Mod Portal Spam - Button to Report Mods

[jamiechi1]

It has been pretty bad for a long time and it is getting worse. Are the moderators doing anything to combat this?

I think people who place stuff with a comment such as "For personal use only" should have their mods deleted. There are other mods that are just inappropriate and offensive.

There needs to be a button on the Mod Portal that allows us to flag mods for the moderators attention.

[FuryoftheStars]

The "For personal use only" mods may be there as an easy way to share with friends or something. What they should be doing is marking the mods as depreciated so they don't show up on general searches.

[DaleStan]

If they're marked as deprecated, I believe Factorio will refuse to download them, even when syncing a multiplayer game. EDIT: This is wrong; I'm not sure what I was remembering.

[vinzenz]

There are other mods that are just inappropriate and offensive.

Please report mods via email to support@factorio.com

[robot256]

If they're marked as deprecated, I believe Factorio will refuse to download them, even when syncing a multiplayer game.

The purpose of the deprecated flag is specifically to allow existing games to sync them but not advertise to new users in searches. We use it for mods that still technically work but that are no longer maintained and replaced by better options.

[DaleStan]

The purpose of the deprecated flag is specifically to allow existing games to sync them but not advertise to new users in searches. We use it for mods that still technically work but that are no longer maintained and replaced by better options.

I don't know what I was remembering there. I stand corrected.

[jamiechi1]

There are other mods that are just inappropriate and offensive.

Please report mods via email to support@factorio.com

Thanks. Will do.

[jamiechi1]

If they're marked as deprecated, I believe Factorio will refuse to download them, even when syncing a multiplayer game.

The purpose of the deprecated flag is specifically to allow existing games to sync them but not advertise to new users in searches. We use it for mods that still technically work but that are no longer maintained and replaced by better options.

I had another idea that might work that would mitigate this issue. Adding a button labeled "Hide Mod" that would prevent these mods to be searched and would hide the mod similar to how the new feature in the Steam forums work. By hiding a user there, now all threads created by them are hidden. (Although they do still show up when searching.)

Another instance that would make this useful, is for hiding large mods that I am not currently using to make it easier to find something. Like hiding all of Bob's mods or Pyadons mods. (In this case I do not have anything against these mods, but it can be difficult to find what I want with all of these showing up in my search.)

Of course an advanced search feature might be what works the best. Like in the forums.

[FuryoftheStars]

If they're marked as deprecated, I believe Factorio will refuse to download them, even when syncing a multiplayer game.

The purpose of the deprecated flag is specifically to allow existing games to sync them but not advertise to new users in searches. We use it for mods that still technically work but that are no longer maintained and replaced by better options.

I had another idea that might work that would mitigate this issue. Adding a button labeled "Hide Mod" that would prevent these mods to be searched and would hide the mod similar to how the new feature in the Steam forums work. By hiding a user there, now all threads created by them are hidden. (Although they do still show up when searching.)

Another instance that would make this useful, is for hiding large mods that I am not currently using to make it easier to find something. Like hiding all of Bob's mods or Pyadons mods. (In this case I do not have anything against these mods, but it can be difficult to find what I want with all of these showing up in my search.)

Of course an advanced search feature might be what works the best. Like in the forums.

Honestly, while I definitely would like to see an advanced search with all the bells and whistles (exact string, must include, must NOT include, etc, etc), I feel like even that may not solve it all, and also introduces new drawbacks of its own (excluding one mod author because they have a bunch of mods you don't want may exclude an unrelated mod they made that you would want; excluding certain search terms could accidentally exclude other mods that used the same word but were otherwise unrelated to what you were actually wanting to exclude, or may not exclude all the ones you wanted to exclude due to the myriad of ways to say the same thing; etc).

I do almost wonder if renaming "depreciated" to "hidden" would help some (with a description next to it or on roll over of its exact function)? Some people may avoid checking the depreciated button on personal mods exactly because they think it will make it so no one can use it. Hidden doesn't exactly convey this feeling (to me), and coupled with the description may help further.

Of course, there will still be plenty of people who wouldn't use this. Honestly, I feel like the best solution would be a report button that would then flag for review to maybe the forum moderators? They could then review for legitimacy before forwarding up to the devs for final decisions (if the devs don't want these moderators having the same kind of powers on the mod portal). It'd be better still on the devs if these moderators would at least have the power to change the "depreciated" state flag, as then they could handle all of the "for personal use" mod reports, which I expect to be (one of) the biggest report reason. Further, having it be similar to the forums where once someone has reported a mod it tells anyone else attempting to report it that it's already been reported (until the report has been closed as done?) would help cut down on report spam to filter through.

If they're marked as deprecated, I believe Factorio will refuse to download them, even when syncing a multiplayer game.

The purpose of the deprecated flag is specifically to allow existing games to sync them but not advertise to new users in searches. We use it for mods that still technically work but that are no longer maintained and replaced by better options.

Oh, and we were slightly wrong on the fact that depreciated hides mods from searches. It doesn't. Instead, it makes it so they don't appear when you aren't searching (both filtered and unfiltered with the new categories and tags), and on searches they appear dead last in the search results.

