devtrackers.gg
How do I write this without the post coming off as witch hunting? This is a challenge, however I feel it's worth the risk as there is a mod author that is not only creating negativity in the modding community but is also operating unethically. The mod author in question is a creator of many very popular workshop mods and typically is very rude and condescending. I'm sure those who have encountered him understand who I am referring to.
For the sake of avoiding removal, I will avoid mentioning names here or providing links in hopes that someone from Wildcard will reach out to me to further review this as I can provide post history and whatever else.
Firstly, this mod author has a mod policy as detailed below:
Subscription Terms
By installing this mod and using it, you agree to the following:
1. [Irrelevant]
2. Steam users that harass, insult, argue with, lecture or otherwise pester the creator, other mod developers, or any other steam user on the Steam Page, *are subject to being banned from comments, and from the mod itself*. Banned players will not be allowed to use any features of this mod, nor any one they are in a tribe with. Banned players that are server admin, will have all features of the mod deactivated for their server.
These terms are subject to change.
As seen above, you can be banned from his workshop page, and you can be banned from using his mods if you even pester him, which even means making simple suggestions as I've witnessed others do this only to be met by his bullying attitude. To clarify, the way this ban works is if it detects a banned user connect as an admin on their own server it immediately blocks the mod server-wide for everyone. This is an incredibly methodical and petty approach.
To take you back to the root of the issue, I spoke with this mod author regarding a dino overspawn issue in one of his earlier workshop submissions ten months ago and I was indeed a little irate, however I was still polite through it all, constantly thanking him for his responses and dedication throughout it all but I was unfortunately met with very rude responses regardless. There was a tipping point after so many condescending replies and I believe the following comment got me and my community banned from using his mods:
You've got people here who respect what you've done to maintain this mod and are pretty upset that a core change pretty much ruined the experience as thousands of raging dragons is quite game breaking. While we sympathize you cannot fix it and this issue "just happens", your attitude through your comment section speaks volumes and while it is likely reflective of the constant annoyance of people asking you the same questions or not appreciating your work, I think you need to do some reflecting yourself.
To avoid dragging this out for ages I'll just say I've spoken to other modders, even host providers about this guy's attitude and there's a lot of agreeance across the board about how he conducts himself. It is an issue that there is no centralized place that reviews mods or mod authors to highlight abuses.
As a result of me wanting to resolve an issue and calling him out for being too rude, now my community of upwards of 200 people will never be able to use any of his mods on our servers. This feels very wrong and I'm not sure if his policy breaches the ToS of either the devkit or the Steam workshop page.
TLDR: Very well known modder is openly a rude bully. He reserves the right to ban not only players but entire communities from using his mods if you merely make suggestions or pester him.
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