Taking down the GameFront files

[Shadohz]

GF??!! Wow, I hadn't heard of that brand in a while. This article by itself may just double their user traffic for the next month. GF has been slow-bleeding for some time. Let's get down to it. Archiving legacy and once-popular sites has been a tradition as long as I can remember. Archivers, even those with altruistic intentions, haven't always exercised the best judgment in securing the permissions or respecting the autonomy of the archivee. The archiver takes on the cost of hosting and delivery of files and has to rely on the mercy of donations from a few because Azura knows it's like trying to pry a penny from Scrooge McDuck to get more than 3% of your base to give any significant amount if you offer something for free. The archiver also however gets the added benefit of additional traffic, users, and resources. In the words of my drug-addicted neighbor who stole my backyard refrigerator for scrap metal "You should be glad I took it off your hands. You weren't using it anyway." He was correct. I didn't want to pay the cost of hauling it for a few bucks so I just left it there. I was more offended at the fact he brazenly took it off my property without my knowing. Side note: I've since got rid of that useless mongrel and got a new dog that bites first and barks questions later.

 

What am I trying to say here exactly? I'm not saying it's right for whoever you're throwing shade at to take GFs (and by extension those creators) content however if those files are to survive then GF may want to rethink a long-term strategy. Remember what they said about pride in Pulp Fiction. Perhaps entering into revenue-sharing and partnership contracts with other mod sites is a good start. It at least gives allies of GF legal grounds for having the content removed from rogue sites that take content without giving credit. I mean good luck enforcing it in the Big Four countries that love engaging in pirating but in the majority of cases it should work to stop or minimize certain types of leeching behavior. Should GF enter into death kneel mode again (or any site for that matter) people are going to be apprehensive about rescuing files for fear of being called a pirate. Perhaps an independent board of gamers, modders, and professional game industry companies can create a set of guidelines for such situations and/or making source material public domain (or limited use) should one of its members unfortunately go out of business.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Shadohz

[Moksha8088]

That was a short-sighted decision on the part of GameFront and certainly not in the best long-term interest of their game users. A redundancy of game sources is good and as the saying goes, "it is not putting all your eggs in a single basket".

[Arthmoor]

In response to post #67080591.

Moksha8088 wrote: That was a short-sighted decision on the part of GameFront and certainly not in the best long-term interest of their game users. A redundancy of game sources is good and as the saying goes, "it is not putting all your eggs in a single basket".

This wasn't Gamefront being a jackass. It was whoever the other parties are that are the jackasses.

That said, I find it ironic that you say redundancy is good since so many people have this bizarre attitude that it either goes on Nexus or nobody gets it. A situation like this could be financially very bad for Nexus and could possibly get them shut down. Then where are all those "Nexus only" mods supposed to go if people never upload anywhere else?

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #67080591. #67080751 is also a reply to the same post.

Moksha8088 wrote: That was a short-sighted decision on the part of GameFront and certainly not in the best long-term interest of their game users. A redundancy of game sources is good and as the saying goes, "it is not putting all your eggs in a single basket".

Arthmoor wrote: This wasn't Gamefront being a jackass. It was whoever the other parties are that are the jackasses.

That said, I find it ironic that you say redundancy is good since so many people have this bizarre attitude that it either goes on Nexus or nobody gets it. A situation like this could be financially very bad for Nexus and could possibly get them shut down. Then where are all those "Nexus only" mods supposed to go if people never upload anywhere else?

Yes, just to clarify again, this is not GameFront's fault and I understand why they've asked us to do this. It saves a lot of hassle for them and they're perfectly within their rights to do it, considering the backups are no longer required.

I'm sure some people in the community will be able to guess who might have caused these issues. Edited January 22, 2019 by Dark0ne

[tcbflash]

since I didn't even discover the modding scene until maybe a year ago, I don't even understand what this is all about, but I will say that after reading this I searched for this gamefront site just out of curiosity, and landed at a site that appears to be some sort of false version, a third party, pretending to be gamefront... looks like the REAL site is gamefront.com.... while the imitator is gamefront.online (.blahblahblah…) Hopefully I didn't get duped into getting this backwards, but that's what it looks like to me at first glance... just thought I'd share...

[FileTrekker]

In response to post #67080466.

