☢️ I woke up and the first thing I did was download UIC and BBB. The Neurodiversity patches are built and... ⏰ Grim's Event ends tomorrow. ⚡ Just a "little" update to wrap it up.

THIS IS A RANT CONCERNING OUR CREATOR COMMUNITY. YOU'RE WELCOME TO IGNORE IT. YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE WHAT I'M ABOUT TO SAY, BUT IT'S VALID, ISN'T IT?

... why is BBB on Patreon outdated? That's the question.

If you're no longer maintaining your releases on Patreon, why isn't there...

A BIG !@#$ING NOTE AT THE TOP OF THE BETTER BUILDBUY POST STATING WE NEED TO USE THE WEBSITE?

I'm sitting here trying to understand why I'm getting BBB LastException errors.

My neurodiversity modifications aren't- <inhales sharply>

I removed the patch, relaunched the game and more errors, so...

It's not the patch? Maybe I forgot to disable something? Is BBB even working? I'll NUKE my Mods fo- WAIT! I read through UIC's comments and saw simmers reporting issues, let me check BB-

'This is an old version, always use [LINK REMOVED] for getting updates.'

I'm almost certain BBB is their most popular mod.

Editing posts isn't Rocket Science. Why does everyone behave as though it is?

AM I MISREMEMBERING THAT JUST RECENTLY TWISTEDMEXI'S ACCOUNT ON MODTHESIMS WAS COMPROMISED?

Since when does TwistedMexi not maintain their Patreon?

How long ago did this start?

Do I need to search keywords across various Discord groups to find a comment saying Patreon is no longer maintained?

Is it mentioned in a Patreon post somewhere?

I just woke up. I have this thing where I need a few minutes to acclimate to my reality after I wake up. If within that time frame someone starts nagging me, my PATIENCE MOTIVE immediately drops to zero and I get real irritated... this is the equivalent of someone nagging me.

AM I THE ONLY ONE A BIT UNSETTLED BY THIS?

Gimme a minute...

[ONE MINUTE LATER]

🥀 Okay look, only one of my Neurodiversity mods currently conflicts with BBB and it's my "NO PROMO GARBAGE" mod that removes the Shopping Cart Button and "SWIRLING GODRAYS" on buttons in the top right corner of the UI. So far I've only seen "SWIRLING GODRAYS" on the Build Mode button when new content is added to Build Mode (though I assume it happens Elsweyr) and BBB already removes the Shopping Cart, so until my mind settles and I find some snippet of information somewhere that doesn't make me question if TwistedMexi is really TwistedMexi and I didn't just infect my computer, I'm not touching BBB.

If I do make the patch, I'm not comfortable testing it, so I will provide it as is and someone will have to tell me if breaks their UI and/or game and/or sanity.

I checked the internal dates for the "Tmex-BetterBuildBuy.ts4script" I got from Patreon and none of these files have been updated since September 30, 2024... so, since October, TwistedMexi has been responding to comments and directing simmers to the website instead of editing the post?

MSQSIMS did this same thing with one of the mods that was compromised in February. They made a comment on their own modpage talking about the issue... that would eventually get buried by other comments, instead of simply editing their post.

WHY?!

Inhale... Exhale... Inner peace... Think about cute things like 🦋 and 🐈 and 🦕.

AS FOR CUTE- UH, UI CHEATS EXTENSION...

I'm reading reports that "the Aspiration Goals not turning gold upon completion bug has returned".

I don't use UIC, so if you encounter that, just know it ain't my "Secret Squirrel Neurodiversity Patch" causing it.

I'll... take a look but I can't promise anything. I've never dug that much into UIC before and I don't know TS4SCRIPT modding yet, so if it's on the script side, I can't help and I won't know.

🥀 Last but not least, I totes wasn't paying attention when I created "NO SWIRLING GODRAYS ON QUESTS, ETC." - UIC is the mod I'm in conflict with there. So, two of my Neurodiversity overrides are in conflict with UIC and it's the two that I assume simmers who are interested in Neurodiversity mods are most interested in from the ones I've done so far.

Don't fret, the patch is made and I'ma give it to ya, Real Soon™. Right after I scrub BBB from my game, nuke my Recycle Bin and do a quick UIC play-test.

⚡ I FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS...

... and visited the website, and the website redirected me back to Patreon, but to a different Patreon post than the one I was on previously and I just... I can't.

Here's the thing, I faced this problem early on. "How do I notify folks when I update my mods? Do I make a new post and delete the old one? I don't want to delete old posts, especially if there are comments on them. I also share these posts around. There must be a better option!"

This might not be known by everyone, but Patreon allows us to backdate and forward-date our posts and also, it allows us to optionally notify members when we edit a post. This is how I manage my Modding Announcements post. I don't delete and recreate it, I just forward-date it to ensure it stays at the top of my feed, and when there's an important announcement, I tap that little "Notify members that you edited this post" option. I don't actually know if forward-dating sends you email notifications. I apologize if it does.

I continue to use my Modding Announcements post instead of foward-dating my Download & Description posts for two specific reasons and they're both for you, the member/visitor. 1️⃣ Patreon made the brilliant decision to hide the About page behind a "tab" instead of having it always visible at the top of our accounts. There's basic information that I want you to know and I'm not going to bloat every post by copypasting it everywhere. 2️⃣ Patreon made the brilliant decision to NOT show pinned posts to visitors, so even though my Modding Announcements posts stays pinned, only members can see it at the top of my feed.

Patreon is already not formatted (I mean the layout) in a way that makes a whole lotta sense, but these two specific design decisions are two of the dumbest I've ever encountered. It is what it is though and I've found ways around it.

Back to TwistedMexi - the initial criticism still stands. Edit the post if you insist on keeping it. My first post on Patreon was for my Body Hair Override. Before I learned about "Notify members that you edited this post" I rebuilt those overrides and I made a new post, but I edited the old post and removed the download links and left a note notifying everyone of [X] and [Y]. All they've gotta do is edit the post and include a link to the website and let the website do it's thing.

I'm not someone who just complains into the void, or at least I try not to be. When I contact TwistedMexi about the Neurodiversity patch for BBB, I will mention editing the post so they don't have to keep responding to simmers who are popping up on the old post because that's the one their Search Engine is spitting out.

The last creator I said something similar to - intended to help them and their community - responded with "if they can't read, it's their problem". I left that alone because my response would've been very uncivil. I am a simmer first and a creator second. "If they can't read, it's their problem" as though everyone in the entire world speaks perfect English. Really? That's what we're going with?

There's another popular creator whom I also reached out to once. A simmer was encountering issues downloading their mods, not because of user error, but because of Patreon's formatting. Patreon doesn't look the same for all of us. It looks different for me as a creator, for you as a member and I believe it looks different for visitors too. Depending on which category you fall into and your Light/Dark settings for Patreon and your device and browser, hotlinks can blend into the rest of text real easy, so much so that it's sometimes indistinguishable from the surrounding text. This is the problem the simmer was encountering. They couldn't find the download link. Months prior while I was maintaining the Malware Incident post and clearing some creators for concerned simmers, I commented that this same creator's Patreon posts were kinda difficult to navigate, so since it came up again months later I decided I'll reach out. I explained the issue and I explained how I work around it with emojis and recommended they consider something similar. Never got a response!

Not all creators are like this BTW. I've only interacted with a few, and some of them have been quite pleasant.

<heavy sigh> SMH... You didn't think I only criticize EA and EAxis, did you? 😹

Speaking of Patreon, I need to change that default Banner image. It's hell on the eye when Dark Mode is enabled.