Mod Authors Deleting Comments

[beebophuckleberry]

That's true about Steam. In fact, I remember a couple years ago the gaming news sites wrote about a developer because the game dev was making a scam cash grab. There were multiple news articles about it. Additionally, a former employee came out and stated that the developer never intended to release the game and they were only collecting pre-orders while continuously 'delaying' the release date. The news went on to add that there has been a significant uptick in the number of 'cash grab' scams on Steam. I visited the Steam page to see the game and I started tracking it to see what people were saying in the discussions. That developer deleted any and every post that mentioned the news articles about the game being a cash grab. <---point is, Steam devs can delete too.

 

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Back to Nexus... I believe 99% of the mod authors are good intentioned, but a few routinely delete comments that reveal bugs or stability issues with their mods. I have about 1000 mods and I know two mod authors that do hide comments. After discovering this I started tracking them in hopes of fixes. I never expected to witness comment after comment after comment being deleted.

 

I agree with the person above who said it should be a moderators responsibility to decide whether comments should be removed. Afterall, there is a reporting feature for a reason. If a comment is ridiculous then people will report it.

 

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Someone else above mentioned the purpose of this post. Well, because when I was brand new to modding I immediately searched mods using the 'most downloaded' and 'all time' filters. I went on a downloading rampage. For every mod I read the descriptions, followed the instructions, and made a beautiful build. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, my game was full of bugs, lip sync issues, floating NPC's, etc. Through process of elimination I discovered which mod was causing it. Then, I went to the mod page to see if I missed any important information. No dice. I removed the mod, but I started tracking it and reading comments hoping someone would one day post a solution. At this point I started noticing comments were disappearing. I then looked the mod up on Google and found countless complaints and ridicule from Reddit and Steam discussions. The mod was also on the 'naughty list'.

 

^^Events like the above should never happen. It's one thing to have bugs... many mods do. But, it's another thing entirely to delete information that basically hurts users. We read the comments, descriptions, and articles so we can be aware of what we're doing and what to expect. But, if someone is hiding information then we are blind. I wasted a lot of time because one mod author decided to hide comments that reveal how buggy their mod is. I won't name that mod, but if I said the name right now I guarantee many of you would be like, "Oh, didn't know you were talking about that mod. Everyone knows that mod is broken".

 

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Lastly, I also agree with the person above who said don't be tribal. Tribalism is a dangerous trait...

 

At the end of the day I don't expect things to change. I guess I was mostly interested to see what you all think. It's obvious there are mixed opinions and tribalism regarding this topic. Anyways, I appreciate those who responded with good intentions.

 

Take care.

 

P.S. ignore my grammar I'm too lazy to proofread right now :)

[VulcanTourist]

 

 

I know of another comparable example, and so likely do you: Steam's game forums. Valve gives game developers free reign to manage their own games' forums however they see fit, with virtually no oversight or recourse. Valve does so for the same self-interest that NexusMods does it. Both consider it a necessary evil; I don't.

 

 

No, I wasn't aware. Not a gamer (per say), and aside from this game, I have no connection to Steam. But that steam allows it provides some precedence...I suppose.

 

Valve even goes so far as to officially recommend to developers that they not engage with players through their own Steam forums....

Edited August 27, 2020 by VulcanTourist

[DoctorKaizeld]

The Nexus does oversee deleted comments. If you suspect abuse report the author and the staff will review the deleted comments.

[zachtan1234]

I hide comments, but also screenshot the best ones for posterity

 

I rarely hide comments but 100% of the time it's usually someone being ridiculously unreasonable.

[Ethreon]

 

I have no idea what posts like these hope to achieve. Deleting comments is a good feature that authors have on their own pages to help them clean up useless trash a lot of users really seem to enjoy "sharing" with everyone. Yes, like in any group of people some will abuse means they have at their disposal to achieve something they want, it's not exactly some novel information. The utter majority of comments that are deleted (part of which are removed by moderation anyway) deserved to be removed.

 

With all due respect, who determines whether a comment is trash? You? Me? An author concerned with maintaining his or her "face"?

 

I'm not claiming that crapposts shouldn't be deleted, but that's the role of a moderator, not a person who's own purposes may be served by comment deletion.