Shadohz wrote: GF??!! Wow, I hadn't heard of that brand in a while. This article by itself may just double their user traffic for the next month. GF has been slow-bleeding for some time. Let's get down to it. Archiving legacy and once-popular sites has been a tradition as long as I can remember. Archivers, even those with altruistic intentions, haven't always exercised the best judgment in securing the permissions or respecting the autonomy of the archivee. The archiver takes on the cost of hosting and delivery of files and has to rely on the mercy of donations from a few because Azura knows it's like trying to pry a penny from Scrooge McDuck to get more than 3% of your base to give any significant amount if you offer something for free. The archiver also however gets the added benefit of additional traffic, users, and resources. In the words of my drug-addicted neighbor who stole my backyard refrigerator for scrap metal "You should be glad I took it off your hands. You weren't using it anyway." He was correct. I didn't want to pay the cost of hauling it for a few bucks so I just left it there. I was more offended at the fact he brazenly took it off my property without my knowing. Side note: I've since got rid of that useless mongrel and got a new dog that bites first and barks questions later.

What am I trying to say here exactly? I'm not saying it's right for whoever you're throwing shade at to take GFs (and by extension those creators) content however if those files are to survive then GF may want to rethink a long-term strategy. Remember what they said about pride in Pulp Fiction. Perhaps entering into revenue-sharing and partnership contracts with other mod sites is a good start. It at least gives allies of GF legal grounds for having the content removed from rogue sites that take content without giving credit. I mean good luck enforcing it in the Big Four countries that love engaging in pirating but in the majority of cases it should work to stop or minimize certain types of leeching behavior. Should GF enter into death kneel mode again (or any site for that matter) people are going to be apprehensive about rescuing files for fear of being called a pirate. Perhaps an independent board of gamers, modders, and professional game industry companies can create a set of guidelines for such situations and/or making source material public domain (or limited use) should one of its members unfortunately go out of business.

I do understand the point however, although at GameFront we've had a difficult past with owners who mismanged the site badly over the years, the site is now in the right hands and I can guarantee that is not the case. Additionally while the files are not *currently* available on Nexus due to the aforementioned issues this does not mean they can never become available again here should that worst case scenario ever occur. That being said I do feel that the main GameFront site, while it is online and alive, is running from the original database with the full metadata and user accounts etc. is the definitive place to obtain GameFront content, so, as someone who is very passionate about it (I've worked at GameFront since 2002) I would obviously like to protect the platform and it's integrity, and also the rights of the users who uploaded files to it, also. I appreciate what Nexus did and still do, and as the article states we were happy initially for them to maintain their backup, which they rightfully made given at the time there was no hope of GF returning, our return is something of a minor unforeseen miracle thanks to our dedicated volunteers and users. So the situation is complex, but I don't feel either of the parties (GF or Nexus) are at fault and we came to the agreement mutually and are happy to maintain a good relationship going forward.

[FileTrekker]

Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

[FileTrekker]

In response to post #67081036. #67081581, #67081586 are all replies on the same post.

tcbflash wrote: since I didn't even discover the modding scene until maybe a year ago, I don't even understand what this is all about, but I will say that after reading this I searched for this gamefront site just out of curiosity, and landed at a site that appears to be some sort of false version, a third party, pretending to be gamefront... looks like the REAL site is gamefront.com.... while the imitator is gamefront.online (.blahblahblah…) Hopefully I didn't get duped into getting this backwards, but that's what it looks like to me at first glance... just thought I'd share...

FileTrekker wrote: Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

FileTrekker wrote: Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #67081036. #67081581, #67081586, #67081596 are all replies on the same post.

tcbflash wrote: since I didn't even discover the modding scene until maybe a year ago, I don't even understand what this is all about, but I will say that after reading this I searched for this gamefront site just out of curiosity, and landed at a site that appears to be some sort of false version, a third party, pretending to be gamefront... looks like the REAL site is gamefront.com.... while the imitator is gamefront.online (.blahblahblah…) Hopefully I didn't get duped into getting this backwards, but that's what it looks like to me at first glance... just thought I'd share...

FileTrekker wrote: Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

FileTrekker wrote: duplicate

FileTrekker wrote: Yes, dot com is the official site, unfortunately as the other post alludes to, multiple other parties are indeed exploiting the situation. But Nexus are very supportive or our position and we're very grateful for all their help. :)

That site is the old GameFront site that someone else was able to scrape and backup to their own domain.

But you are correct - GameFront.online = unendorsed third-party backup of the original GameFront site, GameFront.com = official GameFront site that has been completely rebuilt by the staff and has no resemblance to the old site other than still having all the mod files. Edited January 22, 2019 by Dark0ne

[Shadohz]

In response to post #67080466. #67081506, #67082886, #67083036 are all replies on the same post.

