The mod portal was a nice experiment... end it please?

[abordoli]

The problem, now, with THIS thread is that, imo, it has become too large for the devs to go through it and take any pointers for suggestions for the new version.

I just hope, that like the game, they will be asking for feedback on the new mod portal so that we can get the mod portal that WE want.

For example, I've suggested that there be a field that "declares" that the mod is "MP-Safe", but there is a difference between the author "declaring" and "actual reality" (not to mention that things change as the game version changes, but typically when a mod is MP-Safe, the author tries to keep it that way).

This is why I feel mods should have ratings for both "Single Player" -AND- "Multiplayer" usage".
~B

[Boneslayer2]

As you said, workshop support would lock non Steam users out of the party, because, why bother those who aren't on Steam ? Steam users would stay together, and it would create a 2-speed game.
I fully support the fact that whatever ecosystem is built around the game, all will be able to benefit equally from it.

You could have a system so it syncs a non steam users free account to the website similar to you have it working in reverse, this would somehow give them access to the game as such a steam key that allows them to download and is linked in the portal. Also this would give them access to the workshop.

[Klonan]

As you said, workshop support would lock non Steam users out of the party, because, why bother those who aren't on Steam ? Steam users would stay together, and it would create a 2-speed game.
I fully support the fact that whatever ecosystem is built around the game, all will be able to benefit equally from it.

You could have a system so it syncs a non steam users free account to the website similar to you have it working in reverse, this would somehow give them access to the game as such a steam key that allows them to download and is linked in the portal. Also this would give them access to the workshop.

Most people don't have Steam not because acquiring a Steam account is in someway difficult

[featherwinglove]

Most people don't have Steam not because acquiring a Steam account is in someway difficult

Some people don't have Steam because they hate Valve and think they should have gone out of business years ago for their shitty ethics. Plus this in my particular case: I haven't tried in five years, but last time I tried to run the Steam client, my firewall nearly crashed the system it was working to save from it.

[deer_buster]

Any updates on the replacement? I've written 3 enterprise-level and numerous departmental-level web applications for a major global corporation since this was originally posted.</tongue-in-cheek>

[steinio]

Any updates on the replacement? I've written 3 enterprise-level and numerous departmental-level web applications for a major global corporation since this was originally posted.

And did you sell over 1 million copies of a computer game which you develope and bug fix at the same time?

[deer_buster]

Any updates on the replacement? I've written 3 enterprise-level and numerous departmental-level web applications for a major global corporation since this was originally posted.

And did you sell over 1 million copies of a computer game which you develope and bug fix at the same time?

Worse, I develop and support (including bug fixing) for over 150k END USERS, not computer nerds like us...that HAS to be good for at least a 10x multiplier....</tongue-in-cheek>

oh, and I guess I forgot to insert my closing tag at the end of my original post (bug fixing this now) "</tongue-in-cheek>". Don't want people to get butt-hurt by the comment.

[nepp95]

Any updates on the replacement? I've written 3 enterprise-level and numerous departmental-level web applications for a major global corporation since this was originally posted.</tongue-in-cheek>

Can't be much good if you wrote those by yourself in such short time ^^
I'm sure the devs have taken note of everything said in this topic and are working on it. Just hang on.

[StoneLegion]

As you said, workshop support would lock non Steam users out of the party, because, why bother those who aren't on Steam ? Steam users would stay together, and it would create a 2-speed game.
I fully support the fact that whatever ecosystem is built around the game, all will be able to benefit equally from it.

You could have a system so it syncs a non steam users free account to the website similar to you have it working in reverse, this would somehow give them access to the game as such a steam key that allows them to download and is linked in the portal. Also this would give them access to the workshop.

Most people don't have Steam not because acquiring a Steam account is in someway difficult

Hey Buddy who cares. We given you guys tons and tons of time. I spend more time trying to use the mod portal then playing.

Lets do something about this now. Hire someone at least who knows how to run decent web servers. Knowing you guys your using default configured Apache or nginx and not tweaked and customized for the correct use. Do something about it please and do it soon.

[BlueTemplar]

Well, sadly this is still the case even with the NEW mod portal, because of two issues :

1.) One that has already been raised here : splitting the community.
The mod portal Discussion tab splits the modding community between the forums here and that tab. Discussion about smaller mods, hidden in that tab, doesn't have the effect any more of getting the potential attention of other people reading the forums here.
(And it's not even like phpBB was closed source software that Wube had been stuck with without being able to improve ? I'm not going to repeat the already raised here forum suggestions to make the job of modders easier, except maybe to insist that new subforums should automatically (?) give admin rights to the relevant modder(s). I've already seen elsewhere how it can result in modders or even full blown devs not having the power to administrate / not be willing to take responsibility for their sub-communities, and it's ridiculous and annoying.)

