Ok, I decided to put together my own draft banner until if/when someone with more artistic talent comes up with something better.
I'll copy/paste the MCF post related it to it here:
Guys, for those of you that would like to show their support for me in this ongoing struggle with Forge and its head (LexManos) in attempting to outright copy and redistribute BTW, or to show your support for the concept of independent modding and the rights of modders in general, I encourage you to use the following banner in your sig to help get the message out:
I don't think that it's Lex's *ego* that's the motivation here, to be honest.
1) Mojang has previously hired prominent modders from the community (see Dinnerbone/Bukkit).
2) Mojang pays extremely well (see last year's Christmas bonuses to staff) and has a respected place in the game dev. industry (see Minecraft).
3) Mojang has promised a mod API and noticeably/publicly failed to deliver on it (see everyone's complaints).
4) Lex controls a prominent mod API mod that is widely, but not exclusively, used (see BTW and ModLoader).
The above points -- they're all simple facts. However since I have no proof please excuse the following as merely idle speculation...
First, I'm definitely not trying to suggest that Mojang has their hands anywhere near what's happened here, and I'd seriously doubt that they've asked/pushed Lex (or anyone else on Forge) to do this or for that matter have anything to do with this whatsoever. Rather I'm merely suggesting that Lex can connect the dots as well as I can, sees the above as a distinct possibility, and is starting BWF so that he seems like a default choice for Mojang to hire.
In which case -- the goal he's after here isn't so self-contradictory. He doesn't give a shit about the ideas in BTW, the success of the modding community in general, or about whether you (FC) continue to contribute good ideas after this or just get depressed and go away. All he cares about is that Forge becomes completely dominant. That way he thus seems like a natural hire to Mojang when Mojang gives up on creating their own solution (see their cumulative programming skills) tries to 'buy' it.
If scuttling BTW in this manner is a price that's required... well, do you think that even stopped him for five minutes? It certainly didn't stop him when all the bullshit with ModLoader started.
FlowerChild wrote:Guys, I'd really like to put together a banner to help spread the word about my cause here, and so that people can show their support for what I'm going through with it.
I believe this is a general issue facing the modding community that is of interest to modders as a whole, and I'd like as much light to be cast on it as possible.
As a result, I'd like to ask for help from any artists within the community to create a banner along lines similar to the following:
What I envision is a Companion Cube on the left side (I think the stylized one from the current mod banner with the tear running down would be perfect), and a similarly stylized face wearing a Gimp Mask on the right.
Words along top reading with the slogan "No means no!", and down along the bottom "I support the independence of Better Than Wolves".
If anyone has some time on their hands and the artistic talent to really pull it off in style, I'd be very much obliged.
I'll try and put something together as well.
FlowerChild wrote:For example, I'm feeling such a whim right now, and look forward with anticipation to the feeling of satisfaction that shall come from acting upon it.
icynewyear wrote:I just wanted to toss my 2 cents here. I was going to stay out of it completely but my name came up. I have nothing to do with the creation of BWF.
Well then, all apologies for bringing your name up undeservedly. It seemed logical to me at the moment, but on the other hand, I do watch your stream (quite a bit actually, gets me through work nicely) and always thought you are a cool guy, so it was a bit hard to reconcile. Seeing you on that BWF thing was a bit of a shocker though, so I guess I jumped at that. So yeah, sorry!
I will also offer my apologies if my linking your stream video felt like "pointing fingers" or "piling on."
I found your channel through JeetTol and have been watching your BtW series on YouTube. Since the stream of yours I watched was basically 3 hours of "BtW is awesome, check this out," it seemed incongruous that you might be involved, and I wanted to show the community here, as well as FC, that there were others out there who enjoyed BtW for itself.
Again, my apologies if it came across in any other way.
It would actually be kinda cool if there is a range of different banner types, as that would definitely draw more attention.
Maybe even different text at the bottom like "I Support Independent Modding", "Respecting Modders Benefits Us All", "LexManos is an Asshole" or what have you :)
Gears wrote:I'll try and put something together as well.
FlowerChild wrote:Ok, it's fixed. Thanks for pointing that out so quickly Bino. It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't been able to nail it so quickly.
Heh, I could just imagine what the forge crowd would say upon seeing a misspelled protest banner... ;)
Hehe...I suspect the banner beginning to pop up here and there in MCF may have had something to do with it in drawing more attention to what was going on ;)
Anyways, I think that thread largely ran its course and was going back in circles to some of the initial debate about copyright infringement before it died down when I said I wasn't even accusing them of that.
You see that in threads on these forums as well, where there's initial interesting discussion, and ultimately, it starts feeding back on itself where new contributors fail to read what has been discussed previously, and start discussing the same points already covered. That's usually when I lock the thread in question :)
Yeah that is how threads go when people don't actually want to discuss things (which I generally am though I tend to avoid those threads). Regardless, I suspect we had better prepare for more trolling, since it seems to be starting anew. I hope this situation hasn't affected your developing BTW and RTH too much, FlowerChild.
Stompinlama wrote:Yeah that is how threads go when people don't actually want to discuss things (which I generally am though I tend to avoid those threads). Regardless, I suspect we had better prepare for more trolling, since it seems to be starting anew. I hope this situation hasn't affected your developing BTW and RTH too much, FlowerChild.
In total, it'll have cost me a few days dev time (3 I think?), but I think the issue is large enough for both the mod and the community that it warrants me focusing on it right now. Also, me empowering myself by talking about all this and getting the word out to the community as a whole helps me to move on from it, instead of winding up feeling like I'm being steamrollered with nothing I can do about it.
So, ultimately taking action now helps with my long-term productivity, and I plan on being back to work on the mod tomorrow.
Nifty banner FC, I needed a signature for the rare times I post in the Minecraft forums.
The whole BWF thing feels like mob rule. A mob declares that everything shall be compatible, and anyone who says otherwise shall be stoned. So to speak. :-)
