It's posts like WebberF1's I really like reading. Yes, it's pretty long but it's in posts like this that we find out about what others think, what they want to say and hopefully learn from what they want to share.
I'd like to share my views regarding this as well. First, I'd like to say that I agree with WebberF1 totally that we should all be here to make the game better for the community. Like he said, it still is 2K's property. The only reason we get away with patching is coz we don't charge money for what we do. We don't benefit from this. What we do is all for fun, a hobby. Knowing people use and appreciate our work is the best reward we can get.
But here's the sad part. When people try to pass off someone else's hard work as their own, that's when the fun part ends for the original patcher. We don't want every Narek, Migo, or Urh (just to name a few of the best) to just stop patching coz of cases like this. What happens when they decide to stop patching, then the whole community suffers too coz they lost some great patchers. A simple credit would have done the job. It's from these kind of people that I think our admin is trying to protect patchers from. It's not just all about what the community needs and what it wants. Sometimes the community also has to be vigilant with regards to these kind of people to protect those who try to make the game better for them as well.
2K9 ---> Patcher A
---> Patcher B
I think everyone here knows we all are modifying 2K. Right? So, when "Patcher A" modifies the original file, everyone knows it, even if "Patcher A" does not give credit to 2K. It's a given fact. But when "Patcher B" decides to smudge an area on "Patcher A's" work, coz he was too lazy to make his own without giving credit, those who do not know it belonged to "Patcher A" originally, will think it was "Pacher B's" original work. This could then be very annoying and frustrating for "Patcher A" knowing someone else got credit for all his hard work. Suddenly it becomes "Patcher B's" original work. Would you honestly be happy if someone suddenly got recognized because of your hard work without giving you any credit? I know I will feel bad. Not because someone modified and made my mod better, but because the hard work I put making my mod suddenly became someone else's own hard work.
2K9 -----------------> Patcher B
With regards to permission issues, that really depends on the patcher. I used to allow people to modify my work without my permission, to save us both the trouble of having to pm me then reply to them regarding permission requests. A simple credit is all I ask from people who want to modify my work. But since our admin made a rule on getting permission first, then I have to follow it, (even if I have a choice not to). Why? coz it will help make our admin's job easier to ban stubborn and wacko stealers. If it will help keep order in here, then I'm for it.
As for the patches not to be included in someone elses bigger mod, I think it's pretty clear why. It's for us to keep track of our work and others work with ease. One excuse less for stealers to claim they did not know or pretend they did not know where they got it. I think this applies to roster mods most. Let me get things clear first before I get violent reactions from roster patchers. I don't have anything against them or their roster mods. I have very high respect for you guys. It's just that I don't see the point of including courts, jerseys or cfs that are available for download in different patcher's thread as well. That I realized only now. It saves people time downloading a very big mod too. I hope I make sense. Like our admin said, a simple work around would be to give a link to the the post for the files they think the community needs for their mods to work better.
I just wanted share my views. Hope I didn't offend anybody. Peace! Thanks to our admins for keeping things in order here.