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70% Positive

Analyzed from 1200 words in the discussion.

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#steamdb#mods#nexus#site#data#https#steam#sustainable#free#games

Discussion (39 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

rpdillon•about 2 hours ago
Better link about the background here is on SteamDB's blog: https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/

It seems pretty standard in terms of trajectory: hobby project blew up and became a thing people relied on, founder grew up over the years as well and can't sustain it. Company steps in to provide the "right resources", but inevitably doesn't emphasize too much the changes that will be needed to make it "sustainable".

> Running a service like SteamDB is not easy. I wouldn't be able to live with myself by either just letting the site run as-is and letting it wither, or completely shut it down. In January, I started looking for a worthy partner that could continue the legacy that I had built.

> This is where Nexus Mods comes in.

And Chosen's CEO:

> Our job isn't to change what makes SteamDB special. It's to give it the resources, team and long-term stability it deserves, while building a sustainable foundation that allows us to keep investing in and improving it for many years to come.

So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.

Sivart13•about 1 hour ago
> So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.

I think that's answered pretty well by the 5 ads that open when I visit the announcement page on nexusmods.com link in the OP vs the speedy and clean UI that on the steamdb.info version (for now).

HelloUsername•about 2 hours ago
> https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/

Someone posted that before I see (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491) so perhaps post can be merged to there

doctorpangloss•about 1 hour ago
i don't know. the whole operation was kind of obnoxious. valve could provide all this information for free in an afternoon, but chooses not to. of course, by information, i mean: historical, per-user purchasing histories, which are 1,000,000% the most valuable piece of data. but since the guy who ran steamdb doesn't make games, he didn't comprehend what it was that was valuable, and instead, focused on CSGO "leaks."
oybng•7 minutes ago
Well it's dead now. The demise of NM has been very public
Sweepi•26 minutes ago
FAQ by SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/faq/?guildid=215154001799413770#why-sho...

"Why should the community trust Nexus Mods with SteamDB?"

You shouldn't have to take our word for it, so here are the commitments, in writing, that you can hold us to:

  SteamDB stays free.
  Nothing currently free goes behind a paywall.
  We don't sell your personal data.
  SteamDB keeps its own identity, site and community.
  The extension stays free and keeps working.
PunchyHamster•10 minutes ago
none of that is legally enforceable so none of that matters, we had million stories of companies going back on their word, it isn't worth the rust it is written on
opello•about 2 hours ago
Title has an extra d after Steam.
HelloUsername•about 2 hours ago
Crapd. Can't edit anymore. But like I suggested elsewhere, perhaps comments can be moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491, they were first
amiga386•about 2 hours ago
Ah yes, Nexus Mods, where they'll ban you for making mods that change "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" back to "Male" and "Female", or remove mandatory pronoun selection.

https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/did-nexus-mods-ban-pron...

And while they're still full of mods adding anime waifus into Skyrim, they'll ban anyone who uploads "content deemed illegal by English law" because they love sucking up to the Online Safety Act. (The site should really not be hosted in the UK until that law is repealed)

https://forums.nexusmods.com/topic/13520419-thevogelman-bann...

Does this mean that Steam's porn games will disappear from SteamDB as Nexus Mods puritanically censor their new acquisition?

c-hendricks•27 minutes ago
Try quoting the full line, not just the part that scares you:

> Uploading content deemed illegal by English law (indecent depictions of minors)

seanw444•about 1 hour ago
Do you know of any good alternatives to Nexus Mods? A peer-to-peer system would be really cool. Mod hosting over something like Reticulum, with mod manager integration, sounds like a dream.
forestingfisher•16 minutes ago
Just Web 2.0 and it’s consequences.
speedgoose•9 minutes ago
Allow the vocal snowflakes who can’t accept a video game featuring a tiny bit of non binary gender identity, and sooner than later you face the nazi bar problem[0].

It didn’t take long for x.com, previously known as twitter.

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nazi_bar

Natfan•14 minutes ago
sounds a bit... snowflakey of you
yreg•about 1 hour ago
> Ah yes, Nexus Mods, where they'll ban you for making mods that change "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" back to "Male" and "Female", or remove mandatory pronoun selection.

Oh, no. If this is the most severe issue that the company has then we are fine.

yipinwong•about 1 hour ago
It's an example of broader issue.

