An Update From Dark0ne
I started this project back in 2001, in my bedroom, with a 56k modem, an excitement for the upcoming release of Morrowind and with no grand ambitions or intentions. I didn’t set out to build a business, I just wanted to make a place where modders could share their work without worrying it would vanish into the internet either the next time a fansite went offline or a publisher decided they were done with it. That idea grew legs, sprouted arms, and turned into Nexus Mods.
Since then, this site has been my entire adult life. Every single day, for over two decades, I’ve been "on call", whether it was fixing issues, reading feedback, pushing updates, or getting pulled into the latest bit of community drama. It’s been rewarding, sometimes chaotic, often exhausting and always personal. Somewhere along the way, I forgot to step back and breathe, or sleep properly. The dilemma of running a major social network that does not rest!
The strain of being responsible for the behemoth I created has taken its toll. The stress of the job has been a regular source of anxiety and stress-related health issues. I realised that I have been burning out and this started to have an impact on my staff and Nexus Mods as a whole. So, I firmly believe that the best thing for the future of Nexus Mods is for me to step aside and bring in new leadership to steer the business forward with renewed energy to make Nexus Mods the modding community we all truly deserve.
One of the biggest reasons I've been doing this for so long is that I've never felt that I truly found someone who really "gets" the modding community the way I do. Finding a new owner who would be able to understand and respect the myriad intricacies of both Nexus Mods as a business and the wider modding community was essential.
After months of meetings, face-to-face talks, and a whole lot of soul searching, I am thrilled to say that I truly believe I have found the exact right people for the task.
So yes, the ownership of Nexus Mods has changed hands, but I want to be clear, this isn’t some corporate “exit” or a backroom deal. This is me doing something I probably should’ve done years ago: taking care of myself. Reclaiming some headspace. And finally letting go of the idea that I have to do everything and be responsible for everything myself.
What changes now?
Honestly, not a lot, at least not from your side of things.
Behind the scenes, I’ve already been stepping back bit by bit. Over the past few years, the team has taken on more of the weight and the site’s been doing better than ever. What’s changing now is simply the formality of it, making sure the right people are in place to guide Nexus Mods into the next era.
That includes some structural updates to the company ownership that we aren’t shouting about, but I want to be transparent: they’re about long-term stability, not changing the values or direction of the platform. Nexus Mods is community-first and mod-author focused, that’s not up for negotiation.
While I am stepping back, it's important to understand that Nexus Mods isn't just about me and hasn't been for a long time. The Nexus Mods you see today has been created by a team of 40 incredibly dedicated people, some of whom have been here for over 9 years. They live and breathe modding, they care deeply, they’re experienced, committed, and they're very much still here. None of that is changing.
So if I can ask one thing, it’s to continue supporting them, the site, and the community they help nurture every day.
In terms of new faces, you’ll also be seeing more of Foledinho (Victor), Rapsak (Marinus) and Taagen (Nikolai), who’ve come on board to lead this next chapter. They’ve got deep roots in gaming, tech, and most importantly, they give a damn; about the site, the community, and the future we’re trying to build here.
Editor's Note: We've added Nikolai to the new owners listed above. He works more in the background, but is still an important part of the team!
They have my complete trust, and I’m incredibly proud to be bringing them onboard.
What about me?
I’m not disappearing. I’ll still be annoying people on the Mod Author Discord, lurking on the forums, and sticking my nose into community matters when I can’t help myself. I’ll also be working with the team to help guide the overall direction of the site, just without needing to be the person who signs off on every little thing and without taking responsibility for any and all things Nexus Mods.
Frankly, that’s a good thing, for me, for the team, and for the future of Nexus Mods.
869 comments
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingThanks for the warm welcome! We’re as excited about Nexus Mods’ future as you are. This post was all about Robin, giving him the credit he truly deserves. He built something incredible, creating a culture that’s shaped gaming and modding as we know it. We're here to honor that legacy and carry it forward, but we need to earn your trust.
Now, let’s clear the air on a few things:
Trust takes time.
We're committed to putting control back in the hands of creators, players, and communities. We’ll get back to building now.
Marinus, Nikolai and Victor.
