Blog piece: Ads, Supporters, Endorsements and Bandwidth Throttling

[Mateodon]

+1 for looking into the adblock whitelist. I have no problem viewing a few mild banners to support a deserving site, but when the ads get intrusive (ie playing sounds) the simplest solution is to block all ads on the site.

 

I know you've stated that not hiring an ad broker is a matter of prioritizing community over money (sorry for the over-simplified paraphrase), but perhaps you should view getting someone to vet ads as an investment in the quality of the site.

[bruce142]

I can relate to the situation of people wanting to use adblockers and the Nexus network needing the advertising income : my opinion is that you can't make people turn off their adblockers by simply lowering their download speed, why you might ask? Because they can surf adfree with an adblocker in one browser and use another browser to download their stuff without an adblocker, this way they get an undeserved adfree surfing experience and a relative uncapped downloading speed. A better idea (I don't know if it's feasible), is a integrated browser in NMM, so you can ensure ads are visible for all non-supporter/non-premium members.

 

I need to point out something about the endorsement system as well. I don't think connecting download speed to the number of endorsements you make is a good idea because it lowers the value of an endorsement (a l'art pour l'art philosophy or more an endorsement for a download speedboost philosophy), if people only endorse your mod to get better download speeds, then you won't know if the endorsement is genuine or not. A better idea to improve endorsements is to allow endorsements of files that you have downloaded before without login in to your account (because the file was under 2Mb), but are included in your mod list in NMM. Nexus complains that you can't endorse the file because you don't have downloaded it but at the same time it's in your mod list in NMM, a bit weird don't you think.

 

Another suggestion of mine, is to allow mod authors and moderators to post a note on a hidden file modpage, I have a mod (WIP - Destroy the Thieves Guild) that has been hidden to avoid people downloading the old version, but at the same time I lose potential downloaders because they think the mod development has cease to exist, but the truth is nothing more than there is a new much better version of this mod (Destroy the Thieves Guild), I want to post on the hidden file page, something like new version released here with a link. This would also come in handy for moderators that can state the reason for the file being hidden for reasons other than "file under investigation" (the Skyrim FPS booster by tris has been under investigation for over 3 months now, a solution could be a file hidden page, with a note from the moderators, that the safety of this mod can not be guaranteed and that further investigation is needed for determining this mod safety status).

 

One more thing, I think there needs to be a redesign of the Hot Files section. The criteria aren't really clear to me, the criteria itself seem to adapt to the endorsement rate of the Hot Files themself with paradoxal results as effect (on Fallout Nexus you need only two endorsements to reach the Hot Files section, on Skyrim Nexus in the month december/january you needed over 50 endorsements to reach the hot files section, so it's more of the timing which matters not the quality of the mod itself). I think the "hot" status of a mod needs to be determined by other criteria than endorsements, maybe let the votes for file of the month count towards the "hot" status of a mod? This should end the discrimination of quest mods to be not included in the Hot Files section, which is now being dominated by skimpy armor mods, ENBs, menus based on MCM/SkyUI, armor retextures and other retextures.

Edited February 6, 2013 by bruce142

[LittleBaron]

My 2 pence: (forgive me if any/all of this has been said already in the previous 25 pages of comments!)

 

.1 I would pay for additional premium services for mod *authors*, if you offered them. Probably in whatever form they might take, to support the site.

 

.2 I would pay to advertise my mod babies. I thought that was on the table at some point? I've heard nought about it since.

 

.3 As you pointed out above, people care about labels such as 'pillar of the community', so in addition to the practical endorsement incentives, I would recommend also adding the 'displayed award' incentive of a designation under the person's avatar, just like for premium members.

 

~LB

 

 

 

 

[xenoargh]

Wow, 21 pages, and practically all of it is reasonable. Must have been a good post, Dark0ne ;)

 

In all seriousness, so long as ads don't:

 

1. Attempt to run extensive Flash routines that slow my machine down.

2. Do not make noise.

3. Intrude unduly on the browsing experience.

 

I could care less about them and I think a lot of people feel the same.

 

On the subject of incentives for active / useful members:

 

1. One person who contributes a useful, positive informational piece about a mod is worth 1000 regular downloaders. 1 troll hell-bent on making trouble is -1000 downloads. Find ways to incentivize the former and penalize the latter.

