Hello Community!
- [JUMPTO="removingexternaldownloads"]Removing External Downloads for Resources[/JUMPTO]
- [JUMPTO="whathappensnow"]What happens now?[/JUMPTO]
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[JUMPTOGOAL="removingexternaldownloads"]Removing External Downloads for Resources[/JUMPTOGOAL]
As you probably already know, when submitting a mod to our website it won't get published immediately due security reasons.
Each mod submission as well as their updates have to be reviewed and approved by us manually to ensure that the files, submitted to the Resources Page are safe to download.
Today we have to announce that we won't support external download links for mods on our website anymore. Usually, Mod Developers had the choice between hosting their mod files on our server or to host them on their own server, dropbox or something else. This option, to "self-host" the mod-files will get removed due to security reasons.
The reason why we decided to remove this feature is simple, when someone hosts their mod-files on our servers and the files get approved, they won't be able to change the mod-files after getting it approved. However, someone who's using his own website or dropbox to host the mod-files can easily change the downloadable file after our approval without notice and in the worst case, lead to a mod that spreads malware, viruses, keyloggers or other malicious stuff.
This means that mod-files from now own, have to be uploaded to our server to keep them unchanged and untouched after they get approved and published to our community.
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[JUMPTOGOAL="whathappensnow"]What happens now?[/JUMPTOGOAL]
The external download option has been disabled and the download links to externally hosted mod-files will get deleted soon. And the mods that use this option will still remain visible but become fileless.
Please keep in mind that deciding against hosting the files on our server, but linking in the resource description to a direct download link to your mod-files will be seen as breaking the rule of not allowing external download links anymore.
External Download Links will get removed next week on Friday, after publishing this post!
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I hope you understand the reason for our decision.