I had a messages that someone uploaded a new Version of File to MY Mod which wasn't true.
Then I can't see an Image uploadbar on Mod Pages anymore and it seems you can't uploade more than one at the same time.
My friend just had a bunch of Chinese posting comments under his latest Mod that where about another game, as if Nexus messed this up too....
What the f*#@ are you doing?!
I think it happened to me, somewhat.
Deadraiser was supposedly updating a dead mod: MW5 Reloaded by NavidA1 on MW5-Mercs. Strange to be getting this notification. Checked it out, but nothing is new. A shame too. I really liked the 3D Hud by Navid.
I didn't really think of it much, probably just a server error.
Though your chinese characters are quite horrifying. Hijacked account is a nightmare.
Each Nexus account creator EXPLICITLY agrees to Terms of Service conditions. Those conditions EXPLICITLY state what you can and cannot publish on this PRIVATE business' website.
What the Terms of Service DO NOT apply to:
- How YOU choose to think.
- How YOU choose to interpret the world.
- What content HOSTED OUTSIDE OF NEXUSMODS.COM YOU PRIVATELY choose to implement in YOUR games on YOUR own PRIVATE electronic device(s).
That is the end of it.
There is nothing further to litigate within the purview of the relationship between the site, site content, and site account owners. Stop deliberately obfuscating. Stop moving the goalposts because you get a definitive, unequivocal answer you do not agree with. Stop the whataboutisms. Stop the bad faith arguments, the logical fallacies.
In the context of this very basic, boilerplate relationship between you, the Nexus account creator, and Nexus, a PRIVATE business, when it comes to mods:
- What political stance you think the website leans towards is IRRELEVANT.
- What you think is right or wrong is IRRELEVANT.
- What you think is fair or unfair is IRRELEVANT.
You want to know why?
Start reading from the top.
the fact that nexus mods is free for anyone to use and upload to is a blessing. this site is a privilege for everyone who uses it, it didn't have to be here, they could have stopped supporting it long ago but they didn't. people need to stop acting so entitled and accept that this website is for everyone to enjoy and for the owners to manage how they see fit
, to the end.
It's been two days now - I'm not sure what's the point of keeping this post unlocked anymore, especially since the majority of conversations pivoted to "talks" (complains) about "censorship" and "unfair moderation" (also considering it has been locked two, three times already) I think, maybe, it would be wise to adress it directly and open a proper discussion on this matter once and for all, in another post dedicated to this topic? Would make it easier for moderators to keep track of actual feedback on the new ownership on this post :)
One thing is clear, a lot of people feel strong about the topic of "censorship" and tolerance (or lack thereof) while simultaneously not understanding it (and doing nothing to understand it either). They are entitled to their own opinions, bias and emotions, but a lot of people fail to grasp that their opinions, our opinions, doesn't matter at all; we all signed up on Nexus, meaning we all should be aware of the TOS and rules - they're the one who decided to ignore the clearly stated "warning signs" when signing up.
If, tomorrow, Nexus decides to do a 180°, update their TOS and ban LGBTQ+ content while keeping bigoted and nazi mods, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it; I'm sure a lot of the people currently screaming about equality and censorship would scream Victory and flip their fingers at "the other side" (because why would they tolerate the people they keep removing from their games, right?)
Now as a general reminder: People's lives, sexuality and skin colors are not political.
Getting sick and tired of seeing this word being thrown around - "keep politics out of games" - as if the games we love aren't filled with ACTUAL political stories. Call it what it really is; Minorities. You don't want minorities in your games. You want the freedom of erasing us, modding us out, the freedom of shoving your mod and opinion into everyone's face on a big platform and you don't want to get hit with the concequences of doing so. THIS is what this whole mess is really all about.
"It's just a mod, you don't have to download it and you can hide it, what's the issue?"
The issue is that minorities, Black people, Gay people, are still being murdered and killed to this day, in 2025. We are still being killed, tortured and hate-crimed DAILY for just being ourselves. Seeing people being so proud of themselves for erasing us in games, publishing their mods for everyone to see, waiting to be pated on the back and coddled in their opinions is upseting, it is hurtful. To block something, we still have to see it, see how much download the mod has, see how many people agree with your opinion, with your hatred. Seeing 'straight white men' saying they feel equally "victimized" by mods including a pride flag or changing the skintone of a white character to a darker tone, as if they were persecuted all their lives for being 'white straight men' is making me SICK.
