#SUCH A TREAT WHEN I GET A NOTIFICATION FROM TOU

[joffyworld]

BALLAD THIS ISN'T MESSY THIS IS AWESOME

snake dreams 1/3

[kala-hira]

That Anon certainly has no business calling them selfish, but I’ve never understood pulling all your content as a reaction to these kinds of things. Future work, sure, I’m not going to miss anything I’ve never used. But with existing stuff that was previously publicly available, you feel rather helpless. A majority of users respect TOUs and appreciate the modders work, there is a positive relationship there and you’d hope that still counts. But all it takes is 1 asshole to ruin it. It’s a shame.

First off thanks for being civil and polite with your anon message it is much appreciated :)  All the below is stuff I have come across and in no way do I speak for all modders. I can barely speak for myself somedays lol. I am going to assume you are not a modder just from your post if this isn’t true then I apologize.

I will agree for the most part there is a positive relationship between modders and users but you would be amazed by the amount of people I see using my mods who have never taken the time to comment or endorse my mods. I spent hours making that mod that they will enjoy for hours and they didn’t even take a few seconds to say thanks and endorse it. I try to respond to every comment I get on the Nexus (sometimes notifications do not always work) as it is one of the few times we get to interact with the users. It can feel like a very one sided relationship and how are we to know that they appreciate it when they don’t take the time to say it? (for an example one of my older mods has 11,920 downloads, but only 24 comments from users and 396 endorsements) Even a simple thanks for sharing! Awesome work :) Love it! can go a long way in making a modder know you appreciate their work I am not asking you to kiss my butt to the sun and back. 

Until you put yourself into that modder’s shoes I do not think you can understand what this really feels like. In the past I have hidden mods as it is a knee jerk reaction to everything that is going on. It is the quickest and easiest way for a modder to control their mods. Which is completely fair as a creator it is our right to control our creations. 

You have to remember that modders are real people with real feelings. They put their time, heart and soul into these mods and when someone disrespects their decision or their mods it is like a knife to the heart. I know that seems dramatic but we spend hours working on and tweaking these mods they become important to us especially if we make them with a specific character in mind that is special to us.  

You have no idea what that modder is dealing with in their real life, life has a tendency of kicking you down and then continuing to kick you when you are still down. If hiding their mods allows them a bit of respite from all the crap and stress in their life then it is a smart decision otherwise you get burnt out really quick. I have been there and it isn’t pretty. A person’s mental health is much more important then any mod every made. This is supposed to be a fun hobby not a crappy part time job but with time it starts to feel like work and instead of being a stress relief it becomes a source of stress.

You are just seeing this one instance but it isn’t just 1 asshole a modder is dealing with. You haven’t had to deal with getting rude, disrespectful comments from users. You haven’t had to deal with people being nice/friendly to you just to get them to make you a specific mod, then ditch you or say rude shit about you in the future. You haven’t had your work stolen or reused in other mods without permission. You haven’t had anon hate sent to you just because they don’t agree with a mod you made or have people talk behind your back about a mod you made. You haven’t had to deal with people comparing your work to others and telling you that the other modder’s work is far superior to yours. You haven’t spent hours troubleshooting something that has nothing to do with your mod but you are getting blamed for it. You haven’t had to deal with people harassing you over if you are going to share a mod and if you are when is it going to be released. You haven’t had to deal with people requesting changes to make it fit their character. You haven’t had people complain that your images are not good enough to show off your mod and that they won’t try it until you post more images. You haven’t had youtubers steal your images and use them as click bait for their videos. You haven’t had your free work stolen then “edited” a bit then put behind a paywall by another modder. All these things add up and you become tired, jaded and hesitant to release anything. We are just human we can only take so much. So to you it looks like 1 asshole but it’s much more then that, it is a bunch of little things add up until we get to a tipping point and we can’t take anymore. Everyone always says you need to grow a thicker skin on the internet but sometimes it feels like you have to become bulletproof in order to come out unscathed. 

If you love a mod that much and feel helpless when it is removed then treat it like a limited collector’s edition when you download it and keep a backup or multiple backups. I myself tend to hoard mods, I buy external HDD’s and store tons of mods on them. I have them on multiple drives now as I had a shelf incident (my cat broke the shelf and all my hdd’s fall off and died, RIP). Some of my all time fav’s I have even saved digital copies of just to be safe. Or you can try your hand at modding I can point you to some free programs and some great tutorials to get you started. Many modders myself included are willing to help and share their knowledge. 

I agree it is a shame when a modder feels like their only choice is to hide a mod. It is not an easy decision to make as you can see you face backlash and hate for doing it. This is a huge reason why modders just disappear and I don’t blame them. I feel like doing it all the time, the older I get the less time & patience I have to put up with it all.

Hope this helps explain a bit more from a modder’s perspective. I do get your point of views and before I started modding myself I felt the same but now that I am on the other side of the fence I understand. 

I appreciate you taking the time to send this message and then talking the time to read my novel of answer.

Happy Modding! 

Kala