Modding Community Rules/Guidelines [Updated Feb 24 2015]

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by mollygos, Dec 24, 2013.

  1. Desideratus

    Desideratus Certified Good Modder

    Would everyone complaining about modpacks please fill out this form so that I may better aggregate the problem, TIA~


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  2. witless

    witless Poptop Tamer

    urgent reminder that annushka harrassed a mod compilation uploader into deleting their file which is a ban-worthy offense on this forum
     
  3. Annuschka

    Annuschka Big Damn Hero

    Honestly, I'm completely lost on what kind of niche they actually fill (feel free to PM me). I see no real purpose for modpacks. So, anyone wants to present "his/her favourite mods" - fine, make a youtube vid or a blog post... Why packing it in another mod? After a while the whole system is flooded with everyones opinion of "mods that go well together" oO (this sounds like ego boosting to me.)
    The only reason is for compatibility, and this should be taken care of by a native mod management system and the modders themselves, making clean mods. (Since it's beta, there are cases where modpacks are a good workaround. But this should change when the modding system gets better).
    If some mods go well together it would be a lot more logical for the authors to just team up and merge them, continuing only one. THIS would enhance the user experience, because they wouldn't rely on a third party modpack and the mod overview is a lot less cluttered.

    All I'm asking for is that modpackers simply message the author before adding a mod to a mod pack. Most people do say yes, me included - I have mods in a modpack.

    Also, I see a bit of a difference: It's no big deal for quick, finished mods. But if you're working on a big mod, updating regularly... Of course you want to stay in control of this. I can see no bad thing about it. I want people to read MY update notes. I'm putting a lot of time and effort in those, too... What's wrong with aiming for high quality?
     
  4. Chalky

    Chalky Void-Bound Voyager

    The niche that modpacks fill - or rather, the clear and common use case - is when a user wants to enhance their game quickly and conveniently. This doesn't involve doing 50 keyword searches in a mod database, manually downloading 20 separate mods and crossing their fingers that everything works and is compatible, it involves downloading a modpack.

    The only thing I'm lost on is what anyone gains by having to PM you asking for permission to include your mod as is, as long as they're giving you full credit. This is assuming that you're going to let people include your modpack, the only thing that PMing you achieves is making you feel important. I'm not sure there should be rules that serve no purpose besides making you feel important.

    Is there a purpose besides this?
     
    Magmarashi likes this.
  5. Sledra

    Sledra Slotherator 2.0

    We're currently investigating claims regarding harassment of modpack creators. It goes without saying that that is not ok and a very quick way to get yourself removed from the community. If you have issue with something take it up through the official channels.
     
  6. Magmarashi

    Magmarashi Cosmic Narwhal

    The other purpose it serves is to ingrain a feeling in the community that Mod Makers are above the second class user, that Mod Makers are more important and that their whims and wishes are more important than the users they are actually making the mods for. This is the problem with the Minecraft modding community in a nutshell, inflated egos fed by a community that thinks they actually are beneath 'modders'
     
    Yuuma, Kyrosiris and Enzer_DeLeo like this.
  7. Annuschka

    Annuschka Big Damn Hero

    And how is an author supposed to know where their mods are added? There is also the point of "all files unchanged". If a modder doesn't get at least a notice when his mod gets added into another mod, there is no way the check if something was changed or not. If I support another modder I want to drop him/her a note about recent changes too.

    And I think modders should work to improve their mod to make it compatible. I'd prefer someone sending me a note if there are imcompatibilities instead of having a third party modpacker resolving those issues. Sure, there is reason to pack/fix discontinued mods. But a mod in active development...?
     
    NerArth likes this.
  8. Magmarashi

    Magmarashi Cosmic Narwhal

    If a modpack compiler is fixing incompatibilities then that means they are changing things. That means, by the listed rules at the start of this thread that you seem to selectively know how to read, they -HAVE- to contact the mod authors of the mods they are fixing or they will get punished. You are already protected from someone claiming your work as theirs or altering your work without permission, do you actually have a real point at all?

    That said, It would be cool to have a tag system or something that lets someone know that their mod is being uploaded into a pack, but only if its sole use is to make sure things are legit, abuse of that system to harass unmodified modpack uploaders should be severely punished still. While it would be very nice to have, I can't imagine that being easily implementable at all so I wouldn't hold my breath.
     
  9. Chalky

    Chalky Void-Bound Voyager

    I'm not sure this makes a whole lot of sense. You want there to be rules to make people notify you if they use your mod because you don't trust them to follow the rules and not alter your mod? It would be sensible to presume that the people we're talking about are trying to follow the rules - if they're ignoring the rules about not altering mods without permission, then you can add all the rules about seeking permission for other things you want and they'll ignore those too.

    Communication between modders (especially modders that are using each others work) obviously makes sense and has lots of benifits. We're not saying you shouldn't talk to each other - it's just that if you're putting together a modpack, you shouldn't be forced to obtain explicit permission from every single person involved. You obviously could still contact them to let them know what's going on and doing so will have a whole load of benifits - but if they can't or won't for some reason, then really it harms the modpack quality more than anything else.

    Not having a rule requiring explicit permission for every modpack isn't the same as saying modders can't chat to each other when creating modpacks.
     
  10. OKAY okay. More talking = easier solution than the one I'd posted previously.

    We'll add some radio buttons to the mod upload page with several options for mod authors.
    • Usable in mod packs without consent
    • Usable in mod packs with consent
    • Do not include in mod packs
    • Mod assets editable without consent
    • Mod assets editable with consent
    • Do not edit assets
    Once you've chosen one of these options, you cannot change your mind.
    Credit to mod authors is still a requirement. Use the @ function to tag the author in the compilation's credit section (i.e- @mollygos ) so the author can be notified.

    Mod authors: It's a smart idea to also choose an appropriate license (http://choosealicense.com/) and paste it into your mod description.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2014
    Yuuma, Aeon, NerArth and 4 others like this.
  11. Zanarias

    Zanarias Orbital Explorer

    Please make sure multiple of these are selectable, although I guess this is kind of clear.

    I think this is the best solution, it's fast and straightforward. There's a really vehement group of people who feel like it's fine to reuse other people's custom content due to the open nature of the game, and then there's people like me on the other side thinking that permission or at least adhering to the original mod author's request is an important aspect of keeping the community a respectful place overall.
     
    Annuschka likes this.
  12. Magmarashi

    Magmarashi Cosmic Narwhal

    Actually, we thought it was ok to use mods in mod packs as long as credit was given because that was the official policy that was spelled out quite clearly as being OK to do. The pushback came when people started trying to demand modpack compilers adhere to a separate set of policies, derailing their mod discussion topics and harassing through reviews. Moot point now, though, so time to move on~
     
    Aeon and Enzer_DeLeo like this.
  13. witless

    witless Poptop Tamer

  14. Zanarias

    Zanarias Orbital Explorer

    You're really putting a lot of my words in my mouth that I haven't used anywhere.

    All this does is give a limited amount of control that can basically be ignored to the mod author. You can still be as disrespectful as you want to them and I'm sure you will be, because ultimately they can't do anything to actually stop you from including it in something off-site. Giving the option to open things for everyone to use, or keeping it more restricted is not some world-ending catastrophic event. You can pack an alternative mod if "Bob's Cool Mod" is limited, take 1 minute out of your day to ask for permission from the author him/herself, or, here's a stellar idea, just not include it. If you want to edit "Bob's Cool Mod" and rip every single sprite he worked on and shove it into some mangled mess, you can still do that, you just can't post it here without explicit permission.

    You can throw as many technicalities at me as you want, I don't care and already know that people will spend weeks trying to circumvent asking someone a single easy question. The point is about respecting people's requests, and just respecting people in general, and that's not going to happen if everyone's just going to go "lolscrewoffloser."
     
  15. Silent Strider

    Silent Strider Pangalactic Porcupine

    Actually, you might want to read Valve's terms of service again. To post to Steam anything that uses content generated by a third party, be it on the Workshop or on any other part of the site, you are expected to obtain the authorization of the author. I expect this to include posting any mod collections or modifications.

    I believe most other mod sites use similar rules. Unless the original author gave a blanket authorization, anyone posting a modification or a compilation is usually expected to get explicit authorization from the original author first. I've seen users banned from other modding sites for not following this rule. NexusMods is one such site that I know follows this rule; post mod collections or modifications without the original author's permission and you risk a ban.
     
  16. Skull Skeleton

    Skull Skeleton Void-Bound Voyager

    Chucklefish should just do the needful and make it so by making a mod, you agree to release it Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike.
     
    Kestenvarn and ohgoditburns like this.
  17. Ahmi

    Ahmi Star Wrangler

    I personally would be outraged if someone took my hard work and changed a couple things then released it as they're own. You want to create something then do it, don't stand on someone else's shoulders and act like your not. As for steam, if you have something like a No License License e.g. Copyright [year] [fullname], and someone modifies and re-releases it on steam then you can take action against them via Valve respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that everyone using our internet sites and services do the same. Anyone who believes that their work has been reproduced in one of our internet sites or services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement may notify Valve. And further more Be aware that under Section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be liable for damages.
     
    Black--snow likes this.
  18. Magmarashi

    Magmarashi Cosmic Narwhal

    No one was doing this at all, it is almost mind-boggling how people keep completely overlooking the basic facts of the situation to argue something no one is even talking about.
     
  19. Chalky

    Chalky Void-Bound Voyager

    Nobody is talking about taking someone else's work and releasing it as their own. Also Chucklefish own the intellectual property rights to all derivative works. If you want to own something, write your own game instead of modifying someone else's.

    It's ironic that your claims of owning copyright to on game mods means that you're the only person who thinks they can modify someone else's work and claim it's their own.
     
  20. ohgoditburns

    ohgoditburns Void-Bound Voyager

    Lol what damages?
     
    Kestenvarn likes this.

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