Unauthorized Mod Mirrors

[Drakensang]

What would you lot think of a mega.nz repository with all the SHS and even gibberlings mods backed up there once SHS back online?

[Sam.]

6 minutes ago, Drakensang said:

What would you lot think of a mega.nz repository with all the SHS and even gibberlings mods backed up there once SHS back online?

The villagers will come with torches and pitchforks, and you will be burned at the stake.

[Drakensang]

How horrifying. But surely modders would want as many people as possible to be able to have access to their mods and not go through all sorts of spiritual journeys and esoteric adventures online to be able to obtain them, right?

Edited August 26, 2019 by Drakensang

[jastey]

Modders appreciate having control over which versions are available online, because they tire of players "reporting" already fixed bugs.

It's tedious, I know, modders actually insisting on the mods beging their creation and all that. How about we just exclude the tiring lot, then we can finally do with the mods what we want!

[Drakensang]

Well, it wouldn't be a repository where mods just get uploaded and forgotten about. It could have a few people taking care of it and keeping them up to date. Pretty sure you can have a mega account that's handled by multiple people with ease.

It also wouldn't be anything along the lines of taking the mod, modifying it, changing it or turning it into the exact opposite. It'd be just having it as a backup on a stable site where it can be easily downloaded, obviously with the modder's name and the mod's home site right next to it.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Drakensang

[Anprionsa]

@Drakensang

I had this very conversation on the Beamdog forums last year. I'm sure many of them remember this haha, as it got quite heated. I actually have a personal mod database that only a few on this forum have access to. It was originally supposed to help modders move over to Github as the primary source of downloads. Right now it sits in obscurity, but the list is quite extensive. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Anprionsa

[Lava]

It's not control just for the sake of control. I want to keep my mods updated and available on my terms; I want all downloads updated the very same moment and we all know, that it's impossible if it to be handled by more than one person. People "disappear". They take breaks. They retire. Their life changes. And it's fine. But that means if it's to be done the way I decided, I simply have to do it myself. I can consult updated, I can ask for help when I have my plate full and the matter is urgent, but updading and upload is on me and I try to do it the best I can. Otherwise we will end with one site that has updated mods, the other site with outdated stuff and possibly 3rd place with even more outdated projects.

[Drakensang]

Well obviously a mod repository's purpose isn't to make the main site the mod is hosted on irrelevant. Its only purpose would be to serve as a backup when all other main sources are offline or just unavailable.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Drakensang

[Lava]

But you can't turn off backup and prevent people from downloading from it and believe me, keeping everything updated there would be impossible. I have 30+ projects and contributions of my own and I can barely handle it and those "people" taking care of such repository would need tu update stuff from PPG, G3, SHS, TeamBG.CoM and Beamdog Forums... yeah, that's not gonna happen. And there are also projects on other sites than those.

[Drakensang]

It's not as if the backup can't have huge disclaimers where it states that it might not always be up to date and downloading mods from it should only be as a last resort, but whatever floats your boat.

[lynx]

https://xkcd.com/927/

[jastey]

Just a note: I'm just as annoyed from SHS beging down, but I don't see a legal way of uploading other people's mods.

And even if: adding a note to such a place sounds cool, but the half-joking, half-serious abbreviation RTFM (read the f*cking manual) didn't find its way into the world because all people actually read and care about notes from creators. The ones who don't are plenty to spend one's spare time with.

I understand that it is reducing the players' experience of big modded BG games if modders are protective about their work, but then again, it should be self-understood that they have all the right on their side to do so...

[Drakensang]

Legal way? Are you trying to say that someone taking a mod, uploading on a stable site and giving credit to its author and its host site would count as some sort illegal act that any sane human being would ever be bothered to care about? That's absolutely insane and quite frankly a hilarious thought.

Also about the note part, if it were files named, for example, "AUTHOR NAME: X" and another one right under it named "SITE: Y", they'd pretty hard to not notice and automatically read as you glance over 'em. Same for a disclaimer on probably every page of the repository that could go something along the lines of "USE THIS REPOSITORY ONLY AS A LAST RESORT AS MODS MIGHT BE OUT OF DATE!" They can attract one's attention quite easily. Especially if placed on every single page.

But yea, anyway, it's pretty obvious that this talk isn't going anywhere and that it's completely pointless when people think uploading their mods on other sites, the only reason being to act as a backup in case of their host sites going down, is some horrendous illegal act.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Drakensang

[Lava]

It should always be author's decision what to do. Perhaps it is hard to accept that, but the creator should decide how and where to offer his/her work. Nothing else to add here, sorry.

[Drakensang]

Right, so here we have a backup of the Gibberlings download section. It's a tad rough at the moment, but I'll take care of that eventually by adding tags next to each mod to specify with what exactly it is compatible. Something along the lines of "Mod X [Original/EE/BGT/EET]" and so on. Gonna scour the forums now for any mods that aren't in the downloads section. After that I'll venture into the most wretched hive of villainy and scum...the beamdog forums... It's gonna be rough, but I'll survive somehow. After that, I'll just wait for the SHS forums to come back online and we'll get to the real deal. Don't worry, we're all in this together and we'll make it, trust me.

Oh and if anyone's worrying that the link will go down or the mega will be taken out, worry not brothers and sisters, I'll handle it lickety-split and it shall return, like a phoenix rising from Arizona!

Golly gee willikers, I sure do hope them coppers don't start coming after me now after this most heinous act of cyber burglary!

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mike1072
removed link