Nexus Mods has banned a mod and it's creator for swapping out LGBT flags from Spider-Man Remastered.

Eumesmopo

Eumesmopo

Learned to love the bomb
https://behindthescreen.uk/spider-m...=2ba4740100bc93be8f2f1ec9f6a8f28c#comment-744

A modder by the name of Mike Hawk uploaded to Nexus Mods a mod that replaces the ubiquitously present LGBT pride flags from the streets of New York with USA flags in Spider-Man Remastered. Although replacing might be too strong a word since the mod just changed the load order and made the american flags already present in the game files load instead of the gay pride flag.

In response to the mod, NexusMods.com has reacted by banning both the mod and Mike Hawk from the website. Their admin team would then further react by releasing a site-wide message to all registered users stating that they stood for "inclusivity" and against "hate".

As a satirical response, one other modder released a mod that swaps all of the other USA flags present in the game for gay pride flags instead. This particular mod was permitted to stay up on the site by the Nexus administrators.

The LGBT flag is outlawed in many middle eastern countries. In Saudi Arabia, for example, homosexuality can be punished with chemical castration or execution, one man was sentenced to prison for accidentally hoisting the LGBT flag (he did not understand what the flag stood for and simply thought it looked pretty). "LGBT propaganda" to minors is also prohibited in Russia, and in China the Socialist government keeps a notoriously tight system of censorship that is very strict about what is allowed to be shown in all forms of media including video games, homosexuality being one of the many taboos. Marvel and Playstation have, nevertheless, chosen to still publish the game in many of those countries with the LGBT references removed in their respective localizations. This contradiction has prompted many to joke that the mod shouldn't have been taken down since it was just "the Middle-Eastern localization pack".
 
I remember a recent movie having a scene removed when it was in theaters of countries that are against any LGBT content because the scene involved two female characters kissing. It just shows that the makers of the movie don't actually give a shit about gays rights and only had that scene to get brownie points with the gay community to trick them into thinking they actually care about them, but as soon they know the movie will get banned in certain countries because of a certain scene they are quick to remove it. It's pathetic and transparent.
 
Someone should post a mod replacing all the flags in the game with the Russian flag in support of their struggle against Ukrainian oppression.
 
Richwizard said:
Someone should post a mod replacing all the flags in the game with the Russian flag in support of their struggle against Ukrainian oppression.
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Someone did put up a version of the mod with the flags swapped out for Ukrainian flags and said it was in support of Ukraine. It actually did take quite a while for the admins at Nexus to decide if they should ban it or not. xD
 
Eumesmopo said:
Someone did put up a version of the mod with the flags swapped out for Ukrainian flags and said it was in support of Ukraine. It actually did take quite a while for the admins at Nexus to decide if they should ban it or not. xD
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Did they ban it?
 
Here's the full statement from Nexus Mods:
Recently there's been some silly drama on our site that was sparked by someone uploading a mod for Spider-Man Remastered. The mod replaced the very few Pride flags the game actually has with the already prevalent USA flag texture from the game. The mod was removed from Nexus Mods and the author was banned.

To address the banning, which is what a lot of people want to focus on, the mod was uploaded by a sock puppet account (i.e. a newly made account by someone who already has an account on the site) and uploaded under the name "Mike Hawk". It was very clearly done deliberately to be a troll mod. The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed. Had they not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would have simply removed the mod and told them that we did not want to host it, only banning them if they reuploaded it again after being fairly warned. The creation of the sock puppet removed any doubt and made it a very easy decision for us. Both the sock puppet account and the user's main account have been banned.

In regards to the replacement of Pride flags in this game, or any game, our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it. The same goes for people attempting to troll other users with mods deliberately to cause a rise. For our part, we will endeavour to do a better job of moderating our website to this ethos ourselves.

We aren't the authority on what users can and cannot mod. Us removing a mod only means it cannot be found at Nexus Mods, nothing more, nothing less. We also note that we are not the only site that has removed this mod from their platform. As a private business, we have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your rights.

If you feel something goes against our policy then please report it. However, we will be the adjudicators on what we do or do not think is appropriate for Nexus Mods. And that goes for everyone no matter where they stand; left, right, up or down.

We don't want to and won't argue this with you. We've now explained our stance and we won't be providing a platform for you to distort our position in order to feed an irrational and paranoid narrative. You can do that elsewhere, where we won't care enough to read it.

If this policy upsets you, if we've broken some moral code of conduct as a business that you can't accept, then please, delete your account (bottom option) and move on, as we will.
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Risewild said:
Here's the full statement from Nexus Mods:
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Man, that part where they pretend that the real problem was the alt account is so phoney. They are sneaky just like the Reddit admins banning communities they don't like on the basis of them "being unmoderated" right after they banned the moderators themselves. Also, pretty much everyone on the comment section of the mod was saying that the flags were actually pretty much everywhere.
 
