Nexus mods pages really need a way to warn users of broken/outdated mods.

[GRUmod]

Nexus seems to have no real quality-control on mods or pages/guides.

 

I've been swimming around nexus for some time, i've found a significant number of mods that are heavily outdated and there seems to be no global way of going "Hey everyone. Here's the issues with this mod. Here's the things that will break/are broken. Here's a real chance/risk of a significant likelyhood you're going to break your game."

The problem is a lot of mod authors simply vanish without a trace and for those that publish something decent, meanwhile their mods skyrocket to the top-tiers of 'Most Endorsed' or 'Most downloaded' there's no real way to flag or sing-out to the community about the glaringly big problems that the mod faces, meaning loads of people use it, it breaks everyone's game, then because of how popular it is, the cycle keeps repeating for new waves of people joining or finding nexus.

 

 

 

There should be a global feature of all mods that allow people with evidence of problems with the mod or known issues to leave their findings and it places a 'notch' against the mod - and after enough of these it gets reviewed by really experienced modders who are highly trusted within the community, and then it can get hidden/pulled down or 'archived' or maybe some kind of warning page when accessing the mod that says:



" THE MOD YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS HAS BEEN FLAGGED AS HEAVILY BROKEN OR OUTDATED. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PROCEED "

 

 

 

With maybe a red box around it in the search/mod results listing so people know to potentially avoid or tread with caution.

or something. Anything..

 

Maybe then this would be good to notify owners that their mod is quarantined or archived or warning people about it because it's broken, and this could entice them to come back and look at it and maybe decide to change the permissions to allow someone to re-release it, or port it, or fix it up or something.

 

We lose too much good content because of the current system.

 

There just needs to be a way to stop the broken content cycling through the community..

 

 

Example:
(ONLY AN EXAMPLE. MOD IS FINE...)

 

 

And then, even better would be the option to 'filter' these sorts of mods so they don't appear in your lists..

[HadToRegister]

Hmmm, that might be useful actually.

Initially I was skeptical about the idea, but this could be handy, especially for some mods that were last updated 2008 or 2010 where the MA is long missing, and the first several pages of posts are all about "This mod no longer works with "X" version of the game" etc

[Daermonster]

I second this! I would also add a link to possible replacements, or mods that do likewise changes to the mod in question.

[DoctorKaizeld]

Maybe a line where authors can add the version of the game they were using to make it?

[BigBizkit]

I can see your point, but what you are asking for is essentially curation, which we do not feel comfortable providing. It is simply not feasible due to the sheer volume of uploads on our services. Any "notch" against a mod would have to be investigated as we certainly would not want for mods/modders to become the target(s) of false reports.

 

We instead rely on the community to remedy this as much as possible. The "last updated" timestamp should give an indication as to how up to date a mod is. Other than that it is always a good idea to browse through the latest user comments to get an idea of whether a given mod is up to date.

[Arthmoor]

Any "notch" against a mod would have to be investigated as we certainly would not want for mods/modders to become the target(s) of false reports.

 

Yep, and this alone is why such an idea can never fly. Too many of these reports turn out to be due to user error. After all, a mod that's a buggy mess and breaks peoples' games isn't going to rise to the top 100 list and be widely recommended.

 

Also there's nothing wrong with an old mod that hasn't been updated as long as it's complete and has no real problems to speak of.

[GRUmod]

I can see your point, but what you are asking for is essentially curation, which we do not feel comfortable providing. It is simply not feasible due to the sheer volume of uploads on our services. Any "notch" against a mod would have to be investigated as we certainly would not want for mods/modders to become the target(s) of false reports.

 

We instead rely on the community to remedy this as much as possible. The "last updated" timestamp should give an indication as to how up to date a mod is. Other than that it is always a good idea to browse through the latest user comments to get an idea of whether a given mod is up to date.

 

What about a way to apply more filters? or allow users to 'hide' a mod they don't want to show up on nexus?

 

Seeing a tonne of mods in the search results that i am positive i dont want to see, having a way to just not view it ever, but not wanting to blanket-block other mods with a filter would be great..

 

I get the part about curating, it makes sense, just wish there was some other way. Feels like nexus is being dragged down from what it could be if all of the clearly broken things were able to be filtered out somehow..

[LeddBate]

Well, I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but anyone, even people new to the Nexus, should know to read the posts. If the mod is antiquated, breaking games, etc. Then there are usually PLENTY of comments to that effect. If more users here at the Nexus would just take a moment to do that, they could save themselves a lot of trouble with messing up a nice save game. Which brings up another point. You should ALWAYS experiment with a new mod (or group of mods) on a new game.

 

Having said that, I DO like lilmod's idea of putting a caution border around a mod. But I wouldn't base it on number of complaints, but rather on how long it has been since the mod was last updated by the mod author. That way someone could look the mod over a bit more carefully. If it hasn't been updated for a long time because the mod is "done" and functions just fine, then this should be obvious by the comments in the post tab. OTOH if the author abandoned it, and it has issues, that should be obvious from the comments as well. Having the border as a "head's up, this mod hasn't been updated in a long time" could be useful without drifting into the sticky field of curating.

[JimboUK]

Well, I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but anyone, even people new to the Nexus, should know to read the posts. If the mod is antiquated, breaking games, etc. Then there are usually PLENTY of comments to that effect. If more users here at the Nexus would just take a moment to do that, they could save themselves a lot of trouble with messing up a nice save game. Which brings up another point. You should ALWAYS experiment with a new mod (or group of mods) on a new game.

 

Having said that, I DO like lilmod's idea of putting a caution border around a mod. But I wouldn't base it on number of complaints, but rather on how long it has been since the mod was last updated by the mod author. That way someone could look the mod over a bit more carefully. If it hasn't been updated for a long time because the mod is "done" and functions just fine, then this should be obvious by the comments in the post tab. OTOH if the author abandoned it, and it has issues, that should be obvious from the comments as well. Having the border as a "head's up, this mod hasn't been updated in a long time" could be useful without drifting into the sticky field of curating.

 

Mods have their upload and last updated dates clearly visible before you click through, there's no need for any kind of border, and let's not assume that regularly updated mods are better, I've seen many mods ruined by authors who didn't know when to stop, good mods have become bloated broken messes because of it.

[Moraelin]

Heh. Yep, I can confirm that. I just recently broke one of my mods by adding a feature that nobody had asked for, and breaking the core functionality in the process :tongue: