Provide a mechanism for reporting legal, or otherwise problematic, mods

[slippycheeze]

I recently came across a mod that was a fork of another, but claimed to have relicensed from MIT to the "Unlicense" – a violation of the original MIT license terms. The author of the license violating mod was ... well, being far more polite than they were, not inclined to fix the problem. The mismatching license statement continues to be present on the mod portal today.

Elsewhere, I have personally had code treated that way, and have also folks I know have their game mod code treated that way. These situations have involved far more stern lawyers letters, and far more code pulled entirely, than I'd like to have happened. Ultimately, though, the law is the law, and that grants authors the right to impose whatever silly condition they wish and have it enforced. (In the case above, of course, relicensing is absolutely and unquestionably wrong, since it grants rights that are not in the original.)


There have also been several mods that were in, uh, highly questionable taste, and at least one that crosses into the realm of directly insulting – illegally so, depending where it was said, under the law where I live. This isn't, strictly speaking, something Wube need to police, but it is certainly something that my time hosting user created content tells me is an open invitation to the community winding up as nothing but the sort of awful people who love that: their voices discourage anyone else, so everyone else ends up leaving, and the content simply gets more and more extreme until lawyers start showing up.


Anyway, point is: there is no obvious path to report these issues via the mod portal, unlike the forums where every post gets a "report" button. Adding one will attract the same sort of bad behaviour that follows these buttons, but it will also provide a clear and obvious path for notifying Wube without their needing to actively police user-created content. (Which is a good idea, because actively policing makes your situation *worse* legally, see also, the law is an ass.)


I would add this to the previous thread but it has, sadly but predictably, descended into the tarpit of people vigorously defending their right to use hateful language by claiming to be the true victims, unfairly asked to act like decent human beings.

My dream is that this thread will not follow.

[Oktokolo]

It is possible to include the name of a mod in a forum post.

[Koub]

I would add this to the previous thread but it has, sadly but predictably, descended into the tarpit of people vigorously defending their right to use hateful language by claiming to be the true victims, unfairly asked to act like decent human beings.

My dream is that this thread will not follow.

I'll have to apologize, I definitely failed as a moderator on that thread I just never saw. I should have paid more attention, and I'm going to correct it - albeit a bit late.
Should you stumble on comparable contents, please report them so that a moderator can give a look and moderate if needed.

[Klonan]

The mechanism is sending an email to support@factorio.com

I don't see a reason to integrate a report system directly in the portal, it will just lead to more BS reports.

[lovewyrm]

Questionable taste? Problematic?

Hmm, hopefully someone who finds something problematic won't poison the well of mods by deliberately introducing 'grotesquely problematic mods' to then retroactively argue that point.
Cause that is a very effective strategy that is used in politics all the time, and Factorio is supposed to just be a fun game.

[Oktokolo]

Hmm, hopefully someone who finds something problematic won't poison the well of mods by deliberately introducing 'grotesquely problematic mods' to then retroactively argue that point.

When someone starts doing that, it will be a trivial solution to just ban the mod portal account.
And mod portal accounts are linked to license keys. So if someone would insist to keep trolling, that would be the easiest way for Wube to make some extra profit.

[lovewyrm]

Sure, it's a profit for Wube in a short term moment, but consider even this simple example:
3000 Dollars is chump change and worth 100 licenses, and the current mainstream is already saturated with "peer pressure" (all the other ones have codes of conduct toooooooooooOoOOOoOoo) and caving in turns one right into the same category.
Not saying it's gonna happen, it might, and should it happen, it would probably be prudent to keep overall tabs on "how many really grotesquely evil mods have been made since the beginning and at what frequency".

It would be way too obvious if those 100 people would scream all at once, but imagine them doing that anyway (cause that too is a possibility)
That's a lot of people creating a commotion, and a lot of potential sway, at the low low price of 3k, something even nonprofits with an agenda could conjure up no big deal.
Those 3k monies are nothing compared to the mental drain of having the damocles sword hovering above alone.

A plan for such an event would be good, you never know what some people who just can't stop meddling might fancy at some point.
It always starts as "something reasonable", but rarely remains that, unless, of course, you share such a thing all the way, then nevermind me at all.

[mmmPI]

it would probably be prudent to keep overall tabs on "how many really grotesquely evil mods have been made since the beginning and at what frequency".

This may already be the case,it might not be public for several different reasons.

Those 3k monies are nothing compared to the mental drain of having the damocles sword hovering above alone.
A plan for such an event would be good, you never know what some people who just can't stop meddling might fancy at some point.
It always starts as "something reasonable", but rarely remains that, unless, of course, you share such a thing all the way, then nevermind me at all.

This made me think of minority report, the cost it has if you want "peace of mind" rather than punishing perpetrators after their forfeit.

I'd rather prefer only people found guilty with a proof and a mean for them to defend themselves to be punished, this means you'd always have that damocles sword in a way.

Another way of doing annoying behaviour would be to report everything else once your insulting mod is moderated. (abusing the safety mechanism)

It would flood temporarily the "only" way to report things that ought to be.

not really the "only" one, i guess atm, very insulting things that would receive lots of exposure will probably be moderated as soon as someone with those rights notice even if not reported through the proper channel.

[Oktokolo]

Sure, it's a profit for Wube in a short term moment, but consider even this simple example:
3000 Dollars is chump change and worth 100 licenses, and the current mainstream is already saturated with "peer pressure" (all the other ones have codes of conduct toooooooooooOoOOOoOoo) and caving in turns one right into the same category.
Not saying it's gonna happen, it might, and should it happen, it would probably be prudent to keep overall tabs on "how many really grotesquely evil mods have been made since the beginning and at what frequency".

Not a problem and certainly not a bug. If it happens, they will just ban that accounts. And as there literally is no competition in the niche of Factorio, i don't see, why anyone would be willing to spend 3k for having one bad mod on the portal each day for a hundred days.
There is no win to get here.
The scenario is that absurdly low probability and low risk, that if i where Wube i would fear devs getting struck by lightning a lot more.

A plan for such an event would be good, you never know what some people who just can't stop meddling might fancy at some point.

The plan is trivial: Ban them as they emerge. If there is a flood, get the portal temporarily offline while banning.

[steinio]

First they have to buy the game to get an account for the portal.

[aka13]

Finally we have arrived at PROBLEMATIC mods. Oh how I wished that factorio might be an exemption to that.

[Klonan]

Well, I don't see how any further discussion will be constructive

If there is a problem with a mod, send an email to support@factorio.com,
We will deal with it at our own discretion