Donate to Modders (like on Nexus Sites).
Chippy
Member Posts: 241
So as the title suggests - if there was a mod that was unlikely to see the light of day as DLC, would there be some means (corruption and sleaze aside) for the community to donate to a modder as memebers of e.g Skyrim Nexus can?.
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Comments
While the sentiment is appreciated, i.e. modders have worked really hard to avoid legal hassles over getting paid in any way shape or form for breaking copyright by adding, extending, injecting into, using, or abusing the game content. We go so far as to refuse to support or talk about cracks or torrents, ruthlessly driving posters who do away from our fora. We self-police, to the point where even making players pay for modding site *access* is considered downright evil, narcissitic, disgusting, and socially prahiaitic (if that is even a word
If Overhaul/Beamdog pays a modder independently of their mods as a subcontractor, or accepts a donation of mod content as an official DLC, or other stuff like that, it is no big deal. @Jcompton hired a number of modders for projects on The Broken Hourglass. The modder isn't a modder, in that situation - they are covered by the company, report to the company, and do what the company has determined they can legally do without spending half their life testifying. But cash, even freely donated, for unofficial mods (not official DLC) is an area where a smart modder would never, ever go. We don't want the approval process, we want the freedom to express what we like, and we want to be able to say "I made no money off of this so you can't really sue me and take everything I have got or ever will have - you can only send me a letter demanding my stuff not be distributed any more".
No worries, though - I think all the major i.e. modding *sites* except G3 accept paypal donations to help cover the costs of hosting. G3 has never accepted donations except from the Gibberlings, as we kind of work like an ancient Greek city-state, where the active folks communally make the decisions, so we kick the cash in together. So if you want to support the mods, the best way is to find the modding site that supports it, and help defray the costs of keeping it active.
And there is one thing you can do for modders that is free and takes very little time. The folks here working on BG:EE need cash to pay their bills - it is their chosen career and they should be paid for their time. A modder is an amateur who has fun building/writing/tweaking stuff. He or she can be "paid for his or her time" just by dropping in to the mod site and posting feedback, suggestions, or posting a word of praise about what you as a player liked in a mod. We may write what we want, but everyone likes to know that someone else cares enough about their mod to check in and say "thanks".
Sounds like a minefield. I've downloaded a few mods from G3 and they were each fantastic, time allowing I hope to get more involved in the modding scene in the future, but thanks, your reply was really insightful.