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Forum Downtime
After 20 years in existence, the forums are getting an update. While some planned changes will affect the forums visually and functionally, most of this work is on the back-end, to uncouple the forums from a variety of connected services.Â
This update not only allows for a new, feature-rich forum; It also means the main website will be less reliant on the forums, making them more robust and secure.
We’ll start the upgrade on Monday 13th November and aim to finish on Friday 17th November. (Update: this downtime is likely to extend until Tuesday 21st Nov. The data migration is complete, but we have several setup tasks to complete and some teething issues to iron out).
During this time the forum will be inaccessible, some functionality on Nexus Mods will stop working and will instead link to our status page where you can get updates on our progress.
It's a mass migration
A colossal amount of data exists within the current forums (about 26 million posts), much of which is modding discussion but also large numbers of comment reports, file reports and other website content. Our aim is to keep all of this content available and in a readable form, hence the lengthy downtime.
There’s much historic content to preserve, from the first ban, the first post locked for trying to boost post count and early discussion on the forum design. All from 2003.
What will change?
The forums will move from a very old version of Invision Board, to the current Invision Community forum version 4. This means improved security, more features, a design facelift and more intuitive structure.
Behind the scenes a lot of services that were managed by the forums have been uncoupled and rebuilt. For example our avatars service, which is now a stand-alone service, will no longer be managed by the forums.
Other features connected to the forums will also be impacted:
Friends
The 'Friends' feature will be removed from the main Nexus Mods website and you will need to visit the new forums to use it.
Messaging
During the downtime messaging will be unavailable, but will return when the new forum version goes live.
Forum content
During the downtime the forums will not be accessible. You will not be able to view forum posts, profiles, or other forum content.
Some Links removed
Links to some content visible in the forum are being removed, this includes posts on mods, images, videos, articles, etc. The actual post content itself is not being removed and will still be visible on Nexus Mods, you’ll just no longer be able to also view it in the forum.
Our plan is to move to a new comment system, which can already be seen working in collections. This will be the format used across the site. We will update you about this further as it is rolled out.
Changes to some deep-links
Some links to game-specific sub-forums on Nexus Mods are being replaced with more generic links to the forum homepage. This is because we’re restructuring the forums to close some smaller unused sub-forums. Larger game communities will continue to have their own dedicated sub-forum.
Invoice Data
Any old invoice data held on the forums has been securely migrated to the billing page, where you can view the rest of your invoices.
Forum info displayed on website
Various forum-related links and information are being removed from the Nexus Mods website. For example, on user profiles you’ll no longer see a count of topics or posts. **Updated - Kudos will be remaining as a feature.
Will the old forum content be lost?
No, historic content will still be available, and none of the forum content will be lost. Years of community support, discussion, walk-throughs and guides will remain available. Keeping this treasure trove of information available has been a key priority.
This is a work in progress
The new forums will stand alone as an entity, enabling us to add new features independently from other connected site services. This will be an iterative process with new functionality, structural improvements and visual changes being added over time. Your feedback will be incredibly valuable during this period, as the forums are a community tool.
The new forums will also support and enable other planned projects such as Community Champions and more relevant modding content, tutorials and wiki content.
In Conclusion
After 4 days of downtime the forums will return in an updated form. There WILL be some quirkiness and missing features. We will be working to quickly bring them up to speed.
We are investing in building our forum community. While a lot of modding discussion moves to other platforms such as Discord, we see the Nexus Mods forums as the heart of long-term problem-solving, sharing and learning for the wider modding community. This update will allow us to begin better supporting and empowering new and seasoned modders alike.
169 comments
The planned downtime starts today and is estimated to extend until Tuesday 21st. status.nexusmods.com will track any changes in downtime.
16.55 UTC: Migration of all existing forum data is complete. We still have some outstanding tasks and several teething issues meaning uncertainty in putting things live. The planned live date is now Tuesday 21st November.
If there’s one thing we have learnt, it is to not put new features live before a weekend. We have made the call to delay full access to the forums until early next week. Apologies for the additional delay.
16th November 2023
1626 GMT System migration is complete. We are finalising our launch schedule.
0935 GMT Data migration tasks are complete. We are entering the final phase of the migration.
15th November 2023
2205 GMT Phase two of the migration is on the final tasks and continues to go according to plan.
1045 GMT Phase two of the migration is nearing completion. We're on track to perform the final migration tasks on Thursday.
