Discussion: Should we move our mods away from Wincustomize?
Elemental Forums
Since apparently people are getting blocked from downloading mods from Wincustomize (and asked to pay a subscription!), I'd like to start a discussion on whether or not we should switch to an alternative. Edit: They seem to get blocked after downloading x amount of mods or mb.
It seems contradictory to me that Wincustomize would limit what we are trying to share, as it is literally free upgrades/extensions to their products (wincustomize = stardock). If there is a bandwidth cost involved, I can understand that, but it should be paid for by the extra attraction to the core software, not stand on its own.
On the other hand, the elementalgame.com site links to wincustomize and wincustomize only. That means exposure to what we're trying to share. It's also a fairly straightforward site, and I never had any issues (except occasional slow verification time) as an uploader. There's also the chance that Stardock will tie the in-game mod browser directly to wincustomize in the future (although I assume they will remove blocks then).
An alternative is providing a main link to wincustomize, and also providing an alternative download link. However, that's also extra work.
I'm also concerned that we are already hitting the limit. There aren't that many mods out there. What if, in a year or so, there are five times as many mods?
Regardless, I think it's important that all mods are available from one site. Users shouldn't have to go looking on different sites to browse mods, that's just stupid.
So what do the modders say? Is this enough of an issue to switch mod site? Or should we just work around it for now, and see how it works out?
