Yes it's fucked because running servers costs a lot of money and SteamDB runs on donations. So I hope you did donate at some point when you used their services and disapprove of this development.
Right, did you look up if they sold because of financial hardship? Pretty sure everything I've read has been about its owner personally suffering burnout and disillusionment with the current tech and internet landscape.
Guy was even apparently looking for a replacement for himself for years before deciding to sell after burnout. So yes, saying it is because people did not donate isn't really consistent with the evidence and explicit reasoning the owner gave. You are not only expressing an opinion, but an unsubstantiated one.
Also, yes, it is hardly fair to say that people don't have a right to feel upset that a free service has the potential to no longer be free. In fact, what you've described, the need to spend money to do so, is antithetical to the philosophy behind that model. Chill out and adopt a more understanding perspective, it is seriously less work and more effective.
I meant the opinion to feel upset about the owner selling if I didn’t invest any resources, time nor money, into the provided service. I wasn’t talking about usage of said service which shouldn’t be gatekept if one opts out of donations of course.
Does my life time membership to nexus mods mean I also get life time membership to steam DB now? If not then fuck off nexus mods you sack of dog shit. I already regret how shitty you turned your site into don't do it twice.
If it does then my point still stands but I will also take advantage of this.
I don't know man. We've seen how bad enshitification takes hold once a big corporation takes over. Honestly, in a lot of cases, I would rather have them fade and get forked vs relying on the enshitificated version to amble along, like git hub, source forge, all of the game development studios in the past decade.
In practice it does. There's a big, entrenched competitor out there already, so that puts a damper on any motivation. If the site just closed down, that wouldn't be the case.
Even if SteamDB is gradually enshittified, there will still be that competitor that does a "good enough" job for a lot of people, meaning the bar for a new player to come along is higher.
They’re a very common and well demonstrated pattern that plays out with this sort of site; e.g. it’s taken almost a decade for many gaming wikis to get off fandom after they were locked in. There’s a finite pool of user attention and contribution that these projects can pull from, and splitting that pool worsens the commons.
Before reading their statements, I would have thought that either Microsoft or Valve themselves could have purchased SteamDB. Especially Valve, so that many of these early leaked data could be prevented if controlled correctly. I think better quotes that explain why this is done are:
As you all know, mods are often built around a particular version of a game, so when there’s an update for it, your game that was perfectly modded and working the day before now just…doesn’t. SteamDB already tracks an incredible amount of information about game builds, depots, manifests, files, and update history across Steam, including years of historical data. Being able to connect that information with modding tools and mod metadata opens up some really interesting possibilities for making modding more reliable.
Over time, we want to explore how a mod manager could better understand which version of the game you’re running, whether mods you’re installing were built for it, and whether an incoming game update is likely to cause issues. It could also make it possible for Collections and other mod lists to better specify the exact version of a game they were built for, rather than relying on someone finding that information buried in a description, comment, or forum post.
After these explanations, it makes perfect sense to me now. Also the next paragraphs, the way this is layed out, suggest change could come in the future once both services are merged or operate tightly together. Notice the wording "for now" and "currently". There is not promise it won't change:
What happens now? Well, for now, SteamDB carries on as normal whilst we work with xPaw on the transition and start putting the team and resources it needs into it. Everything currently available for free will remain free
The enshittification of the internet continues. This comes after a whole year of journalists and others sperging out about how steam charts were being weaponized by the chuds. Which I'm sure is just a coincidence!
They've been working on collecting data for a long time. They have a lot of established methods and data that a newcomer would have to do the work to replicate.
I'm not aware of anything they do being open source, so you couldn't just fork it. You'd have to start from scratch.
That's kinda what I was trying to point to. Yes it is a lot of work to replicate the functionality, but apparently Valve has no intention of "plugging the hole" this data is coming from, and I'm not sure NexusMods would have any ability to torpedo any potential alternatives as they also depend on a third party. So if/when the original enshitifies it would be possible to move on to a new platform.
Well if there's "nothing special" about setting up a full stack, interpreting and collecting data, write the database back end to efficiently store and retrieve the data, and create the algorithms to parse and massage the raw data to create the proper meaningful data to the user and plot them then it sounds like you're the perfect candidate to get cracking on this project since it's really "nothing special" and software development is easy.
