Kerbal Stuff Closed to the public

[Red Iron Crown]

5 minutes ago, Jabbman said:

Thanks for the clarity.

I'd be interested to see how much revenue Curse gains from being Squads partner.

What is Squad gaining from endorsing Curse?

And, if Curse is making profit from the work of Squad and the community, shouldn't Squad be gaining something in return?

Could Squad bring community mod distribution in-house and retain profit for themselves?

What Squad gains is curated mod hosting done on enterprise grade hardware and connections by a team of people who specialize in it, at zero out-of-pocket cost. Curse probably makes a profit from the arrangement, and so they should. They are, after all, a business providing a valuable service.

Squad is not really specialized in webhosting or development, it's not one of their core competencies and it is unlikely they could do as good a job  of it as the Curse people. The whole idea behind outsourcing Spaceport to Curse was to reduce costs, both financial and human, and refocus those resources on developing KSP.

I honestly don't see the downside. Squad has provided one option for mod hosting, other companies provide others, and the community has provided still more. No one is forced to use a host they don't want to. Modders can host in multiple places for redundancy in case there is a problem with one host (the sudden takedown of KerbalStuff should be a vivid example of the danger of relying on a single host). 

[Kertech]

The search function on curse is rubbish though

It's irritating that to work around this through google

[Ted]

5 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

- snip -

I was about to post something replying to a few of the most recent comments but this really hits the nail on the head. I'll just say the following though.

We like to provide you with a mod repository that we can provide with as much efficiency as possible to allow us to continue to focus on the game. If you would ever like to use an alternative, please feel free to and I encourage you to develop your skills in the process by perhaps even making your own!
It can be disheartening when these projects come to an end, for whatever reason, but I thank everyone who has ever helped make them happen. And in the wake of them, everyone who has the time, resources and knowledge can chip in - that's what makes the KSP Community so fantastic. During these times, we'll carry on to provide the official repository for you to host your mods on, but completely understand if you choose not to. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with next.

Also, while I haven't seen it here much, I have seen people post up on reddit that we never publicly acknowledged KerbalStuff. I've discussed it in the past in IRC, in person with people when talking about where to get KSP mods and in many more situations. It was great to see such determination and community from someone, why wouldn't I talk about it in public?

 

If anyone had any questions, please feel free to buzz me with them.

[Jabbman]

Well, it all seems to make sense to me, at least!

Personally, the only bad experiences I have had with Curse have been when clicking a download link in someone's thread does not take you to the relevant page, but to the Curse homepage. PITA navigation and the poor search engine have made it slightly more time consuming (after browsing pages and loading ads) to download the mod I'm after. Curse is my least favourite hosting site, but at the end of the day they are all 'free' therefore one must remember to never look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Mortimer K.]

3 hours ago, Otis said:

The site that I've been using to get my mods, http://kerbal.curseforge.com/, is also bug free, user friendly, ad free, and virus free, and here is the big one, is still online and working fine.

And here is the rub, I am soooooo tired of seeing posts like this that bash Squad for doing what they needed to do. Well, I've got some news for ya. Squad could end all of this crap now, very easily, at any time. Yet they allow you to come here and express your opinion, even though posts like yours are looking to me like a well organized propaganda campaign. They could also end this crap very easily, at any time by just taking some of the money they have made and investing in Denuvo, closing down the game to modding all together. And you also seem to ignore the fact that Squad has in fact invested money in the modding community several times. Many of the developers working on 1.1 as we speak were once modders. I just hope enough people are able to see for themselves the real truth, Squad is not the bad guy. They aren't the ones who hold grudges. They aren't the ones that took their ball home crying when they didn't get what they wanted.

 

-"Squad could end all of this crap now...."- Yeah it could "take its ball and go home" and not let its customers, i.e. the people who throw money at them, vent about a well liked volunteer service closing, but that would be kind of ignorant on their part.  Us gamers are a fickle lot and one thing we like to do and one thing companies have learned to let us do is vent about the game.  Even if our venting isn't justified or rational.  Nothing turns us against a game company faster then not being able to cry about hurts, real or imaginary, on the official forums.