14th November 2023
2204 GMT Phase two of the migration proceeding according to plan.
0850 GMT Phase one of the migration completed successfully. Phase two is proceeding according to plan.
13th November 2023
2322 GMT Migration is proceeding according to plan.
0930 GMT Maintenance started to migrate the forums.
Also - Thanks for the update, I was unaware. Edited my post since you answered my other questions/concerns below.
Please dont keep searching mod comments gone too long :)
The community has spoken - Kudos will remain.
They work for it, earning it through good mods, posts, ideas or reputation.
I don't see it as being much different than losing money for example.
Thanks for not removing kudos, I am sure many are/will be relieved and many others won't be disappointed by the update but instead curious and excited for it.
I'm excited to see the new forum. :)
Best luck!
By Tuesday I'm going to be shaking like I'm going through withdrawal.
Forum info displayed on websiteVarious forum-related links and information are being removed from the Nexus Mods website. For example, on user profiles you’ll no longer see a count of topics or posts.
Sorry but..why?
Isn't it better to see if someone has few hundreds or thousands posts comparing to someone who has 1-2 posts?
you know that he is a mature/experienced user or a newbie. IMHO if it's something that is not "heavy, technical speaking" to keep you should.
It does not necessarily mean that these features are gone forever, but at the same time I'm reluctant to over-promise their return. Tools to quickly indicate activity, respect and engagement in the community are very useful and we are looking at them.
Respect is one of the most important factors for all, moderators, users, modders,
a critical matter for a healthy community.
I really hope that this new era to be for the best.
Like tracking a mod to see comments by users on that mod ?
+1
To be clear, the migration of mod comments isn't happening as part of the work described in the article above. It is a future project we have planned.
The other thing to keep in mind is that some users who want these notifications would also want to opt out of specific threads once the conversation isn't relevant to them anymore. That would require some additional research/work to design and implement.
I can see there's a suggestion on the feedback board that would be a much better place to "+1" rather than just posting here.
"future project" - That is somewhat concerning. How long are we likely to be entirely without a search feature (even second hand, like the forum one was) for the mod comments?
The lack of search is annoying but we want to make sure the new system is fully capable of taking over all existing features (or as close as possible) before we migrate to it.
We'll be keeping an eye on the feedback and re-evaluate at what point we can migrate the comments if there's a lot of strong feedback one way or the other.
erm, not going to lie, its a pretty fricken awful system.
i get the old forums have had their day but honestly, if that new comments system in use on the collections pages is the replacement then.... wow.
I'm also curious how the layout will be with them separated from the Collections page and in a normal forum page.
showler, the forums aren't being replaced by the comments system and won't look like the comments system. The forums will be using Invision Board, just an updated version of Invision Board. The mod comments will remain as they are for the time being but will be completely severed from the forums, so you won't be able to go to the forum thread for mod comments any more. At some point in the not too distant future we'll be changing mod comments to use the comment system/functionality that Collections uses. No comments will be lost in this process.
the new system is not "awful" - i mean, it is what it is, its "different".
what i took away from looking in the collections area is that the new format seems to not be what the forums were... but, i get that the new system is just that - new.
i guess, like everything, it will take getting used to.
sometimes, in the vortex forums (where i post most) you can see a thread start with a problem, and progress, so a historical list of posts where the problem is diagnosed, and ideas proposed and eventually a solution arrived at. so that thread is, in a way, the start and end of a story within a forum of related stories.
what i'm not seeing, and it could be that i am comparing a lot of apples to a lot of oranges, (and my sample size is too small) is that concept.
person x opens a thread, person y replies, person z replies and so on and so forth, until the thread reaches a natural conclusion.
i do see posts opened, i see a reponse - its a bit "less obvious" i suppose, to follow the thread to its conclusion, but, again, i'm comparing old to new and i guess the new format isn't ever going to mirror the old format because the days of the old format are gone.
but - take this "different" <> "new is the worst thing ever change it back or i quit forever" which i'm sure you will see in spades regardless of what you could or would do - and - also take this - i'm very excited to see more innovative solutions with various API's that are now available to yourselves and other users too which is going to be so much more useful and make your site that much more engaging.
just getting used to the new is all.
also - good luck with the final phases of the migration - you guys have knocked this out of the park because what you've done here, 20 years of data upgraded is awesome.
Just to clarify here, you understand that the Vortex forums (and the other forum categories that were on the Nexus Forums) will remain as they currently are? They were (before we took the forums down for the upgrade) using Invision Board and once the forum upgrade is complete, they'll still be using Invision Board and look pretty similar to how it was before (with perhaps a facelift).
What you're seeing in the Collections area is what will replace mod comments, i.e. the style and functionality you see here will replace what you see here.