[ptx0]

I think people who place stuff with a comment such as "For personal use only" should have their mods deleted. There are other mods that are just inappropriate and offensive.

i know Cyclomactic would agree with you about the former, but "inappropriate" and "offensive"? what on earth could you possibly be referring to? maybe my Flare Stack Tweak mod that has a vector art thumbnail of an execution? or something like the bikini JRPG character?

[jamiechi1]

I think people who place stuff with a comment such as "For personal use only" should have their mods deleted. There are other mods that are just inappropriate and offensive.

i know Cyclomactic would agree with you about the former, but "inappropriate" and "offensive"? what on earth could you possibly be referring to? maybe my Flare Stack Tweak mod that has a vector art thumbnail of an execution? or something like the bikini JRPG character?

I used the words "inappropriate" and "offensive" more as an example of what can occur, not so much as what does occur. I probably should have added the word 'spam' as well which many of us might agree with. Also all these labels are quite subjective and it is up to the powers that be to decide what to do in each reported case.

Maybe the best thing for me would be to quit using the default tab 'Recently Dowloaded' and stick to the 'Most Downloaded' or 'Popular' Tabs. It would be nice if the website would remember the tab I last used when I return to the Factorio Mods website.

[ptx0]

I probably should have added the word 'spam' as well

i've never seen spam on the mod portal. if i re-read your initial post now it looks like you view "personal use only" mods as spam?

[jamiechi1]

I probably should have added the word 'spam' as well

i've never seen spam on the mod portal. if i re-read your initial post now it looks like you view "personal use only" mods as spam?

An example of spam was when someone made a useless mod to replace the avatar with the picture of their face. I could give you lots of examples.

[jodokus31]

The new bookmark feature helps to whitelist mods for yourself.
May there could be a similar feature for personal blacklisting?

[FuryoftheStars]

I probably should have added the word 'spam' as well

i've never seen spam on the mod portal. if i re-read your initial post now it looks like you view "personal use only" mods as spam?

An example of spam was when someone made a useless mod to replace the avatar with the picture of their face. I could give you lots of examples.

Useless mods like that aren't technically spam. It's no different than the mod that replaces biters with cats. You may not like that particular mod, and it may be useless, but it's not spam.

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That said, I feel like it's nitpicking to question the request to have a report function because one has never seen a mod that is inappropriate & offensive and/or spam. Putting aside the idea of "just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it can't" (wasn't there once a mod that replaced some things with phallic objects?), there are plenty more uses for such a feature than just that. "For personal use only" mods are clutter, and if the mod owners won't depreciate/hide their own mods, then someone should for them. Further, there have been and still are mods out there that are violating the license terms of the mods they are based on/ripped from. A readily available built-in report feature is so much easier than not seeing anything and maybe having the idea to search the web/forums for a "how do I report a mod" topic.

[ptx0]

it's nitpicking to question the request to have a report function because one has never seen a mod that is inappropriate & offensive and/or spam. Putting aside the idea of "just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it can't"

didn't say it couldn't. didn't say it wouldn't because i haven't seen it.

i was asking for examples because if it's a prolific issue that needs addressing it should be easily documented what kind of things are considered rude/offensive/not allowed.

the development cost of the Report button isn't very high, but the support cost of responding to reports made out of angst are definitely non-zero.

there's an existing reporting mechanism, and it needs you to submit an email manually to Wube.

ergo, there's not a big enough issue to add the button but adding it would cause numerous issues.

[ptx0]

there have been and still are mods out there that are violating the license terms of the mods they are based on/ripped from. A readily available built-in report feature is so much easier

just wanted to point out that only the author of that mod is allowed to submit those reports. adding a button is not applicable. licenses can be changed but those changes only apply to new releases. the old code's license cannot be changed. does Wube go by the new license terms or the old one? they'd have to store the license for each released version. you can see this in action with Optera's 2019 license change that closed a loophole but it didn't impact the earlier releases of LTN that still have that loophole.

you're asking Wube to do too much.

[FuryoftheStars]

the development cost of the Report button isn't very high, but the support cost of responding to reports made out of angst are definitely non-zero.

Which is why I had suggested this:

Honestly, I feel like the best solution would be a report button that would then flag for review to maybe the forum moderators? They could then review for legitimacy before forwarding up to the devs for final decisions (if the devs don't want these moderators having the same kind of powers on the mod portal). It'd be better still on the devs if these moderators would at least have the power to change the "depreciated" state flag, as then they could handle all of the "for personal use" mod reports, which I expect to be (one of) the biggest report reason.

there's an existing reporting mechanism, and it needs you to submit an email manually to Wube.

ergo, there's not a big enough issue to add the button but adding it would cause numerous issues.

Except that "existing" option is not visible or known to most. Probably on purpose so they won't have to deal with floods of email. Which is why I suggested what I did above.

[ptx0]

Except that "existing" option is not visible or known to most

because most don't encounter this issue. oh, you should believe it, if someone is so offended, they'll come make a post on the forums