I
really wish all these types of discussions would not always get started during the 6 hours I am asleep, then run away full of misinformation.
Anyways, as I have said, the version checker has been redesigned for the next version. It is now a box that appears - one per mod, and only one appears at a time - with the message, and can be clicked to close it at the user's convenience:
This is done to allow the user to play unimpeded, and solves all issues regarding things like FPS lag or ThaumCraft warp interactions.
Also, most of the hate I am currently getting is not for the design itself -
it is for having a version checker at all. The more reasonable -
still less than half - are satisfied with an "I want to use old versions" config, but nonetheless, a large number of people want the ability to be able to use versions
months out of date without hassle, and many of them take issue with the summary rejection of bug reports. As I mentioned on the other thread, if I let packs idle with versions as old as they tend to do, I
will be effectively saying "packs need not bother reporting bugs, as there is a less than 1% chance you are using the latest version". Look how well that went.
Moreover, before, with the ticker, people were providing the - legitimate - argument that updating immediately is undesirable and risky. I understand that. That is what the config was for. However, as far as I know,
not one person actually
used the config - or the command to hide the checker - and instead they all started reddit, forum, and other discussions about how I was wrecking the game and "among the worst developers since Eloraam".
Now, it is even worse. The majority of the people who are complaining
now are saying what is in effect "I do not
ever want an update message, because I do not
ever plan on updating unless I feel like it". In the same breath, they go on to say that despite the two-week grace period, they updated immediately to a new major version, and when that had bugs, as they inevitably do,
THAT is when they refused to update further to the next minor version,
despite the only change being the fixing of that and other bugs. In other words,
they updated until right before the version fixing their issue, and proceeded to refuse to fix it and instead whine for 24 hours straight about that issue and why it makes update checkers "a tool of lazy or incompetent developers".
Also, updating my mods is much less dangerous than people make it out to be. I have
never had a world-corrupting update, and only four updates since 1.5.2 - all major ones - introduced a kind of "you must break all X before updating", and all of which were
clearly noted in the changelog and my thread. Which does crap all for someone updating six months later.
Additionally, I run my own dev server, and on it I have more of my mods' hardware than 99% of other people, so I know full well how easily the map can survive the updates. And if mine is fine, yours is exceedingly likely to be too.
Furthermore, much of the criticsm has been extremely more vitriolic and often personal than that. In the last 72 hours, I have been called over 140 names, including six dictators, three religious figures, and over ten mental illnesses. I have had at least three suggest DDoSing the version checking server. I have had two - including someone on these forums - suggest stealing the mods and making a new version without it, hoping to replace me. I have had five people suggest doxxing me to be able to apply real-world pressure. Several people left messages to the effect of "just what I expect from a f**". I have at least one major mod developer deliberately stirring the pot, saying inflammatory things of borderline truth. I have had accusations that my login handler - which is used to dispatch the message, as well as a bunch of other technical behind-the-scenes syncing - accused of trying to steal information. I have had people tell me that I am "too emotionally unstable to deal with the public". I have over 40 emails, some pleading for me to "stop breaking their game" and some saying things like "this is why the RR team hates you, because you hate packs". Several more say things like "you know, if you can't fix bugs before needing an update, maybe you should step aside, so someone else can take your place". And of course over 10 variants of "the customer is always right", which I have
never seen, real world or online, paired with a legitimate argument. As I referenced before, last time someone told me "the customer is always right" in a real-world environment (years ago, towards the end of my last year with a summer job), they followed it by throwing their garbage (an apple, a pizza slice holder, and a empty pop can) at me. That was in response to "no, you cannot get on this ride for less than half the cost". The last time it was said to me in the MC community was followed by the user going on to say that if they demanded I suck their d***, I would be forced to do so.
Additionally, when I tried suggesting alternate approaches that may be more desirable, did I get any useful feedback or opinions? No. I got more "HOW DARE YOU TELL US WHAT DO YOU YOU'RE SO ANTI USER JUST GET RID OF THE WHOLE THING THIS IS WHY YOUR PLAYERBASE IS SHRINKING".
Point is, it is not me that is broken. A chunk of the community is.
