#StopThePayWall

[FDRLogging]

I've had a few people send me the link to this thread so I could share my experience about this Topic.

I originally like many other modders was doing the "beta testing" for early access mods on Patreon as it was the best way to get donations and collect feedback about mods.

It was always considered the "Grey Area" as Giants never said anything directly to us even though we all knew it was stepping on the TOS, but it was fairly friendly environment and everyone was happy, Unfortunately due to a few people abusing this concept and trying to turn it into a more "Pay and never release" it ended up becoming a problem.

Giants did directly contact most of us who had Patreon groups and informed us that we could no longer offer anything that was "beta" or "exclusive" when it came to modding. I have no issue with this whatsoever so I stopped immediately and put out a post saying that we would have no more early access everything would be available to the public at the same time as supporters. Honestly I expected Patreon to disappear over night with that news but even to this day I still have a decent number of loyal patreons who support and stay with me regardless of the benefits offered on patreon. This alone tells me that if your mods are good and you have a good communication with your supporters I don't think you ever needed a paywall for support in the first place. But as it continues I have fans and supporters who email me daily hunting for people who do the paywall thing still "secretly" within there patreon groups, So it does still happen quite often and I can't imagine how giants could keep track of all the abusers.

There is a few of us modders who strictly do this as a passion and love it, a few others are definitely attempting to turn it into a money making job which is totally fine if thats your gig. But to be honest after doing this for 4+ years now I don't think this will ever be something where you make enough money to quit your day job and be a fulltime modder and thats always in my thoughts as I mod, I do this for me because I love it, Even if everyone stopped donating tomorrow and youtube closed down, I would keep going just for myself because of how much fun it is to create mods and if others also enjoy it and support it along the way then all the better.

The reason I came here to leave a note is because I truly can't thank Giants enough for giving us modders the mod tools to be able to create these little toys and worlds and allow us to share it and create communities. They didn't have to do this they could have just as easily kept all the mod tools in house and said "you get what you get", I have a huge respect for Giants and to all the modders who respectfully continue to keep the modding community alive and moving.

[FarmBoss]

Did you really think that people would be upset that you stopped asking for money from them?
Also, Giants should be thanking you for making them money and making the game survive.
But, don't sell your mods, only giants can sell mods.

[eric21]

Its against european law?

[FarmCatJenkins]

Well said FDR. It's not a wonder at all that you still have the following you do. You make some pretty awesome mods!

[Mwal]

Did you really think that people would be upset that you stopped asking for money from them?
Also, Giants should be thanking you for making them money and making the game survive.
But, don't sell your mods, only giants can sell mods.

I think what FDR was saying is that people would be upset they gained nothing from being a patreon and had to wait until public release to get the mods. Therefore quitting supporting them on patreon but they all didn’t.

[FarmBoss]

[texasplowboy]

I have donated to some modders for their hard work. I won't ever pay to watch a youtubeer play a game.

[iwan073]

I won't ever pay to watch a youtubeer play a game.

I know right?!

I really don’t understand why people would pay those guys so they can go get a better video card, or a softer cushion for their buttocks.

This one guy, he had his monthly target set to $1000!
To my surprise, he even collected more than that too.
To make things worse, instead of saying thanks guys I’ve reached my target and taking down that money begging bar from his screen... no, he just raised the target to $1500!

The won’t get a dubbeltje from me

[iB055]

So would this be considered a Pay Wall? Clearly people must pay to gain access.

https://www.patreon.com/machinesmodding

[this_is_gav]

If they're paying for models then those models can't be released publicly anyway (that's the 'personal use only' license universally used by modellers). Not unless they're paying way more to purchase a license for full access rights, which you won't be able to fund from a few Patreon subscribers.

So indirectly, but yes, it's a paywall.

[MrSquealypig]

How much does a license cost

[Chaki]

So would this be considered a Pay Wall? Clearly people must pay to gain access.

https://www.patreon.com/machinesmodding

Checking all four levels, the boon that you get is that you get to see WIP pictures of models. This is ok and we encourage supporting modders this way.
Early Access or Beta Access or straight out "only available through monetary compensation" models are forbidden.

[Illinois Farmer]

I wonder why their release mods disappear now since the patreon page started though.

[FarmCatJenkins]

Facebook post from May 31st on Machines Modding page:

The Chevy 4500HD is currently live on Patreon.

I had started it a while back and never really got around to finishing it. It works, Bed options are a thing however the sprayer rig bed option does not work currently as I did not set that up yet and I Have really no intentions of coming back to it anytime soon.
I figured I would put this out here so it stops collecting dust on my Computer!

Well if that doesn't sound like a red flag...

[Noraf]

Hmmmm, bad anough that people hit a paywall, but this is just awesome, unfinished mods