A time limit for ppl no longer around seems reasonable

One look in the captains roster will tell you the last time that person visited and if is still active

I always send a PM anyway but someone who hasnt been here for 2 years is hardly going to reply

And a readme with the original modders name always goes a long way
I include my email and subsim address in mine

What little I have released :rotfl:

:rotfl:

Would you like to provide the evidence ?:hmm:
The overwhelming number of posts is our evidence :yep:

Your kidding me right? :roll:

Rofl! :rotfl:That was good one!

I really hope this is a community effort to formally establish ethics, and does not turn into a dictation made by one person that everyone just nods their head to and says "Ok" without a rebuttle.

On permissions. I will flat out openly admit, i do not always ask permision. Given the rate at which i work, and my RL schedule, its not always feasible because i simply dont have time to wait around for 2 days to 2 weeks waiting for someone to read their PM or email. It really depends on the author though. If they flat out state in their readme, "You cant use this without permission", or otherwise have a tone on their mod thread that would indicate they are not subseceptiable for usage by others, THEN i wont use it. In any event If they come back and yell it me, then i will remove it. No questions asked, no complainig from me

On that note, i think it would be alot easier if everyone stated in their readme, "You may" or "you may not" use this mod without my permission You'd solve alot of bull**** right then and there. No guesswork involed, no waiting around, no BS, no assumptions, no ambiguity. put it right there in black and white and everyones happy. Infact NOT putting that in your readme, is probably being lazy. Hell, I'll update my readmes with just that effect after i get done posting this.

But that leads me to my next point: "blanketing credit"
Sometimes, its just neccessary. Particuarly when your dealing with mods that have been around for freaking ages, and you have no clue who made them anymore. I think the single overriding point here is, if you know who made the mod or not is irrevalnt, what is relevant is that you dont take credit for it if its not yours. Don't get me wrong, if you know who made the mod, you better credit them, but if you don't, then i think one had better establish, that "No, i didnt do this", in the interests of being HONEST.

My 2 cents. Im off to update my readme file now.

Nah, I feel that blanket crediting is just lazy. All you have to do is ask if you don't know. There's enough ppl here that have been around long enough and have sharp memories, that you can find out if you bother to ask.

Most readmes contain the phrase you may NOT use this mod in any commercial mods

I suppose the line could be added to say whether was ok to use in a freeware mod

As to not knowing who made what a simple post on the forum will usually get you the answer
Of course if the mod isnt from this forum thats a bit different

Okay, I really should sleep at some point today/yesterday whatever now is...

...before returning to work. I've put on my flame resistant nomex PJ's and me pickelhalb.

TTFN

Tough. If i feel a blanket statement is needed, then ill make one, and not worry about it. IThe important thing i feel is not taking credit for others work, and that, ultimatly is all i really care about. Not other peoples perceptions of how they think i should be conducting myself.

Besides Alot of works are derivitaves, so if your out to cite every little source, your going to be writing ALOT of names in your readme, and from that standpoint, everyone had a hand in just about every major mod job in existance. From the first version of "improved convoys" and everything that came out around the same tine, and since. Community et all. Being lazy? I don't think so, its an acklowledgement of the full lineage of a mod, in a short concise statement.

The situation is really simple -

- if you can't obtain permission, you can't use it (who is to say that the request wasn't heard but ignored?)
- don't use a slightly moddified version of the mod to get around the above problem


the abanonment clause proposed is absurd - what if the modder moves on to another board or place continuing his/her work there (which could be a reason why a request is ignored or no forwarding address found)?

The solution is alot simpler then that.

A statement in your damn readme file:

Along the lines of:

"You may not use any portion of this mod without my expressed permission"

OR

"You may use any portion of this mod as long as you credit my work as the source used"



How hard is that? No muss, no fuss. No ambiguity, no politics, no BS. Its really not that hard to add it to your readme file.

Anyway, since this is a SH3 mod forum, im going to go back to minding my own buisness in the SH4 mod forum, as that is where my intrests lay, not here.

Another rule proposal:

- One modder cannot use the mods of others, if he/she denies the use of his/her own mods!

It's either free of use (with credits) or "no go" both ways!
Anything else is double morale and pure egoism!

@ Ducimus

That may well work in future but not for all the older mods out there

And how would that work ?

GWX is a team mod
So if I say anyone can use my GWX single missions\ships etc then I can add other mods to GWX
BUT other GWX members dont want their stuff used so they cant add nothing ???

?????????

Another half assed idea