two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

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trpted
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two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by trpted »

I over heard/read in viewtopic.php?f=64&t=20144
Zehra wrote: Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:03 pm @ahs3
Yes, currently there is a two hour limit, which hasn't changed from what I'm aware of. (See Posts? forum thread.)

One thing to consider for updating map files without creating a new post, would be using a file hosting service, as map files could be hosted there and allow updates without having to change the link if a revision is made, although posting a map revision within the same thread works as well.

-Zehra
So, my question is simple.

What file hosting services are recommended?

Please and thank you
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by tainn »

Seems like a lot of talk for something quite unnecessary.

If you really want to share a map somewhere externally and just link to the place that you can edit whenever, you can use whatever public site where you can share text, from either a public cloud to pastebin. That is, because ultimately, map files are just text files.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by Zehra »

trpted wrote: Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:47 pm I over heard/read in viewtopic.php?f=64&t=20144

So, my question is simple.

What file hosting services are recommended?

Please and thank you
@trpted
The answer varies greatly, since depending on various factors, choosing a file hosting service will vary greatly.
Simply think of the following list of items which could be deciding factors into what services uses on to host:
  • Free or commercial service?
  • Open or closed-source service?
  • Advertising supported or by other means?
  • Advertisement free or advertisements contained?
  • Size limitations? (What is the maximum size of files they offer to host?)
  • Total file hosting size? (What is the maximum total of files which can be hosted?)
  • Terms of Use?
  • Privacy policy?
  • Speed of service?
  • Reliability?
This is just a small sample of possible questions a user may think of before choosing a service.
Compiling a list of services and a comparison of them would not be that useful, as it could quickly become out of date.
Personally, I'd recommend anyone who wishes to use a file hosting service to do their own research and reach their own decision on what service would best suit them.

Small side note: With regards to some of the questions you've asked, using a search engine would have provided the answers you were looking for and for the BZFlag specific ones, simply searching within the forums would have provided the answers you were looking for.
(If you need any help with searching through the forums, feel free to private message me either here within the forums or on IRC.)

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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by allejo »

Please, no. Don't use file hosting services.

The two-hour edit policy was enacted due to some silly player redacting all of their historical posts which left so many threads without context.

My suggestion is, post your maps to the forums or use a service like GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket that will let you keep track of revisions if that's what you want. Why not use file hosting services? Old files and accounts are deleted constantly or services just shut down; so many maps and uploads have been lost like this. The forums are run officially by the project, so as long as the project still lives we'll likely have a copy of the data if it's uploaded here. Players have asked for "map archives" or building yet another hosting service dedicated to maps, please don't. Just let the project handle the uploads.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by tainn »

Or just make another post on the map's thread here on the forums.

Not editing the OP also notifies about a new post, and these map threads are really not long, so anyone interested in the map would probably read all the posts it has on it, most of which are one-liners anyway.

I wouldn't know about you, but I for one don't mind reading two more posts here as much as going from forums to an external website to check for the map and its updates. I also wouldn't be notified about any updates externally or if I would be, I wouldn't want to frequent another website.

All of this seems really unnecessary if it is just to have a workaround to not being able to edit the OP. A new post is better and has its own benefits as well, such as a new post icon, meaning a potential update. If anything, having something like a flagged post or best answer highlight might pinpoint the newest version of a map on a thread, but it is again unnecessary complication, imho.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by trpted »

Zehra interesting suggestion. but no third party file hosting. I am going with the last two post in this thread (by allejo and by tainn). The map poster is to bump the thread to top.
Why not use file hosting services? Old files and accounts are deleted constantly or services just shut down; so many maps and uploads have been lost like this. The forums are run officially by the project, so as long as the project still lives we'll likely have a copy of the data if it's uploaded here. Players have asked for "map archives" or building yet another hosting service dedicated to maps, please don't. Just let the project handle the uploads.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by Zehra »

allejo wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:32 am Please, no. Don't use file hosting services.

The two-hour edit policy was enacted due to some silly player redacting all of their historical posts which left so many threads without context.

