Mod Bakery Read-Only Alpha: Feedback & Suggestions [Alpha Update 2 Live]

Hey everyone, we're very excited to announce that the long-awaited Mod Bakery is now available in an early, read-only alpha state.

You can check it our right now at modbakery.com!

What does this mean?

By "Read-Only Alpha", we mean this is an early version of Mod Bakery's user interface that currently lacks the ability for users to add new releases of their own.

We're choosing to launch it in this state to gather early feedback on the feel and usability of the site. We also believe that it is already a better home for our releases as well as the (currently limited) selection of community releases we host.

How long will Mod Bakery be read-only?

Development is going very smoothly right now but we're not ready to give an estimate on when users will be able to create releases themselves.

Feedback & suggestions

If you have feedback or additional questions not covered by this thread, please post them below!

Updates

Any updates made to Mod Bakery during the alpha will be documented below:

Alpha Update 2

Please see Tuesday Topics 42 for details.

Alpha Update 1

Please see Tuesday Topics 39 for details.

Interesting idea, I hope this ModBakery won't be overwhelming/confusing for new SHAR modders and that it won't make forums obselete. Definitely excited to see it evolve!
After a quick glance I got a few questions/suggestions that I think could improve ModBakery:

• Will we be able to filter out unreleased mods?
  
• Will we be able to sort releases by release/update date?
  
• Can "release type" and "category" filters be merged since release types are already in the categories dropdown?
  
• Will we be able to edit pages for our own mods/tools that were migrated by DT
  
• Will we be able to create "releases" marked as "coming soon"? humble brag #0 Can SMHR get its own page too? I swear it's not cancelled
  
• Will we be able to change the background of the ModBakery page? Maybe have shuffle options or static screenshots/flat colors
  
• Will we get "<" , "<<", ">" and ">>" (previous, first, next and last pages) buttons for navigating bakery pages?
  
• humble brag #1 Will that one other Mod Jam #2 submission get added to the ModBakery category?
  
• Will other Mod Jams/Contests get added as categories on the bakery?
  
• Will that new navigation bar transition to donutteam, forum.donutteam and docs.donutteam for consistency?
  
• Will we be able to search ONLY through mod bakery or will it always just redirect to forum search?
  
• Will ModBakery get its own favicon? (Maybe dt docs too?)
  
• Maybe my tweaked version of Lucas' XML blender add-on could be uploaded and put on the same page as Lucas' original add-on?
  
• Are all user made mods/tools/add-ons gonna be put on ModBakery eventually? Apart from popular must-play mods I'm also particularly interested in essential tools and add-ons since those are often hard to find even if you know what you're looking for. Releases such as Tay's texture to p3dxml add-on, humble brag #2 Collision editor and Skeleton converter+Animation converter
  
• Are there any plans on potentially integrating ModBakery and ModLauncher? Maybe add the ability to upload/download mods directly using the launcher? This question is the last one for a reason.

Just speaking for myself, not the team, but here goes:

I hope this ModBakery won't be overwhelming/confusing for new SHAR modders and that it won't make forums obselete.

I don't see it making the forums obsolete, the majority of the system is going to be the same, just linked to ModBakery instead of MEGA or Dropbox.

• Will we be able to filter out unreleased mods?

That makes sense to me, don't see why not.

• Will we be able to sort releases by release/update date?

There is already a Last Updated sort option.

• Can "release type" and "category" filters be merged since release types are already in the categories dropdown?

It makes sense to add an "All X" option under each category and remove the type option.

• Will we be able to edit pages for our own mods/tools that were migrated by DT

At the moment, this is a read-only version, and everything was added manually. You will be able to update your own releases in the future, but for now feel free to DM me (and potentially other staff) on Discord (Proddy#7272) and I'll take a look.

• Will we be able to create "releases" marked as "coming soon"?

I don't know on this one, I personally feel a "coming soon" would be better as just a forum post, but there are already some "coming soon" items on the read-only site, so I imagine they're supported.

• Will we be able to change the background of the ModBakery page? Maybe have shuffle options or static screenshots/flat colors

I imagine themes, which would cover this, would be something further down the pipeline. Is the purpose behind this that the random images are annoying/distracting?

• Will we get "<" , "<<", ">" and ">>" (previous, first, next and last pages) buttons for navigating bakery pages?

I actually brought this up just after release, and it's something already in the pipeline.

• Will that one other Mod Jam #2 submission get added to the ModBakery category?

I'm probably just out of the loop, but I don't know which mod this is. DM me if you want and I'll take a look.

• Will other Mod Jams/Contests get added as categories on the bakery?

The aim, to my understanding, is for all mods to be on the bakery, so I guess yes.

