I definitely need Feedback on this, because while I saw a lot of bad things happen with Minecraft and Factorio Mods, I clearly dont know everything. I will run all of this with the Benevolent Dictator Philosophy, so there should be nothing to worry about. ^^
Keep in mind Mechaenetia is LGPL so its Mods should be counted as such too, at least here on the Forums. I know there is lots of legal Stuff that would make it possible to make proprietary Mods, but those Mods would not be allowed on here by Forum Rules, or would be dumped into some sort of âCorner of Shameâ Category.
The Users are generally more important than the Authors, and the Server Hosts and Modpack Makers are somewhere inbetween.
So here a first List for Mod Authors:
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Stuff @greg made, while always trying to abide by these Rules, is exempt from said Rules.
Though if @greg notices a self-violation of these Rules, their wording will be adjusted to properly reflect what the intend behind those Rules is.
@greg is also the one to decide what happens if a Rule got broken. Though typically talking about it is the very first thing that happens. There is no instant Banhammer for small mistakes. -
Do not prevent or prohibit non-monetized redistribution of your Mods or their Source in any way, nor disallow their use in Modpacks or Servers, even after you abandon your Mod.
There has been way too many bad things happening, because of Modders being too possessive of their Mod.
Nobody has to ask to include a Mod in their Modpack for free. Demanding to ask for permission would be surveillance I donât tolerate here.
Mods are for everyone and only exist for fun. -
Do not add Update-Checkers or Mod-Usage-Statistics into your Mod.
Nothing is allowed to send/retrieve Internet Data without the Users explicit permission!
Implicit is NOT enough!
Installing a Mod in on itself NEVER counts as permission, even if the Online functionality is the ONLY thing the Mod contains!
You always HAVE to prompt the User for permission, and your Mod HAS to work offline if the User denies the permission. (obviously without the online specific features) -
Do not put Advertisement or Microtransactions into your Mod, and donât put Ad Infested or Paywalled Links to your Mod or Modpack on the Forums. This is not about making Money, this is about Fun!
The only people who are allowed to make Money off of this are the ones who actually host Multiplayer Servers, because Servers do cost Money to maintain.
Modders and Modpack Makers can only work with Donations. -
Do not treat people like shit or like their Issues âdont existâ, when they report Bugs, need Help or demand Fixes; even if they by accident accuse you of the results of someone elseâs Bug; even if you just personally dont like the person who reported the Issue; even if you dislike one of the other Mods that was installed, or think that that other Mod âruinsâ your Mod.
Reported Problems exist regardless of the User who reports them, so even if you are not the one responsible, point them to the actual cause of the Problem, preferably with some sort of evidence or logical reasoning.
So basically be a reasonable person, so people dont get afraid of asking for help. -
Donât just say âthis is a duplicate Issueâ without pointing to the actual original Issue. This is not only lazy, but also counts as ignoring the Issue report itself entirely, towards the previous Rule.
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Your own Freetime or lack thereof should never be an argument against fixing Issues. Sure it might be an argument for a delay in the Bugfix, but not for fixing the Issue itself!
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Do not force/redirect people to report Issues in a certain way, shape, form or place, especially if that requires making an Account at a Website (Including this Forum!).
You are (supposedly) an Adult, you can manage to take a piece of Paper or a Text File and write down everything you need to know to fix the Issue on it, and then fix it once you are ready to do so. It is not that hard and even saves YOU time!
If people reach out to you on the Internet (like in Chat), to report an Issue, then you can at least listen to them instead of wasting your own time and their time on stupid formalities that no one needs.
Telling people they need to send you more Information or Logs is perfectly fine ofcourse. -
If you fixed a Bug, but didnât release a fixed Version yet after over a month, seriously consider releasing âjustâ the Fix, instead of letting people download the broken Version for ages. looks at Optifine Devs
There is NEVER a reason to hold back on a Bugfix, so donât hold it back! -
Do not make your community become toxic, nor start irrelevant Drama.
And people (blindly) âworshipingâ you, starting arguments on your behalf, or thinking you are more important than the thing you created, are all at risk of counting as Toxic. -
Do not add Default Keybinds of any sort.
And do not hardcode Keybinds either! Especially not Shift, Ctrl or Alt!
Let the User decide what key to bind your things to (you can prompt the User for your Keybinds if they are REALLY needed).
It is insanely frustrating whenever you add a new Mod, that you have to disable most of its unused Keybinds, especially if they conflict with already existing Keybinds, or if they are exclusively made for WASD Users, and you happen to use ESDF, meaning there is a ton of overlap. -
Try to make your Mods as tiny as Possible and split them into as many Segments as possible. I do not want something ginormous like GregTech to happen.
Like put the Electric System into one Mod, each of the Generators into one Mod each, individual Machines into one Mod each, Ores into one Mod each, and so on.
That way people can be dependent on specific tiny Mods if they need Stuff like Copper Ore they get the âCopper Ore Modâ.
Obviously there is going to be ways to bundle those Mini Mods into a Maxi Mod that depends on all the tiny Mods, so people dont have to download a couple thousand Mods.
This List is ofcourse not fully finished yet, but considering I somehow got stuck doing GT6 again, there is no hurry. I will put this List into an Announcement once Mechaenetia is in a moddable State, and always announce changes to these Rules right afterwards.
So any Feedback on these Rules? And yes some of them are very specific like the Keybinds one. I wanted to make Rules against anything hostile to the End Users that I know about. ^^