2.) Another, the main reason why I (necro)posted :
The Discussion tab (unlike this forum) doesn't have a search function !
This quite an issue since proper netiquette mandates to search and necropost before making a brand new thread.
(And one can only go so far with Ctrl+F searching topic titles...)
Now, thankfully the mod portal is still fully on the Web (unlike the (evil) Discord) and doesn't take the nuclear option of locking old threads because it can't be assed to do proper moderation (unlike the bad Reddit), so there's always the option of using a 3rd party search engine, for instance like this :
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Ahttps% ... on+nullius
But this is something that should be a built-in feature, not something that only "advanced users" get to enjoy, don't you think ?
(And even if you were to add such a function, you would still have the issue of users having to search both the forums and the mod portal discussion tab.)

[FuryoftheStars]

While I get the reasons for disliking it, and don’t really disagree, at the same time I think there are some things about it that are better than the forums. Specifically, it allows each individual issue/question/announcement/whatever to have its own thread. I personally find this easier to deal with than a search feature (not to say a search feature wouldn’t still be useful).

However, on splitting the community, while I do agree that splitting is bad, I believe this happens regardless. As mentioned, some people already shun the forums and discussion tab for other mediums such as Discord. And really, a dedicated subforum for each mod located at the mod’s page, to me, makes the most sense as to where to try and direct the community to (though the current features of the discussion tab leave much to be desired).

[ptx0]

using forums for mods? ugh no thanks, the mod portal is fine. it can be better, but they have a web dev now, they didn't before. you all can calm down.

[Pi-C]

1.) One that has already been raised here : splitting the community.
The mod portal Discussion tab splits the modding community between the forums here and that tab. Discussion about smaller mods, hidden in that tab, doesn't have the effect any more of getting the potential attention of other people reading the forums here.

In my opinion, the discussion threads on the mod portal and the forums should supplement each other. The nice thing about the mod portal is that you've got something like a mini-forum for each mod, where announcements, questions, bug reports etc. pertaining to a particular mod can have their own thread. Contrary, on the forums, only some big mods have their own sub forums, while there will only be a thread each for the majority of mods. As everything will be dumped into the same thread, that will become hard to navigate after some time.

I agree that splitting the community is bad, but I'd consider modders closing the discussion board on the mod portal and insisting that third-party sites like Github or Discord be used as much more dangerous. If people want to use mods and download them using the in-game mods manager, they already have a login at mods.factorio.com, so it's not that hard to login and post something on the mod portal. Sure, I'll have to use a different login on the forums (perhaps forums.factorio.com and mods.factorio.com could be linked so that one login could be used for both?), but they're still under one roof. On the other hand, having to set up yet another account on a totally unrelated site (Discord etc.) that I'm not at all interested in just so that I can report a bug with a mod is something I absolutely despise. So, if there is no vanilla way (mod portal, forum threads, private messages on the forum) to contact a mod author, I'd rather not report bugs against their mods and may even go so far as to look for alternatives to their mods.

2.) Another, the main reason why I (necro)posted :
The Discussion tab (unlike this forum) doesn't have a search function !
This quite an issue since proper netiquette mandates to search and necropost before making a brand new thread.
(And one can only go so far with Ctrl+F searching topic titles...)

Agreed, the usability of the mod forum's discussion board is not great. However, I'd rather not abolish them altogether, but try to improve them:

• It definitely would help if there was a search function.
• Having to deal with two different systems (BBCode and Markdown) on the forums and the mod portal is not ideal: If you don't know that you have to indent code, you may easily end up with garbled output.
• There should be a way to preview what you'll post, so you can check your posting before it's visible to the public.
• Allow to merge threads that are about the same bug, or to split off messages that are placed in a thread on a different topic.

If that was implemented, I think that having both the forums and the mod portal discussion threads could be very useful indeed: Modders could use the forum to direct attention to their mods, and the forums could also be used to discuss the mod. Thus, players who don't know the mod yet could get a first impression of it and decide whether or not they should try it out. Bug reports or suggestions could be posted on the mod portal instead, where the mini-forum like infrastructure helps to see at a glance what belongs together -- without users having to read through a single 15 pages long thread on the forums.

[sparr]

The nice thing about the mod portal is that you've got something like a mini-forum for each mod, where announcements, questions, bug reports etc.

The terrible thing about the mod portal is that you've got something like a mini-forum, and the devs need to reinvent every single forum-related wheel or just give up with the half-functional forum we have there now.

pertaining to a particular mod can have their own thread. Contrary, on the forums, only some big mods have their own sub forums, while there will only be a thread each for the majority of mods. As everything will be dumped into the same thread, that will become hard to navigate after some time.

It was suggested multiple times over the years that the mod portal be integrated with the forum, so that every mod gets its own sub forum automatically, which would be linked from the mod portal. That would *still* be better than the current status quo.

they already have a login at mods.factorio.com, so it's not that hard to login and post something on the mod portal. Sure, I'll have to use a different login on the forums (perhaps forums.factorio.com and mods.factorio.com could be linked so that one login could be used for both?)

I thought they were already linked. I don't remember creating separate accounts, but my accounts are rather old.

[FuryoftheStars]

I thought they were already linked. I don't remember creating separate accounts, but my accounts are rather old.

Mod portal and forums use different logins:
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