What a mess

There is quite a strawman argument going on here.

I haven't seen anybody trying to tell freeware developers what to do or where - or if - to offer their freeware. I haven't seen anybody claiming to be entitled to download all freeware from a specific site.

All I see are users who express their regret that it gets harder now to browse for addons when freeware developers leave the one stop site we had for quite some time now. And I see users who explain why they don't want to spend their time searching again for addons the way it was before fs.to.

And just as it is perfectly legit for freeware developers to decide if and where they want to upload their work, it is perfectly legit for users to decide where they want to browse for and download addons.

All that doesn't mean that users aren't grateful for the altruistic work of all the freeware developers.

 

2 hours ago, RALF9636 said:

There is quite a strawman argument going on here.

I haven't seen anybody trying to tell freeware developers what to do or where - or if - to offer their freeware. I haven't seen anybody claiming to be entitled to download all freeware from a specific site.

All I see are users who express their regret that it gets harder now to browse for addons when freeware developers leave the one stop site we had for quite some time now. And I see users who explain why they don't want to spend their time searching again for addons the way it was before fs.to.

And just as it is perfectly legit for freeware developers to decide if and where they want to upload their work, it is perfectly legit for users to decide where they want to browse for and download addons.

All that doesn't mean that users aren't grateful for the altruistic work of all the freeware developers.

 

Hi, Ralf,

Thank you for your clarification.

I think that's the point. 

Regards.

How to fix what's not broken and make a mess of it...

 

fs.to was never the one stop shop for all mods. Many of the biggest and most downloaded were somewhere else (think AIG,  FSLTL, PMS50, WT, FBW, etc., etc., etc.) long before all this blew up and people seemed to get them just fine.  fsto has changed their TOS because of this and that's good for everybody involved. Some creators this will satisfy and some it will not or is to little to late, but MSFS modding will go on.

On 2/28/2023 at 12:39 PM, MarioDonick said:

I wish Discord would not be used as alternative... Registering with dozens of different discord channels, each with several unorganized subchannels is way too much cognitive overload  at least for me . Set up a simple website. Or use Avsim file database  Or use NexusMods.

Just a quick note that NexusMods has basically the same ToS as flightsim.to, including the inability to permanently delete content. Just throwing this out there to point out the hypocrisy of the fs.to backlash.

A lot of people are going to be up a creek when Discord starts implementing restrictions or forcing Nitro memberships on people. As far as I know, Discord has yet to turn a profit and relies almost entirely on Nitro subscriptions and server boosts, both of which don't really apply to the types of servers freeware devs create (because the servers freeware devs create were not the intended usage of Discord, which is also why the experience for this type of usage sucks!)

Edited March 5, 20233 yr by Funky D

6 hours ago, Funky D said:

Just a quick note that NexusMods has basically the same ToS as flightsim.to, including the inability to permanently delete content. Just throwing this out there to point out the hypocrisy of the fs.to backlash.

There was also a lot of backlash agains NexusMods when they introduced their new ToS two years ago, and there were many modders that decided to leave NexusMods and remove their mods while they could.

On 3/4/2023 at 3:55 AM, Ricardo41 said:

If the user of these mods is "inconvenienced", because, omigod, I actually have to spend 5 minutes familiarizing myself with Discord, well, this is the price one pays for the grand total of FREE.

While I don't disagree that a modder is free to do what they want, and I certainly agree that users have no right to demand anything from a freeware modder, I do not agree with the sentiment that a modder does not need to think about their users.  After all, if a modder is making their mod available for others to share and enjoy, they should at least consider what is the best way to get their creation in the users hands.

If a modder does not want to take their users into account in any way, or no longer wants to provide any support ... well, they should keep their mod private to themselves.

Even at the price of free, you acknowledge your "customers".

I have had creations and mods over the years which I have abandoned or decided I no longer wanted to support or be involved with. I usually made them open source with no restrictions using a CC license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) at that point so that they could be continued or updated or fixed in the future if somebody needed to do that.

i saw henricks global ship traffic v3 is taken down, was this due to the new Terms ?

13 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

i saw henricks global ship traffic v3 is taken down, was this due to the new Terms ?

Yes - and his name is Henrik

 

On 3/4/2023 at 8:58 PM, Funky D said:

Just a quick note that NexusMods has basically the same ToS as flightsim.to, including the inability to permanently delete content.

This statement is confusing, since the backlash against .to forced them to modify their TOS in the last week or two.  They currently allow permanent deletion of content again.  In other words, the boycott / exodus accomplished what it was meant to do.

So does NexusMods have the same TOS, or do they not allow deletion of mods?  😁

4 hours ago, SierraDelta said:

Yes - and his name is Henrik

 

whats a mess this all is.

who "owns" flightsim.to out of interest ?

Finally got hit by this. I started flying in New Zealand again, and wanted to re-download JonArnz' Dunedin airport. It's gone, as are their other airports. Anybody know if they ever uploaded to an alternate site? I refuse to use allflightmods.