I have been using symlinks for mods. And bobassembly_0.17.7.zip is the only mod out of the 40 I have that won't load in Factorio.
BobAssembly.PNG
EDIT: see for comparison
ModExample002.PNG
EDIT: sorry this was something wrong with the file, I tried a hard copy and it wont load. Went to download a new copy from in-game portal it "downloaded" but just said click to install again.
Had to download it again from the mod site manually, I think this is just my computer being screwy/corrupting random files. Both files were the same size.