After some discussion on IRC, most of us came to the conclusion that the mod posting guidelines need to be overhauled. A level of quality assurance must be incorporated into the forum and the developing community.

Here is my proposition:

A Mods in Beta subform, similar to the Mod posting forum we have right now: everyone can post, everyone can upload files, everyone can comment. That's fine and dandy.

But in comes a level of quality assurance. A second, locked subforum is created: Official Mods, Completed Mods, Community Favorite Mods, whatever the name is, this is how it works: Mods that have exemplified themselves from amongst the throng of mods being created.

Mods in this forum would have to meet four guidelines:
1) They are stable. There are no known bugs, and there are no planned updates
2) They are creative. No duplicate mods are allowed. If there is a mod of a US Army SRAW, then there can't be another one. If one is better than the other, pick it. If a better one comes along later, replace it. Weapon packs are an exception: If two mods posted have an M-4, thats okay.
3) They are popular. Some arbitrary download count is preferable, but not necessarily required. People have to like the mod, and they have to use it and download it.
4) They are the product of veteran modders. Its very atypical for a first-time modder to get something awesome done the first time (especially considering how the possibilities are limited by previous creations and technological limitations).

If a mod meets these four criteria, then it gets moved by a moderator to the Official Mod forum. In this forum, people can post to an already created topic, but they cannot create new topics. I'm half-tempted to suggest that a mod moved to the Official Mod section not be postable at all and that people cannot comment. My reason for this is because a mod that has distinguished itself to be posted in said forum needs no constructive criticism, needs no further users to compliment it in order to encourage downloads, and needs no compliments on its creativity and usefulness.

So, in a nutshell: Two forums. One for posting your own mods, and one for posting popular mods. The "Own mods" forum allows all users to post to, create, and upload to any thread. The "Popular mods" forum only allows non-mod users to post to created topics, and mods in this section would be nominated by consensus.

We sticky the best mods.

Unfinished/broken/etc mods technically go in Modding Discussion I think.

I'm talking more than just stickying. This is totally different. You move the better mods COMPLETELY out of the lesser mods section.

The idea is to emphasize these mods. Announce that "These are the best mods! These are the best are community can offer! When you post a mod, try to do something better!"

Besides, there is no concrete and explicit guideline to stickying better mods. Also, utilizing a whole new forum allows you to nominate more mods than would be possible with stickying. Combining stickied threads with the Mod forum, eventually you'd fill the whole first page with stickied mods, and no one would see new mods.

Also, no one enforces any rule or guideline that says "in progress mods go in Modding Discussion." Either way, that's no modding discussion, thats posting betas. Modding Discussion and Beta Mods can be combined into "Beta Mods" and a new forum should be created called "Exemplary Mods" or something to that effect.

The point of the Best Mods forum is to remove the better mods from the forum and set them apart from the others.

Stickying diminishes views, and clutters the forum.

N00bs don't read stickies, it's a fact of life.

Move it to a new section, you get more credibility as a modder.

I vote in favor of this idea.

I'm in favor of replacing wj with ProjektTHOR

I've offered to start a parallel CC fan forum on another domain, but I was under the impression such an idea had been tried and had failed

If you did that Data would get angry and sue your ass off...or more likely wj would say he's gonna do that XD

I can't imagine there would be any legal grounds to sue me on. I would LOL my face off if I created said forum and got a C+D letter from EITHER of them.

So would I...we should start our own forum, I'm quite adept to HTML and can write stuff...and you are a pure forum genius! All we need is a host! and someone to pay for a dot com domain name

I agree with it wholeheartedly. It's time we started organizing this place a little bit better. You've got my vote.

For all points.

- The-Masses

Yes, but if nothing happens the regulars here should make another forum! It will be stronger, faster, and all around better.

I've got webspace, I just need a parked domain, and those are cheap. I'd much rather reunite and reform this forum then splinter the community between two loyalties.

Wanna do it? I'll sign up for invisionfree and you do the rest! Lol...hows that sound? Or however you want to do it...

Wouldn't need to sign up at Invision. I already have webspace and the capability and ability to create a forum. All I need is the popular support to know it isn't a waste of my time. get on IRC.

I never dl'ed mIRC or anything...What should I download?