 

In almost 40 years on the net, and almost 30 years on the web, I've never visited another site that allows authors to delete other people's posts. That is the sole provenance of site moderators.

 

 

You need exactly half a braincell to realize who decides which comments are worth keeping and which aren't. I'm sure you can manage that yourself, and what you saw or didn't see in "almost 30 years on the web" is irrelevant to how this site works.

[anjenthedog]

 

 

I have no idea what posts like these hope to achieve. Deleting comments is a good feature that authors have on their own pages to help them clean up useless trash a lot of users really seem to enjoy "sharing" with everyone. Yes, like in any group of people some will abuse means they have at their disposal to achieve something they want, it's not exactly some novel information. The utter majority of comments that are deleted (part of which are removed by moderation anyway) deserved to be removed.

 

With all due respect, who determines whether a comment is trash? You? Me? An author concerned with maintaining his or her "face"?

 

I'm not claiming that crapposts shouldn't be deleted, but that's the role of a moderator, not a person who's own purposes may be served by comment deletion.

 

In almost 40 years on the net, and almost 30 years on the web, I've never visited another site that allows authors to delete other people's posts. That is the sole provenance of site moderators.

 

 

You need exactly half a braincell to realize who decides which comments are worth keeping and which aren't. I'm sure you can manage that yourself, and what you saw or didn't see in "almost 30 years on the web" is irrelevant to how this site works.

 

What I've seen in nearly 40 years on the net is NOT irrelevant. Your post stinks of an elitist attitude. Post deletion is supposed to be done by moderators, who are personally detached from a topic. What you call "good" is simply "convenient" to you.

[beebophuckleberry]

This is turning unnecessarily negative. Keep it civil please.

[TRCMods]

Concerning an earlier point about tribalism... I mean I'm not sure where that came from. You reference an earlier post which I can't seem to find. I wonder what happened to it?

Let's try a little comparative diagnosis here

You started a thread with a question that seems to be directed at mod authors. I assume you wanted to hear our side of it or you wouldn't have put it here where we can see it.

So 3 different authors respond with fairly similar replies. Now sure this could be the "mod author tribe" uniting to defend itself in some kind of authors vs user war but how about this.

We the authors on this thread are not really all that connected. We may exchange a meme or a hello on discord now and then but we're not some big clan out to get the user peons. Maybe it's just that we've all shared similar experiences in our comments because they're actually quite common. Sure the download to troll comment ratio shows that most users are cool people, either saying nothing, saying something nice or offering useful feedback and bug reports but when people come to your comments with an entitled attitude you tend to notice. Shared experience does not equate to tribalism. You asked we answered.

[VulcanTourist]

Shared experience does not equate to tribalism.

Yes, actually it does. It shouldn't, but yet it does. History books are rife with examples of "shared experience" perverted by human emotion into tribalism. Tribalism is selfishness and self-interest externalized to a group whose "shared experience" individuals allow to define their very identity, and anyone who doesn't share that same identity becomes an enemy. Being human isn't shared experience enough.

 

The particular irony here is that both some mod authors and mod users have traits from the Autistic Spectrum, and those people when identified continue to be considered inferior by a dangerous proportion of the population, including our sitting President. How is it that "shared experience" doesn't draw them together here?

 

I was not the person who started this thread. "Where it came from" was your demonstration of tribalistic behavior, in this instance your "Us" is mod authors and "Them" is anyone who merely uses them. It's the "useless eater" mindset perpetuated.

Edited August 27, 2020 by VulcanTourist

[gnarly1]

History books are rife with examples of "shared experience" perverted by human emotion into tribalism.

And also full of examples of people overcoming these '"shared experiences" (which I think is not an accurate or useful term here, but whatever) in order to work together and contribute to the advancement of the human species.

 

However, it hasn't escaped my notice that you've used a comment by TRCMods by lifting it out of its context so that you can twist it into this fatuous and frankly dishonest statement:

 

Where it came from" was your demonstration of tribalistic behavior, in this instance your "Us" is mod authors and "Them" is anyone who merely uses them

He made no such demonstration. Either you genuinely think he did demonstrate it and in that case I recommend a reading comprehension course, or you have have an agenda which you're trying to promote, but doing so rather poorly.

Edited August 27, 2020 by gnarly1