Good Mod Sites

[Faelandaea]

Anything on Github, honestly. And modhoster would be a recommendation of mine. Direct downloads, and the modders can update their mod on one page so folks can get whatever revision serves them best.

Thing is with Github, you have to know where to look to find the mod you're after, however, Modhoster has been added.

Cheers

Agreed. When courseplay first started I never used github before and it was frustrating to figure out. It’s one of those sites that once you learn it, you love it, but ... God’s that learning part stank bad.

I think modders should start using the modding forum to actually link to the webpages they use to originally upload their mod. Kerbal Space Program does this - each mod gets a thread, where links to the hosting website can be provided, and feedback on the mod can be given. Apparently they have no mod theft, or so little that it essentially unheard of there.

Faelandaea - lots of KSP mods use Github too - really great tool to create a record of mods and the changes made over time. It also makes for easy proof of authorship if you post your mod there first.

Giants should create a mod listing sub-forum, so listings aren't cluttered around modding questions and such. I sent them an email suggesting this, but it would help if more people would push for it.

A listing of mod sites is a good start, but having to search them all for particular mods is what drives people to mod aggregator sites. Why not just make the official Giants forums into the mod aggregator? Modders use their preferred host site(s), and users can search among all mods available, without duplicate listings (which also happens when authors host at multiple sites): It's a win-win.

Yeah. I love the threads at the SCS software forums for truck sim that do this. Makes a great way to track the latest updates from mod authors I subscribe to.

[drb]

Thing is with Github, you have to know where to look to find the mod you're after, however, Modhoster has been added.

Cheers

If modders linked to the specific Github page for their mod from this forum, wouldn't that be pretty easy?

[BlackThumb]

If modders linked to the specific Github page for their mod from this forum, wouldn't that be pretty easy?

I doubt that the moderators (or Giants) would allow us to post links to individual mods, hence why we only provide links to sites.

But a good idea none the less. It's something Giant's needs to look at, make a section within ModHub that modders can paste their links, however, these links/mods will be free and no payment to the modders. This would sort the 'chaff' from the 'wheat' (see what I did there ) and would only allow 'quality' mods to be linked after having gone through Giants QC.

Cheers

[drb]

I doubt that the moderators (or Giants) would allow us to post links to individual mods, hence why we only provide links to sites.

But a good idea none the less. It's something Giant's needs to look at, make a section within ModHub that modders can paste their links, however, these links/mods will be free and no payment to the modders. This would sort the 'chaff' from the 'wheat' (see what I did there ) and would only allow 'quality' mods to be linked after having gone through Giants QC.

Cheers

You can, according to the board rules provided here: viewtopic.php?f=831&t=74799

Posting links to the direct download page (especially ul.to) is not allowed. It must be linked to the original or forums page, where the download link was provided. Excluded are links to Log.txt or other documents that you uploaded yourself.
Advertising mods and scripts are allowed, but neither GIANTS Software nor the forum team assume take up responsibility for external content, especially not for their subsequent errors, completeness and/or compatibility.

Posting the link to the Github repository for a specific mod should be fine - that is the original page where the download link is provided. The intent of this rule seems to be that they don't want links to some random hosting site (like a link that will bring up a download popup directly), which would not have information about the mod. I think advertising a mod would pretty much require a link to the webpage containing the original download link, due to rampant mod theft.

What would be the point of a section of ModHub for links if those would also have to go through QC? That's a requirement for being on ModHub currently, that option essentially already exists. What we need is a section for "untested" mods - they already have a "tested" section on the Modhub website, which is pretty useless since all mods have to be tested to appear on Modhub at all. I would not make this Modhub section accessible through the game directly. Or, allow "untested mods" access though the game with a setting to toggle it, which defaults to "off".

Many modders do not want to go though the process of getting on ModHub for a myriad of reasons - it takes a long time, they perceive the QC team as being capricious in approval decisions, they want to host on a specific website that they prefer, and so on. Not to mention that there are far more mods off of Modhub than on it, and if we subjected them all to testing by Giants QC, they would never be able to reasonably get through the backlog with their current manpower.

