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Comment by amiga386 | Hacker News Reader

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Try quoting the full line, not just the part that scares you:

> Uploading content deemed illegal by English law (indecent depictions of minors)

I haven't seen what was banned. But I know that Steam publishes a lot of porn games, both in Japan and the UK, and that what's legal in Japan would likely be illegal in the UK.

Does that mean SteamDB, if re-hosted in the UK under Nexus Mods ownership, would stop admitting that Steam's Japanese porn games even exist? "This game exists on Steam but we refuse to show you it. Try some nice wholesome UK porn games with big-chested anime waifus instead."

What also concerns me is what the UK government intends to use the OSA for, and I feel Nexus Mods will kow-tow to it immediately.

For example, the UK government is concerned about people committing suicide. Ofcom is using the OSA to go after a US-hosted forum that encourages suicide. The lawyer for the site told Ofcom that they geo-blocked the UK from the site, and beyond that they can just fuck off, because it's legal speech in the US, and UK laws don't apply in the US.

Can we expect that every game on Steam that features suicide - including some very thought provoking and shocking games, intended for adults only - will be disappeared from SteamDB under Nexus Mods ownership?

Do you know of any good alternatives to Nexus Mods? A peer-to-peer system would be really cool. Mod hosting over something like Reticulum, with mod manager integration, sounds like a dream.

And there's an example of one of the contradictions of modern PC gaming, for as much as it'll get hyped as a mostly open platform with a lot of freedom (in comparison to consoles), there's an awful lot that has coalesced on a small number of services over the years where an awful lot of value can vanish instantly if someone makes a decision you don't agree with or a service gets disrupted/closed.

We still have the ability to use a different platform though. It's entirely up to the users to choose which services and programs to use to accomplish their goal. With consoles, you just get what you get, and have the privilege of paying a monthly subscription just to play multiplayer. When the demand for an alternative gets high enough, one will appear, because we have that ability.

The best experience I had has been with smaller game-specific sites where the scale can be managed by a small number of enthusiasts.

Knowing Nexus, I do expect some manner of censorship, though the exact form this censorship will take remains to be seen.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they started taking payments from game publishers to hide historical player count data for certain games that aren't doing very well.

Just Web 2.0 and it’s consequences.

> Ah yes, Nexus Mods, where they'll ban you for making mods that change "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" back to "Male" and "Female", or remove mandatory pronoun selection.

Oh, no. If this is the most severe issue that the company has then we are fine.

It's an example of broader issue.

You don't get what @amiga386 was implying

> It's an example of broader issue.

Be specific, use your big-person words like an adult. What specifically is the broader issue?

> You don't get what @amiga386 was implying

I think most of us get exactly what they're implying - they don't agree with the politics of the people running nexus (seems like they're scared of pronouns to me) - and don't really have anything concrete beyond that, so they're waving their hands and complaining about nexus abiding by the law.

The broader issue is people who publish on Nexus Mods appear to face more political restrictions than game developers publishing on Steam. I wonder if Nexus Mods will abuse their acquired control of SteamDB to censor it to their tastes, meaning it stops accurately reflecting Steam.

Scared of pronouns.

Bwahaha.

Sounds like they were getting overly upset by things that don't effect them and also...checks notes a website following the law of the country they're based in.

Really weird things to be getting upset over if you ask me.

Regardless of the stupidity of the law (which don't get me wrong, the Online "Safety" Act in the UK is incredibly dumb) you still have to follow it until its struck down or replaced.

You can also host websites in not the UK and thus not be bound by the OSA.

I don't think SteamDB is currently hosted in the UK, and I think it would be a mistake to move it there.

Y’all cowards always implying. Say the thing you think. Just say it. I’ll start: I think getting upset by a pronouns dropdown is literal homophobia, in that y’all are so scared, worried, and bothered by thinking about gay shit that you’re installing software about it.

It’s weak. Y’all are weak.

God forbid you install a mod that modifies a game.

Good news! You're still allowed to install whatever mods you want.

Expecting Nexus to host mods they don't want to host is idiotic.

Hiding the whole complaint behind an implication is cowardice.

Hope that helps.

Then why choose the most inconsequential example (IMO) I can imagine?

And what's the broader issue? That it's moderated?

Inserting the operators politics into what kind of mods are allowed is pretty much antithetical to the very idea of modding. So yes, this is a serious issue.

sounds a bit... snowflakey of you

Nexus Mods will ban you for making mods that reject the politics of the site moderators. That is not a neutral action.

