Best Practices for Mod Authors


This article contains our recommendations for how to upload, manage and maintain your mods on Nexus Mods in the best way possible for our users. These recommendations will help your content to be discovered by more users and clearly explain what your mod does.

Make your mods easy to find

Making your mod easy to find is an important part of creating your mod page. The title, images, category and tags you assign to the mod are a crucial part of helping your mod be discovered. Users want to find your mod - help them by making it easy to find! Making sure your mod has the right keywords in the title, is in the right category, and has the relevant tags will ensure your mod appears in search results.

A good description can make or break your mod's popularity. You need to clearly outline what your mod is trying to achieve and give people a taste of what they can expect if they download it. It should include all of the information that a user needs to be able to get up and running with your mod. 

Your images and thumbnails are often the first impression users get when they see your mod page, either as a newly posted mod or when searching through the site. Having a good looking thumbnail and images that showcase your mod will make it more likely that users will try it out.


For some mods, there isn’t an in-game screenshot that makes sense to use as your mods thumbnail. For these mods, feel free to get creative with an image that presents your mod as the well made utility that it is. 

Discoverability is a huge part of your mod remaining relevant years into the future. That is where your mods title, categories and tags come into play. Making sure your mod has the right keywords in the title, is in the right category, and has the relevant tags will ensure your mod appears in search results. 


Make your mods easy to use

Install Instructions, Versioning and Options

Try to remember that not all of the users on Nexus Mods are tech-savvy and most will not have the knowledge and experience that you do of modding. Installing mods can be confusing without clear instructions so providing clear instructions on how to install your mod is an important measure to help newer users. They don’t need to be hugely verbose - just make sure you’re covering the basics of getting your mod installed and set up correctly. 

When updating your mod, make it clear which file is the most up-to-date version. You should also be clear if any other files should be downloaded as a requirement for your mod to work. This makes it clearer to users when they need to update your mod, thus engaging with it more. We recommend using Semantic Versioning to help make it clear to users which files correspond to each version of your mod.


If you provide multiple optional files in your mod make sure to clearly describe what each file does in the file's description. Alternatively you can look at mod manager friendly mod installer packages. These are a fantastic option for letting users have an all in one experience in one simple download. 

Requirements

Many mods make use of utilities and tools to enable the functionality they have. Adding that mod as a requirement is a nice and simple way to prompt users to get that required mod when they click to download your mod. 

Make meaningful updates to your mods

Keeping your mods up-to-date helps users to know that the mod is still actively in development. This increases user engagement and trust in your mods.


Bug fixes, new features or content and ensuring your mod is compatible with the latest version of the game are all fantastic reasons to update your mod.



Supporting Mod Manager Installations 


Users are less likely to download your mod if it is not compatible with the popular mod manager(s) for that game.

Mod Managers make it easier and more convenient for users to download, install and manage all their mods. The majority of users on Nexus Mods download and install their mods via a mod manager, so users will appreciate any work you can do to make your mods compatible with the mod managers of choice for that game. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of questions you might get on how to install the mod. 


Supporting users


Your mod pages comment section will often be a user's first port of call if they’re struggling to get up and running with mods. Helping users means they will be more likely to engage with your mod and will reassure them that your mod is functional. Mod comments are publicly viewable and searchable. This makes it easier for users to see if anyone else has had problems with your mod and how to resolve it. . 

It can be frustrating to have issues blamed on your mod when it’s clearly not your fault, in these cases direct the user to the right place for their feedback. When users are rude to you, please report them. If they have upset, angered or annoyed you, please avoid engaging with them and let our community team here at Nexus Mods handle it for you. It's what we're here for. Our Forum and Commenting Guidelines are clear on what we expect of all users in our social spaces on Nexus Mods and we moderate based on these guidelines. 


Should I combine my existing mod pages?


If you feel combining your mod pages would provide a better user experience, please do so. We're not necessarily asking you to change how you've uploaded your files but to be aware that having lots of mod pages doesn't necessarily correlate to additional Donation Points now. We may ask you to collate your mod pages if we feel you are currently breaching the Donation Point System Rules.

Here are some examples where consolidating your mod pages would be beneficial:

  • Keeping a mod and its variants/patches in one place. Patches can be added to the same page as optional files and the main mod can be in the "main files" category.
  • Grouping compatibility patches together. If you made 20 patches with at least one mod in common, group them by that mod. You can still offer them as alternate main files on a single mod page.
  • Group similar mods by a theme. If you are making a lot of mods that do similar things, post all the patches in a single hub. You can also consider using a mod installer to give users the choice of which parts of the mod to apply. Some examples include:
    • Outfits converted to use the same custom body.
    • Model/texture replacements for a particular set or theme of items.
    • Mods that apply similar changes to a group of NPCs (e.g. visual overhauls)
    • Patches for a common mod should be on a "Patch Hub" page
    • General small edits to settings, gameplay, etc

Varied Content: 


We love mod authors making a variety of different content for different games. Consider branching out to other games you might be interested in and seeing if you enjoy making content for that game too!


When does Nexus Mods intervene? 


Mods that break any of our Terms of Service are subject to moderation. The most relevant pages are the File Submission Guidelines, Forum and Commenting Guidelines, Donation Point System Rules and Adult Content Guidelines. 


Links to all of our guidelines can be found on the following page:

https://help.nexusmods.com/category/10-policies-and-guidelines