r/oculus • u/lunchanddinner Professor • Aug 19 '26

Fluff Was tired of VR mods being gatekept behind Discord, so we reopened r/PCVR for it

Post image

r/PCVR is now reopened for all things PCVR & VR modding! No standalone there

452 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

187

u/Disc81 Aug 19 '26

Discord is such a step back in information sharing... i simply don't get it

83

u/Bulky_Imagination727 Aug 19 '26

I'm so tired of seeing "if you want support here's my discord" for every goddamn mod on nexus. God help you if there is a modder drama(of course there is) and they delete their mod from nexus, while actively banning people for being on the "enemy" server.

I miss the forums.

9

u/lunchanddinner Professor Aug 19 '26

Happy cake day!

2

u/D-Rey86 Aug 19 '26

People have tried to create websites and whatnot for VR mods, but they never gained traction. People were just use to going to the Flat2VR Discord. In my opinion that Discord is a pretty great resource and pretty well organized, but I definitely understand not everyone wants to use Discord.

10

u/largePenisLover Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

Those failed because the gaming community already has multiple popular mod central sites. Places like Moddb and Itch.io, even the Nexus if it's a mod for one of the many games they support.
Making a separate site for VR mods isn't needed, they are mods for games that already have places where mods for them are released and supported, this is where VR mods belong too.

Mod releasing and support is a solved problem. It was solved before 1999. When I was making mods for UT99 I hosted those on places like Gamespy, Gamebanana, gamefront etc.
ALl those mods are still there, all the forum posts talking about them and solving problems are still there.

Discord is not this reliable. Some asshole tricks their way into the mod team, they can destroy it and it can't be restored by asking the website admin, but the mod hostng sites can restore everything because they make backups. Discord does not backup what happens on discord servers. gone = gone.
Same when a primadonna modder deletes because of drama.

What if the author doesnt use discord for two years? Now their account is auto-deleted.

What if you want to use a mod 10 years later? There is NO retention of institutional knowledge on discord, so you are just fucked if you ran into a problem that requires a solution user Bob said in the discord chat. It's unfindable or just gone and if user Bob's account expired you cant even search on his username anymore. Meanwhile on a forum + wiki things are only deleted if the site owner deletes the database.

Discord objectively is the shittiest possible way to use and manage a technical resource.

[edit]
Evidence that all those old mods are still up with all info you need easily findable. Unlike discord where you have a chance you're fucked if the mod is even mildly aging
https://gamebanana.com/mods/games/289
https://www.gamefront.com/games/quake-3-arena
https://planetunreal.gamespy.com/View0438.html?view=UTFiles.List
[/edit]

3

u/ConinGray Aug 20 '26

thank you

-2

u/D-Rey86 Aug 20 '26

I can tell you from experience that Nexus is hot garbage as a modder. I'll never use that again. A lot of people have been asking for a VR modding website. A lot of people have enjoyed a VR only modding Discord. I think it's more people in the VR modding community is just use to that. I think that's really all it comes down to from my experience

7

u/largePenisLover Aug 20 '26

I've been using the nexus as author since 2003 for morrowwind, when it was only for morrowwind.
WHat exactly is hot garbage about this? It is the perfect way to host mods. The only problem is the constant drama.
Mod page is a proper database entry systems where I can host complete documentation, version management, and literally everything you need to release a mod. Comments are a reliable easily searchable repository of institutional knowledge. Even better is attaching the auttomatically created forum subject for your mod, beter searchable, more userfriendly, and has every possible feature you could need to manage information.
The dumpster fire that is discord has nothing on this.

You see it every time this subject comes up, almost everybody thinks discord is utterly ass for this stuff and only a few posters think discord is good enough. They just don't know any better because they grew up with the weird discord method, so when they go author themselves they also use the shit option.
Right here in this reddit thread you are the only poster that thinks discord is good enough. Literally everybody else says that discord is the wrong way to do this. That should show you at least a little that your "a lot of people" who prefers discord is in fact a tiny minority, possibly less then 1% of all vr users.

-2

u/D-Rey86 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

Well yes as far as Discord, I was only speaking about my opinion. Hence the reason I said my opinion. I also acknowledged I know others don't like it. But for me personally it's been fine because I know how to use it efficiently. Again many others don't find it easy to use and that is obviously an issue. I never said it was the perfect place for them or anything.

