Donation Points system now live for mod authors on Nexus Mods

[Vanguardascendant]

In response to post #60308196. #60308756 is also a reply to the same post.

Vanguardascendant wrote: Awesome. Worth the wait. Quick question that I couldn't find an answer for on the FAQ. Is it possible for mod users to donate $ directly to the pool? Or would we have to sign up for premium memberships, knowing that a portion of our membership dues will go to the pool?

Thanks.

Pickysaurus wrote: We'll be looking into this kind of thing as the system develops :)

Thanks for the info.

[Deleted53237921User]

Are corporate mod creators (like NVIDIA and Vault 1080) excluded from receiving DP?

[JosephRussell]

So if 1000 users download my mod in May, and then the same 1000 users download an update for my mod in June, does that count as 1000 unique downloads in each month? Or is that 1000 in may and then 0 in June as everyone who downloaded in June had already downloaded the mod before?

[ChrisKley]

bethesda... take notes

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #60311576.

Treacleman wrote: So if 1000 users download my mod in May, and then the same 1000 users download an update for my mod in June, does that count as 1000 unique downloads in each month? Or is that 1000 in may and then 0 in June as everyone who downloaded in June had already downloaded the mod before?

Check the bottom question on our FAQ page (https://www.nexusmods.com/modrewards#/faq).

[Thaiauxn]

In response to post #60309136. #60309441, #60309706 are all replies on the same post.

Thaiauxn wrote: Not sure about this system.

According to this you're making a donation "pool" that you will then redistribute to the masses based on a unique download system. You're starting with a 3 month donation bin, then will award that "point system" to mod authors with the most unique downloads.

It sounds like something cool, but also kinda lame for us, because we still have lot of modders resources in FNC, each of which with unique permissions, but all of which gave us explicit non-commercial use.

Is this only for mods that are brand new, using all original assets, or old ones that are unaware of this set of terms?

We're looking to release FNC in this 3 month window, and we're gonna nuke the Nexus servers for weeks, so if it's a competition, we win.

But at the same time, do we need to go ping....

hagyjalbeken
Lord Inquisitor
Scott Mack
Macintroll
zzjay
drumber
El Pasco
Marcurios
kibblesticks
zilav
EdibleGrenade12
tapioks
pilamin
eomanv
Mesh Magnet
Johannes Scherer
SGHi.info
Sesom
Tyler "Speedy B" Bourne
Miles "TrickyVein" Wimbrow
Meo 3000
Cambragol
Andersh
Dragbody
Toadlet
Neverclock
Quetzlsacatanango
Chuck Steel
Rez
Harry Luck
bibbeh
Breeze
ElminsterAU
Sharlikran
zilav
hlp
ScripterRon
Purple Pigeon and hlp
Jon from Niftools

And tell them, yo, your assets you allowed us to use, for free, are going to be opted in for a monetary reward system. We're taking money for this now, or at least a large monetary reward, based on unique downloads, which your assets helped assure we would win.

Which to my communist mind says, "you guys did work on this mod, you hold stake in it, you own your elements of the mod you gave us for the enjoyment of the people. We must redistribute funds for the people's labour."

To my capitalist brain, "oh s***, that's a lot of license violations. That's a lot of potential litigation to defend."

Because we'd have to go to each one, one at a time, and ask them if that's cool, many of whom are inactive users who have been inactive for years. If we just go ahead and assume silence is yes, then, say, Harry Luck, who has been inactive for 6 years, but gave open permission to use his resources, comes back on, sees we won a cash reward, then gets irate that we didn't pay him for the privilege.... oh s#*!.

We're using Harry's trailers, an old tree tent, and a crashed Boeing. I could easily replace them. Years later I'm now a more then proficient 3D artist. It would take my 3-4 days and inarguably my own art would be superior (no offense Harry,) but it slows down release and inflates file size with higher poly assets that need the map/navmesh adjusted around the footprint of the new meshes.

The same is true of our active team members -- they can quickly be contacted and tell them how this goes down, "do you agree to these terms."

Because I can see some of our guys are totally fine with their work going into one brick of cash, which would go to Radian-Helix Media, LLC, and we'd use it to fund the next game. Not a mod, it'd help fun a commercial enterprise, because our team moving on to indie development after this full time. But I can also hear that they want what are effectively royalties on an unnegotiated contract -- we "licensed" their assets. Say, Mac's Wasteland Merc armour highres textures, or Vlad's Kira Vault Suit, each of those were donated or made for us by them on the premise they won't be distributed and will be non-commercial. Are they cool not getting a kickback from that? Because those assets are worth something in a dollar amount. They're great assets.

We also have 40+ Voice Actors (two of whom are union sag/aftra on the down low) and they agreed this was non-commercial and would receive no future royalties or payouts. It was done for experience, demo reel, education, and the love of the work (and in a lot of cases, favors to me.)

And we're not even gong to talk about RAD Tools Video format. I had a conversation with Mitch where I told him we were non-commercial, and he STILL came back saying, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, you can't use Bink for a free mod project. It was never licensed for that application."

He said this after I asked him if I could buy an academic license for Bink 2's Premiere Pro plugin. And he quoted me a bare minimum of 10,000$ and sent us all into a panic for a week until he dropped it (probably because Mitch is really cool and decided if he just never saw it, he doesn't have to deal with it. Cool dude. Arguable license system, I was trying to give him my money, but cool dude.)

