Quake3World

I`m probably one of the few people who actually uses MediaFire, and I`m not sure why. Most other download links that I follow in threads here take me to german-only websites with stupid, large dating ads appearing in front of my face and the download button being tiny compared to the other buttons on the screen. There are also some that just don`t work at all, like this:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=44307

I want to check out this map, but unfortunately I can`t since it keeps giving me a "page not found" error. It`s absolutely amazing how everyone else except me is capable of downloading it. I tried both IE8 and Firefox with no success.

Why can`t we all just stick with MediaFire and make that a rule? Would make it a lot easier for us, and plus MediaFire is more convinient, doesn`t go down, and the ads are far less annoying. Maybe people are intentionally trying to make their maps hard to get, though that`s not really fair.

who you workin for bro?

Should all use dropbox.

Get your own web host, it's cheap.

TBH, I think this is a bit of a non-issue, only beta maps are hosted on these file storage websites and they are just there for testing. Final maps are usually hosted on LvLworld.com and mirrored on a personal website.

I hate those file storing services. They're always looking a bit shady, kill you with banners and are often quite slow.

I simply use the FTP space my ISP is giving me. It's not much, but more than enough to run a personal website or host a few pk3 files.

But I guess with all the competition between ISP's these days, such a service is probably not often included anymore.

Silicone_Milk wrote:Should all use dropbox.

Seconded.

^misantropia^ wrote:

Silicone_Milk wrote:Should all use dropbox.

Seconded.

I have been advocating this since day 1. DO IT

I tried the Dropbox thing. It looks like a great solution, even though the initial setup caused my PC to completely freeze. And I mean hardcore, hard-reset required frozen. But it seems to work properly now. Should be an excellent solution for people who don't have their own FTP space.

@OP: Erm... I'm trying no to sound too harsh. First of all, MediaFire is probably the lamest host site I've ever seen in my whole life (plus, it's incompatible with most of the old browser versions I'm currently running on my computer); just to show you that experiences regarding different providers can strongly differ among people being in another part of this world.
That's another important detail: Depending on your country you're having your internet connection set up right now, there may be sites that are completely blocked whatsoever (some ppl I know can't use megaupload for that reason). In that case, just ask if someone can send you the needed data or mirror it elsewhere, if you are in need of something that you have absolutely no access to (there's no sense in favorizing a certain provider that the whole community has to rely on from this day, there'll always be problems for everyone with certain sites).
Blocking leads to another thing: almost everyone in this world is capable of installing an adblocker making these "stupid large dating ads" (which by the way also tend to appear on mediafire all the time w/o an adblocker) a never-to-be-shown-again thing.
As to why there are so many german sites might have something to do with the fact that forum members uploading their projects there are or have been (either permanently or temporarily) living in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Often these sites are also available in english, and even if not, it ain't that hard to identify a "download" button, no matter its size or language. One last thing: ppl trying to make their maps hard to get, as stated in the OP, sounds "a bit" strange, since there's absolutely no sense in publicly releasing work that should be tested by a community if the latter one can't get its fingers on that work.

[EDIT: Added paragraphs for the sake of obsidian's sanity. Also, don't worry about my old browser versions I've got good reasons to use them along with other having the latest update; and never incriminate me of using IE again! ]

Uhh... please, please use paragraphs. Also, update your web browser unless you're an old granny still using IE5.

I can't stand those download sites that insist on having download pages with 97 different DOWNLOAD NOW! buttons... It sounds daft but I usually look for the smallest, most boring plain text ugly link on the page, as thats usually the one...

Should be banned from the net, never mind here...

sendspace.com

Mediafire and DropBox didn't give me much trouble yet when I tried to download stuff, they're definitely one of the better free file upload sites. Enforcing them is still an absolute no-go. The best solution is a direct link to the zip on your own webspace imo. If I was forced to use Mediafire instead of my own webspace here I'd just not post stuff here I guess.

If the download site is too annoying and I'm not sure that a beta map is great (because of the screenies of because I know the author) I usually don't download it, I just close the browser and move on instead of searching for the right of the 5 download buttons, typing in retarded captchas and waiting 45secs.

what spirit said

o'dium wrote:I can't stand those download sites that insist on having download pages with 97 different DOWNLOAD NOW! buttons... It sounds daft but I usually look for the smallest, most boring plain text ugly link on the page, as thats usually the one...

Should be banned from the net, never mind here...

Exactly. And the solution doesn't sound daft at all, because 9 out of 10 times, it's exactly like that