I think I would implement a sub-forum for mod listings before going the route of an "untested" category for ModHub, as ModHub currently lacks any feedback feature beyond the star rating. The player base becomes the QC for such mods, and having individual threads for individual mods in the forum allows users to respond easily to a listing with bug reporting, not only for the mod author, but for other players to see. I think that this would, on the whole, improve the quality of mods as well - I would actually make it mandatory for ModHub mods to have a corresponding forum thread, linking back to mod's Modhub page, where users can give feedback and bug reporting. (Or implement such a system on ModHub directly.)

[BlackThumb]

I've sent a PM to the Mods reference posting links for individual mods and will await and abide by their ruling, so at this stage, wait out.

If this is permitted it would not be hard to make a Dropbox account for use by the modders which link directly back to here. But again, this is dependent on the outcome by the mods.

Cheers

[Guil]

You may want to ask Lisertan as, in my opinion, it will create a multitude of new threads with links for mods everywhere and will inevitably move across all forums.

[throsbi]

Just passing this along as some may have not run across it yet regarding github. Some modders have already figured out players will go there for mods and they have their names listed that only links you to their personal/group forums. What happens is you wind up chasing links until you get to the website/forum of the mod/map makers community. Than click thru things to find the mod you started out searching for.

I would prefer you continue as you did for FS17 and keep it to the general mod site. Just my opinion and reason I think so stated above.

If giants chose to provide a section of the forums for mod/map makers and/or others to post links I would have to agree with Guils post above.

[drb]

I don't see a problem with having a multitude of threads as long as they are confined to a designated sub-forum. This is why a mod listing specific sub-forum needs to be created: to keep it separate from general modding questions/talk. Kerbal Space Program does exactly this, and it isn't difficult at all to navigate the forum there. It is simple enough to constrain a forum search to one sub-forum.

There are a multitude of mod listings on the ModHub - do we have trouble navigating it?

[Krahazik]

Modhoster seams to have an issue with its category system, as in its almost useless. Either it doesn't work right, or people are grosely misslabeling thier mods. In a category for fifthwheel trailers, everything on the first page are non-fifthwheel trailers.

[parad0x177]

Modhoster seams to have an issue with its category system, as in its almost useless. Either it doesn't work right, or people are grosely misslabeling thier mods. In a category for fifthwheel trailers, everything on the first page are non-fifthwheel trailers.

I think that’s a “feature”; it ensures you don’t miss good mods you might be interested in, by ensuring you see everything they have while looking for one you want...

Seriously, though, yeah, categories is broken on there and has been for as long as I’ve been using that sight. Specific searches seem to work marginally better, but that’s typically only useful if I know the make/model that I’m looking for.

Oh, and good grief at the pages and pages of obnoxious re-skins and turbo-supercharged, nitrous-boosted, Tardis-combines (as in it must be bigger on the inside)...

[BlackThumb]

Yes, a sub-forum here at Giants would make sense, and would be easily policed by the mods. The rules for posting your link/mod would simply be, it's original and doesn't fill up the log with errors. The latter would be quickly verified by the players who download the mod.

But, at this stage it will stay as the original list, seemed to work reasonably well for FS17, so don't see it would be a problem for FS19, just need players to verify that the mod/s (and subsequent links) they are downloading are from a 'good site'.

Cheers

[gilamonsterz]

Yesmods has a bit of a weird name but it seems like a pretty cool site so far. It's a combination FS19 news blog and curated mod list. He does little writeups for each mod and uses original links to modders' facebook pages or wherever.

[Borealis]

Just had a look at yesmods. Yup, it's a weird name, but all the mod links are going to the author's websites/official distro page. Alas, 1 modder has hosted his mod on mega.nz...

I'll have to try some of these out when I get home from work...

[BlackThumb]

Yesmods has a bit of a weird name but it seems like a pretty cool site so far. It's a combination FS19 news blog and curated mod list. He does little writeups for each mod and uses original links to modders' facebook pages or wherever.

Had a quick look and seems to be a gamer/mod author friendly site, hence, it's been added to the list.

Cheers