Today, our upcoming Collections feature is moving into the Open Alpha testing phase. This means we're extending an open invitation to anyone in the community who would like to try out an early build of the system so that we can continue to fine-tune it for the full, public release.

This new wave of volunteers will join our existing testers who have already provided lots of incredibly valuable feedback over the past few months to help us in shaping the core experience of the Collections feature - thank you to those involved! We're now eager to hear more of your voices and ensure the system is thoroughly tested in terms of both usability and scalability. 

For those unfamiliar with the Collections feature, it's a project we've been working on for several years which will allow users to curate and share lists of their favourite mods - along with important metadata - with others. These tailored experiences will serve as a great introduction to modding a new game and allow a convenient way of helping users replicate a working setup.

You can learn more about Collections in our original announcement or the documentation.
 

It is important to understand that this is not the full release of this feature and as such it's not yet suitable for general usage. We have moved from the invite-only Closed Alpha phase to the Open Alpha phase which allows anyone to join in on the fun and help with testing. Please be cautious when testing and don't install collections into your existing playthrough without making backups.


What this means is that every Nexus Mods user can now browse and use Nexus Mods Next, join in on testing the system, download, endorse, rate, and even create their own collections. If you're now wondering what Nexus Mods Next is, well, you can think of it as our "workshop" microsite that we use to test new features.

We have selected a number of the most popular Collections for each game that have been curated by testers during the Closed Alpha phase. This means you can get started using collections for some of our most popular games straight away.

During this next testing period, all newly created and published collections will at first be "unlisted", meaning they can only be accessed via a direct link provided by the Curator of the collection, rather than being listed along with the already existing collections (similar to how "unlisted" videos work on YouTube). Users can, however, "nominate" their collection for listing - meaning they can essentially submit an application for being listed that we'll then review. We've written up our approval guidelines to give you an idea of the criteria we'll be taking into consideration when deciding on whether to list a nominated collection.


How to get started with testing Collections

1. Make sure to download and install the Vortex Next Preview Build - this is the version that includes the new collections feature. You can now test Collections using the public stable build of Vortex.
2. Go to Nexus Mods Next and start browsing collections
3. Make sure to read the Collections documentation on our wiki which covers all the bases from installing your first collections to curating your own.
4. Please make use of the "feedback prompts" in Vortex and on Nexus Mods Next to submit bug reports and feature suggestions, or discuss Collections in the appropriate channels on our official Discord server.

Does this mean collections are now live?

Yes and no! "Yes" - everyone can now play around with the feature, but "no" - this is not the grand opening ceremony for the collections feature (yet). We're confident enough in the primary functions of the system, but we know it's still rough around the edges - as you would expect from alpha software. The only place we are currently publicizing the Collections feature is in this news post so we are calling this a "soft launch". We want people to use it, but we don't think it's ready for an all singing, all dancing full site release just yet. So, please, curb your enthusiasm and don't start installing/uninstalling massive collections into your current, intricate mod setup only to run into unforeseen issues. You're welcome to help us test and provide feedback, but please be cautious and back up your mods and/or savegames - just in case.

We're hopeful and excited to see what other collections our community will come up with now that the feature is open to everyone and we're looking forward to approving quality collections as they're being nominated for listing by their respective curators.