LMAO Katt! I'm not going anywhere NEAR that one!

I can confirm that he is insane, if confirmation is needed. It's not that he's using the wrong shampoo. It's that you're not supposed to drink it.

It's... Tuesday. And it's entirely possible that I haven't had enough coffee.

My dog knows everything, but he won't tell me.

The people who drive me crazy are the ones who insist that their hand be held through everything. Pointing them to the information should be enough, if instructions have already been written up with pictures and everything. Then it's just too much.

kathy, I've seen that transcript before. lmao! That's definitely a keeper.

angelica,

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. It's not possible to make content available to the lowest common denominator because that is just so low that you get people who don't know how to download anything at all.

It's true that some methods of sharing content are inaccessible to some people. Pay sites are inaccessible to many as well, because people can't afford it, aren't allowed to pay for it, or simply refuse to spend their money that way.

If people want content, they have to be willing to give something. The something may be following some simple instructions and using a new program. I'm less willing every day to help people who demand something for nothing, meaning they aren't willing to use one drop of energy to try to do something for themselves. I can't really feel bad if I'm giving something away for free and somebody can't get it because they think I should hand-deliver it to their doorstep and install it for them too.

RG

Very true. I'm sure that a lot of people don't have these programs installed and don't know the first thing about them. Some people can't even figure out how to download the files from MTS2.

Emule is also good in that the originator can share a file and give a direct link to the download so that the source is known and confirmed.

Torrents have the advantage of generally being faster. It makes them an excellent way to make an initial distribution. However torrents tend to die fast. I don't really understand why, but I know the way torrent clients work practically encourages you to stop sharing a file once you're done downloading because it's just in your way.

Emule is slower, but has the advantage of the shared files still being available a year later. Only the downloaded files themselves need to be kept in order to keep sharing, not an extra file like with torrents. The originator may not be able to keep sharing for one reason or another, yet the full file remains active on the nework and is still the same file that the originator gave with their confirmed link. If the file is changed, their link will never lead to the changed file.

Something like kazaa is completely useless for something like this because of viruses and because of the problem with source confirmation.

Bittorrent or emule are exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. Sharing by email is quite slow since you have to upload the full file to each person who requests it and you have to personally respond to each request. Also a lot of us have maximum attachment sizes so that we couldn't recieve something like a Lot or a Sim with a custom skin. Torrents or other p2p networks split up the bandwidth between everyone involved.

Definitely agreed. What I mean specifically is that content creators themselves could start the filesharing process or that they agree to have someone else start it for them. It's something that could also be used as an alternate in the way that Inge described using yahoo groups. You could have the option to download directly or to download through filesharing. If your bandwidth got close to your limit, you could turn off the direct download links, but still have the content available in another way.

Inge,
I've never heard of that. Sounds cool! It seems to me that peer-to-peer would be a very cost-effective way to distribute content. you could just have a site with your images/descriptions and links to your content on a p2p network.

Another good option would be to use a filesharing program to spread your files, especially if you can be certain at least a few friends will keep your files shared. Then you can use a forum, yahoo group or plain email for support.

It's really an excellent option, I think, but I haven't seen anyone doing it.