I like the idea of CKAN but hate the implementation. I tried it once and couldn't make it work, never again. The reason is as so many pointed out, they take the wrong approach. They are so eager to get mods installed on peoples system, that all I know is hey something new, CKAN wants to update it. I have no idea if thats because the dev pushed an update, or some rando on the Internet is mucking with someone else's files. Things are chaotic after updates, CKAN makes it even worse. It really need to be more like linux solutions if you want to be 'THE REPO' for all mods. Users need to explicitly opt in to the 'community' repos, vs the 'supported' repos. things need to be tested with each other before they turn green, and feedback mechanisms are needed so when something breaks others can know so their clients don't try to make the same blunder headed moves pushing together incompatible stuff. It also needs to continually make it clear which installed mods in the CKAN client are unsupported by the mod author. If I remember correctly the mod managers I used for bethesda games would color code things so green was explicitly supported by mod author, orange was autodetected based on mod package layout, and red for things that where unsupported and could potentially cause problems if not properly manually configured.
If I was releasing a mod, or was the guy who makes FAR here is what I would do, put a big fat disclaimer at the top of my post saying CKAN is unsupported and is known to muck up installs, anyone who uses it is redirected to CKAN thread for support, and then put a big notice that anyone requesting support must first try a manual install, and that anyone requesting support with or discussing CKAN is offtopic, and report anyone who mentions them to the mods for removal from my thread. If there is some forum rule that doesn't allow that, I would stop releasing mods.
CKAN *needs* to stop creating a hassle for mod authors.
edit: as roverdude posted above me, CKAN needs to be helping mod authors. they shouldn't be tempted to exclude themselves from it, but should be running around in the streets singing its praises for how easily ckan gives them to tools to stop their mods from updating to incorrect conflicting versions, and cut down on their support requests. instead it causes MORE of a burden to them. No wonder that they hate it.