Sounds like you're the perfect candidate to do nothing about it and let the existing platform be enshitifed with providing nothing in return. Good luck with your defeatism.
Yeah, because I do software for a living, participate in open source projects in the domains I know WTF I'm doing and good at.
I am that perfect candidate for doing nothing in this particular situation because I'm not a person who's going to downplay how hard it is to develop software unlike you who has no clue apparently what it takes to develop anything and then goes on to say how it's "nothing special", I know how hard it is to develop software and how hard even developing a simple front end GUI can be when that's not your area of expertise much less something that is big as this.
But you feel free to go right ahead and be that middle manager that has no clue about what it takes to develop that "nothing special" while not picking up and write that full stack. Go ahead, I bow down to your middle manager expertise as you develop that "nothing special".
Defeatism...rich when you're not the doing the software and leading the charge there bud.
Well I also do software engineering for a living, except I don't just spam out a bunch of bullshit that has nothing to do with the project we're talking about. "create the algorithms to parse and massage the raw data" my fucking sides... "front end GUI" as opposed to... backend TUI? If you knew anything about your job you'd see that most of the inner workings of the site is very well documented with multiple libraries ready to go for like 90% of the functionality. Just because you chicken out of anything that your precious LLM would deem too hard doesn't mean everyone is else is a bad coder. Nothing would ever get made if people were like you.
Just FYI, I literally never said there's nothing special about the site, that's your halucination. I ASKED if there was anything special that would prevent recreating the functionality, but I know how hard it is for you to read. I wonder how you cope with a Jira ticket that's longer than two sentences...
I thought fucking karmawhores with their dumbass opinions would stay on reddit...
Oh my god you sanctimonious redditor. If you think that 90 percent of the functionality documented and there's nothing special about the site then fucking do it yourself oh God King of Neckbeards. Fucking get to it then and stop bitching that others aren't doing it.
And yeah, I handle my two sentence ADS tickets just fine at my software engineering job, get paid nicely for it and may I never have to work with your insufferable sounding ass that doesn't seem to understand that just because you've coded one thing that it means you have the expertise to code all the things. It's almost like software development covers more than just writing a website using square space.
And yeah, I've come to appreciate those who can make a GUI that not just functional but also looks good and flows properly, something that I know I'm not exactly great at since that's not my software specialty.
you know, couldn't someone make a sort of decentralized git of game art assets and just have a client fetch the missing assets, dumping them into the steam library when it finds entries that dont have populated metadata? we dont actually need a centralized web page for this
59 Comments
MurrayL@lemmy.world · 207 pts · 3d
If NexusMods is anything to go by, SteamDB will soon require an account to use, with strict limits unless you pay for premium access.
Hubi@feddit.org · 65 pts · 3d
And then proceed to leak your username, e-mail and password.
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 37 pts · 3d
Plus they're going to allow developers to hide whenever they make changes so we can track minor changes anymore
Fuck they're going to break/API Paywall IsThereAnyDeal aren't they
frongt@lemmy.zip · -47 pts · 3d
Seems reasonable. Most people make a few requests, and heavy users can pay for the operational costs.
Edit: that's a lot of downvotes. People would prefer for it to just go offline entirely?
arules@retrofed.com · 9 pts · 3d
crowdfunding ≢ private throttling
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Yes. I personally would rather see a project shutdown rather than see the zombie, enshitified version live forever.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 148 pts · 3d
Cool. 😃
Oh... Aaaaaaaand it's fucked.
creamfresh@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3d
Yes it's fucked because running servers costs a lot of money and SteamDB runs on donations. So I hope you did donate at some point when you used their services and disapprove of this development.
RadiallyAxiomatic@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 2d
Being financial able to contribute is required to validate an opinion. Just like only the wealthy should vote.
creamfresh@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 2d
Well if the opinion is „they shouldn’t be bought to sustain themselves financially“, yes.
orioler25@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1d
Right, did you look up if they sold because of financial hardship? Pretty sure everything I've read has been about its owner personally suffering burnout and disillusionment with the current tech and internet landscape.
creamfresh@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1d
The owner can do whatever they want with their platform. I don’t feel entitled to an opinion because I never donated one cent to them.
orioler25@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 17h
Dude...it isn't an "opinion."
https://80.lv/articles/nexus-mods-owner-acquires-steamdb-after-co-founder-struggled-with-burnout
https://kotaku.com/nexus-mods-steamdb-steam-2000730486
https://www.techspot.com/news/113712-steamdb-acquired-nexus-mods-after-13-years-independent.html
Guy was even apparently looking for a replacement for himself for years before deciding to sell after burnout. So yes, saying it is because people did not donate isn't really consistent with the evidence and explicit reasoning the owner gave. You are not only expressing an opinion, but an unsubstantiated one.