And if you are reading this and anything I described above resembles something you said to me, especially recently, step back and think for a moment. Do not go back and remove the vitriol - that is revisionist and dishonest - but sit down and think about how you have been acting, and how this would have gone for you had you said things like this in the real world. Many of you would have lost jobs, friends, or relationships, or been banned from stores or restaurants. A few of you would probably be in jail or under investigation.
Now think. I presume most of you would not act this way in the real world.
What exactly about this was different? Why did you see it acceptable to do it here? The faceless nature of the internet? Did you forget that I am as real as you are, or that I do not spend all my time doing this? Or is it because you envisioned yourself as a mistreated customer, not getting the product they paid for, even though you pay nothing? Or is it something else?
Now, with that in mind, how would a mature, reasonable person proceed? I am not going to ask for an apology from everyone - that alone could take days to process - but ceasing to continue this behavior, and possibly a redaction for public statements, is very much in order.
Now, with all of that said, and in no particular order:
Despite what some have feared, warned about, or predicted, no matter
how bad this gets, I am
not going to step away and leave (cue several readers looking disappointed). The worse I will ever do is take a break, but I will
never leave. As said before, I am used to receiving abuse - I get a lot in the real world too, where it matters more than lost time and irritation/loss of faith in humanity - and on top of that it, despite everything else, remains a small fraction of my dealing with the community. Additionally, I mostly enjoy working on the mods, and have no intention of stopping. If your intentions are to aggravate me to the point of departure, you are wasting your time.
That said, some of the abuse
is starting to negatively affect my sleep.
As for the version checker: Yes, I know I removed the config, because it was incompatible with the new system. The argument that only pack devs should see an update message, unless the pack is no longer maintained, is a legitimate one, and one I tried to account for. Unfortunately, two things happened. One, it failed to work much. Many players still saw the message, and a few pack developers tried to get sneaky and subvert it (and of course, went on to report old bugs again). Two, many of the complaints I got initially
came from pack devs, saying that it was unreasonable to expect them to A) update my mods if they are updating their pack and B) not go nine months without updates on an active and popular pack. I understand busy - trust me, I know all too well - but (A) takes minutes and (B)
directly leads to the issues I am talking about, and likely not just for me.
I do not want to punish players or packmakers doing things properly. I am trying to catch two cases: Lazy/incompetent pack makers ("eh, updating is a pain, I'll just leave it thanks") and discontinued packs - Monster being the elephant in the room, or at least an example of it - where, yes, I expect servers or SSP players to take up the role of updating. Especially with the grace period that I had - and I am working on including it again - updating within two weeks is
not an arduous task, and falls
well within someone's role as a server admin. An admin taking issue with that is no different than one taking issue with having to tweak configs or clean up damage. Oh wait, they do that too...
So, as said before, I am not willing to add a simple "do not remind me" config, because as far as I see it, the only people who lose out with the current system, assuming it works as intended, are people who
never intend to update, and, given how easy it is to close the messages now,
are too lazy or impatient to click a few "X"s.
Long story short, the
whole motivation behind this checker is to tip the "cost/benefit ratio" in favor of updating. So if you have a real issue preventing you from updating, which can happen, clicking a few Xs is the easier option. If you are simply lazy, or never botherer checking for updates when you are updating your pack or playing a discontinued one? Then update.
On the topic of support:
If I cannot enforce any level of version control, and the majority of my playerbase is using versions that are out of date, often by months or even years, my only other choice is to refuse support entirely except from a select few people I can trust, such as Eyamaz/jaded/friends.
Noone wins in that scenario. Bugs go much longer unfixed, because they may not be reported by a "whitelisted" person, the average user feels scorned and unwanted, and basically every pack is shown the door when it comes to support.
As for suggestions to try GitHub, there are three problems.
One, I find it much less user-friendly as a bug reporting system, and I can never get markdown formatting right.
Two, because it is not moderated like forums are, it gets
orders of magnitude more vitriolic and flooded with PEBKAC errors that would normally get deleted from a forum. The 24 hour window the RC bug tracker somehow got opened and had >50 such reports can attest to that.
Three, users would need to create a GitHub account, and a poll I conducted on my thread a few months back indicated that less than 5% would be willing, with 95% saying "I will just leave the bug unreported".
You can say what you want about "people like that never submit useful reports", but it is simply untrue. Indeed, many of my real bug reports also come from random people.
