Free Uploader Sites

[Taleweaver]

Even though they don't have the best reputation, I've yet to have a single bad experience with download.com. Only two downsides to that service: they try to make you use their download manager, which smells of spyware, and that they check every file they host, so it can take a few weeks until your software appears after the upload.

[fleet]

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 . . .

I didn't know about this until I saw PyTom's post.
Links to my visual novels in the Completed Games section and Completed Adult Games section have been changed.
very respectfully,
fleet

[PyTom]

I kind of wonder if the right rule to have is a two-mirror rule - you must have your (free) game on two sites, or the forum and one other site. The idea being that if one goes down, we can deal with that after the fact by making local mirrors or whatever.

The downside is this rule would be difficult to enforce, as an admin. What are we going to do if someone uploads a game that isn't mirrored? Remove the download link? Upload it ourselves? These seem like a lot of work for us to do.

At the same time, I think this is something we need to talk about. The games people make are important, and I think it's a shame when one vanishes from the net, perhaps for good. When lishy asks "I meant, isn't it the uploader's responsibility whether or not they want to maintain their games online, rather than the forum's?" - I think it's not so much our responsibility, as the price we ask for providing the forums. If we're going to host those discussions - for a decade or more - we'd like the visual novels being discussed to still exist.

(I'm using the regal we here, since I haven't discussed this with the other admins.)

[OokamiKasumi]

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

They also have a file size limit.
-- I went with MediaFire because it's the only site that will take my over 300MB games -- one of them is 500 MB. At this point in time, none of the sites suggested for the Whitelist will take files large enough to hold 'all' my games -- including this forum.

[Taleweaver]

-- I went with MediaFire because it's the only site that will take my over 300MB games -- one of them is 500 MB. At this point in time, none of the sites suggested for the Whitelist will take files large enough to hold 'all' my games -- including this forum.

download.com has file size limits?

[OokamiKasumi]

-- I went with MediaFire because it's the only site that will take my over 300MB games -- one of them is 500 MB. At this point in time, none of the sites suggested for the Whitelist will take files large enough to hold 'all' my games -- including this forum.

download.com has file size limits?

Download.Com makes you Wait before anyone can access the file.

... it can take a few weeks until your software appears after the upload.

That's not good when you need quick responses from Playtesters.

[Taleweaver]

Download.Com makes you Wait before anyone can access the file.

... it can take a few weeks until your software appears after the upload.

That's not good when you need quick responses from Playtesters.

But then you're not entirely correct when saying that none of the uploaders mentioned will takes files large enough to host your games, are you?

[OokamiKasumi]

... it can take a few weeks until your software appears after the upload.

But then you're not entirely correct when saying that none of the uploaders mentioned will takes files large enough to host your games, are you?

Fine, I admit to being incorrect about that. However, it doesn't change the fact that the long waiting period cancels out the benefit of accepting larger files. To use it, I would have to do as mentioned earlier, and load it on more than one site, and that other site would still have to be MediaFire.

[Armee]

I would think that DropBox, Google Drive, Skydrive, etc. sound fine enough for being mirror upload page. Or may be, JustCloud? I think it's Unlimited or something. People really should have a mirror of the game stored on this site. It would be sad if anyone's game got down just because of the page went down. Personally, I dislike MediaFire for its ads are always popping up when I download something.

[Trixar_za]

I'm sorry, but a two mirror rule will be a pain in the ass for big games - especially in countries like mine where we pay for our data usage. Rather recommend services like box.com (who everybody seems to have forgotten) that doesn't limit size and bandwidth or appoint people who's express purpose is to mirror games.

[AxemRed]

box.com has a 250MB file size limit and a 10GB/month bandwidth limit.

[Trixar_za]

Like you'd use more than 10Gb of bandwidth in a month... Also the file size can be bigger if you use the client rather than the website to upload.

Good to know that you spend time disproving parts of my statement rather than adding anything productive to the discussion.

[AxemRed]

10GB = 100 downloads of a 100 MB VN. That seems rather limited to use as the primary download source for a new release. If you want a constructive answer, I use Mediafire+MEGA to upload things.

[PyTom]

For free games, there's always archive.org. That's the best from a game-preservation standpoint.

[OokamiKasumi]

For free games, there's always archive.org. That's the best from a game-preservation standpoint.

I'm going to try using Archive.Org as a back up. It's a bit confusing to use, and takes Forever to upload, but the rules don't say that we Can't upload adult content, and it didn't even flinch at my 300 MB game. However, this doesn't mean I'll stop using MediaFire as the main download.