• Will that new navigation bar transition to donutteam, forum.donutteam and docs.donutteam for consistency?

The global nav bar is intended to be just that, global. Meaning that all sites will have easy access to all other sites under the Donut Team banner. This is just the first site to have it implemented live.

• Will we be able to search ONLY through mod bakery or will it always just redirect to forum search?

I assume this is related to the global nav search, it is my understanding that will search any or all of Forum, Docs and the Bakery.

• Will ModBakery get its own favicon? (Maybe dt docs too?)

No idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Maybe my tweaked version of Lucas' XML blender add-on could be uploaded and put on the same page as Lucas' original add-on?

I'm not sure if it would go on the same page, or if the official one will be updated, I'll raise it.

• Are all user made mods/tools/add-ons gonna be put on ModBakery eventually? Apart from popular must-play mods I'm also particularly interested in essential tools and add-ons since those are often hard to find even if you know what you're looking for. Releases such as Tay's texture to p3dxml add-on, humble brag #2 Collision editor and Skeleton converter+Animation converter

I don't know if they'll be added whilst it's still read-only, but in the future I expect they will be. Mod Bakery's aim is to be the central location for all mods, tools and resources for Donut Team's services.

• Are there any plans on potentially integrating ModBakery and ModLauncher? Maybe add the ability to upload/download mods directly using the launcher? This question is the last one for a reason.

For now, I don't think so. I've personally been thinking of being able to download mods directly through the launcher, but hadn't considered uploading. This is definitely something that needs further internal discussion before the bakery leaves read-only.

I would like to re-iterate that these are all my own viewpoints, I didn't confer with the team before replying, so don't take it as gospel.

Thanks,
Josh

@Josh / Proddy already covered a bunch of these well enough so I'll just add additional input where I have it:

I hope this ModBakery won't be overwhelming/confusing for new SHAR modders and that it won't make forums obselete.

I don't think it will make the forums obsolete as it's not really a discussion platform (though, something I'd like to implement in the future is reviews).

Something I am considering is a "Discussions" tab or something that houses forum threads related to a particular release, perhaps having a way here on the forum to associate topics with a specific release and prominently showing it somewhere when such an association exists.

Will we be able to sort releases by release/update date?

Sorting by update date already exists but I'll look into adding the ability to sort by original release dates as well.

Can "release type" and "category" filters be merged since release types are already in the categories dropdown?

I'll consider it though they're currently separate because technically a category can contain multiple types of releases (IE, the "Special Categories"), just none do at the moment.

At the very least, it should probably filter the categories dropdown when you choose a type so you can't do weird filters that will never bring anything up (IE: "Mods" in the "GUI Tools" category). This is just tricky to do so I haven't bothered yet.

Will we be able to edit pages for our own mods/tools that were migrated by DT

Yes, authors will be able to edit their own releases, even the ones that exist right now, when the interfaces are available for that since they belong to their respective authors in the database.

Will we be able to create "releases" marked as "coming soon"?

When the interfaces are available, yes, you will be able to have pages for mods and what not that are not available yet as long as you actually have something to show for it (probably some kind of basic approval process to releases in general).

Can SMHR get its own page too? I swear it's not cancelled

I'll message you on Discord about this!

Will we be able to change the background of the ModBakery page? Maybe have shuffle options or static screenshots/flat colors

Do you mean as just a general setting or on release pages that belong to you?

Will that one other Mod Jam #2 submission get added to the ModBakery category?

I'll also message you on Discord about this.

Will we be able to search ONLY through mod bakery or will it always just redirect to forum search?

I'll probably add a Bakery-specific search box to the sidebar above the filters.

Will ModBakery get its own favicon? (Maybe dt docs too?)

I do plan for Mod Bakery to, yup, I just haven't done it yet. I'm not sure what we'd do differently for docs though.

Are all user made mods/tools/add-ons gonna be put on ModBakery eventually? Apart from popular must-play mods I'm also particularly interested in essential tools and add-ons since those are often hard to find even if you know what you're looking for. Releases such as Tay's texture to p3dxml add-on, humble brag #2 Collision editor and Skeleton converter+Animation converter

That's the goal, we'd like for it to be a centralised place to find everything related to SHAR Modding.

A couple of those things, namely your other blender addons, I'll also message you on Discord about to get them manually added sooner rather than later.

Are there any plans on potentially integrating ModBakery and ModLauncher? Maybe add the ability to upload/download mods directly using the launcher?

Nothing specific at the moment but, as @Josh / Proddy mentioned, it has been brought up and we will discuss it eventually.

I opened several issues on the internal issue tracker while replying to this so several of these things should be addressed in the near future. :)

Thanks for your feedback!

I'll probably add a Bakery-specific search box to the sidebar above the filters.