Also, yes, it is hardly fair to say that people don't have a right to feel upset that a free service has the potential to no longer be free. In fact, what you've described, the need to spend money to do so, is antithetical to the philosophy behind that model. Chill out and adopt a more understanding perspective, it is seriously less work and more effective.
creamfresh@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 13h
I meant the opinion to feel upset about the owner selling if I didn’t invest any resources, time nor money, into the provided service. I wasn’t talking about usage of said service which shouldn’t be gatekept if one opts out of donations of course.
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 3d
Does my life time membership to nexus mods mean I also get life time membership to steam DB now? If not then fuck off nexus mods you sack of dog shit. I already regret how shitty you turned your site into don't do it twice.
If it does then my point still stands but I will also take advantage of this.
njm1314@lemmy.world · 140 pts · 3d
Cuz consolidation is always good for us the consumers/users!
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works · -24 pts · 3d
If the choice is between consolidation and the current owner simply abandoning it, I'll take the lesser of two evils.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 77 pts · 3d
I don't know man. We've seen how bad enshitification takes hold once a big corporation takes over. Honestly, in a lot of cases, I would rather have them fade and get forked vs relying on the enshitificated version to amble along, like git hub, source forge, all of the game development studios in the past decade.
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works · -4 pts · 3d
This site being bought does nothing to prevent another from being started.
FishFace@piefed.social · 37 pts · 3d
In practice it does. There's a big, entrenched competitor out there already, so that puts a damper on any motivation. If the site just closed down, that wouldn't be the case.
Even if SteamDB is gradually enshittified, there will still be that competitor that does a "good enough" job for a lot of people, meaning the bar for a new player to come along is higher.
dgdft@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 3d
Why would network externalities not apply here?
They’re a very common and well demonstrated pattern that plays out with this sort of site; e.g. it’s taken almost a decade for many gaming wikis to get off fandom after they were locked in. There’s a finite pool of user attention and contribution that these projects can pull from, and splitting that pool worsens the commons.
Grimy@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 3d
There's also selling it to another party that isn't a vampiric parasite as an option. I doubt they were the only potential buyer.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 96 pts · 3d
The same NexusMods that was bought up by a shady investment agency a while ago?
FlihpFlorp@piefed.zip · 47 pts · 3d
Yep, and we all knew it was as a good sign when at the initial announcement they didn’t announce who
bagodogs@sh.itjust.works · 60 pts · 3d
Well, it was good while it lasted.
CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 3d
The theme of this millennium.
nocturne@slrpnk.net · 53 pts · 3d
Is there an alternative to steamdb?
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 24 pts · 3d
Not comprehensive and at this scale of SteamDB, not that I know of any. I know https://www.steamspy.com/ and https://steamcharts.com/ , but those are not full replacements for SteamDB.
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 34 pts · 3d
RIP
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 3d
But... Why?
HuePony@lemmy.ml · 15 pts · 3d
Moneys
freebee@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 3d
💰
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 3d
Before reading their statements, I would have thought that either Microsoft or Valve themselves could have purchased SteamDB. Especially Valve, so that many of these early leaked data could be prevented if controlled correctly. I think better quotes that explain why this is done are:
After these explanations, it makes perfect sense to me now. Also the next paragraphs, the way this is layed out, suggest change could come in the future once both services are merged or operate tightly together. Notice the wording "for now" and "currently". There is not promise it won't change:
aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 3d
Ough. Bad.
radiouser@crazypeople.online · 17 pts · 3d
Great. Can't wait to have to pay to use that site.
alexquiniou@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 3d
Oh god please no ! Noooo !
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de · 14 pts · 3d
eww
diocesegoldmine@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 3d
that is so unfortunate /gen
supersquirrel@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 3d
Well that sucks
hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 3d
The enshittification of the internet continues. This comes after a whole year of journalists and others sperging out about how steam charts were being weaponized by the chuds. Which I'm sure is just a coincidence!
