It seems pretty standard in terms of trajectory: hobby project blew up and became a thing people relied on, founder grew up over the years as well and can't sustain it. Company steps in to provide the "right resources", but inevitably doesn't emphasize too much the changes that will be needed to make it "sustainable".
Running a service like SteamDB is not easy. I wouldn't be able to live with myself by either just letting the site run as-is and letting it wither, or completely shut it down. In January, I started looking for a worthy partner that could continue the legacy that I had built.
This is where Nexus Mods comes in.
And Chosen's CEO:
Our job isn't to change what makes SteamDB special. It's to give it the resources, team and long-term stability it deserves, while building a sustainable foundation that allows us to keep investing in and improving it for many years to come.
So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.
So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.
I think that's answered pretty well by the 5 ads that open when I visit the announcement page on nexusmods.com link in the OP vs the speedy and clean UI that on the steamdb.info version (for now).
About a year ago there was a "Show HN" post (can't find it now) and the SteamDB guy won the internet that day.
He went into details on how running SteamDB wasn't much of a trouble and it was mostly eye candy on top of the Steam API, in some VPS for $100/mo total, and little maintenance (apparently the Steam APIs are fairly stable).
If he wants to cash it and check out, fine by me, you can't blame him.
They claim no ads on steamdb, but they also claim "show what games have a thriving modding community" or something like that. Which implies linking to modding hubs, which implies linking to nexusmods, which I'd 100% deem as being ads.
Just because it's ads for another site within the corporate umbrella doesn't make it any less of an ad. I also expect that to be just the start of the enshittification. I fully expect them to remove features, then add "new" features that are basically the same as the old ones, but that time behind paywalls. So that they can claim that they technically aren't making free features paid.
i don't know. the whole operation was kind of obnoxious. valve could provide all this information for free in an afternoon, but chooses not to. of course, by information, i mean: historical, per-user purchasing histories, which are 1,000,000% the most valuable piece of data. but since the guy who ran steamdb doesn't make games, he didn't comprehend what it was that was valuable, and instead, focused on CSGO "leaks."
Comments
Better link about the background here is on SteamDB's blog: https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/
It seems pretty standard in terms of trajectory: hobby project blew up and became a thing people relied on, founder grew up over the years as well and can't sustain it. Company steps in to provide the "right resources", but inevitably doesn't emphasize too much the changes that will be needed to make it "sustainable".
And Chosen's CEO:
So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.
I think that's answered pretty well by the 5 ads that open when I visit the announcement page on nexusmods.com link in the OP vs the speedy and clean UI that on the steamdb.info version (for now).
Nexus also sells a subscription service.
Running a website of this magnitude costs money and I don't expect people to keep paying out of pocket forever. It is nice as long as it lasts.
I think this one particularly interesting and it really explains to me how a caring and passionate person would do such a move.
And I really have to say that it's very relatable.
Yeah it's understandable.
About a year ago there was a "Show HN" post (can't find it now) and the SteamDB guy won the internet that day.
He went into details on how running SteamDB wasn't much of a trouble and it was mostly eye candy on top of the Steam API, in some VPS for $100/mo total, and little maintenance (apparently the Steam APIs are fairly stable).
If he wants to cash it and check out, fine by me, you can't blame him.
Someone posted that before I see (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491) so perhaps post can be merged to there
They claim no ads on steamdb, but they also claim "show what games have a thriving modding community" or something like that. Which implies linking to modding hubs, which implies linking to nexusmods, which I'd 100% deem as being ads.
Just because it's ads for another site within the corporate umbrella doesn't make it any less of an ad. I also expect that to be just the start of the enshittification. I fully expect them to remove features, then add "new" features that are basically the same as the old ones, but that time behind paywalls. So that they can claim that they technically aren't making free features paid.
i don't know. the whole operation was kind of obnoxious. valve could provide all this information for free in an afternoon, but chooses not to. of course, by information, i mean: historical, per-user purchasing histories, which are 1,000,000% the most valuable piece of data. but since the guy who ran steamdb doesn't make games, he didn't comprehend what it was that was valuable, and instead, focused on CSGO "leaks."