-"They could also end this crap very easily...."  Yeah, they could also just close down their company.  It'd have the same end result of them pulling support for user mods and the modding community- aka "taking its ball and going home."  Let's ignore the fact that this game is so popular because of the mods, and look at the economics.  Mods are free and faster product development and modders are free, and a lot are highly skilled, labor.  All Squad actually has to do is provide the base structure of a game and let the modding community actually develop the game and additional content for it. 

-"They aren't the ones that took their ball home crying when they didn't get what they wanted."  Let's ignore the fact that you've pretty much argued above that Squad would be justified doing this themselves and look at the statement itself.  Its his ball.  That means yeah, he is perfectly right to take it and go home if the only thing the other players do is complain to him about his ball and how he needs to bring a better ball to the game.   

[Kerbart]

21 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Don't forget to sign up for your premium account on Curse guys! Only 3 bucks a month! Make sure you download the client too! 

I just visited the site for the first time in ages, and it's basically one giant obnoxious pink T-mobile ad. Oh and another thing...which one of these websites are we actually supposed to be using? http://www.curse.com/shareables/kerbal or http://kerbal.curseforge.com/ They are both different, and seem to feature different content organized in different manners...not confusing at all is it?

...I hate to say it but I think we should boycott Curse as a community. I hope this KerbalStuff alternative works out.

Curseforge is the one that the “Get Mods!” tab is linking to. I don’t think it really is rocket science to figure out which one you’re supposed to use. And even if it is, aren’t we all pretending to be rocket scientists here?

Edited February 16, 2016 by Kerbart

[AlextheBodacious]

Kerbal Stuff, just because you don't hear compliments is because the happy users are being happy just downloading the files! Everyone loves you, they just aren't good at showing it!

[Kozak]

rip kerbalstuff

[Probus]

Although I loved Kerbalstuff and literally used it every day, don't worry. Folks are already hard at work to pick up the ball. The owner of KS has done all he can to ensure KS continues in spirit if not in name. 

[iamchairs]

Don't have time to read all the posts. Anyone here going to rehost KS? If not I can.

[linuxgurugamer]

1 minute ago, iamchairs said:

Don't have time to read all the posts. Anyone here going to rehost KS? If not I can.

Being done by the CKAN people, in progress as we speak

[Rocket In My Pocket]

2 hours ago, Kerbart said:

Curseforge is the one that the “Get Mods!” tab is linking to. I don’t think it really is rocket science to figure out which one you’re supposed to use. And even if it is, aren’t we all pretending to be rocket scientists here?

You do realize the average person will never visit the forum or the offical KSP website to see that link right?

Forum users are a minority, most new players are just going to google search "ksp mods" and end up at the main Curse page with all the Ads.

I take it you like Curse? Could you explain what you find appealing about the site? Why you would choose it over a simpler and more elegant site like KerbalStuff? I'm honestly curious.

[Andem]

4 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

You do realize the average person will never visit the forum or the offical KSP website to see that link right?

Forum users are a minority, most new players are just going to google search "ksp mods" and end up at the main Curse page with all the Ads.

I take it you like Curse? Could you explain what you find appealing about the site? Why you would choose it over a simpler and more elegant site like KerbalStuff? I'm honestly curious.

When I got started, that was where I looked at first. The reason I got the forum account was to ask for some help getting mods, and then I found KS on my own. Curse is nobodies favorite, ans It can be a pain at (most) times, but it's honestly the clearest option for SQAUD. they don't want to have to divert time, energy, and money for the sake of a fancy, Kerbal mods repository.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Andem

[Rocket In My Pocket]

3 minutes ago, Andem said:

When I got started, that was where I looked at first. The reason I got the forum account was to ask for some help getting mods, and then I found KS on my own. Curse is nobodies favorite, ans It can be a pain at (most) times, but it's honestly the clearest option for SQAUD. they don't want to have to divert time, energy, and money for the sake of a fancy, Kerbal mods repository.

