

 

I don't even know what that means. I'm assuming the reason is because I joined before 5-16-2016, in which case, what? I've committed the faux pas of joining earlier than others. I hardly ever play Skyrim, and I just got a new installation, so I don't even have access to older mods! What sense does it make to ban somebody because I don't 'need' their mods.

 

I guess anyone who has been using the Nexus for a while or supports it shouldn't be allowed to use some mods? If he banned all premium users, would the Nexus still not care? Probably not, honestly.

 

Oh, and I don't know what exactly he meant for sure because he also proceeded to block all communications with me.

 

I'm a mod creator, I've never released anything for a Bethesda game, but I've produced mods for a dozen different games over the years. I have always supported modders and their rights to their work and to content curation. I've left reviews on mods, some rude, some exceptionally civil, and seen them deleted and myself blocked, I've seen people act like they are superior because they know how to use Creation Kit, regardless, I have never really complained about it here and I've always seen it as a consequence of trying to give power to modders.

 

But seriously, banning people from even downloading a mod? There's no reason to it. Absolutely none.

[M48A5]

I think what the mod author meant was "lore monger", based on a comment you posted on May 15, 2016 concerning an uploaded mod. "I feel like we're really starting to stretch the term 'lore friendly' "

 

As to why a mod author can block downloads, it's simple. The mod is the property of the author and they can control who has access to their property.

Edited March 6, 2017 by M48A5

[Reneer]

You only made one post on May 16th, 2016, and it was this one. So that's my guess right there - you annoyed the mod author (or his friends, perhaps) enough to ban you from their files. My further assumption is that "longer monger" actually was meant to say "lore monger".

 

As to whether banning people from downloading mods is bad or not - businesses / people have the right to refuse service to anyone so long as the reason isn't related to the patron being of a protected class (under U.S. law and U.K. law). Nexus simply extends that right to refuse service on the mod author's part to their file-hosting service.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Reneer

[Deleted82156User]

I've left reviews on mods, some rude

 

There is your answer right there. Why would you even do that? What is the point of going up to someone who is giving nice stuff away for free to everyone, and being rude. Not only that but being publicly rude.

 

But seriously, banning people from even downloading a mod? There's no reason to it. Absolutely none.

 

Except that there is, very much so. Why should modders tolerate rude, unappreciative people giving them harassment and abuse. Now at least we have an option to remove them, so that we don't have to deal with it anymore. Dealing with many rude and abusive people, over and over, time and again is very stressful and can wear people down, making what is supposed to be a fun hobby into a nightmare. Many modders have quit modding for this very reason.

 

So now you will likely say...

 

'But why stop them downloading, they should still be able to download'

 

 

To which I reply...Why? They came into our mods and crapped all over us, why should we be forced to share our work with them when they have nothing but abuse to offer as 'thanks' for our hard work.

 

 

Also, Premium membership does NOT give access to mods, it never has. It is about supporting the website.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Guest

[Mightandmarine]

I think what the mod author meant was "lore monger", based on a comment you posted on May 15, 2016 concerning an uploaded mod. "I feel like we're really starting to stretch the term 'lore friendly' "

 

As to why a mod author can block downloads, it's simple. The mod is the property of the author and they can control who has access to their property.

 

You only made one post on May 16th, 2016, and it was this one. So that's my guess right there - you annoyed the mod author (or his friends, perhaps) enough to ban you from their files. My further assumption is that "longer monger" actually was meant to say "lore monger".

 

As to whether banning people from downloading mods is bad or not - businesses / people have the right to refuse service to anyone so long as the reason isn't related to the patron being of a protected class (under U.S. law and U.K. law). Nexus simply extends that right to refuse service on the mod author's part to their file-hosting service.

 

Yes, Nexus does extend that right, I'm saying it's a silly thing to extend. If Nexus wants to allow mod authors to ban users from commenting on their mods or PMing them, then whatever, they have the right to do so despite the consequences. But mod authors shouldn't be able to block people from even viewing their mods for something as petty as disliking someone making a vaguely, (and for God's sake let's be honest, vaguely) disagreeable comment on another mod. If this is even a thing that should be done, it should be done by moderators, not by random content producers.

 

Nexus is the only mod front that allows this. The others, Steam Workshop, ModDB, hell, Loverslab, all have some protection for modders and their work but they don't have that one, and amazingly, they have yet to collapse in on themselves.

 

 

There is your answer right there. Why would you even do that? What is the point of going up to someone who is giving nice stuff away for free to everyone, and being rude. Not only that but being publicly rude.

 

Except that there is, very much so. Why should modders tolerate rude, unappreciative people giving them harassment and abuse. Now at least we have an option to remove them, so that we don't have to deal with it anymore. Dealing with many rude and abusive people, over and over, time and again is very stressful and can wear people down, making what is supposed to be a fun hobby into a nightmare. Many modders have quit modding for this very reason.

So now you will likely say...

 

To which I reply...Why? They came into our mods and crapped all over us, why should we be forced to share our work with them when they have nothing but abuse to offer as 'thanks' for our hard work.

 

Also, Premium membership does NOT give access to mods, it never has. It is about supporting the website.

