World's biggest mod site bans mods replacing Pride flags: 'We don't want to and won't argue this with you'

pcgamer.com:

Spider-Man Remastered(opens in new tab) recently launched on PC, and Insomniac's excellent web-em-up instantly attracted the attention of modders. This unfortunately included an individual who took offense at the game's rendition of New York City including some Pride flags among the absolute plethora of American ones. They created a mod that removed the Pride flags, replacing them with the stars and stripes, then uploaded it to Nexusmods using a sockpuppet account called 'Mike Hawk'.

Nexusmods(opens in new tab) is arguably the most popular centralised mod database online (sorry Moddb(opens in new tab)), with a nice clean look, a good community, and all the functionality a PC gamer could wish for. Nexus swiftly removed the mod, and banned the modder's sockpuppet and main account. The sanction led to some community drama about whether someone innocent had been punished. The people who run Nexusmods subsequently decided enough is enough when it comes to this stuff, and have addressed what went on in a new blog(opens in new tab) that sets out clear guidelines for the future.

«The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed. Had they not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would have simply removed the mod and told them that we did not want to host it, only banning them if they reuploaded it again after being fairly warned. The creation of the sock puppet removed any doubt and made it a very easy decision for us. Both the sock puppet account and the user's main account have been banned.»

In terms of future mods that try to replace Pride flags in any game, Nexusmods' statement says «if we think