Abandoned Mods

[TechAngel85]

Not had mine either.

 

Nothing should be implied so if something needs stated, it should be added.

 

Credit to original author is handled elsewhere in the agreement.

[GrantSP]

 

 

4. If the author is not active within 90 days neither on their mod page nor replies to any correspondence (e.g. PMs, emails, thread activity, etc), the mod is considered retired and converts to Open Modification.

 

    1. Retired mods may be forked by the community to continue the original authors work, to keep the mod updated for compatibility, and/or create other works.

        1. Forked mod must be released with an Open Modding Agreement and with credit to the original author; else, the fork is not authorized.

        2. If the original author should return to the original mod, any forked mods only consisting of compatibility updates with the original mod's masters should be absorbed into the original mod with credit given to the authors of the forked mods for their support. Forked mod containing modifications may remain forked or the author of the modifications may merge the modifications into the original mod if agreed by the original author with the original author giving credit given to the author of the modifications.

We're getting into murky ground here. 

 

Just who decides, and on what basis, what is constituted as 'compatibility patches' and not something greater?

 

Once the mod is under the Open Modding Agreement then that is final. All authors sign on the line at the outset and there is no going back, you can't ask for someone to hand over their work based on the perceived depth of work done! If modA is up for grabs then anything I do to it is mine, the author of modA knew that when they released it. If I want to be a fool and not return modA to the original author then I suffer the wrath of the community and, more than likely, modA would die a sad and lonely death in the unloved bin. What we're asking for here with forked mods returning is a gentleman's agreement, nothing enforceable at all.

[MonoAccipiter]

Aren't compatibility patches already freed from all of this? If you make a new plugin that combines the records from two plugins from the ground up, I do not see how that should requirement any form of open modding agreement, neither did I think it was against Nexus' Terms of Service. When I upload mods they just say to make sure that no one else's assets are included, that also means modified assets of course. 

[TechAngel85]

We're getting into murky ground here. 

 

Just who decides, and on what basis, what is constituted as 'compatibility patches' and not something greater?

 

Once the mod is under the Open Modding Agreement then that is final. All authors sign on the line at the outset and there is no going back, you can't ask for someone to hand over their work based on the perceived depth of work done! If modA is up for grabs then anything I do to it is mine, the author of modA knew that when they released it. If I want to be a fool and not return modA to the original author then I suffer the wrath of the community and, more than likely, modA would die a sad and lonely death in the unloved bin. What we're asking for here with forked mods returning is a gentleman's agreement, nothing enforceable at all.

You kind of have to take the entirety of the agreement into consideration and that is only a small part of it. I will be opening a topic in a restricted forum for it soon. Staff will have access and a few invites will be sent to mod authors asking if they'd like to take part for review, feedback, and development.

[moho25]

The racism argument feels like major strawman to me. <snip>

I'm going to keep this short, as over the weekend this thread went into a different direction, which is fine.

 

It's no strawman. As I said, I hesitated to use it, as I anticipated someone would respond about like you did. You might disagree with it, but there is a certain parallel. If you want to wax philosophical about it, that's fine. There's been a lot of that in this thread, and much of it simply amounts to people attempting to justify their beliefs, behavior, or potential behavior. None of it changes the reality of the current situation.

 

 

This is not exactly ambiguous.  Everybody pretty much stated that they don't agree with him, but a lot of the vibe was sort of 'everybody has a right to an opinion'.  Sure, free speech, yadda yadda.  Of course I agree.  However I'm not sure it was really properly acknowledged just how toxic these ideas are to just about everyone involved, and especially the community as a whole.  This is not cool, and it is not a productive way to shape or change the community, and it's important to be clear about that. 

It wasn't ambiguous, and I think part of the problem is that despite that post being the impetus for most of this thread, it got muddled in a debate about "open modding". Open modding was not what Syn's post was about. Despite me not adhering to that philosophy, I certainly have no problem with debates on the topic, and if that's what STEP supports, that's entirely their right and prerogative. I also don't begrudge any mod author who decides that's the right thing for them. However, while I appreciate the disclaimer STEP attached to the top of the post, I suspect that if STEP didn't advocate for open modding, the staff might have read Syn's words in a different light. And that would have changed the tone of this entire thread.

 

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One thing I'm not quite clear on regarding STEP's open modding policy when they work with mod authors. So, if a mod author decides to work with you, they essentially sign away the rights to their mod? It becomes "open modding" and any changes can be made to the mod once they are no longer around? What about while they still are around? Can anyone who wants to fork it? Or, can anyone simply take the assets and use them in another mod? And, all mod authors presumably are made aware of this and have to consent when they sign on to work with STEP?

[MonoAccipiter]

I'm going to keep this short, as over the weekend this thread went into a different direction, which is fine.

 

It's no strawman. As I said, I hesitated to use it, as I anticipated someone would respond about like you did. You might disagree with it, but there is a certain parallel. If you want to wax philosophical about it, that's fine. There's been a lot of that in this thread, and much of it simply amounts to people attempting to justify their beliefs, behavior, or potential behavior. None of it changes the reality of the current situation.

 

Come on man, that's a classic argument to the stone. You just dismissed what I said (and what was said by others) as wrong without providing any proof whatsoever. I'm not waxing philosophically about anything; I'm using terms that helps me approach the subject through logical reasoning, dismissing it as waxing seems like an incredibly cheap way of distracting from the points that were made.

[TechAngel85]

One thing I'm not quite clear on regarding STEP's open modding policy when they work with mod authors. So, if a mod author decides to work with you, they essentially sign away the rights to their mod? It becomes "open modding" and any changes can be made to the mod once they are no longer around? What about while they still are around? Can anyone who wants to fork it? Or, can anyone simply take the assets and use them in another mod? And, all mod authors presumably are made aware of this and have to consent when they sign on to work with STEP?

 

No rights are signed over for mods that are listed in STEP. The STEP Guide is essentially just a list of mods. The rights stay with their authors. If an author, for whatever the reason, wished for their mod to be removed from the Guide, we would comply even though we really don't have to since what we do falls under freedom of the press/speech. We do it out of respect for the authors. This was once done with Starac's mod SRO.

 

Any mods contained within the STEP Compilations are included with permissions from their authors and the rights for those mods are retained by the author. If an author reversed their decision to allow us to include the mod in the Compilation, then we would remove the mod from the Compilation and place it back into the main Guide.

 

For mods which are turned over to STEP for whatever reason, they are converted to Open Modding and can be used by all. We will retain the original files and authors are allowed to use the assets from those mods to fork them out or use them in other mods. These are different from the mods listed in the Guide. These are mod the authors handled over to STEP for us to do as we wish with them. This has only been done with a few mods, but we have agreements with a few authors that if they retire from modding that we would take on their mods.

 

Finally, any mods produced by STEP are released as Open Modding. They are free to use by all for any reason. Currently there are very few of these assets. Mainly the STEP Patches.