Open Modding

[z929669]

I just started this guide after reading through the SRO thread and seeing Uhuru's mention of Wrye's notes on the topic. I had read this years ago, and my own modding philosophy is same as Wrye's (my life philosophy, too with regard to "digital art" in general).

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Open_Modding

 

This is such an important topic and philosophy, that I have stated as much and referenced this guide within the STEP Citizenship guide ...

... and have copied over Wrye's own official notes onto our wiki, because the original is not editable by the public at that location. We are opening up this document to the "cathedral" philosophy so that the modding community can elaborate and hone the document in hopes of garnering more cathedral-minded support and adoption by more of the modding community at large.

 

The STEP Community is an "open modding" community.

[TechAngel85]

The Parlor view allows the creator to retain complete control of their work. But the Cathedral view creates a much larger, more enduring and more perfected body of work – and for that reason, I prefer it.

 

Wow... This. Agree wholeheartedly!

 

I think someone should invite DarkOne over here. It would be nice if they altered their rules for "dead mods"; turning them into cathedral works after the author has be absent for X amount of time...say 1 year without any from of update/notice/page edits with an email being sent to said authors as a courtesy that their mod will be converted within X days unless they do X. As it stands now with their parlor views, the dead mods are just unfortunate losses.

 

I'm not sure this needs any editing, Z. ::

[z929669]

Not changing really, but it could use some fleshing out and augmentation.

 

RE Nexus methods: they have to support the least common denominator, since they are for-profit. We do not, and as long as we abide by our author's wishes with regard to their products, we are good to go here (since we don't really host any files, just content).

 

Parlor philosophy is the majority and most restrictive, unfortunately.

[EssArrBee]

The one thing that has always gotten to me was that Beth gives their game to everyone to mod freely and you can do whatever you want to their work, but modders don't give their work freely for everyone to do whatever they want. Am I missing something? I think if the precedent is set by the original creators, who happen to put up 80 million dollars of their company's money, then it should flow downward unimpeded.

 

I'd like to see the cathedral thing going on, but only for modding or other open communities, not a fan of all mediums having that type of ideal in place. If I ever actually make a mod, I'm going to have to use that Wrye Modding License.

[TechAngel85]

I think if I had a mod it would be open modification but not open distributable. I would allow users to openly modify and enhance my original work; however, they would not be allowed to distribute it. I would require them to provide me with their modified version to which I would upload on my page as a new version release of the mod; giving the author of the modifications credit as a co-author/contributor. This way I would still have control over the distribution but my mod would also benefit from the cathedral view. This would also allow me to maintain my original idea/direction of the mod without having someone troll by creating an undesirable modification.

 

If I ever decided to retire from the mod, I would at that time give the top contributor to my mod the option of taking it on as the leader of the project from that point forward; as long as they maintained the original concept of the mod. If they did not want the lead, then I would convert the mod to being both open modification and open distributable so that other users that desire to carry on the work of the mod, may do so.

[redirishlord]

TechAngel85, on 21 Mar 2014 - 08:38 AM, said:TechAngel85, on 21 Mar 2014 - 08:38 AM, said:

...I think if I had a mod it would be open modification but not open distributable. I would allow users to openly modify and enhance my original work; however, they would not be allowed to distribute it. I would require them to provide me with their modified version to which I would upload on my page as a new version release of the mod; giving the author of the modifications credit as a co-author/contributor. This way I would still have control over the distribution but my mod would also benefit from the cathedral view. This would also allow me to maintain my original idea/direction of the mod without having someone troll by creating an undesirable modification...

The Vilja Companion mod page on the Nexus might be a good working example of what you describe, and its an impressive mod/collection of mods (with history reaching back through previous TES titles IIRC).

 

I definitely agree that Wrye Musings (original or paraphrased) should be required reading for all mod creators & end users. I also agree that I would like a more "cathedral" oriented Nexus (although the current rules are of the "parlor" variety, not sure if that's the founders intent or just how things worked out). Kudos to all involved if you can open a dialog between Dark One and STEP.

Edited March 21, 2014 by redirishlord