Modding platform Nexus Mods announced a temporary ban on all political mods. The ban will stay until after the end of the upcoming US Presidential election.
Nexus Mods is the internet’s biggest mods database for different games. Titles like Skyrim, Fallout, and even Stardew Valley depend on its expansive hosting capabilities. Today, the company issued a site-wide ban for all US political mods.
Any mods that pertain to the current political climate will get an outright ban. The outlaw will stay until elections settle, and a new president gets a firm declaration.
Nexus founder exasperated with his user base
The Nexus is famous for hosting thousands upon thousands of mods for different games. They offer almost anything legal under the sun, with the little purview of the content. Apart from obvious illegal mods, they are happy to host it on their pages.
Their current site handles as many as 276,000 files, which makes it hard to moderate. While Nexus can remove illegal mods, but moderation for political mods is complicated. Nexus founder Robin “Dark0ne” Scott wrote a scathing post that announced the ban.
“Recently we have seen a spate of provocative and troll mods being uploaded based around current sociopolitical issues in the United States,” says the announcement. “As we get closer to the US election in November we expect this trend to increase as it did this time 4 years ago.
“Considering the low quality of the mods being uploaded, the polarising views they express and the fact that a small but vocal contingent of our users are seemingly not intelligent or grown up enough to be able to debate the issues without resorting to name-calling and baseless accusations without proof (indicative of the wider issues plaguing our world at this time) we’ve decided to wipe our hands clean of this mess and invoke an outright ban on mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States.
“We have neither the time, the care or the wish to moderate such things. This ban will apply to all mods uploaded from the 28th of September onwards. We will review this restriction sometime after the next President of the United States has been inaugurated.”
Scott calls uploaders “cowards” and “sock puppet accounts”
Scott further scolded the users of the site. The tired tone of the post suggests that this is a recurring issue over the past few weeks. The US political landscape is more sensitive than ever, and troll posts are becoming more common.
“Most of these mods are being uploaded by cowards with sock puppet accounts deliberately to try and cause a stir,” says the post. “…Your engagement will only fuel the idiots further. Smile and be happy in the knowledge the time it took them to make an account on the site and upload their mod is a lot longer than it takes for us to ban the account and delete the mod.”
Scott further notes he doesn’t care what the ban looks, citing on potential requests for justification. Nexus Mods will likely uphold the ban until the next inauguration of the US President, which is on January 20 next year.
Featured image courtesy of Bethesda Softworks/Youtube Screenshot