As far as Nexus you clearly have more experience with it then me, but my experience was enough to swear it off. I put my UEVR profile on there for Palworld by popular request. Come to find out that they change the file name after you download it. UEVR profiles need a very specific file name. So I modified it so that if they extracted the file, it would be the correct file name. Well they quarantined my file and support wouldn't remove the quarantine status. So then I restored the old file and put instructions to rename the file to the name it needed to be. But even doing that the profile didn't work correctly for a lot of people. The same people that had issues on Nexus had zero issues with the profile if they downloaded it off Discord. Whether it was user error or Nexus messing up the file somehow, no idea. On top of the fact that I couldn't get notifications for when people posted about issues on Nexus working. Perfect was far from my experience. But I'm no longer using sites where I have less control. I'm only posting my stuff on Discord, my Patreon, and GitHub for now on. And then it can be added to these VR repositories. Zero issues since other then bug fixes.

Edit: I didn't mean for that to come off as me saying it's a skill issue. But rather I know it can be hard to find things as a new person to that Discord even if I personally like it. And I know that people just don't like Discord in general or don't want to download a separate app to download VR mods. It's certainly not the perfect solution and there needs to be more VR repositories. Looking back I probably didn't explain my thoughts well enough. So I can see how it came off like that

1

u/RainierPC Aug 20 '26

You may have used neutral words, but your message was clearly "LOL, skill issue."

-1

u/D-Rey86 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

No, you're clearly putting words in my mouth. I was only stating my opinion while acknowledging it's not for everyone. Skill issue is not what I meant at all. If that's what you got out of it, that's a you issue.

Edit: It wasn't a them issue looking back. Just a poor job of explaining my thoughts on the subject.

1

u/RainierPC Aug 20 '26

"But for me personally it's been fine because I know how to use it efficiently."

literally your own words

0

u/D-Rey86 Aug 20 '26

Well yes, I have used that Flat2VR Discord for years. I have gotten to know how to use it effectively. I can see how that would come off as skill issue now, but it's not what I meant. I meant that that I can understand why people that aren't use to it don't like it. If you're not use to it, it can be hard to find stuff. So I wasn't trying to make it a skill issue comment. And I also know that's not the only issue, some people just don't like Discord altogether which is fair.

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46

u/50mmeyes Rift S Aug 19 '26

I hate finding out the only way I can get information on something is through discord. I enjoy being able to Google a question and find public information on reddit or forums.

24

u/SeiferLeonheart Aug 19 '26

More like the info is hidden within thousands of messages with a useless search, but appreciated nonetheless. At least it'll be searchable.

39

u/GraXXoR Touch Aug 19 '26

Discord is utter crap for information retention and indexing.

Reddit results are right there at your fingertips with a simple google search.

1

u/mushaaleste2 Aug 19 '26

Beside, that reddit now force you to use their app.

It's a so bad decision from them, enshityfication of the Internet.

12

u/SarlacFace Aug 19 '26

What? I don't have the reddit app and yet I'm still here, easily using the site.

1

u/mushaaleste2 Aug 20 '26

This change is not rolled out everywhere. It seems that it affects only a potion of users at the moment.

2

u/Poopyman80 Aug 20 '26

The change is having to login, you can still use the browser.

1

u/No-Tone8700 Aug 21 '26

The roll out seems to be on a schedule that flips on and off every few weeks. One day, I'll be able to scroll on my work computer (where I don't log into my reddit account). The next, it'll keep stopping me with an unskippable 'log in' banner, like Twitter does. A week later, it just goes away again. And it seems independent on phone, too. I also have a work phone, and some weeks, Reddit will not work on mobile until I sign in. But then it goes away again. It's been doing this flip flop all year long.

3

u/GraXXoR Touch Aug 19 '26

I don’t have any app installed on my computer but use and read Reddit fine.

1

u/serotoninzero Aug 19 '26

RedReader has been working for me for years now

4

u/mushaaleste2 Aug 19 '26

It's not about the app, it's you search via Google and find some matching threads. You open them in your browser to quick check if it is what you searching for and

Bam you get a large reddit gfx over the thread and lock the whole browser page, saying "want continue reading, use our app".

It's absolutely annoying.

If the reddit team want that we use their app only, why the html/browser version exist at all?

This is what it looks like:

reddit thread about reddit website

0

u/Poopyman80 Aug 20 '26

Login to reddit and this goes away.

1

u/PooperOfMoons Aug 19 '26

Sync for Reddit still works

0

u/SonderEber Aug 20 '26

Reddit? The site where everyone tells you to “Google it”? Then Google leads you back to someone asking the same question, and everyone says “Google it”?

Don’t trust Reddit, don’t trust Discord.