 

2. I feel that the Endorse system should remember what you've downloaded in the last month and, if you downloaded a bunch of mods and come back, should say, "hey, did you like these mods you downloaded?" the next time you show up. A lot of people don't Endorse things outside the Skyrim / Fallout Nexus because you're just being treated like a file dump.

[menathradiel]

For those who are afraid of getting ripped off (even if using paypal) you could use a prepaid credit card to fund online purchase and live without worries.

 

The trouble is that this only works if the site in question has other options than paypal, as most of the prepaid cards can't be used with paypal. Or at least this was the state of affairs when I used to use one for internet transactions. I think now there are some that can be used with paypal, but most of those are so expensive to use that it's really not worth it unless you have no other option.

 

 

 

In general, I think that a good option for the supporter fee would be a text message that charges, if it could be implemented.

[xehlwan]

I'm the kind of person who use adblockers extensively. Frankly, I've just gotten fed up by the regular misuse of ads on the internet.

 

Now, this news-post is brilliant. You have the exact attitude and intentions every webmaster should have (but usually don't). After reading the first paragraph, my adblock was turned off for these sites. After reading through, I'm considering paying for supporter or premium - just to show how much I like the way you think!

 

TL;DR

Dark0ne, your reasoning is exemplary, and I will support you fully!

[Balrahn]

Nexus has been a great community. I'm happy it's survived this long and it still maintains to be one of the largest mod sites around. I don't use AdBlock or Noscript even though I despise adds. But if I can throw my 2 cents in to help this community stay alive then it's the least I can do in return for what Nexus has done me. Hopefully in the future when I get better situated (financially) I can show much more support to this community.

 

xenoargh makes a good point. Although, I don't think it should be for the files you've downloaded every month. It should be any file you've downloaded off the Nexus site that has not had a value opinion. It would be a ton of reminders for most of those people, but, why not? I mean it's fairly simple to create an account on Nexus and go on a downloading spree and not give a valid opinion about it. I've been there and done that. I hate myself for it and I try to do the best I can to go back and endorse every mod that I like. Though, it might be a little too much. Maybe you can add another comment tab to the Modders page where it's only for members who have endorsed the mod and post a positive feedback on the mod. While leaving the other comment for constructive criticism, ideas, troubleshoots etc... Just a thought.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Balrahn

[GrimReaperCalls]

This is a brilliant idea!

 

As someone who frequently visits Asian/Russian sites, I've been using an ad-blocker for a very long time, but recently I've started disabling it for sites I trust and support, nexus being one of them. You really do have an excellent attitude concerning ads and site management and I wish to fully support these ideas. I really do hope they'll work out as you've planned, there are (almost) always hidden variables that can only be found through testing, so good luck :)!

 

I have a personal irk (hope I'm using that word correctly) with monthly subscriptions, which is why I never get premium membership on a site, but a one-time cost is definitely something I can take, especially for a site I've used for this long.

 

I'll definitely be getting supporter status once it's available!

[Tatsuyakai]

Not sure if you'll read this, but i'll explain my reasons for everything i do.

 

Since i know your site doesn't use the clickable ads system or pop ups, i'll stop blocking ads.

 

As for endorsements, it's more of a problem of time and forgetfulness for me, i generally download a mod, test it for 5 or so minutes, and then wait to endorse it if i liked it due to the time limit, and forget, my suggestion would be to make it possible to endorse files through nexus mod manager, as i usually check my mods every few days for updates, being able to see if i've endorsed a mod i like or not and being able to endorse it on the fly, if that isn't feasable (ad revenue) then maybe lower the wait time on endorsements, it doesn't take long to test a armor or weapon mod to see if you like it.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Tatsuyakai

[atomicliquorice]

If the option is there I will always manually download a file (for keeping track of in a seperate mod folder from NMM's mod folder in the case of potential disaster and more efficient organization in my opinion). After an hour is up (sometimes even a few days after downloading it) I'll try to endorse a file (If I feel it deserves mine) through NMM and it tells me that the mod either doesn't exist or that it can't find the proper Nexus ID (I am completely okay with this, I have no issue going to the nexus page of the mod to endorse). Is the endorsement system checker going to go through NMM or simply our site profile to find out how many total mods we have and what we've endorsed/abstained from endorsing; or is it a completely separate system that keeps track of your endorsement and then says to the server(s) that it's okay for 'x' person to download it at 'y' rate?

 

Short and sweet: Will the endorsement system check through the site or through NMM to determine the percentage of endorsements/abstainments a person has?