UESPWiki:Archive/CP Legitimate Mod Linking

This is an archive of past UESPWiki:Community Portal discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Legitimate Mod Linking

Most mods are uploaded by their authors to large download sites, where users usually have to sign up in some way in order to download from them. Usually the signup is a pretty minor requirement (e.g. equivalent to signing up for a UESP wiki account), but sometimes the signup is rather more complicated (user has to signup for a specific forum and request download from there). The latter type of signup is a bit controversial -- many players avoid downloading mods with overly complicated requirements; however, even so, the right of the authors to impose such requirements is widely respected.

I've been on the wiki since the beginning and I've never seen this be an issue before. We're not primarily a mod listing site (though we do have a number of notable an important pages), and the sites that we link to (usually TesNexus, PES or Elric) have trivial signup requirements. Since it hasn't come up before, we've never had a formal policy stated.

Anyway, the issue came up on Morrowind Mod:Better Bodies today, and I have accordingly reverted the links. As it turns out, the editor adding the problem links was blocked for "language issues" anyway, so I doubt this will be an issue outside of this particular editor. Still, I wanted to drop a note regarding what has been an informal policy up to this point. --Wrye 04:28, 1 September 2009 (UTC)