Help SOM stay cheap to run! Here is your chance

[dmpdesign]

Nah, Im not asking for money, hopefully something much simpler!

I have decided to change the host for all the big files to dropbox rather than loading the files directly on the backend of the site...there are several reasons:

1 - ipower (my domain service) frowns on big downloads, especially when folks decide to attach a botter to the link...so with dropbox, we get less site downtime so they dont have to shut me down and complain!

2 - dropbox downloads much more quickly than the domain servers, probably on the order of 50-100 times faster.  Ipower's backend seems to disconnect alot and gives people bad files when finished downloading.

3 - dropbox is a super easy to use program for folks who want to just download it, it doesnt have a ton of ad popups to deceive you when you click a link and doesn't require any signup or payment to get good download rates.  It is a must that whatever we choose, it stays free from viruses and such.

4 - heaven forbid ipower blows up and i lose everything on the backend of the site, its nice to have it backed up. 

5 - in special situations (such as hosting demos/updates of your games) forum members will be given access to folders for the official som dropbox so that they can manage their own files, updating their games and addons as they change and become available.  THis is important, as games like Rathmor will likely undergo tons of demo patches and so on as its such a large game.

So to that end, I am converting my private account to the SOM's official account as I dont use it much anymore and rely on my server to store my files.  I currently have unlocked around 5 gig of free space, its filling up quickly.  Dropbox will give me an additional 500 meg for each person I refer who takes my invite email, signs up and downloads the service.  Whether you keep it active or not is up to you, but I would appreciate if anyone is willing to accept the invite, pm me your email and I will sned the instructions, and thus increase the amount of free space we get from dropbox.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can contribute!

[Smittiox]

Yeah, no prob man. free space is good space eh ? 

[dmpdesign]

Well the botters have done it to me again!  Apparently this site is just full of unwanted traffic lol, they have somehow managed to hit my daily limit of 20gig downloads via dropbox...so I am going to have to introduce some sort of captcha process to get the download links.

Sorry if files on the main site are temporarily unavailable while I figure out a fix.

[Verdite]

The front page looks amazing! Thank you for adding my project to it, too 

[TheStolenBattenberg]

off topic,
I agree with Verdite, the front page DOES look amazing... But there's one thing I've always found interesting, the installation page... Why does it say 'Translation' at the top, instead of Installation?

on topic,
I personally recommend something like Mediafire to do file hosting, I've had an account there for about a year now, and after that time it appears you unlock 50GB of space... as far as I know, there's also no download limit (within reason)... For the first year you start with 10GB or so.

[dmpdesign]

The installation page is ancient, the first page i ever made for the site.   It will get a facelift when I have more time :)

Originally, I didn't host the SOM files, just the JDO patch - I think thats why it was originally called translation?  Who knows lol.

Anyhow, I am going to stick with dropbox, I am a fan of no ads when you go to download, I have just decided links won't be public, people will have to sign up to the forum to get at the files (see the new download board for the file links).  I honestly can't think of a better way to keep it free from unwanted download traffic, and besides, if folks want to download the game its courteous to sign up here and give feedback anyhow!

[HwitVlf]

It's astonishing that someone would care to make a bot that downloaded random files repeatedly. I can't picture any motivation for doing that since the bandwidth would actually cost the bot money and the files wouldn't be useful to anyone without context.

Is there any record of the IP addresses for the computers doing the downloading? I wonder if it's private-made  purely malicious agents or a glitch/side-effect of some commercial agent like Google Analytics. If the site's  robot.txt isn't already set to "disallow", it wouldn't hurt to do so.  I also think putting the download links behind a login is a good idea. 

[dmpdesign]

If we were still physically hosting the files I could set up some logging to track IPs, but now that I am using dropbox I don't have that kind of access.  I may be able to get it if I upgraded it from a free account to a pro account, but I see no reason to do so.

All the links on the site that need to utilize the dropbox system (there are only a handful) will now point to the downloads forum section and will alert any potential downloader that they need to be a member and logged in to retrieve the links.  As our site account creation system with captcha has all but rid us of the 100+ spam a day account makers, I foresee very little if not 0 unwanted traffic downloading those particular files.  The smaller files, as well as any demo projects not directly linked to the main page,  will remain hosted on the primary domain as they don't build enough bandwidth use to be of any concern.  I am certain that any files only listed within these forums are safe from botting.

It really shouldn't inconvenience anyone, but it sure will save me a headache to get these companies off my back about the downloading bandwidth ;)

[dmpdesign]

Gonna lock this topic, I have opted for a business level dropbox account, so our storage space is plenty and then some now ;)