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Update on Content Management Permissions (Patreon)

Published:
2019-09-29 22:44:56
Edited:
2019-09-29 23:32:17
Imported:
2021-09

Content

As you may know, if you follow Skyrim modding drama at all, Arthmoor and I have been in a bit of a debate over the past few months over what actions Wabbajack should be allowed to perform during installation. Before I continue, I do want to make it clear that the debate is not about what *can* be done by someone on their own machine, but what actions should be enabled or *encouraged* by a tool. Wabbajack has the potential to broker some of the first interactions a gamer has with the modding community, and we shouldn't take that lightly.

So yesterday I sat down with Arthmoor, and Sigurd Stormhand (a member of the USSLEP team) and we agreed to a moderated discussion about how to move forward on these issues. Sigurd did the moderation, and I'm happy to say that we reached an agreement!

The transcript of the chat is available on AFK Mods.

The TL;DR version is that I agreed to implement a permissions system that would allow modders to control how their content is modified (or not) in a modlist created and installed by Wabbajack. I also agreed to switch our 3rd party downloading to a whitelist system where we refuse to download any non-nexus mod that's not in our official whitelist. This information is queried both during creation and installation of the modlist meaning any permission changes are handled retroactively.

This system was quite easy to implement, and is already in the master branch. After we start signing executables it should be fairly failsafe. If the Nexus ever implements a modlist installer with a custom permissions system we can easily update our code to leverage those new APIs.

In other news, I ordered the code signing cert a few days ago, and it turns out that the validation process takes the longest time. So I'm off to find a notary this week so I can prove I actually live where I say I live.

So that's the latest news, and honestly, it feels great to be making some good progress in this area. 

Comments

Mike Gray

Also, TBH, I find Arthmoor's stance about modding his work kind of noxious. If it's OK for him (and his team) to freely mod Skyrim, why does he have to throw fits about anyone else modding HIS mods? I mean, yeah - I understand that he doesn't want to deal with the headaches caused when people hack up his stuff, then complain to him when it doesn't work. (=His original beef with MO & BSA unpacking.) But if you DON'T make any changes or overwrites, some other mods are simply not going to be able to function right. Is this really necessary? Probably, no heavily modded setup is ever going to be 100% stable - God knows I've tried and failed enough! But when you follow a carefully vetted mod guide to the letter (which is exactly what wj + a high profile guide does!), you come out the other end with a FAR high chance of a sane collection of mods with the right patches and settings. Anyway ... just venting. You're a better man than I am.

Zierry

Wabbajack is better because you don't miss that small detail in wall of text or one small mistake and BOOM! Broken list.

---

I guess I just won't be using Wabbajack, then. I'll wait for somebody to make a fork that doesn't have this arbitrary gating.

Rincewind

That's really unfortunate. I don't use Wabbajack, but I became a Patron, because I wanted to say thanks for offering an easy system for people to use mods. How I wish something like this was available years ago, when I was only a decade into mod using, instead of 17 years. I wanted to say thanks... but apparently the bullies won and now I already fear what will happen next. I fear that this compromise will open the floodgates to even more demands from people like these two, that will continue pushing to further dilute the capabilities of your mod managing program. I say "mod managing program" because they're not modpacks and these people are intentionally being ignorant to that, to think otherwise.

Anonymous

I personally think it's great that Halgari is open to discussion with mod authors. Willingness to compromise is a boon that is often shamed on the internet, but it speaks volume of his character.