 

Because in my 7 years of being a member of the Nexus I'm sure I insulted someone somewhere at some point, I was covering my bases. The hardest I've probably ever gone was saying something stretched lore, and I believe I called a Fallout 4 mod edgy. If that means random mod makers will then ban me because of those comments then that's frankly ridiculous. This community already encourages modders to live in a bubble away from criticism far too often, this is just a leap into insanity.

 

Why should you tolerate the rude, unappreciative masses who don't understand the skill and care that went into retexturing the characters fingernails? You don't, Nexus already coddles mod makers to the point they can safely block off all communication with people they don't like. Banning someone from even seeing your mod isn't the solution to that problem, banning them from commenting on it or PMing you is.

 

Also do I seem like some insulting random user who wandered onto his page and harassed him? Once again, I'm a modder, I understand people can be rude, I'm also an adult and I normally ignore these people (and I get dozens of them. A day.) or I block them from speaking to me if they're particularly noxious. I've never seen someone say something I don't like on another mod that's not even insulting and then had them blocked from even seeing my mod.

 

You keep saying 'they' as if there is an organized army marching onto your mod pages to hurl abuse at you, or as if I may be a member of this group. To which I'll just say, because I really feel like I've gone out of my way to explain why that's not applicable here, no.

[papagator]

I feel as if mod author blocks should have some type of intervention by staff. Surely there's 'acceptable' circumstances where blocking someone is fine but even I have been blocked by a mod author, and it was because I tried defusing an argument between the author and an critic on the comment section. To put it into perspective, I don't have any history of ever putting inflammatory comments on the Nexus.

 

The whole schtick of staff never intervening in these scenarios only goes to show that the staff value mod authors over the average user; that the user is worth less than a mod author, which is wrong. Mod authors should have some sort of accountability even if it's on their own mod page. Does this website not support free speech?

Edited March 6, 2017 by papagator

[joemitchell320]

free speech is protection of speech between a government and its people. This is a privately held website, and the owner's rule is law.

 

I feel as if mod author blocks should have some type of intervention by staff. Surely there's 'acceptable' circumstances where blocking someone is fine but even I have been blocked by a mod author, and it was because I tried defusing an argument between the author and an critic on the comment section. To put it into perspective, I don't have any history of ever putting inflammatory comments on the Nexus.

 

The whole schtick of staff never intervening in these scenarios only goes to show that the staff value mod authors over the average user; that the user is worth less than a mod author, which is wrong. Mod authors should have some sort of accountability even if it's on their own mod page. Does this website not support free speech?

[papagator]

 

To which I reply...Why? They came into our mods and crapped all over us, why should we be forced to share our work with them when they have nothing but abuse to offer as 'thanks' for our hard work.

 

 

 

What exactly constitutes as abuse though? I've seen people get blocked because they offered fair criticisms, such as textures not being detailed enough, the voice acting needs improvement, there are glitches in the interior cell, the mesh isn't accurate to the real weapon, there are missing details to the model, the preset isn't accurate to the person being portrayed, etc etc.

 

Obviously flaming others, trolling and being toxic is abusive. But so many people share their thoughts and it's promptly deleted and they become blocked because either they're being misconstrued, or the mod author wants none of it. As a mod author, if I can take criticisms why can't they?

Edited March 6, 2017 by papagator

[Dark0ne]

While I'm not going to get involved in the main topic as it has been discussed to death already, I will comment on this derailment:

 

The whole schtick of staff never intervening in these scenarios only goes to show that the staff value mod authors over the average user; that the user is worth less than a mod author, which is wrong

 

 

...why is that wrong? I will categorically go on record, as I have before in the past, and say I think a mod author is most definitely "worth more" than a mod user to this community. That's not to say that a mod user is worth nothing, just that a mod author who actively contributes to the main point of the site is definitely "worth more" than a mod user who simply comes to the site, downloads some mods for their game, and then leaves again.

 

In fact, I'm happy to break it down into a worth chart, from less to more for you:

1. Users who come to the site, download a mod, and then leave
2. Users who download mods and come back to endorse the mods they like
3. The above, but they also provide constructive feedback and bug reports on the mods they use that help the mod authors
4. The above, but they also actively participate in our forums/Discord discussing topics and helping others with issues
5. Mod authors

I could break it down further into subsets (like mod users who don't read descriptions and blame mod authors for their incompetence), but I think you get the gist.

 

I'd say 4 and 5 are pretty close on my "worth chart", if not on par. Some people simply don't have the time in life or the "brain" for the type of modding they would like to do (e.g. the mathematical brain for programming, or the artistic flair for modelling), so they decide to help out in other ways by spending countless hours helping people troubleshoot these issues, updating wikis, or, you know, running sites like the Nexus. They're most definitely "worth more" to this community than someone who pops on, downloads something, and leaves again without ever coming back to do anything as simple yet encouraging as endorse the mods they're using and like.

[TheVampireDante]

Mightandmarine, on 06 Mar 2017 - 9:27 PM, said:

I had never spoken to the maker, seen any of his mods, or interacted with him or any of his friends.

 

Incorrect.

 

The tools to initiate user blocking are only made available to an author on posts/comments made directly on their files, or file they have editing access to.

They cannot file block people that have had no interaction on their uploaded content, although contact blocking is available via forum profiles - but that does not affect file interaction in any form.

 

So you must have commented on a file either partially or wholly under the control of the mod author that blocked you, and have deemed it was worth taking the time they would need to instigate that block.