My suggestion is, post your maps to the forums or use a service like GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket that will let you keep track of revisions if that's what you want. Why not use file hosting services? Old files and accounts are deleted constantly or services just shut down; so many maps and uploads have been lost like this. The forums are run officially by the project, so as long as the project still lives we'll likely have a copy of the data if it's uploaded here. Players have asked for "map archives" or building yet another hosting service dedicated to maps, please don't. Just let the project handle the uploads.
File hosting services can be good for large map collections.

The two hour edit policy seems to have lead to an increase in posting, which seems to be good.
As now the forums are somewhat active, but no where near where the level of activity they once were.

For me and perhaps a few other map makers, I kind of would like to be able to have my public map releases available as a single searchable collection or download. (It would be less time consuming for players to search through maps as well if that were possible.)
The option for players and the ability to search through collections with maybe titles like "[map author's] Map Collection" or "[map author's] Archive" would be nice and offer an easy way to find maps one wishes to locate.

One of the main issues is the forums are not ideal for posting/searching for maps.
For those not that familiar with using the search functions within forums, it can be difficult to locate what they want.
This is one reason why some map makers have decided to release their maps within a file hosting service.
(Depending on the service, the ease of use varies and capabilities varies quite a bit, but does exceed what the forums provide.)
I didn't mention services such as GitHub, GitLab and BitBucket, as they are targeted towards software, rather then general file hosting services.
It also is why I offered file services as one thing to consider, as there is multiple options out there.
Some may be better solutions than others and depending on the person, what works well for one, may not work well for another.

If the forums could be improved for map releases, this would be great.
tainn wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:00 am Or just make another post on the map's thread here on the forums.

Not editing the OP also notifies about a new post, and these map threads are really not long, so anyone interested in the map would probably read all the posts it has on it, most of which are one-liners anyway.

I wouldn't know about you, but I for one don't mind reading two more posts here as much as going from forums to an external website to check for the map and its updates. I also wouldn't be notified about any updates externally or if I would be, I wouldn't want to frequent another website.

All of this seems really unnecessary if it is just to have a workaround to not being able to edit the OP. A new post is better and has its own benefits as well, such as a new post icon, meaning a potential update. If anything, having something like a flagged post or best answer highlight might pinpoint the newest version of a map on a thread, but it is again unnecessary complication, imho.
Bumping old threads has been discouraged and generally, a map thread is over a month old before another update is posted to the map.
There is also people who would rather to edit posts than to make a new one.

-Zehra
Those who are critical of me, I'll likely be the same of them. ~Zehra
The decisions we make are the ones we look forward too and the ones we regret. ~Zehra
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by tainn »

... if a map is still active in the sense that the creator is updating it, there is no such thing as a necrobump, especially if the new post includes news. The necrobump rule doesn't exist to make people's lives miserable and to encourage illogical restrictions, it is there for other cases that are not present here. On the contrary, it makes no sense to create a new thread if one already exists that's perfectly good.

Also no, this thread in specific was born from ahs3 updating his own map that was anything but a month old.

And again, edits don't trigger the new post notification, while a new post does, that does let members know that a thread received an update.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by Zehra »

tainn wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 5:33 pm ... if a map is still active in the sense that the creator is updating it, there is no such thing as a necrobump, especially if the new post includes news. The necrobump rule doesn't exist to make people's lives miserable and to encourage illogical restrictions, it is there for other cases that are not present here. On the contrary, it makes no sense to create a new thread if one already exists that's perfectly good.

Also no, this thread in specific was born from ahs3 updating his own map that was anything but a month old.

And again, edits don't trigger the new post notification, while a new post does, that does let members know that a thread received an update.
I never said it was. If you do look on some other threads, people have updated maps differently over the years.
There is a few who will provide map updates in a new thread, and a few others who will edit and adjust the original post.
Either way is fine and some people may prefer one way or the other, depending on their style of posting.
The rule is a guidance and was designed so that people would not misuse the forums by posting simply to increase their post count.

Not sure if you noticed this part which trpted quoted within the original post:
..."although posting a map revision within the same thread works as well."

The current thread is based on the request of "What file hosting services are recommended?".
My advice is one should do their own research and see what will work best for them and suit their needs.