So unless we get a Nexus staff member to go through and comb New California's assets and find every fragment of a mod author's assets that could be a liability, contact them, and get permission how are we supposed to qualify for this safely?

It sounds like a nightmare.

Dark0ne wrote: The onus really is on you to ensure that you have the requisite permissions to turn the Donation Point system on for your mods, and this is the downside to using other people's work extensively. It requires more "admin", for sure.

I'd argue that if mod authors specified when you got permission that you cannot financially gain from it, then your mod would fall foul and you would not be able to turn the DP system on without first sorting that issue out. However, if it was never mentioned either way, then your mod does not fall foul. In between Steam Workshop and Bethesda.net, paid modding has been a known about "thing" for many years now. If mod authors care about this issue, but aren't specifying whether assets can be used in mods that can potentially receive a financial kick back, then the onus is on them to ensure their permissions are correct, concise, up-to-date and cover this eventuality.

wertfert wrote: Wow, that is a comprehensive reply. Are you a lawyer? Everything you've stated is legally sound. This system could cause a lot of problems for you. Because even if you choose not to accept the money, there is the implication that you could. Maybe deciding to legally and publicly opting out of this so that you can remain entirely non-commercial? Just my thoughts.
(Edit: Dark0ne responded to you before me, while I was still reading and processing your post. He seems to have answered this. Good luck!)

The thing that's bothering me the most about this isn't the legally murky nature of its wording, it's the fact that because this financial incentive now exists as a possibility, I owe it to my team, my modders and my voice actors, to go tell them that it's a possibility. And then tell them we're not opting in because their work isn't worth the risk or the effort.

I can't think of a more disrespectful position to be put in.

I would need a contract writer, a lawyer, and then to manually go to over a hundred people who have full legal leverage to hold the mod for ransom until their assets are expunged and/or they are paid whatever figure hits their lark, to qualify for this system, and in the words of the post, "deserve it." That is hideously expensive and will delay us for possibly months, and cost untold thousands of dollars.

That is a new and very unsettling responsibility.

[JosephRussell]

In response to post #60311576. #60314261 is also a reply to the same post.

Treacleman wrote: So if 1000 users download my mod in May, and then the same 1000 users download an update for my mod in June, does that count as 1000 unique downloads in each month? Or is that 1000 in may and then 0 in June as everyone who downloaded in June had already downloaded the mod before?

Dark0ne wrote: Check the bottom question on our FAQ page (https://www.nexusmods.com/modrewards#/faq).

No, I read that and understand it - I suppose what I'm asking is does that unique download count reset every month? So if the same person downloads my mod every month, does he contribute 1 unique download per month, or is he only counted once, in the first month?

[StinVec]

Interesting development. Unfortunately for me, I'm unlikely benefit in the slightest from this due to only creating mods for a single game that is several years old and no longer all that popular (Dying Light).

 

However, I do have a question:

If I understand properly, a 'Unique Download' is only a download by a registered and logged-in Nexus account, and downloads by unregistered or not-logged-in users do not contribute to this 'Unique Download' counter.

 

I think I recall coming across a single comment in a single discussion some years ago about how to make your file only able to be downloaded by a registered and logged-in Nexus users. I think it was somehow tied to bloating your download file (including images and whatnot) to be larger than 2MB in size, which would then trigger it to require a registered account to download.

 

Is this still a valid way to restrict downloading to only registered accounts?

Was this ever a valid way to restrict downloading to only registered accounts?

 

It seems to me that this should actually be an option on author's mods - whether or not to limit it to only being downloadable by registered users - and not something that is only able to be activated by a less-than-ideal trick of bloating the file to then fall into this undocumented 'Registration Required' area (if it is even 'a thing'), especially with the implementation of this DP system that relies on 'Unique Downloads' (which I am to understand is only downloads made by individual registered accounts).

 

I imagine many mod authors would like to make their mods only downloadable by registered users so that all downloads would apply toward the 'Unique Downloads' count.

 

I would really like to better understand the nature of what constitutes a 'Unique Download' and, if it is essentially 'Registered Accounts', then how to enforce my mods to only be able to be downloaded by registered and valid/verified accounts. If allowing unregistered/not-logged-in users to download mods prevents their download from counting toward the 'Unique Download' counter, we should be able to limit the mod to only be downloadable by registered users.

 

I may be repeating myself with slightly re-worded sentences, but I'm primarily looking for clarity on this and whether or not requiring a registered account to download is possible (or can be added as an option without bloating the download file with mod images).

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #60311576. #60314261, #60315341 are all replies on the same post.

Treacleman wrote: So if 1000 users download my mod in May, and then the same 1000 users download an update for my mod in June, does that count as 1000 unique downloads in each month? Or is that 1000 in may and then 0 in June as everyone who downloaded in June had already downloaded the mod before?

Dark0ne wrote: Check the bottom question on our FAQ page (https://www.nexusmods.com/modrewards#/faq).

Treacleman wrote: No, I read that and understand it - I suppose what I'm asking is does that unique download count reset every month? So if the same person downloads my mod every month, does he contribute 1 unique download per month, or is he only counted once, in the first month?

Only once.

[wheelchairwillie]

Really cool idea, but what happens if an author deletes their mod because personal/political/whatever reasons and then upload it again? Or decide to repackage something that should have been an update or bugfix into a new mod instead?

Would be a quick way recycle existing downloaders into uniques again for the less scrupulous. Not to mention clogging up the site with app store type spamming of minor variations.

Edited May 22, 2018 by wheelchairwillie