Solving the mod beggars and "relese wen" problem

Over the course of the last few months it has become fairly obvious that the mod begging problem is not going to go away by itself. Seeing all the drama that this has caused, and how it has almost lead to the stagnation of the modding scene it is clear that it is time that the staff takes some action to solve this problem, instead of continuing to take the "hands free" approach of letting it just go on unchecked and letting it create the problems that it has caused so far, only removing a few posts or maybe locking a thread after it had to be requested.

My proposal to solve this problem is fairly simple, add to the "posting guideline" box another bulletpoint that states that mod begging is unacceptable and will only result in backlash and drama, as well as that asking for a release date puts undeserved pressure on the mod devs and also creates drama.

I understand that this might be covered in the "Does your post contribute to the thread" point, but considering how things have been going so far, i think it would be better if it was a separate point. We cant just keep going on the idea that people understand what a post that contributes to the thread is.

Finally, i want to make it clear that i dont want to create drama from this thread, or send hate to the staff. I just think this is something we could improve on to reduce this problem that has become such a big issue in the last year or so.

 

Isn't it faster than reading this:

1. Block beggars
2. Ask to don't beg for it in comments/thread
   *solved preoblem in 2 min lol

 

Thats like putting tape on the hull of a ship that is sinking, or the principles of aggressive architecture. Sure you can pretend the problem isnt there, but that is not going to make it go away. This is something we need to address from the root of the problem, stopping that post begging for a mod or asking for a release date *before* its made, not after.

 

I don't see sense in this sort of threads with beggars/spammers and etc
And I completly don't see no sense in posting it in general disc.
That's why I am making these posts

 

I don’t think the people who beg for mods are going to bother reading that, or even if they do they might not care.

 

My solution is not creating wip threads so less dramas

 

People just need to ignore it and not get all worked up over nothing.

Anyone of these mod creators that just thrive on the attention begging gives them to the point where they say things like "mod cancelled for too much begging" are the biggest part of the problem, some even go as far as making alt accounts to add to the drama...

 

My solution is to not care, if you are a mod maker and you get riled up over something so trivial, chances are you are in it for the wrong reasons.

 

As others have already said, the ignore function is super easy to access, so ignoring people who are participating in your threads in a manner that you find annoying takes literally a second.

And as others have said also, avoiding to create WIP threads too early also helps. It eases the pressure on yourself to finish the project (I personally have a bunch of semi-dead projects in various states of completion ), and IMHO most decent pre-release feedback I've gotten was from sharing progress with fellow modders.

 

Honestly i think you are right, but its worth a try, to address the problem from the root instead of just ignoring it and pretending its not there. Sure you can ignore people, but they will keep coming back again, and as more people join, you will keep seeing people doing it. We cant expect people who just joined the forum to know whats right and what isnt, and by adding that line to the guidelines its atleast a first step towards getting new people to not do it.

Also yes, again, not creating WIP threads too early also helps, but the problem is, once again, you are not addressing the root of the issue, you are just hiding it.

 

i kinda agree with Mr Angry, but i think if someone begs, they should be reminded that begging is not helpful, but i don't think the Person who is begging (especially if they are new) should be told to commit breathn't, or discouraged from posting on the forums anymore. so in my opinion the person should be gently reminded and given advice on proper forum behavior.

thank you for coming to my ted talk

 

Like others have said I do think the modder can just ignore it. One young ‘un asking for a release is not the end of the world. I don’t think it should be up to modders to ignore it though, rules against it should be put in place. Everyone telling the person to stop begging just makes it worse though, so I think the best course of action is to just not say a thing.

 

The thing is the issue is still made way worse by the fact that comments that resemble begging tends to result in a torrent of people bashing on him, especially in a certain thread from a person who "canceled" his mods due to "begging"

Like it or not, beamNG, due to it's aproachability and gameplay, tends to attract a large amount of fairly young and immature people, and this isn't a thing you can really change. What can be done though, and should reduce the toxicity, is nicely informing them that asking for release dates is generally frowned upon, or just ignoring them. Piling up on them accomplishes nothing.

 

Some are better about this than others, but I kinda feel like this is big part of the problem as well. I get the frustration mod makers are having with the forums, I've seen so many threads derail from begging and just weird nonsense, but taking this frustration out on the community only feeds into the problem.

This is also another massive issue that I think contributes to thread derailment. Even if the mod maker is trying to ignore the begging, the people who dog pile the beggars only serve to derail the thread even more. As far as the solution goes, I think we need certain restrictions for new members, some sort of rule against mod begging and backseat moderation , and perhaps harsher punishments for those who break the rules.

I could also be wrong about this, but I do believe in some threads the mods are removing the swath of off topic posts. I think this is a step in the right direction.

 

Part of the problem is that a lot of the dog-piling and backseat moderation is often done by fairly established members of the community, so restrictions to new accounts wouldn't fix the issue.

 

It's way worse when 10 people respond to one guy asking for a release date. Or people joining in on a "forum fight."
As others suggested, ignoring it is the key.
Or if you have to respond, do it peacefully and no need to do it if someone else already has.

 

I can't be the only one who wants to commit mass genocide when someone says "plz reles mod fo r chrikjsmas i liek mod plz giv"

 

Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. If we let it keep going and just "ignore and move on" it will continue to get worse and worse. Need proof? Look at the forum the last 8 months. Its clear the "ignore and move on" is not working.
Im fairly confident that this behaviour comes from people that just dont know its wrong, and that by adding it to the posting guidelines we could atleast reduce it a bit, instead of expecting newcomers to just understand the social norms of the forum

 

And as if to prove the point perfectly, lol

https://www.beamng.com/threads/1990-95-ibishu-zephyr-200lx.72304/page-38#post-1258909

Really don't get why anyone begs on their own mod threads...

 

saying to not do it in a box isn’t going to do anything when they are told by users multiple times to stop and not even that does anything. We need a rule that once you do it 3 times you are temp banned for a certain period.