Why is AFK Mods?

[DaBullDubs]

Hello. I'm new to modding Skyrim. I just got a notification in my email about Alternate Start being updated and while that was downloading I felt the need to get to the bottom of why. Why are some mod authors abandoning their Nexus pages and only pushing updates through AFK Mods now? Is there an "about us" page for this site? I'm just curious what AFK Mods's mission is?

[Nico coiN]

Hi,

For short: Nexus' policy. When you put something on Nexus, then it doesn't belong to you anymore. You can't delete it and Nexus has all control to implement it in so-called "mods collections" to generate traffic and (in the end) cash...

That's only one specific point and I don't want to flood this topic with details that were already discussed in many other places among the internet (google it if you really care), but you get the idea. Some modders just look for other places where they have full control on the material they are uploading.

[Scythe Bearer]

A couple short answers for why AFKMods vs NexusMods,

• AFKMods is the home of the Unofficial Patch Team.  If you need help with modding, making or using, these are the folks with the answers. 
• A number of folks have issues with NexusMods' and Robin Scott's honesty.  Since NexusMods started as a Morrowind mod sharing site, the mantra was always "you can delete your mods".  Turns out, that was never true.  Any mod ever uploaded to NexusMods is still there, only the public facing link has just been disabled. 
• A number of folks have taken issue with Robin Scott's monetization of NexusMods.  NexusMods started as a mod sharing site which occasionally begged for money to operate.  However, in the last decade, Robin Scott has been profiting from the free and freely supplied work of others.
• For myself, in 2010 I took issue with Robin Scott and his dictatorial approach to moderation.  Following a somewhat heated exchange, Robin's response was basically, "If you don't like it, you can take your mods and leave".  I did. 

 

[Arthmoor]

17 hours ago, DaBullDubs said:

Why are some mod authors abandoning their Nexus pages and only pushing updates through AFK Mods now?

In short, because they choose to. Scythe explained it well enough.

That being said, this site has existed for longer than the Nexus controversy and it's always been the home of the Unofficial Patch Project as well as the primary place where I release all of my own mods. We also have a rather nice collection of knowledge base articles and such too which are of great value to the community. So in the end we're more than just the sum of the Nexodus event. We just happened to be here already and willing to allow those who wanted to to upload their stuff here.

[Sigurð Stormhand]

To elaborate a bit on what Arthmoor said. AFK Mods started as a place for a few of us modders to get together, share projects, especially beta files, and discuss thing in a more convenient way than on someone's blog (which is what we were doing before.)

It then naturally evolved to take in the Unofficial Patch Project because Arthmoor is both the website host and team leader. We bumbled along like that for a few years, added a Discord etc. Then people got annoyed with Nexus for taking what many consider to be excessive control over the distribution of users' files, and then Beth closed their forums.

All of a sudden we had a fairly active website and a community to look after, and here we are.

As to "Why AFK Mods?" I can't speak for others, but I guess a key difference between here and Nexus is that AFK Mods was originally founded by mod makers, whereas Nexus was founded by mod users - so the fundamental culture is different.

[Pseron Wyrd]

A tiny clarification.  Morrowind Chronicles (later TES Source and, later still ,Nexus) was begun in 2001, before modding (as we know it) was a possibility.   In 2003, the year I joined the site, it was a forum.   It only became associated with modding several years after it was founded.