Featuring Videos on my Mod Front Pages

Hi there,

As a mod author that has work featured frequently in Youtube videos, I feel like the time has come to develop set of guidelines for how I approach placing a video on the front page of my files so that everyone understands what I expect, and what you can expect from me. I hope this saves time and frustration for everyone involved in the future.

I think it’s great that you, the video creator, are making videos of my content. I think that’s awesome and it requires time and talent, and helps bring my work to a wider audience. I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately, PMs and emails asking the same things repeatedly (and on occasion, harassment) has made this page necessary.

Whenever I say “feature a video” below, I am referring to any link to a video on the front page Description of one of my Nexus-hosted mods, whether it is embedded (you can click the video and watch it without leaving the page) or a text link that takes you to the video site.

  • I pride myself in very clean and clear front pages that have easy-to-navigate documentation with the most important things at the top. Front page space is very valuable to me. Adding many videos to the front page increases clutter and decreases navigability, so I’m sensitive to that.
  • I am sensitive to people essentially seeking to leverage the popularity of my files to monetize their Youtube videos or otherwise “grow their channel”. This is a problem I’ve been dealing with for years.
  • We both need to understand that I never asked anyone to create a video of my work, and as such, anything I do for you, the video creator, is ultimately a favor; one that I can decide to grant or not grant, for any reason whatsoever. I do not owe you anything.
  • Anyone can use the Video Sharing feature on the Nexus in order to feature their video on my file page’s Videos tab and in the Video section of the Nexus. It is available to anyone who wants to watch videos of the file in question with very little, if any, moderation input from me required. This also doesn’t clutter my front page, so I see this as ultimately a win-win. If you feel that videos in these areas aren’t discoverable enough, that is ultimately a Nexus problem and not my problem, and I resist attempts to make it my problem.

With those points in mind, here is what I expect from you, the video creator:

  • Send me a link to your video in a SINGLE email or a PM.
  • I will respond, “Thank you!”
  • That’s it.

Here is what you should not do:

  • Send me more than one message about your video. I seriously read and watch every message and video I receive.
  • Harass me into putting your video on my front page.
  • Attempt to manipulate me into putting your video on my front page (stories of how hard you worked, how much time it took to produce it, how you need channel subscribers, etc, for a video I never asked for in the first place, go here).
  • “Remind me” that you sent me a video, and that “it would be great” if I could put it on my front page.
  • Act offended when I don’t put your video on my front page.

At the end of the day, I am the final arbiter of what goes on the front of my mod’s file page. If I think your video will significantly contribute to my user’s experience and general enjoyment of my mod, I will put the video on my front page. If I don’t think it will, I won’t. Whether I do or not, you will not be notified or given justification for the decision. That’s all there is to it. Most importantly, it’s not personal. It’s not that I’m not grateful, I just have more than one set of priorities to balance.

I scrutinize videos that are monetized with ads much more closely. If you monetize your videos, and your video is essentially my mod’s content in the majority, without a substantive amount of your own opinions, experiences, and so on, I am most likely not interested in placing your video on my front page. (This point is primarily aimed at videos of the very short run-time “mod showcase” format that feature one or more mods and essentially regurgitate the mod description that I wrote.)

If you are a mod author and you would like to copypasta any of the above and make it your own policy, feel free if it would make things easier for you.

I hope that this clarifies my thoughts as I seek to provide my users with the best and easiest mod experience possible and also protect myself in the process. I greatly appreciate anyone who puts time and effort into creating high quality videos that include my content, and I will continue to try to feature videos that elevate both my work and your channel.

Best regards,

— Chesko