So we're talking about two separate things here. The forums are being upgraded but will remain "the forums" with all the functionality and a lot of the style you're used to browsing the old forums. The mod comments will remain the same for now but will be changing at some point to use the same system as Collection comments.
its my bad (again) here. I was thinking that *everything* would be converted to the format seen in the collections area.
now i understand, and that's even better than i thought.
happy days. thanks for taking the time to respond when im certain your time is stretched. appreciate you for doing that.
There is no existing loader in it, so it needs some sort of outside loader.
While I could add them as ususal in data directory, no way to activate outside of bat files
Note Starfield Steam full version
Any help would be appreciate it thanks
1) Private Messages. Your post says messaging will be disabled during the conversion, but will return after the conversion. Specifically, will all past private messages be retained in the new system? This is critical for any user, I think, but especially for those active to creating and testing new mods. For many or most of us, a huge amount of informational history is saved in our private messages between mod authors, partners, and also between mod authors and their mod testers. If the pre-conversion messages will not be available going forward (and even if it will be) is there a way to download our private messages (or will there be?) - If I could download my private message archive, I would be happy to remove a bunch of saved content from your storage and keep it on my personal PC and backups. You know, just to help out nexus reduce storage costs.
2) I did see another post about searching mod page comments, but the answer did not give me confidence that this feature will be available. To explain, currently there is no way on the main nexus site to just search the comments for a specific mod. BUT there is a way to search them by clicking the "Forum Thread" button, and then once on the forum version you can search the messages for the specific mod. Will that type of search be available after the conversion, meaning the ability to search just the comments for a specific mod? Edit: I see more on this issue since I started this post, so maybe this will not be a problem and might actually be improved by not needing to switch to the forum to search??
How do I know? PMs are how a number of authors acquire permissions from other authors (and it's actually the preferred way since it's super easy for us to verify). If those are removed, issues of copyright will arise. Proof of permission goes poof.
2. You will not be able to search mod comments via the forum and there is no search function on the mod page. We are actively looking at moving mod comments over to a new solution that includes search (the same as Collection comments).
Searching mod comments for specific words has been invaluable and is one of the most important features of this website for me.
Losing this would be an absurd step backwards. I am hoping that the people behind this site wouldnt make this kind of mistake.
Personally I think this basic functionality wont be permanently removed but I wanted to input on just how important it is just incase. Also to support its early return.
As of right now, I can't see all my emojis
Moreover the nexus mods is still an extremely outdated website, no doubt there will be vulnerabilities that cannot be patched.
However in nexus' defense, the entire internet is outdated.
I suppose time will tell if this is a groovy thing or not
…I didn't see any discussion leading up to this change from Nexus with the community. If it happened I certainly didn't see it and I've been visiting Nexus everyday for the last 2 months. It would have been better had there been some engagement to judge what the community valued and how it could be maintained if possible.
…I am weary of the 'Collections' page being used as the standard going forward. The collections are only downloadable through Vortex, a Nexus product. I do not use Vortex, and a lot of serious modders do not either, for good reason. What makes me weary though is that this is a move which seems to limit and lock players, and modders, into using only a Nexus ecosystem. That smacks of MS et al, and is a slap in the face to the community and modders freedom of choice. It takes Nexus from being a library of mods to being a propriety service provider.
All it then takes is one additional step to add the 'premium/basic' paid subscription to this system to lock-in every mod ever uploaded, thus effectively becoming Nexus property to sell to players, regardless of how you wish to present it. My suggestion is to allay this fear by very, very, clearly stating that you will not do this, and to allow the 'Collections' page to be downloadable from any mod manager.
I'd point out that I never said Nexus was close source, only how it feels and why. In the last paragraph I give a fear and a solution. So if Nexus truly believe they are the good guys then make the collections pages work with any mod manager, just like the individual mod pages; and advertise that they're GPL3 and what that means on the collections page; that way when Nexus points to the collections page as the standard they want to achieve across the site, the user base can see it's open to choice. This will allay the fears and I'd bet that by doing this users would be more willing to support Nexus because they'll see there's no hidden agenda so they can place their trust in it. Surely that is worth the effort.
It's only when you download the Collection that Vortex becomes necessary, and that's only until the system is completed (goes to v1.0) at which point all the info for it to be implemented in any other mod manager will be made available.
Not that that matters though, because everything that is being added to the Nexus Mods website after being tested on the Collections site is, as I said, browser related and has NOTHING AT ALL to do with Vortex.
Your fears are completely unfounded and based on ignorance of what is being done.
And, by the way, the changes have been discussed in the forums for many months now. You could have participated if you wanted.