You don't get what @amiga386 was implying

bakugo•about 1 hour ago
Knowing Nexus, I do expect some manner of censorship, though the exact form this censorship will take remains to be seen.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they started taking payments from game publishers to hide historical player count data for certain games that aren't doing very well.

Philpax•26 minutes ago
> Ah yes, Nexus Mods, where they'll ban you for making mods that change "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" back to "Male" and "Female", or remove mandatory pronoun selection.

Oh my god please get a life

haunter•about 3 hours ago
And the company behind Nexus:

>We acquire. We amplify. We conquer.

https://www.wearechosen.io/

lmao good luck.

Love how the guy was running the site alone becaue he couldn’t “trust anyone else” and ended up selling to a company like this.

Though SteamDB is not irreplacebale at all, it’s running on the Steam Web API so not something super secret stuff.

2001zhaozhao•about 1 hour ago
> Though SteamDB is not irreplacebale at all, it’s running on the Steam Web API so not something super secret stuff.

Is it possible to use Steam API to collect all the data that SteamDB collected over the years again?

Alternatively, maybe someone needs to to scrape SteamDB asap before they lock it down?

johen8•44 minutes ago
Damn, good for him, I guess, but what a bummer, I wonder how they'll enshittify the site. Also a reminder for everyone to disable or at least keep an eye out for updates on the extension. They say in the FAQ they won't change it, but i've been burned before by such promises
flaunf221•31 minutes ago
Nexus was sold to those new owners a bit over a year ago.

Nothing changed for the worse since that time. So don't expect any immediate changes.

bakugo•about 1 hour ago
Okay, so go ahead and replace it. Even if we ignore the whole historical data aspect of SteamDB, you may find that accurately tracking and storing as much data as possible for hundreds of thousands of apps on Steam may not be as easy as it sounds, especially when you're doing it for free.

SteamDB is (was) one guy's passion project, that's the only way a site like this can work, and passion projects in tech are a thing of the past. There's no way to monetize it without making it borderline unusable. I am confident that, when SteamDB inevitably becomes a cesspit of intrusive ads and/or starts locking features behind a paywall (that no one will pay for, because paying a monthly subscription to see metadata for Steam games is insane, which will lead to more desperate measures and possibly an eventual shutdown of the site), no suitable replacement will be made.

doctorpangloss•about 1 hour ago
The most valuable data is the per user purchase histories from before the time those were hidden by default.
jamesnorden•28 minutes ago
Why is that "valuable"?
tencentshill•about 2 hours ago
The fundamental function of the site can now be vibecoded in a day, so now has no value. The daily visitors are the only unused item of value remaining.
Banditoz•about 2 hours ago
I await your repo tomorrow, then! I'd be happy to use an alternative with all backfilled playercount data and sales history that hasn't been sold out.
amiga386•about 2 hours ago
SteamDB is itself a massive collection of data - on pricing, game usage, etc. Scraped over years, in a way that Valve tolerate.

It could not be vibecoded in a day unless you want to hallucinate the data, which makes the site useless.

In fact, if the techbros actually tried, they'd force Valve into putting up anti-scraping countermeasures on all their APIs within hours.

bjord•about 2 hours ago
that's optimistic
pathartl•about 2 hours ago
The value is in the contributed art.
PunchyHamster•10 minutes ago
R.I.P. it was a good site and couldn't fall into much worse hands
hurricanepootis•about 3 hours ago
So, looks like SteamDB is gonna get a billion features behind paywall. Probably gonna rate limit how many depots you can look up for free within the hour lol
bjord•about 2 hours ago
I think that's perfectly reasonable if it means a more sustainable future
PunchyHamster•9 minutes ago
apparently it was sustainable just fine before
brink•about 2 hours ago
Is it for a sustainable future, or just extracting maximum value from the user?
giancarlostoro•about 2 hours ago
Probably have ads because idk who would pay to lift those limits.
bakugo•about 1 hour ago
Are you speaking purely out of principle, or do you truly believe it makes sense in this particular case?

Personally, I just can't imagine anyone paying a monthly fee just to access metadata for Steam games and nothing else. At least with Nexus Mods, you're paying for (easier) access to actual content for your games.

Groxx•42 minutes ago
Probably speaking as someone who has used nexusmods in the past decade. Their monetization stuff is on the "lolwhat, that's kinda excessive" side of things.