If you are referencing the Incoming :: Space Invaders thread...
I'm simply providing a suggestion and an alternative to updating maps with a new post, nothing more, nothing less.
See the following quote:
Zehra wrote: Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:03 pm @ahs3
Yes, currently there is a two hour limit, which hasn't changed from what I'm aware of. (See Posts? forum thread.)

One thing to consider for updating map files without creating a new post, would be using a file hosting service, as map files could be hosted there and allow updates without having to change the link if a revision is made, although posting a map revision within the same thread works as well.
Anyways, I think we've all stated our thoughts on the subject.
Mine would be: Post or link to map is fine, if you want to use a hosting service, do your own research to see what service best suits you and your needs and to base your decision on that.

-Zehra
Those who are critical of me, I'll likely be the same of them. ~Zehra
The decisions we make are the ones we look forward too and the ones we regret. ~Zehra
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by macsforme »

Just make a new post in the thread for that map release. As others stated, this creates a notification of an unread post, which should draw the viewers to the updated info. The ability to edit original posts to remove outdated versions of maps is a valid use case, but unfortunately is has been lost due to abuse (again, as others stated already). If there is a method to allow the legitimate uses while preventing the unwanted ones, we are open to that.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by tainn »

There's always the option to contact a forum admin to edit the OP for you if it means that much, though yet again, that doesn't trigger the new post notification, unless then also explicitly posting a new update post.

If admins can't be bothered, active mods could be appointed to do this in specific on the forums, potentially only having this access (if even possible) for safety purposes.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by trpted »

macsforme wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:16 pm Just make a new post in the thread for that map release. As others stated, this creates a notification of an unread post, which should draw the viewers to the updated info. The ability to edit original posts to remove outdated versions of maps is a valid use case, but unfortunately is has been lost due to abuse (again, as others stated already). If there is a method to allow the legitimate uses while preventing the unwanted ones, we are open to that.
While I was creating the thread for maps, does/would that apply to plug-ins too?
I'm simply providing a suggestion and an alternative to updating maps with a new post, nothing more, nothing less.
In that case doing both?

Releasing the map here, if any updates file hosting and every so often bumping or starting a new thread with the updates?
tainn wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:23 pm There's always the option to contact a forum admin to edit the OP for you if it means that much, though yet again, that doesn't trigger the new post notification, unless then also explicitly posting a new update post.

If admins can't be bothered, active mods could be appointed to do this in specific on the forums, potentially only having this access (if even possible) for safety purposes.
+1. That makes sense and I agree.
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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by Zehra »

tainn wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:23 pm There's always the option to contact a forum admin to edit the OP for you if it means that much, though yet again, that doesn't trigger the new post notification, unless then also explicitly posting a new update post.

If admins can't be bothered, active mods could be appointed to do this in specific on the forums, potentially only having this access (if even possible) for safety purposes.
Admins are very active here, but players not so much.
The two hour limitation may be here for the best, as the forums have had increased activity due to this.
trpted wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:30 pm While I was creating the thread for maps, does/would that apply to plug-ins too?
It most likely would apply to things such as plug-ins, map work in progress, plug-in development, but probably not much more than that.
trpted wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:30 pm
I'm simply providing a suggestion and an alternative to updating maps with a new post, nothing more, nothing less.
In that case doing both?

Releasing the map here, if any updates file hosting and every so often bumping or starting a new thread with the updates?
Yes, it is both a suggestion and an alternative.
I used to see almost changelog like editing in some map releases, with the original post being with the latest release, but this was not too common.
Notes like the following would be seen in some releases.

Code: Select all

0.2 Fixed spawn positions
0.3 Textures added
0.4 Mesh glitch solved
0.5 Added settings
1.0 Final release
From how it looks now, it looks like new posts and new threads is for the best.

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Re: two hour limit on posting work around - file hosting

Post by macsforme »

Bumping an old thread to release an updated version of a map or plugin is fine.
Zehra wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:02 pmThe two hour limitation may be here for the best, as the forums have had increased activity due to this.
I hardly think so.
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