The Future... spin-off: Hosted Mod Forums

[Epistolary Richard]

Spun-off from the discussion here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=62981

2. Too Many Mods

So many mods start up and then fail. If forums were a little more cautious in offering mod teams their own subforums this would I believe make people think more about how realistic their endeavour is; it would likely see more people joining up with stronger mods.

I would propose higher minimum criteria for mods to be accepted for hosting; though of course anyone could still put out an advert for putting together a team.

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Since the release of Rome Total War, things have changed for mod development. It used to be the case that specific mod forums tended to be on a single forum - normally the favoured mod forum of the core developers. Now, however, a single mod could potentially have forums on two, three or even as many as four or five different forums. On one of these forums they will typically have a development area and that will be seen as the 'home' of the mod, with the other forums serving a promotional purpose - publicising the developing mod to the different communities.

The benefit to the mod team is that they get to publicise their mod to a different membership - the trade-off is that the mod team have another location to update with information and answer queries, generally absorbing time from their team.

For the site, a hosted mod forum may elicit additional content, but equally there remains the possibility that a mod forum may not be updated by the team and go inactive. One can imagine that if every mod in the Forge had its own forum then there would be a bewildering number of forums the vast majority with very little content.

So, given all that, what do people think?

Is it beneficial for the overall community to have multiple forums across different sites?

If so, what should the criteria be? Should some distinction be made between mods that are being primarily developed on that forum and those mods which are being developed elsewhere and are merely being 'marketed' there?

Should a distinction be made between mods which have teams or which are largely the result of a single person?

Should a distinction be made between mods which have yet to make their first release and those where something is already downloadable?

Should the scope of the mod be taken into account? The reputation of the team? Its chances of success?

What support should a mod team expect from a site which is 'Hosting' them? Equally, what can a site expect from a mod team from which it has given a forum?