Downloads Forum

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:13 am

Hey Dr. S and everyone else, we've seen links to mp3's in the past, and now we're seeing some links to Elvis bit torrents. Do you think it's time to have a dedicated Download section ?

Remember, we should not make available any videos or recordings that are available commercailly - that would just be inviting trouble (as well as denying EC his royalties)

Post by **DrSpooky** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:55 am

Ignoring legalities for a moment, this site does not have the disk space or bandwidth available to support this. I want to even watch the impact of adding chat to the site since that will count against our bandwith as well. Some months we already use 80% of our bandwidth. 10-20 downloads of songs and we are sunk. [As a side note, I need to setup more options for assisting in paying for the site. Taz covered all site expenses until the end of last year and Mrs Spooky and I have been since then.]

I think we would be better off to host a vine/weave thread with the same rules and guidelines as the Highfidelityelvis group. That is basically a group that facilitates swapping. Someone offers a recording that is not (and never was) available commercially. Each person promises to do the same. The only files they host are instructions and jpeg covers. From their rules:

=============================
Rules:

This is a TRADE ONLY group. This group does not condone "for profit" bootlegging.

Copying and trading of copies of officially released material is not allowed.
Copying and trading of unofficial material is encouraged. By making rare material available free of charge to all those who seek it, there will be no market for bootleg CDs. Beat the bootleggers!

Selling CDRs and 2 for 1 B&P's are NOT allowed. There are plenty of generous fans out there who are willing to share the music with you for blanks and postage.
=============================

This would be a better option IMO than creating a disk and bandwidth consuming monster.

It would also be OK to post BitTorrent links in there.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 9:08 am

I meant using links to external sites (X-Drive, BTI etc) that do not use up bandwidth or diskspace of this web-site. All I'm suggesting is one section to post details of downloads.

Post by **DrSpooky** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 11:52 am

Then we are saying the same thing. The idea of a vine/weave where physical media is traded for free is OK also and we probably should have that as well. Do we want this as a thread or topic?

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 12:00 pm

Speaking of bandwith...it's been mentioned before on here that linking photos from other websites is not a great thing to do. Does this have a derogatory effect on this site at all, or just other peoples sites?

Post by **DrSpooky** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 6:51 pm

The bandwidth comes from the site that is linked to. We only get docked for the size of the characters in the link, not the size of the image. so don't worry about linking to things that are external.

If the links move, I know that old posts can be edited to correct them. If someone rehosts their site, we can fix the links by searching for the hostname and hand-editing them one by one. What I don't know how to do is search and replace globally in an easy fashion. The site is a set of scripts that interact with a database, so there should be a way to do it via that database.

But people would have to report the broken links and offer replacements.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:09 am

Dr S, I think a Downloads section should have the same ranking as "The Annex" or "Tin Pan Alley". Are these described as Forums ?

Post by **DrSpooky** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:43 am

Great minds think alike, Storm. I had already planned on that, and just finished adding it to the main page. The Trading Post is now open.

Please read the rules and play by them so that our site doesn't end up with any "cease and desist" orders.

I think overall this will be a nice addition to the site. Please email if you have any other ideas.