Hey guys! I’ve made a post on the fiveM reddit and will just post it down here as well as I think it’s important:
Hey guys! Wetter42 here! As you know, fivem is an amazing mod that allows you to make your OWN reality; your OWN version of GTA V that rockstar couldn’t (for legal reasons or otherwise). It’s an awesome, open source mod that has history (that history being the battle between Take Two legal and the greater modding community). Because we’ve worked hard and EARNED this, I don’t think it’s right to see it die out like this. Now I do understand the underlying money flow from people selling interiors, scripts, or services for fivem, but please understand that I will be approaching this from an “information should be free perspective.”
Have you noticed how modding communities for games such as GTA San Andreas and Skyrim, and even minecraft are strong even to this day. In my honest opinion, I feel like this is because of the rich knowledgebase of information that people have openly shared with their modding community. Meaning rather than discord and DM’s, the people took to posting youtube videos and on open forums to encourage everyone else to learn and get creative with modding.
The problem I see within fiveM is that people ask a question, (a fairly general question that hasn’t been asked or documented before), and: 1. IF they find out, they leave the question unanswered OR 2. They hoard the knowledge under the false impression that it gives you some sort of power.
This is bad. In order for our community to thrive, and accept more people, we have to be more diligent about not only looking for answers, but ensuring they’re documented so that newcomers aren’t scared away from FiveM by half-answered questions, secret discords, and hidden posts. We NEED to be able to come together and share more.
Now I understand. People like Dons selling interiors and getting paid for it. We all have a hustle; And I can kinda understand people like Math hiding information to make themself seem more important, but at the end of the day, if the community dies out and 20 people are left in the community, those ‘valuable’ skills that you’re hoarding suddenly become worthless to everyone.
So What do I ask from you? The beginner / Aspiring modder? I ask that you do your own due diligence. What does that mean? That means researching things for yourself. Synonyms Serves Searching. Try to think about at least two or three different ways to describe a problem you’re having. This will help you not only become more likely to FIND the problem easier, but it will help you explain the problem better to people if you DO end up having to ask for help. And if you ask for help somewhere public on something, that means that someone in the future who will have the SAME question will be able to find the answer as well! History is a truly powerful thing! Be as descriptive as possible when describing an issue, and try searching up similar issues to see WHAT’S required to help. (For example, what log files or what screenshots are needed). This makes everyone’s life a bit easier! If you don’t understand something, ASK. There should be nothing wrong with ASKING so long as you’ve made efforts to TRY to help yourself first! I promise!
What about you? The moderate modder with a bit of experience modding: I ask that you keep trying things. Keep learning how they work, and more importantly, DOCUMENT! Helping the beginners is what will encourage THEM to move up. Once THEY move up to the intermediate / moderate level, they’ll continue the process of testing, trial, error, and documenting. The beginners are the ones who will hopefully fill the space that you create as you become more advanced modders! Please help keep the cycle alive!
What about you - The Advanced modder: I ask that you do NOT hoard information on HOW to do a task. As someone with a large amount of experience in a subject (such as handlings or interiors), it’s important that the information on HOW something works is shared openly as (most likely), someone shared information with YOU to MAKE you advanced. IF something requires other knowledge like 3ds max knowledge for example, you don’t have to teach them HOW to use 3ds max. Just provide enough context so that they can understand WHAT you are doing (they can look up WHY later on their own time). If you’re selling interiors because they take a lot of time and energy to make, that’s absolutely fine, however, don’t keep the knowledge of HOW hidden from everyone. As an advanced modder, you should be just as interested in seeing the community thrive, and (once again, in my honest opinion), you OWE it to the community to do your part in keeping it healthy!
Just imagine this: In 1 year, the total amount of players using fivem exceed something crazy like 400k. Can you imagine how much more advanced fiveM would be if we had a playerbase like that? That would mean more donations, and more research and development, making for better mods, better performance and a better experience!
I know what you’re thinking: “Wow Wetter! That sounds awesome! How can we get started?” Well, I’m glad you’ve asked. Well, the answer is simple. I think something as simple as asking questions on how to do something on the forums (https://forum.fivem.net/) rather than discord would be a huuuge first step as everyone has access to the forums. If it’s something that you’re sure only your discord has access to, I’d recommend posting the question to the forums anyway (as you’re asking in discord), and once you get the answer, post the answer in the forums as well!
If you’re REALLY excited, you can start moving some of that hidden discord knowledge into the forums which will have even a greater impact on knowledgesharing and will make the forums a more acceptable place to document information!
Anyways, sorry about the rant! What did you think? Is there anything missing that can help revive the modding community? What do you think? What level would you place yourself as a modder? Do you agree / disagree?
Please let me know below! I’d be more than happy to discuss this with ya!