Advocating Free Content

[kathy]

Oh sharing paid content is a definete no no in my book. Just because a site is pay and I do not care for pay sites does not mean I condone anyone stealing their content. Most of the sites I have seen have a strict policy forbidding sharing paid content. Everyone once in awhile you will see someone requesting a pay object but those are mostly overlooked or they are told this object can not be distributed.

[RGiles]

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.

[Grykon]

Thats a very interesting idea...kinda like have a second computer on you cable/dsl line...someone sends an email requesting a certain package for the game and it would auto-create and email back with that object...Has some great potential!

[teresa7159]

A lot of yahoo groups and smaller sites say they are file share friendly.  They don't mind you emailing their stuff to others.  They generally just ask that you include the read-me file.  This way people know where it came from and who the creator is and they get the credit they deserve.  I have been getting things this way for several years.  JUst need a big mail box.  Mine is 2 gigs.

Teresa

[angelica]

You're very right Inge, I did forget to put those options in.  I think they are both reasonable.

On problem solving with file sharing, I don't know if others on this board are familiar with BitTorrent.  You can make your larger files like houses into torrent files and allow others to download it from your computer.  Once they have it, they can seed it as well.  The more seeds available the faster it is downloaded.  So there is no actual bandwidth consumed.

http://www.bittorrent.com/

Depending on how many you're hosting, it can slow down your DSL/cable a bit.  However, I don't think the difference is noticeable unless you're having 500mb or more available at a time.

[RGiles]

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.

[angelica]

A lot of the P2P networks I've seen are too infected with viruses and adware.  The source of content is generally unknown.  The main distributor changes by whoever is on at the time that has a full version.  Torrents are created by their maker and you find them on their website or a collective of already approved torrents.

They come from a site knowing what you are downloading.  P2P programs do not have previews.

[RGiles]

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.

[Grykon]

With yahoo's new 1gb of storage...you can keep your files already in an email for faster sending...not sure you can script yahoo to auto send a requested email though...that would be a hassle to hand enter even 50 different email addys for different files...

I dont' trust kazaa and some of those...and the most annoying thing about kazaa and the others is how the people grab what is available, but then they either don't share, or they have the outgoing throttled so bad you might as well take a trip around the world...and then the trojans and viruses that come with them...

Haven't really seen torrent or the other.

[Delphy]

The problem with file sharing such as eMule or Bittorrent is that 1. the person needs to have the software and 2. they are impatient.

It's one thing in a community of geeks (As we have on relicnews.com, another site I admin at), but when the majority of the community are people who *haven't* touched a p2p program in the past, you run into problems.

[Katt]

*grin* people like me who have no idea what that is...

[kathy]

A p2p network is a filesharing community. For example Kazaa has movies, music, software, anything and everything you can think of. The problem is more times than not these files were never intended to be shared. They are pirated. Many people use these networks to try to avoid buying whatever software or music etc that they need. You also run into getting bad downloads ie incomplete files, choppy music, virus and trojans, just to name a few examples. Software is required to transfer these files and many times this software is infected by spyware/adware. With anything they have their pros and cons.

[Grykon]

Good point Delphy!!  If they can't figure out winrar...*laugh*  They are not going to figure out that at all!

[Katt]

A p2p network is a filesharing community. For example Kazaa has movies, music, software, anything and everything you can think of. The problem is more times than not these files were never intended to be shared. They are pirated. Many people use these networks to try to avoid buying whatever software or music etc that they need. You also run into getting bad downloads ie incomplete files, choppy music, virus and trojans, just to name a few examples. Software is required to transfer these files and many times this software is infected by spyware/adware. With anything they have their pros and cons.

Thanks Kathy...that probably explains why my son has gone through three computers....

[angelica]

Rgiles, that is true about Torrents dying out.  Maybe a combination of Torrents and Emule?  Torrent available for first month it's new then switch to Emule.

Yes, a part of the Sims 2 community has a difficulty even grasping what a RAR is.  Typically they are the ones unwilling to help themselves and I wonder how much coddling we should do.  Just because they whine the loudest doesn't mean we should talk down to everyone else.  

With everything new, there is some adapting involved.  If I could encourage some makers to try using torrents then I would set up a site fully explaining what torrents are/what they do/etc.

Basically, it's impossible to "dummy proof" anything so I wouldn't let it discourage you from trying something new.

Also Delphy-
1. the person needs to have the software
BitTorrent is like less than a MB to download.  The average Sims 2 download is more than that.

2. they are impatient.
Lately even downloading the "typical" way is slow on your site.  Sometimes the downloads aren't even available at all.  People are impatient no matter what.