Mod Technical Reviews BEFORE Publication

[PoorlyAged]

I am an old software developer and most of my work was subjected to review at various stages of development. It was a practice designed to improve the quality of the software that was delivered to the customer. The practice also helped rein in some of the coding cowboys who charged off and did their own thing.

 

In a different topic, I floated the idea that technical reviews of mods before publication might be a good thing. The purpose of such reviews would be to identify possible errors before a mod was released to the world.

 

I am now floating this question to a larger audience. Would a pre-publication technical review of mods by established mod creators be a good idea? Could such a review improve the quality of mods? Could such a review raise issues of compatibility which might go undiscovered otherwise? Would such reviews establish a professional atmosphere to an otherwise random and haphazard endeavor?

 

I say 'yes'. What do you say?

 

 

[AGreatWeight]

The more eyes the better, so I'd agree with your suggestion. Veteran and newer authors alike would benefit from it.

[Rabbit1251]

I don't think that you get the idea of "modding". This is not a factory where mods are made for a large company or audience. This is where people make mods for their own use. They can ask for help from the people here, but in reality they are making mods to please themselves. When they get their mod up and running the way that they like they can, if they like, share their project with others here. They really just need to please themselves. As I said earlier this is not a mod factory. It is a hobby.

 

 

The Rabbit

[PoorlyAged]

I don't think that you get the idea of "modding". This is not a factory where mods are made for a large company or audience. This is where people make mods for their own use. They can ask for help from the people here, but in reality they are making mods to please themselves. When they get their mod up and running the way that they like they can, if they like, share their project with others here. They really just need to please themselves. As I said earlier this is not a mod factory. It is a hobby.

 

 

The Rabbit

 

Rabbit51, please believe that I do get it. I make mods that do things I want. I share mods because I think someone else might like them. Any relationship between my question and a factory environment is in your perception alone.

 

My point is that as a neophyte I have the potential to radically EF something up, simply because of my boundless ignorance. It would be nice if someone who has been around longer, has much more experience, has probably made the same or similar mistakes and is willing to take the time; actually looked at my mod BEFORE the error was released on the world. Kind of a sanity check.

 

And I am not the only inexperienced mod creator out here. There are literally hundreds of us. We are all capable of making mistakes in ignorance and some of us have. The review of a mod before release might have prevented a couple hundred broken saves.

 

But I do understand that this is a new concept for a collection of independent mod creators. Give it some thought; it might grow on you.

 

Elmer.

 

PS. The relationship between Elmer and The Rabbit did not escape me. :D

[TheVampireDante]

The term you are looking for is beta tester.

[PoorlyAged]

The term you are looking for is beta tester.

 

No. Beta test runs the code. A technical reviewer LOOKS at the code and uses their experience and understanding to find errors or oversights which are not quite so obvious to newbies. Things like cells which are not actually used but show up in the mod (I did that one but still don't know how).

[chucksteel]

Here is one in support of PoorlyAged, I helped a first time modder once because a friend asked me to.

 

This person released their first ever mod and was getting ripped apart by mod users who have read a few pages about xEdit. The mod had some mistakes yes, not arguing that fact. It had deleted ref's and some other potentially bad things but, the people doing the ripping didn't take the time to see that every deleted ref was also set to "Initially Disabled"!

 

This tells me as an experienced author that the new author never intended to delete anything and was doing a darn good job of trying to do things correctly but, as we all know accidents happen in the Ckit, GECK or whatever.

 

I don't think a official vetting system would fly but a list or thread with the more experienced mod authors who would be willing to lend a noob or even a veteran a hand wouldn't be a bad idea. I know some new modders can sometimes be intimidated about asking for help.

[Tarshana]

When it comes to Skyrim there are people who run 200+ mods and any one of them could cause a minor issue that couldn't be known until that person plugs and play. While I have over 350 mods downloaded to test my own work, I only have so much time, so I rely on my mod users to submit bug reports and feedback.