regarding templates and permissions

[bananadew]

Hello everyone I looked around a bit on the forum and didnt find a post to help me answer this question if i missed something i apologize. So i know that in the modding community theres this thing where you ask for permission and give credit to mod authors if you wanna use their content for your mods that you are making. From looking around at nexus my understanding is that it varies on a modder by modder basis if someone lets you make use of stuff from their mod and to what extent crediting and permissions are needed. If i use another modders content json file as a template for my mod is that something i need to have permission/credit for or is it something that the community accepts that you can just do? please note that english is not my native language so there may be some errors.

 

[Lenora Rose]

If you mean something like taking the below super-basic template, then filling it in with your own data? That's usually fine, because it's easy and just saves you time. If you mean something more complex and obviously specific (eg, I borrowed some code almost directly from Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion because I could not have figured out how to phrase the complex thing I was trying to do - I also asked them if I was right that it was doing what I thought it did first, and what one bit meant), some credit is definitely in order. Or at least, I put in a thank-you for it.

Spoiler: An example of dialogue formatting

{
{
"Changes":
[

{
"LogName": "",
"Action": "EditData",
"Target": "Characters/Dialogue/~NPCNAME~",
"Entries": {

"Introduction": "",

// SPRING DIALOGUE
"spring_1": "",
"spring_Mon": "",
"spring_Mon2": "",
"spring_Mon4": "",
"spring_Mon6": "",
"spring_Mon8": "",
"spring_Mon10": "",
"spring_Tue": "",
"spring_Tue2": "",
"spring_Tue4": "",
"spring_Tue6": "",
"spring_Tue8": "",
"spring_Tue10": "",
"spring_Wed": "",
"spring_Wed2": "",
"spring_Wed4": "",
"spring_Wed6": "",
"spring_Wed8": "",
"spring_Wed10": "",
"spring_Thu": "",
"spring_Thu2": "",
"spring_Thu4": "",
"spring_Thu6": "",
"spring_Thu8": "",
"spring_Thu10": "",
"spring_Fri": "",
"spring_Fri2": "",
"spring_Fri4": "",
"spring_Fri6": "",
"spring_Fri8": "",
"spring_Fri10": "",
"spring_Sat": "",
"spring_Sat2": "",
"spring_Sat4": "",
"spring_Sat6": "",
"spring_Sat8": "",
"spring_Sat10": "",
"spring_Sun": "",
"spring_Sun2": "",
"spring_Sun4": "",
"spring_Sun6": "",
"spring_Sun8": "",
"spring_Sun10": "",

// SUMMER DIALOGUE
"summer_1": "",
"summer_Mon": "",
"summer_Mon2": "",

//cut here for brevity...
}
}
]
}

 

[Lothengriol]

Another thing to consider is that many mods have links to a GitHub repository in their listings (like on NexusMods, for example). These often have a software license that applies to them. With the example of Stardew Valley Expanded (https://github.com/FlashShifter/StardewValleyExpanded):

Looking to the right sidebar, we see the license, which we can click on. With this example, you can just scroll down to it, but often there will be a README file displayed down there instead making the clicking part more necessary.

And this part here is all you need to know:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

What this means is that you have the legal right to mess with it all you want, you just need to put it under the same license. As for attributions, credit, thank-yous, and acknowledgements, Lenora Rose answered that pretty well above me. It's nice to say something if you use something of someone else's, and it's always worthwhile to be nice.