Eumesmopo said:
Man, that part where they pretend that the real problem was the alt account is so phoney. They are sneaky just like the Reddit admins banning communities they don't like on the basis of them "being unmoderated" right after they banned the moderators themselves. Also, pretty much everyone on the comment section of the mod was saying that the flags were actually pretty much everywhere.
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Not saying they were right about this whole situation, but that mod author was indeed an idiot. Nexus terms of service don't allow multiple accounts:
One Account per User
The efficiency of our moderation approach and moderation tools is dependent on the principle of each user being linked to a single account. It is therefore forbidden to register or use more than a single account per user without pre-approval by staff. Users with multiple accounts may have one or all of their accounts suspended. In the event of alternative accounts being used to evade a ban or restrictions on a main account, all accounts belonging to the offending user are subject to suspension (i.e. a ban) and any (pending) unban appeals are forfeit.
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Then that author also named his account "Mike Hawk" (which is a well known name that when said loud sounds just like "My Cock"), which is also against the Nexus rules and bannable by itself:
When creating an account on our services, the username you choose must be appropriate for all audiences (i.e. be free of profanity). Accounts registered with inappropriate usernames will be subject to an immediate ban.
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So, even if the author didn't upload any mod, they would have indeed been banned just for this second account and name choice.
Account Suspension / Bans
Regardless of account status such as membership status or Moderation History, infractions of our Terms of Service and/or various guidelines and standards may result in account suspension at the discretion of staff. Commonly known as a "ban", account suspension effectively prevents a user from accessing many of the services offered by Nexus Mods by disabling the associated account indefinitely. Account bans can be appealed by filing an Unban Request which is subject to review by staff.
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So Nexus isn't pretending anything about the ban. Those Terms of Service have existed for many years already and probably since the Nexus was founded.

Here's also more Nexus rules that they can apply in this case:
Please note: As of 28th September we've imposed a blanket ban on mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States of America. This ban applies to all mods uploaded after 28th September 2020. After review we have decided to extend the ban on such mods indefinitely.
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Content that may be generally construed as provocative, divisive, objectionable, discriminatory, or abusive toward any real-world individual or group, may be subject to moderation. This includes but is not limited to content involving politics, race, religion, gender identity, sexuality, or social class. We tolerate content related to real world issues and events as long as the appropriate tag ("Real World Issues") is used and the content is handled in a tasteful, respectful, and non-inflammatory manner. Users who do not wish to see such content should make use of our content blocking feature.
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I'm again not saying they did the right thing about the mod itself, I'm a modder myself and I believe in freedom of modding, but Nexus is in the right here. It doesn't matter what reasons they had to ban this author (and as I just pointed out, they had several reasons already, since the author broke several Nexus rules).
The Nexus is a private company that offers a mod sharing service and platform, with their Terms of Service that modders agree to when joining and uploading anything. So while the reason for the removal of the mod might be extreme and seems like out of the blue for such a mod, Nexus does have the right to remove any mod they host, it's in their rules that everyone agrees to when uploading anything in their platform.

It's just like any other bussiness, if we don't like how they do things, we are free to go and use a different one. Shouting and screeching about it just gives more legitimacy to their decision (since their legal terms are clear in this situation and the author broke several bannable ones). :look:
 
Shall we change the flags to Enclave flags instead? They're the true America after all.
 
I never uploaded to the Nexus any of the mods I made, and will never upload any of the ones I might make in the future either. Because I don't agree with some of their ToS for uploaded files.
I upload my mods using other services or sites instead.

I have no problem with their ToS for just being a Nexus user, so I have an account there as a normal user and not as an author. If I break their ToS I will not be bitching about it or pretending I was a victim.

What makes this situation even worse is that the Author of that flag mod knew what he(?) was doing and also knew that he would be banned, he knew he was breaking several rules that the Nexus specifically says are bannable in their ToS. That is why he made a secondary account (which as I mentioned above, it's breaking Nexus ToS and is an insta-ban offence), to protect his main account from his own actions.

So yeah, he only has himself to blame in this situation.
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Reminds me of that Domina dev that is so mentally ill he cannot realize what is going on.
 
TorontoReign said:
Reminds me of that Domina dev that is so mentally ill he cannot realize what is going on.
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But he's fighting back against Steam by not releasing more updates on Steam.
This is weird because if he was fighting against Steam, he would remove the game from that platform. But he says he was banned from other places already, but the problem is everyone else, not him.
 
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