Thoughts on drama in the modding scene

There are many mod creators who are selling mods on platforms like Patreon. In an ideal world, I'd like to see mods be completely free and available to everyone, but the reality is that making mods is a lot of work and mod authors are spending thousands of hours creating their mods. So I find it understandable some modders want to monetize their work, especially if they're in a rough financial situation.

I don't see anything wrong with the above, but what is wrong are people stealing mods so they can sell them without permission. If anyone stumbles upon accounts like this do not support them. If they are supported rather than people who are actually creating the mods, then the real mod creators will start to make it harder to use their mods (ie, encrypt them) or outright stop making mods and move onto something else.

I'll not link any of these accounts as I don't want more traffic going their way. They never show images of work-in-progress meshes and they never talk about the technical details about making their mods, so it's not hard to identify them. If you are in doubt, you can ask someone reputable in the modding community.

If you are a mod creator and you see one of your creations stolen and sold without permission by one of these accounts on Patreon, you can send an email directly to Patreon with a DMCA request. More information how to do that here: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/208377833-How-do-I-send-a-DMCA-notification-of-claimed-infringement-

While not related, I'd like to add my thoughts on some other things I think people should keep in mind:

• There are many people showcasing other people's mods on Youtube. This is cool, and a nice way to make mods more well-known, but I think people should do their best to always credit and link the creator of the mod in the video title and/or description.

• On a similar note, I'd like to encourage more people to support and credit mod tool creators. I feel they typically end up becoming unsung heroes as their end result isn't as noticeable as the mods people create, but the thing is, there wouldn't be a modding scene at all without modding tools. They're the foundation that makes all of this possible.