BilSabab@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 3d
is it bad or very bad or fucking bad?
Gleddified@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 3d
🤮🤮🤮
mereo@piefed.ca · 10 pts · 3d
Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 3d
Eternal192@anarchist.nexus · 9 pts · 3d
Well shit... i guess it's time to get as much out of it as possible and start looking for an alternative.
doctor0710@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 3d
What's special about SteamDB that no real, fully fledged alternatives showed up yet? What would prevent someone from "forking" it?
frongt@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 3d
They've been working on collecting data for a long time. They have a lot of established methods and data that a newcomer would have to do the work to replicate.
I'm not aware of anything they do being open source, so you couldn't just fork it. You'd have to start from scratch.
doctor0710@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 3d
That's kinda what I was trying to point to. Yes it is a lot of work to replicate the functionality, but apparently Valve has no intention of "plugging the hole" this data is coming from, and I'm not sure NexusMods would have any ability to torpedo any potential alternatives as they also depend on a third party. So if/when the original enshitifies it would be possible to move on to a new platform.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2d
Well if there's "nothing special" about setting up a full stack, interpreting and collecting data, write the database back end to efficiently store and retrieve the data, and create the algorithms to parse and massage the raw data to create the proper meaningful data to the user and plot them then it sounds like you're the perfect candidate to get cracking on this project since it's really "nothing special" and software development is easy.
doctor0710@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 2d
Sounds like you're the perfect candidate to do nothing about it and let the existing platform be enshitifed with providing nothing in return. Good luck with your defeatism.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2d
Yeah, because I do software for a living, participate in open source projects in the domains I know WTF I'm doing and good at.
I am that perfect candidate for doing nothing in this particular situation because I'm not a person who's going to downplay how hard it is to develop software unlike you who has no clue apparently what it takes to develop anything and then goes on to say how it's "nothing special", I know how hard it is to develop software and how hard even developing a simple front end GUI can be when that's not your area of expertise much less something that is big as this.
But you feel free to go right ahead and be that middle manager that has no clue about what it takes to develop that "nothing special" while not picking up and write that full stack. Go ahead, I bow down to your middle manager expertise as you develop that "nothing special".
Defeatism...rich when you're not the doing the software and leading the charge there bud.
doctor0710@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 2d
Well I also do software engineering for a living, except I don't just spam out a bunch of bullshit that has nothing to do with the project we're talking about. "create the algorithms to parse and massage the raw data" my fucking sides... "front end GUI" as opposed to... backend TUI? If you knew anything about your job you'd see that most of the inner workings of the site is very well documented with multiple libraries ready to go for like 90% of the functionality. Just because you chicken out of anything that your precious LLM would deem too hard doesn't mean everyone is else is a bad coder. Nothing would ever get made if people were like you.
Just FYI, I literally never said there's nothing special about the site, that's your halucination. I ASKED if there was anything special that would prevent recreating the functionality, but I know how hard it is for you to read. I wonder how you cope with a Jira ticket that's longer than two sentences...
I thought fucking karmawhores with their dumbass opinions would stay on reddit...
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
Oh my god you sanctimonious redditor. If you think that 90 percent of the functionality documented and there's nothing special about the site then fucking do it yourself oh God King of Neckbeards. Fucking get to it then and stop bitching that others aren't doing it.
And yeah, I handle my two sentence ADS tickets just fine at my software engineering job, get paid nicely for it and may I never have to work with your insufferable sounding ass that doesn't seem to understand that just because you've coded one thing that it means you have the expertise to code all the things. It's almost like software development covers more than just writing a website using square space.
And yeah, I've come to appreciate those who can make a GUI that not just functional but also looks good and flows properly, something that I know I'm not exactly great at since that's not my software specialty.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 3d
literally nothing
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 3d
you know, couldn't someone make a sort of decentralized git of game art assets and just have a client fetch the missing assets, dumping them into the steam library when it finds entries that dont have populated metadata? we dont actually need a centralized web page for this
HollowNaught@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3d
Uh oh
Localhorst86@feddit.org · 4 pts · 3d
Oh no. Fuck.
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3d
Oh no...