Make each section of DT tell the search what you're searching.

<form method="GET" action="https://forum.donutteam.com/search">
	<span class="icon-search fal fa-search"></span>
	<input type="text" name="query" autocomplete="off" id="search-bar" placeholder="Search" value="">
	<input type="hidden" name="Method" value=""> <!-- Method currently supports: "downloads", "members", "topics", "replies" and "Documentation"
</form>

And once you re-do search, just implement the method. Then if the user wants to search something else, they can change the method on the search page.

I'm not sure if it would go on the same page, or if the official one will be updated, I'll raise it.

Loren could make it so releases can mark themselves as children to other releases. He could mark it so the base release supports "forked" releases and then the child release can mark itself as a "fork" of the base release. Not sure if this is the route they'd go.

I pushed a couple updates to address a couple of @Weasel on a Stick 's suggestions already:

• You can now sort by "Original Release Date".
• The "release type" and "release category" dropdowns are now combined. After some additional consideration, I thought of an easy and not-super-hacky way to combine

There will probably be a formal changelog next Tuesday that documents all of the changes made from now until then.

---

Make each section of DT tell the search what you're searching.

That's a good idea I didn't think of, thanks for the input, Jake.

Loren could make it so releases can mark themselves as children to other releases. He could mark it so the base release supports "forked" releases and then the child release can mark itself as a "fork" of the base release. Not sure if this is the route they'd go.

I'll also spend some time thinking about this since I think this would be a good system to have.

Thank you Loren and Proddy for the answers and some cooperation in DMs!
In regards to your question:

Will we be able to change the background of the ModBakery page? Maybe have shuffle options or static screenshots/flat colors

Do you mean as just a general setting or on release pages that belong to you?

I meant a setting for end users akin to light/dark themes.

Oh, and I got a few more questions I forgot to ask the first time (hope I'm not giving you guys a headache):

• Will we be able to filter releases by an author? (preferably by clicking on an author's name in MB, maybe have the forum redirect show up as a separate button near the username)
  
• Will we get ModBakery button in the quick drawer?
  
• Will we have likes/dislikes or maybe even 5 star reviews for releases (Preferably with an option for it to be anonymous)? Maybe require users to download the mod before reviewing it? (I admit I was never a fan of dislikes removal from forums, similarly to YT's dislike situation)
  
• If above is true will we get an easy way to see a list of our own reviews and downloads? (Preferably with an option to set it private or public)
  
• Will we have a way to report submissions? (preferrably with anonymous option, but still require a DT account)
  
• Will we have release page views analytics? Similarly to downloads, just for page views (and a sort option)
  
• Since files will be hosted on modbakery page itself, will there be any limit to releases file size?
  
• Have you considered analyzing submitted lmlm files to gather necessary release metadata? (icons, descriptions, authors, version, multiplayer support, etc.) I imagine it would be just a prompt before uploading the mod and just fills out the upload form. Would that work for non-decompilable mods?

Will we get ModBakery button in the quick drawer?

Done.

Will we be able to filter releases by an author? (preferably by clicking on an author's name in MB, maybe have the forum redirect show up as a separate button near the username)

I intend to have this as a feature somehow. I'm not sure if it'll be part of Mod Bakery or just the new user/team profiles I intend to launch sometime in the near future. Maybe a quick implementation of the former until the latter is actually live.

Will we get ModBakery button in the quick drawer?

@jake2 just helped me shim this in real quick.

Will we have likes/dislikes or maybe even 5 star reviews for releases (Preferably with an option for it to be anonymous)?

I intend there to be user reviews eventually, similar to those on Steam.

If above is true will we get an easy way to see a list of our own reviews and downloads? (Preferably with an option to set it private or public)

Probably somehow, yes

Will we have a way to report submissions? (preferrably with anonymous option, but still require a DT account)

Probably eventually, yes.

Will we have release page views analytics? Similarly to downloads, just for page views (and a sort option)

I will hopefully implement page views sooner rather than later.

Since files will be hosted on modbakery page itself, will there be any limit to releases file size?

I don't currently have a concrete answer for this but I hope we'll be able to accommodate anything any creator would want to do within reason.

Have you considered analyzing submitted lmlm files to gather necessary release metadata? (icons, descriptions, authors, version, multiplayer support, etc.) I imagine it would be just a prompt before uploading the mod and just fills out the upload form. Would that work for non-decompilable mods?

I'd like to do this for adding new releases for sure. And yeah, we could totally make it support any LMLM file since it'd just be code on the backend anyway.

I will hopefully implement page views sooner rather than later.

Page view tracking is now live. Of course, there will be some weird seeming discrepancies with views being less than many download counts but that'll work itself out over time.

Edit: Btw, you can also sort by view count.