Free Uploader Sites

[PyTom]

So, hotfile.com was taken down today, in much the same way that megaupload was a year or so ago. As far as I can tell, this breaks links to a lot of fleet's games, and to the Tales of Y-Gakuen series. It really scares me that games will be lost due to these shutdowns for legal reasons - taking people's hard work and a bit of the culture with them each time.

I am strongly considering changing the forum configuration to blacklist URLs to free-file-upload places. I'd rather have problems in the initial posting, than problems in a year when the services used are taken down. My general feeling is that we should allow links to file hosting sites with a reputation for legitimacy and responsiveness to takedown notices - dropbox, google drive, skydrive, bitbucket, etc. But other sites should generally be blocked.

If people have suggestions for sites to be whitelisted/blacklisted, please let me know.

[Lishy]

Whitelist mediafire? It's certainly very popular. I personally wouldn't use it, but I do see others host their games on it.

[PyTom]

I think mediafire is the sort of site that's asking for problems. It might be popular, but that's just asking for a lot of games to be lost if it gets taken down.

[azureXtwilight]

Dropbox might be a safe place, but when there's too much traffic the files are temporarily disabled

[Lishy]

I think mediafire is the sort of site that's asking for problems. It might be popular, but that's just asking for a lot of games to be lost if it gets taken down.

Except Mediafire does take down files accused of piracy. It's not like "certain other websites" which purposely make a gray area.

Besides, it's not fair to force us into using something obscure, and potentially unreliable, just because some guy can't mantain their upload. There is a line between personal issues and community issues.

[papillon]

Hotfile responded to takedown requests as well. *Most* file-hosting websites do, honestly... and are a lot faster about it than many more reputable sites are. However, their practices can still be shady in other ways. Allowing anonymous uploads and not blacklisting the same user from immediately re-uploading the same file makes the takedown pretty pointless.

Mediafire is a well-known site for piracy. If we're trying to avoid games being surprise-deleted because of a site shutdown, it's exactly the sort of site to avoid.

Besides, it's not fair to force us into using something obscure, and potentially unreliable, just because some guy can't mantain their upload.

That's pretty much the opposite of what he's saying? The suggestion is to use things that are NOT obscure and unreliable. There are reliable filehosts out there for legal files. There are people on this forum who will happily offer free filehosting to VN projects.

[CheeryMoya]

We definitely need to discourage the use of MediaFire since that place keeps getting more ads by the day. If I could blacklist some sites, they'd be places like 4shared. For one, there's a lot of fake download buttons so a player could accidentally click on a virus, and I think they make you wait for downloads.

Good file hosts don't have any (or few) ads and don't make you wait. ge.tt seems safe enough, dropbox is good (but like azure mentioned, if it gets too much traffic then downloads will cease), and while I haven't used box.com for hosting myself, it looks reliable.

Also, here's another plug for the vnovel.com offer, though Panda really should change it so it directs to dl.vnovel.com instead. There's a few hoops to jump through, but it's the same as signing up for any of the other sites anyway.

[Noire]

It get's harder and harder to find a decent file uploading site though.
I had my files on Speedyshare, but they have limit to 50-100 downloads or so and then they bug you to buy premium. Then I uploaded my files on Mega.nz, but it's all in flash and it doesn't work properly on all computers. Finally I found reliable source to put up a file - it's a service for indie games "Game Jolt", which allows you to upload your files and has an interesting quickplay option (you don't have to download the actual game file to play). That's how it looks like -> LINK

[AxemRed]

The problem with the suggested alternatives (dropbox, google drive, skydrive) is that they have bandwidth limits that make them impractical/unusable for offering downloads.

>Mega.nz, but it's all in flash
AFAIK their site is all HTML 5.

>vnovel.com offer
I've had trouble downloading from there for at least 3-4 different titles at different times.

[Noire]

>Mega.nz, but it's all in flash
AFAIK their site is all HTML 5.

Well, maybe it is, but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people complain that they can't access the download page and it doesn't work for them.

[Trixar_za]

I use box.com and I've had no problems with it. You have to register to upload and they respond quickly to reported files. The only feature that might annoy people is that they email you when your file gets downloaded. There's probably a way to turn it off, but I haven't bothered finding it.

I've been having issues downloading from mediafire and 4shared to my phone - I have to download it to a cloud host before I can download it. Also don't places like ge.tt use adfly driven timers which are also not very mobile phone friendly?

[Lishy]

That's pretty much the opposite of what he's saying? The suggestion is to use things that are NOT obscure and unreliable. There are reliable filehosts out there for legal files. There are people on this forum who will happily offer free filehosting to VN projects.

I guess I used the wrong choice of words.

I meant, isn't it the uploader's responsibility whether or not they want to mantain their games online, rather than the forum's?

[Armee]

Hmm...I think there are sites offer their service to uploading to many hosts. My suggestion is EmbedUpload. I'm always host my file's mirror there. It could help, if this one is dead, other may still alive. I think everyone should have at least a mirror for their game.

[TrickWithAKnife]

I'd have to agree with Armee in regards to using mirrors.

Uploading to potentially unreliable sites with high bandwidth becomes less of an issue if you also have a mirror. As long as the mirror is labelled as being slower, the majority of users would download from the faster site first.

[Tempus]

Use IndieDB if you don't have your own hosting. Not only can you host the game there for free, you get a profile too.

But really, you're asking for trouble if you put all your eggs in one basket. Upload to multiple sites. Take up people's offers for free hosting, use sites created for distributing and promoting games like IndieDB, use file sharing sites, torrents, and so on. Aside from guarding against unexpected shut downs, you allow the users to choose their preferred method of getting games. If there's a torrent option, I almost always go for that because my internet cuts out sometimes making large direct downloads a pain.

I'm pretty agnostic towards blacklisting free-file-upload sites since I'd never rely on one as my sole method of distribution. Though I think the outcome would be better if people were educated on why it's a bad idea rather than being prevented from doing it and remaining ignorant as to the reasons.

ETA: After seeing Taleweaver's post I just thought I'd add that IndieDB (and associated sites Desura and ModDB) takes a little while to process your submissions (blog posts, downloads, videos, etc.) but it's only for a day or two at the most so a moderator can check it's okay and maintain certain standards.