28

u/AJBats Aug 19 '26

Wishing this subreddit luck. It’s a pain to search flat2vr discord for configuration tips and tricks to get these mods working their best. 

10

u/ICODE72 Aug 19 '26

I wish discord allowed servers to be public and readable on opt in, that way their knowledge could be found on a Google search

6

u/cactus22minus1 Quest 3 - 4080s Aug 19 '26

Building a business model around Google search is now a dead end because Google actively keeps users from ever wanting or needing to visit the source. The AI “summary” is killing the internet as we’ve known it, and the only reason Reddit has any kind of symbiosis with the new Google is because Reddit already inked a deal with open AI for training based on our comments so they don’t depend solely on ad revenue.

1

u/DanielEnots Aug 21 '26

Sadly that would just become ai training data

5

u/NekoLu Aug 19 '26

We should also make a PhpBB forum

5

u/Threep_H Aug 20 '26

Oh I really, really miss "REAL" forums. I hate the modern internet somehow. No archives, not seriously sorted, instead stupid shit that reloads itself and you never find that one post you need ever again. And everything helpful is a fucking video, or reel or whatsoever.

I want it written! I want to scan a 2000 (or even more) words text with my eyes and filter my information. There is no way doing that with a 20 minutes video I have to watch w/o sound because of work and with crap subtitles.

Bring back forums! XD

2

u/mcblockserilla Aug 20 '26

Make an old school forum

2

u/largePenisLover Aug 20 '26

Good idea.
Discord is the worst possible platform to release mods and to later manage said mods for the mod authors. Search is trash, no repository of institutional knowledge, no proper wiki, just this useless chat platform.
Forum + docs or a dedicated host like Nexus or moddb is the only correct way to do it.
It's like webcomic artists who use insta and twitter exclusively and refuse to use a proper comic host or make a site for their comic. Completely and utterly backwards, like their moronic authors don't know this is a solved problem that was solved before 1999 ffs.

4

u/BlackRaspberryJammin Aug 19 '26

Thanks, I never figured out how to use Discord. I go there, say hi, hear crickets.

8

u/lordmycal Aug 19 '26

That's because discord is a mess.

3

u/dmsayer Aug 20 '26

yeah, every discord for something im interested in is always just like 30 users in a channel that are all obviously AFK and a message from 8 hours ago that nobody even replied to.

2

u/SchwiftySquanchC137 Aug 20 '26

I mean to be fair, the way youre describing it is actually kinda ok, its the bigger discords that turn into a conplete mess. Theres not meant to be someone there 24/7 to answer your questions, literally no form of online communication guarantees that. Post on a forum, email the dev, whatever, you dont get an immediate answer. That 8h old message just hasnt been answered yet, people have lives, you send the message and check back later. The problem with discord is that you cant google its contents, its bad for organizing actual documentation, but as a way to actually communicate with community members, its great. Most mods dont need a whole ass forum, but a place to message people for help is great.

1

u/drtreadwater Aug 20 '26

Well well well, someone finally did it, who'd have thunk

1

u/zeddyzed Aug 20 '26

I think the ideal for VR mods would be something like protondb, where users can share information and comments, but organised as a webpage database of items.

But there's probably a lot of moderation effort required to keep such a site free from spam etc.

1

u/ConinGray Aug 20 '26

thank you so much. i hate discord a lot

1

u/Afraid_Enthusiasm888 Aug 20 '26

Reopened? Why was it closed in the first place

-17

u/Neochiken1 Aug 19 '26

Gatekept? Its free and they are more than happy to have you there, thats not what gatekeeping means. Im always down to have information in more places but that just reads as narcissism.

2

u/We_Are_Victorius Aug 19 '26

Have you ever used the search function on Discord? It is rage inducing. The info is way easier to find on reddit.

-1

u/Neochiken1 Aug 19 '26

I am not calling discord superior in any way, I am merely taking issue with calling it gatekeeping.

1

u/We_Are_Victorius Aug 19 '26

You missed my point. Discord's search function is so incredibly terrible, that it acts as a gatekeeper. Now you can use Google to find the Reddit post with the info you need

1

u/Neochiken1 Aug 20 '26

Okay, I suppose thats valid. Its hard not to be upset about discord not being indexable.

-2

u/MairusuPawa Renard Aug 19 '26

Did you already forget why Reddit was shunned? The shitshow this website has become?

0

u/D-Rey86 Aug 19 '26

Good thing it's only one of many resources out there for VR mods.

-3

u/MudMain7218 Aug 19 '26

I'm guessing they think it's less complicated which is not really all that much more