Steam, as far as I understand, lets you publish anything that's legal in the countries you sell it. You don't have to conform to GabeN's politics.

SteamDB should be a faithful record of what's published to Steam. I hope it stays that way.

Allow the vocal snowflakes who can’t accept a video game featuring a tiny bit of non binary gender identity, and sooner than later you face the nazi bar problem[0].

It didn’t take long for x.com, previously known as twitter.

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nazi_bar

Yep. I remember Nexus mods removing mods that turns gay characters straight while allowing mods that turn straight characters gay (Cyberpunk). It's super obvious this platform is politically motivated and not motivated to let the user decide which mods they want to use.

Because originally there were mods to enhance romance options in games or whatever (what you describe as making characters gay), and some people were very very upset and _decided to make a point_ by creating straight conversion mods. _Those_ mods are designed to make people upset, to get a raise out of them, and to make fun of the initial mods. They are not sincere.

I don't really see why this has to be a problem. If people are breaking the rules, you can just remove them. If you have the authority to remove the first person, then what does it matter if he brings his friends? Just remove them if they start causing problems. This just sounds like a post-hoc justification for removing someone simply because you don't like them. You are allowed to do that, of course, if it's your own platform. The problem is when people are appointed authority with the expectation that they will act without bias, in which case I believe that the threat of a potential nazi bar problem is an insufficient explanation for removing someone.

Well, of course it’s about removing people because you don’t like them. Because of what they bring and who they are.

And yes everyone has bias.

>vocal snowflakes

This ad hominem is unnecessary when we are talking about quality of life mods. Of course quality of life mods are going to address what people are complaining about. That's the whole point of them.

>the nazi bar problem

Nexus Mods doesn't ban mods adding the trans flag to the game. Does this mean they are going to have the trans bar problem? You can make this same argument about everything.

A trans bar isn't a problem, by the way.

How many million people have trans people killed?

Can't imagine any reason why anyone who wants trans people to feel welcome would also want nazis and their friends to feel unwelcome... couldn't have anything to do with the fact that nazis systematically rounded up trans people, executed them, and erased their culture, could it? /s

More directly, are you really using a false equivalence to counter an "ad hominem"?

"Quality of life", that's a euphemism for queer erasure I haven't heard before... and here I was thinking a quality of life mod was one that fixed a janky UI or smoothed out a grind, that kind of thing.

You certainly could complain about a "trans bar problem" if you like, and you could even go make your own nazi bar if not having one bothers you enough -- though it's pretty clear what that would say about your values.

I think you missed the point in that they are both communities of people that others do not want to be around that try and push an ideology.

If you are not familiar with the term "Quality of Life" it refers to small changes that make the gameplay better. It smooths out the rough edges of the game. Annoying aspects of a game that people don't like get removed. Random bugs that the developer did not have time to fix get fixed. Removing political propaganda that got injected into a game is a better experience for the average gamer.

Personally, I'd prefer the platform to remain neutral and let people ignore mods they don't like.

> they are both communities of people that others do not want to be around

Speak for yourself. Only one of those communities is one I don't want to be around, and there are plenty of people who agree, apparently including the operators of Nexus.

> Removing political propaganda that got injected into a game is a better experience for the average gamer.

Let's be clear: the "political propaganda" you're referring to is more accurately described as "gender-neutral language". If you're going to assert that "the average gamer" will have a better experience playing games without gender neutral language, maybe you can back that up with some citations -- unless, perhaps, your idea of the "average gamer" is merely based on the anecdotal experience of yourself and your peers?

I'm fully aware of what a quality of life mod is, by the way. Just now I was playing a game with "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" character creation, in fact, and have no inclination to change that (even if it did bother me, it was there for about 5 seconds at the beginning of the game, never to be shown again... so what?). Just last night, though, I made my own quality of life mod to address an inventory management quirk that was frustrating me. I'm very familiar with the term, which is exactly why I found the idea of it including "removal of gender neutral language" absurd enough to comment on.

> Personally, I'd prefer the platform to remain neutral and let people ignore mods they don't like.

And you have the right to have that preference! Just as Nexus has the right to operate their site in line with their preferences. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it. You could even put your money where your mouth is and start your own "neutral" site. If that's what the "average gamer" wants, perhaps it'll be wildly successful! Although it seems more likely to me that it will attract a certain crowd while repelling everyone else, you are free to prove me wrong :)

> Ah yes, Nexus Mods, where they'll ban you for making mods that change "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" back to "Male" and "Female", or remove mandatory pronoun selection.

Oh my god please get a life

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