Nobody asked SQUAD to look at other options, or devote any time, energy, or money to a modding site.

The option is ours as a community to go elsewhere and not endorse or use Curse.

That's all I'm suggesting.

[AstroWolf]

Trying to get mods from curse is like trying to fly a ship to Eeloo and back.

You can do it,

It just takes a really long time, and a lot of effort.

 Trying to get mods from Kerbalstuff is like a walk in the park. How i will miss it...

[Andem]

31 minutes ago, AstroWolf said:

Trying to get mods from curse is like trying to fly a ship to Eeloo and back.

You can do it,

It just takes a really long time, and a lot of effort.

 Trying to get mods from Kerbalstuff is like a walk in the park. How i will miss it...

You could say it's like getting  to the Mun... the longest part was typing in the mod you want... 

[Zaphod442]

About half of the topics I saw about Kerbalstuff being down, were down.

What the hell is happening here!?

[KasperVld]

Just now, Zaphod442 said:

About half of the topics I saw about Kerbalstuff being down, were down.

What the hell is happening here!?

It's not very useful to have 10 topics on 1 issue, so we left this thread as the place to discuss what happened and closed the other threads.

[Andem]

The forums are all running around like Y2K was about to happen... except for us it did... 

[JedTech]

4 minutes ago, Andem said:

The forums are all running around like Y2K was about to happen... except for us it did... 

And Squad be like:
 

[Andem]

1 minute ago, JedTech said:

And Squad be like:
 

[sp1989]

I don't understand that if it was largely due to money and it being a thankless job why not just put some advertisements on the page? We appreciated Kerbal Stuff because Curse sucks. Even with ads Kerbal Stuff was still better. I mean with the traffic Kerbal Stuff was getting they could have generated a huge amount of revenue from ads alone. This doesn't make sense to me at all. What a shame.

[chrisb2e9]

I must be the only person who doesn't hate Curse. Or I just haven't noticed anyone else... Not sure what the issue is, I can find a mod easily just by searching for it. Downloading is quick and easy. Why do people hate it so much? Is it just a trendy thing to do?

I don't really remember kerbal stuff. I'm sure that I used it before and i'm sure that it was fine but I honestly don't remember it.

At the end of the day, Squad has provided us with a site that we can use. Maybe it's user friendly, maybe it isn't. But It's fine for me... If someone from the community wants to make their own site to host mods then great, so be it. But it's kind of disheartening to read that the same community that claims to love it so much never said thanks to the guy to the point where he decides to call it quits.

 

[m4v]

21 minutes ago, chrisb2e9 said:

I must be the only person who doesn't hate Curse. Or I just haven't noticed anyone else... Not sure what the issue is, I can find a mod easily just by searching for it. Downloading is quick and easy. Why do people hate it so much? Is it just a trendy thing to do?

 

You're not the only one. It was way better than SpacePort and as a modder I never had any issues with it. I prefer to minimize the work I need to do during releases so I just upload to one site instead of multiple ones. Briefly I considered abandoning Curse in favour of KS but since Curse didn't gave me problems and I didn't agree with @SirCmpwn's motivations I didn't and dodged the bullet.

[Skalou]

I was feeling alone too, kerbal.Curseforge works great for me,

NO ads (even with all the adblockers removed), NO download timer or gold subscription or anything else,

and best of all not at the mercy of only one guy's humor of the day.

however i'm not against a few ads if it can improve the services and remunarate the modders or even squad (and hope they will put more effort into KSP because it worth it), it will be a win /win deal: i have better mod, they make a bit of money.

So i don't understand all the criticisms, what is was better on kerbal stuff?

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Skalou