Topic has been split from the RTR rant thread. I think this topic is worth his own thread since it is good to sometimes to think about what you are doing and perhaps improve yourself.

As a modder you should remember that you have a pretty large market. If you plan out well and either have talent or attract talented people then it's not unusual to have your mod installed on thousands of computers. The more eye-cathing mods will get a place in magazines.

I think it's a waste when mods have a professional quality to think lowly about the players. We can expect from companies that they don't think much beyond the sale, they need to make money afterall. But the internet community has the great potential of being the perfect company. People aren't modding for the money, the are doing it because they like doing it. Perhaps it seems that some seem to be also concerned with getting fame and boosting their ego. Then there are people who have the opinion that players should either spit or swallow.

I can only hope that arrogancy is limited to the less talented, since otherwise we would be stuck with great mods but nobody besides the creators knowing how it was done.

And that brings to me my next statement:
Modders should not only have the "responsibility" to properly test and inform the players, but they also need to share their wisdom with the community.

If people are taking profit from one person's wisdom then they should not hesitate to share one own's wisdom.

I am trying my best to motivate myself for writing guides and answering questions. This is not because I am moderator, in contrary I was made a moderator because I was doing that. Luckily there are like-minded people and that should make it easier to find my replacement.

In either scenario, you can't flame a modder, or point out flaws
You should not flame anyone, wether is modder or not. You can certainly point out flaws, but it's up to the creator to decide wether he wants to change anything. However, you cannot demand a change, and that is what most modders find irritating. But if you cannot critisism then you shouldn't publish your mod. It's like an artists who defends his painting against everyone who doesn't like it. Of course it can hurt since it is something that you created and you put alot of time into it, but you should realize that there as many opinions as there are people.

I think that in the case of the Total Realism mod (badly named IMO), it had the advantage of being the first large mod who fixed alot. There will be more and more alternatives. There are some who take their time (Europa Barbarum for example) and I think those mods will win over the quick-fix-mods since the former are created with a well thought vision. When released those mods will be more finished and the player will be far more satisfied then with a mod which is patched every week.