This whole comment section should be used as a reason as to WHY Nexus needs to STAY the way it is. We need inclusivity more than ever, especially in today's political climate, and it's truly sad and infuriating that so many people fail to realize that.
Agreed. It is indeed a tough one.
NM must work within the framework of the Law.
T&C's explain everything, so don't expect them to bat for every side because they can't.
IMO: If your Mod won't get them in legal trouble, it should be allowed.
Getting sick and tired of seeing this word being thrown around - "keep politics out of games" - as if the games we love aren't filled with ACTUAL political stories. Call it what it really is; Minorities. You don't want minorities in your games. You want the freedom of erasing us, modding us out, the freedom of shoving your mod and opinion into everyone's face on a big platform and you don't want to get hit with the concequences of doing so. THIS is what this whole mess is really all about."
Yep. This. 100% THIS
Just FYI for everyone, some comments are being removed, which is fine, but if you see holes that's why. Anyways I think I'll go silent now.
You know that says "Perpetual-License" (that is by the way, not the same as "owning" -- somehow).
So you think you just deleted your mods.
As for the new overlords, 👋 Please don't make me regret paying for a subscription (or make me pay more), and pay no heed to the warring parties below, it's the interwebz🤷. As long as you DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING, the world will continue to exist as per. Welcome.
I miss the old ESF days, but you and the team have kept our global community with a Switchboard, connecting our many communities to each-other, letting us preserve history when sites have vanished, and giving us a safe and fair space to be geeks and mod enthusiasts, on the internet.
Chosen, as the new owners, I hope you understand the social responsibility that Nexus has to our communities. And that if the silent majority of fans feel that they are being taken for a ride, or that floodgates have been opened for toxic members, or mods that would enable hateful intent, you could indeed lose the people that keep the servers sparking faster than anything else.
Trends come and go.
Please do not base your business model around them.
Nexus Staff have always been a dam to keep the chaos away.
Please lean into them and let them guide you towards a continued profit.
Hopefully this is true and the priority are the modders, has my personal mind I do not mind the changes they make as long as everything remains free.
I would like to see a change in the new reward system that right now penalizes excessively to all authors who create mods that interact with the same group of users, just today came out the new UPDATE of PALWORLD and all the mods were broken, due to this new rewards algorithm I will only update 4 or 5 mods per month so that the reductions are minimal, it makes no sense to update mods and invest time in recreate and reuploading them for a game that I don't even play or use and that the recognition by Nexus will be to reduce my rewards (in new or old mods) if I already interact with these users even in other games.
This new approach are already many authors who do it and this seems to be creating a breeding ground in certain games to comment on why we have taken this decision, users want free mods and that are updated quickly (if you do not fill the message tray repeated requests 100 times to update), I also believe that Nexus is losing a large part of their income by not taking advantage of these UPDATE that generate a new wave of visits if the mods are updated to their latest version.
It would also be good to recover the old transparency and not hide what kind of rewards are given and how they are calculated so that they are fair to all modders, I do not think it is enough to say "If you aren't comfortable with us controlling how we distribute the money this site earns, if you have "trust" issues with us, then I don't recommend using Nexus Mods."
GREETINGS AND BEST OF LUCK TO THE NEW OWNERS.
I'm really glad that someone else is bringing this up. This is a big drawback of the new Donation Points system that no longer shows UDLs per-mod, etc.
This change really hurts small communities and offers zero incentive for mod authors to provide continued support. *
I understand that some folks were abusing the old system by uploading the same content as different mods to farm more UDLs, but the new system now rewards authors that hop from new release to new release and quick turnaround mods (mods that all do essentially the same thing, but for each new game that comes out). They don't reward high-effort mods or continued updates. That's a huge issue.
I've personally seen DP amounts decrease to less than 1/2 of what they used to be despite generating more UDLs. I know that this is calculated as a share of site revenue and I can only assume that this pie has grown when more games and mods come out, but...something doesn't seem right.
