Your Golden Rules of Modding.

[Unit 33]

I was wondering whether any of you lot follow a certain code of modding etiquette?
Well I certainly do. Here are the rules which I attempt to stick to.

1. Never plagiarise the work of other modders
It is forbidden to use the work of another modder and claim it is your own.
2. Always give credit where due.
If you do not know the origin of an asset, do not be embarrassed to ask another modder. Ignorance is not an excuse.
3. Quality before Quantity.
Instead of aiming to produce as many mods as possible, try to made products which are more complete and well thought out.
4. Stuck? Ask for help.
Whenever you feel that you have "hit the wall" or encountered a problem, do not be embarrassed to ask for help.
5. Criticism is mostly good
You will learn a lot from both bad and good criticism.
6. There is always room for improvement.
There are no perfect mods except Cloud City: Insanity. FACT
7. Releasing Assets is just a nice thing to do.
Sure you don't have to do it, but modders will be truly thankful when you do it.
8. Don't make a promise you can't keep.
You may feel compelled to tackle the requests. However be aware of how much work load you can handle.
9. Deadlines aren't always applicable.
Sometimes with a mod you can feel whether it'll be completed before a certain date. Other times the project can be in flux and you have no idea what's going on. Deadlines can force you to get your bottom in gear, or they can be an unnecessary stress. Find your balance.
10. Research
Take a look at past mods and decide what is actually achievable, or "borrow" ideas when your brain is empty.

[Phobos]

More advice than rules I would say:

Always bug test your mods thoroughly before release them. You want there to be as few errors as possible. Usually SPTest will miss the majority of errors but use it anyway to see if it catches something.

Also fred's advice is to work in small chunks on a custom planet, make a few changes, munge and test. Rather than adding a million things at once to the map which makes it extremely difficult to locate origins of multiple bugs and other problems.

[SleepKiller]

Some additional thoughts of mine in blue because I can't be stuffed to use the quote system.
(Yes I am lazy.)
1. Never plagiarise the work of other modders
It is forbidden to use the work of another modder and claim it is your own.
I have nothing to add to this one. Even if the assets are released for a mod you should only be using parts of it a model here and an effect there.
2. Always give credit where due.
If you do not know the origin of an asset, do not be embarrassed to ask another modder. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Exactly.
3. Quality before Quantity.
Instead of aiming to produce as many mods as possible, try to made products which are more complete and well thought out.
Once again exactly. SWBF Unleashed may not have included a whole lot of custom maps and such but I aimed for quality and it was well received as such.
4. Stuck? Ask for help.
Whenever you feel that you have "hit the wall" or encountered a problem, do not be embarrassed to ask for help.
Indeed, I have been surprised at times by what other people know when I have hit a problem. Always ask no matter what you think the answer will be.
5. Criticism is mostly good
You will learn a lot from both bad and good criticism.
Only constructive criticism is truly good. You will learn nothing if someone just says. "Your mod sucks, no one likes it." bla bla bla I have seriously had someone say that to me before.
6. There is always room for improvement.
There are no perfect mods except Cloud City: Insanity. FACT
Even then there is room for improvement. The effects could be replaced with less memory intensive ones to stop them from stopping to render.
7. Releasing Assets is just a nice thing to do.
Sure you don't have to do it, but modders will be truly thankful when you do it.
I don't agree with this one one hundred percent. You should never feel obligated to release any of your assets. And you should never go about demand(aka asking) for other modders assets. You should really only ask if they have said they will release something if it is asked for.
8. Don't make a promise you can't keep.
You may feel compelled to tackle the requests. However be aware of how much work load you can handle.
I really have no comment for this one. Other than if a modder does say they will do something for you and doesn't deliver don't get annoyed. These are real people with lives they get in the way of hobbies.
9. Deadlines aren't always applicable.
Sometimes with a mod you can feel whether it'll be completed before a certain date. Other times the project can be in flux and you have no idea what's going on. Deadlines can force you to get your bottom in gear, or they can be an unnecessary stress. Find your balance.
You should never really set a deadline for yourself. You should simply be releasing it when it is done and ready. Not a moment sooner.
10. Research
Take a look at past mods and decide what is actually achievable, or "borrow" ideas when your brain is empty.
In addition you should take note the skills the person had. Did the model half the props in the maps? If you don't know how to model the odds are that isn't achievable for you.

[Kit Fisto]

  When did you become SleepGiver?!?! Seems a bit out of character to me…

So you have had someone tell you your mod sucks?! What mod was that?!?! SleepKiller mods are unable to suck. Fact.

About the quality vs quantity just look at the things Sereja has released. HE is the role model for quality over quantity.

Oh and another thing. More for the person waiting for the mod. If you keep bugging the modder making the mod about the mod they are doing they will end up hating you.

[aeria.]

I'm going to bite.

If you're not enjoying your mod/map, chances are people won't either. Polish it or go back to the drawing board.

It's something I apply in video production... but it applies to game modding just as well.

[SleepKiller]

/offtopic

@kitfisto I changed my name to SleepGiver last year as well. I am in the Christmas spirit.

[Unit 33]

/offtopic

@kitfisto I changed my name to SleepGiver last year as well. I am in the Christmas spirit.

Yeah Kit get with the program!


Well it's nice to know there's some kind of general agreement going on.

[Kit Fisto]

Oh! HAHA!
Nice!