Why is the answer always 'Bukkit'? (or: Mods in answers)

Question

When someone says they're running an unmodded game, such as vanilla minecraft server, should we encourage answers that say "Well, if you mod your game, you can do X to solve your problem"? It seems like every minecraft-smp question has at least one answer that begins "First, install Bukkit" and every skyrim question has at least one answer that begins "Open the console" (not technically a mod, I know, but it's PC-only and outside the realm of normal gameplay, so it has the same feel to it).

In my experience, you get a lot of people who are willing to do anything to peruse the perfect gaming experience, including console-hacks and mods, but you also get a lot of people who want to play the game as it was developed, no alterations. For them, answers that boil down to "install extra shit and/or hack your game" are useless. Should we care?

Some examples: This question has one answer that works with the user's setup, one that suggests another mod which may or may not be compatible with their stated setup (no mention in the answer), and one that says to switch to a totally different server setup which also is probably incompatible.

This question specifically mentioned using vanilla and therefore not using Bukkit plugins, and an answer was given today saying "Use Bukkit" despite two other vanilla suggestions existing.

This question also specifies vanilla, and one answer says "Use Bukkit" followed by an edit that basically says "I know you said you use vanilla, but use Bukkit anyway."

Before this question was closed, it said in all caps, "NO BUKKIT", and it managed to attract an answer that says "use Bukkit." It was closed as a duplicate of this question, to which most of the answers are "use Bukkit".

Answer 1

I totally agree with you.

You should downvote answers that do not apply (answers that suggests mods if the question states they are not desired, answers that do not specify if a mod is compatible, etc... basically, the ones you listed there)

To summarize: Downvote, it's cool.

Answer 2

I think there's an important distinction between a question saying that they're running vanilla and a question explicitly asking for a non-modded solution. Just because a user is running vanilla, doesn't mean that they're hellbent on non using mods. In this case, I think answers suggesting mods is just fine. In the other case, though, I think "not an answer" applies, since it explicitly answered the question as it was asked.

There are times when mods legitimately don't work (possibly because of conflicts with other mods) or because the user doesn't want to install software from another party. Either way, I think explicitly specifying that you are looking for vanilla answers is important.

Going back to your title question, though, as to why mods are frequently the answer: because it's usually easier than reinventing the framework mods like bukkit provide.

Answer 3

I sympathize, as I don't like to mod much, and finding that the only ways to do something I want require mods is quite depressing.

However, often times the only way to do what the OP asks for it to mod it. In some cases, the real answer is "Mod it or it's impossible".

Take the weather question. Until recently, that was impossible without mods. Should we have left all the people who do mod without an answer just because the rest of us don't want to?

(However, I really dislike when people suggest something the question explicitly disallowed. Like Juan said, downvote those.)

Answer 4

I can at least address why the "Open the console" responses are so prevalent.

The list of bugs in Skyrim is huge. Although almost none of them are show stopping (i.e. you can't play the game anymore), a lot of them have no workarounds at all (without using the console).

Rather than leaving those questions dangling, at least posting a solution for PC players is better than nothing. And its better than just hoping Bethesda will patch it.

Answer 5

I disagree with Juan's post. Asking for a Minecraft multiplayer solution without bukkit may not be the same as, e.g. asking a windows programming question without using the WINAPI, but adding additional restrictions to questions is, in the exaggerated case, actually a reason to close a question as too localized.

One can of course add "solutions that don't involve modding are appreciated", but SE is not about the individual asking the question, it is about everyone happening to have a very similar question. The OP is free to only accept answers respecting their constraint, but the community should not base their own votes on this. If they disagree with modding but don't know if the answer won't actually be simpler than any vanilla-solution (if existing), they should keep their vote neutral and instead only upvote the other answer. If the mod is harmful or the answer actually useless, then of course, downvote.

Someone else having the same question but willing to accept modding (or different compatibility issues) will still be grateful to see a potentially quicker solution that some other users confirmed working by upvotes that were not countered by "may work but doesn't fulfil the constraint"-downvotes.