*If I were to have a suggestion: maybe there's a way that the new owners could offer incentives for providing support to users. So much of my time is spent responding to questions, requests, etc... if there's a way to track these (i.e. bug reports marked 'solved', replies to comments, average response time, etc), then maybe that could be factored in.
@mike9k1 Maybe you missed it, but the per-mod stats have been available for quite a while on your Analytics page. We added this page specifically to address the use case of using the DP system stats to get an overview of your mod stats.
Most of your post beyond this is a subjective opinion, as we have intentionally not given details on how the DP system works.
I do agree that tracking other community engagement for non-authors would be a cool idea, though.
OH! Hey I completely missed this! I thought Nexus had completely done away with that after the DP changeover- thanks a bunch!
I totally understand that, and I can only really attest to my situation (i.e. the DP I see and the effort I put in). From my perspective, it seems like it got worse in some ways. *
If I look at some of the highest UDL modders, I often see them posting 1 or 2 very similar mods (for example- Engine.ini tweaks for graphics) and doing this for every new release, raking in tons of UDLs in the 2 weeks post-launch, and then hopping to the next new game that comes out. To be clear- they're still providing value, and they're not abusing the system.
But, this leads me to believe that the most-downloaded mods are usually very quick to make, don't need continued support and are released for new games right after they come out -- higher-effort mods that take longer to develop and might require more support simply don't have a good return in my personal experience. My thinking is: if you want a platform of high quality mods, you probably need to incentivize more than just downloads and drive engagement in other ways.
I hope the team continues to look at the rewards system critically and NexusMods continues to get better. As great as it is, I think Nexus could be so much more. I'm hopeful the new owners are just as optimistic and can help it become everything it can be.
* Btw, having those analytics helps a bunch. I understand that it doesn't reflect where/how DP is earned, but I still like to know what mods generate the most interest so I can focus on those. This new analytics page gives me a way to check those at a glance. I must have not seen the news post about it!
For those who don't know how to get to it: click on your profile icon at the top right -> "My Mods" -> "Analytics" at the top right
With this data, I would like to use it as a concrete, specific example as to why I might be led to believe that the new DP system favors larger game communities over smaller ones. Looking at a few months in particular and what happened during those months:
Please note that I am only using these numbers as a point of reference and to offer a concrete example. To reiterate what the staff says, downloads do not correlate to DP anymore, but rather the new system uses interactions.
In November 2024, a new game came out and I began modding that game. That new game draws in many, many users. Likely very many created new accounts on the site (*), and thus this resulted in many unique interactions.
In December 2024, I continued modding making more mods for this game that came out the previous month, continued supporting the existing mods, users, etc. The number of downloads decreased by a bit (-15%), and the DP dropped a bit more than that (-25%). Since the game is no longer new, this resulted in fewer unique interactions.
In May 2025, a new update for the game is released. Some old users come back and a some new ones come in. Compared to December, these numbers still aren't as good (-21%) but a nice little bounceback compared to the lull we had since January, but the DP is far worse (-42%).
A good portion of this new activity was the existing community engaging with all the new mods that were made between January and May, but it seems that since many of these interactions were no longer unique, the new algorithm didn't reward all that extra work to nearly the same degree as when the game first came out.
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Mod rewards (DP) is just a slice of the pie. Some of this is determined by site revenue (the size of the pie) as well as what other mods come out (how many slices are made of that pie). If the site revenue increases, the whole pie grows and all participants in the mod rewards program benefits. On the other hand, if a big game comes out (i.e. Oblivion Remastered or Stellar Blade) and you're not modding that game, your slice will shrink, sometimes considerably. We saw that when the Fallout TV series debuted last year, as one example.
There's also a lot more that I don't control as a modder. I don't control when certain games come out, how well the games I mod are marketed, whether they're put at a reasonable price for people to buy it, how mods are perceived by the community, etc. I can only do so much to make a game more attractive through mods- that's really the only external factor that modders have any effect over. That aspect can be very frustrating at times.
No algorithm change can fix that, but I think the algorithm could be more equitable, especially for smaller communities where the opportunity for unique interactions is far more limited. Perhaps continued interactions or sustained engagement can be incentivized in one manner or another.