Shadohz wrote: GF??!! Wow, I hadn't heard of that brand in a while. This article by itself may just double their user traffic for the next month. GF has been slow-bleeding for some time. Let's get down to it. Archiving legacy and once-popular sites has been a tradition as long as I can remember. Archivers, even those with altruistic intentions, haven't always exercised the best judgment in securing the permissions or respecting the autonomy of the archivee. The archiver takes on the cost of hosting and delivery of files and has to rely on the mercy of donations from a few because Azura knows it's like trying to pry a penny from Scrooge McDuck to get more than 3% of your base to give any significant amount if you offer something for free. The archiver also however gets the added benefit of additional traffic, users, and resources. In the words of my drug-addicted neighbor who stole my backyard refrigerator for scrap metal "You should be glad I took it off your hands. You weren't using it anyway." He was correct. I didn't want to pay the cost of hauling it for a few bucks so I just left it there. I was more offended at the fact he brazenly took it off my property without my knowing. Side note: I've since got rid of that useless mongrel and got a new dog that bites first and barks questions later.

What am I trying to say here exactly? I'm not saying it's right for whoever you're throwing shade at to take GFs (and by extension those creators) content however if those files are to survive then GF may want to rethink a long-term strategy. Remember what they said about pride in Pulp Fiction. Perhaps entering into revenue-sharing and partnership contracts with other mod sites is a good start. It at least gives allies of GF legal grounds for having the content removed from rogue sites that take content without giving credit. I mean good luck enforcing it in the Big Four countries that love engaging in pirating but in the majority of cases it should work to stop or minimize certain types of leeching behavior. Should GF enter into death kneel mode again (or any site for that matter) people are going to be apprehensive about rescuing files for fear of being called a pirate. Perhaps an independent board of gamers, modders, and professional game industry companies can create a set of guidelines for such situations and/or making source material public domain (or limited use) should one of its members unfortunately go out of business.

FileTrekker wrote: I do understand the point however, although at GameFront we've had a difficult past with owners who mismanged the site badly over the years, the site is now in the right hands and I can guarantee that is not the case. Additionally while the files are not *currently* available on Nexus due to the aforementioned issues this does not mean they can never become available again here should that worst case scenario ever occur. That being said I do feel that the main GameFront site, while it is online and alive, is running from the original database with the full metadata and user accounts etc. is the definitive place to obtain GameFront content, so, as someone who is very passionate about it (I've worked at GameFront since 2002) I would obviously like to protect the platform and it's integrity, and also the rights of the users who uploaded files to it, also. I appreciate what Nexus did and still do, and as the article states we were happy initially for them to maintain their backup, which they rightfully made given at the time there was no hope of GF returning, our return is something of a minor unforeseen miracle thanks to our dedicated volunteers and users. So the situation is complex, but I don't feel either of the parties (GF or Nexus) are at fault and we came to the agreement mutually and are happy to maintain a good relationship going forward.

n0e wrote: Oh, don't get us wrong we would never dismiss any idea and feedback, FT was just trying to clarify the situation as it stands today. Currently we're entirely volunteer run, the site is hand built from the ground up entirely by one web developer in his spare time, for example, so where we go in the future is open to all possibilities, we read and consider every idea that comes from the modding community for how best to bring GF forward as the entire reason we spend so much of our free time to build is for you guys. :)

MadMikeyB wrote: Solo web developer mentioned above here.

Just want to add my thanks to Robin and the Nexus team for their understanding and co-operation, and I look forward to working more with you guys in the future :)

Thanks for the insight/inside FileTrekker. However don't dismiss my idea about revenue-sharing and partnership contracts. If the porn industry can figure out how to make it work then surely the game industry can. Not throwing Nexus under the bus here but we've already seen many times where "exclusivity" has caused many projects to be lost to the void because some would rather let them die than for someone else to take over. GF or Nexus exclusives could be permanently lost unintentionally or worse either site could become the next EA/Bethesda/Nintendo that gains a monopolistic hold over the market and cripples any competitor or puts a stranglehold on usage rights. Many "good companies" went bad because the right people got pushed out and the wrong people took over. I think some people such as myself are more concerned with the potential long term consequences we've seen unfold repeatedly. A partnership would give both of you (or anyone you team up with) legal protection from those misusing "fair use" or pirating and any other tangible benefits while also offering the redundancy that some of us would like to see. Edited January 22, 2019 by Shadohz