Download Section Privileges Reinstated!

[Phillyman]

As much as I hate to do this, certain assholes on this site have forced my hand. Starting immediately the download privileges for Newbies and Members have been revoked.

Before

Newbies = 1 download per week

Members = 3 downloads per week

Now

Newbies = 0 downloads per week

Members = 0 downloads per week

Every day that I have signed in for the past week I have been deleting a huge number of duplicate accounts. Today alone I banned an IP address that had created OVER 10 accounts on this site. Unfortunately the only way to discourage members from creating clone accounts is to take away the benefits of doing so. Since the Newbie group gets 1 download just for having an account, I have no other way to discourage this type of activity. Also we are seeing a huge influx of spam messages on the forum in the attempt to reach 15 posts. Since it is fairly easy to reply to 15 topics.....I have taken away the privileges for Members also. I do not know how long these restrictions will be in effect, but I refuse to spend time each day banning assholes that abuse the system.

If you want to become a Premium Member you can donate $2.50 to download 7.5 GIGABYTES of magazines!

Also at the sole discretion of the Admin/Moderators......If we see you helping out in your own way. Sometimes we may bump you to a Premium Member for a certain amount of time.

-Phillyman

[meppi]

Sign...

It's sad to see a couple of bad apples ruin the fun for everyone else. Isn't that how it always goes.

[Andremop]

First:

I want to donate some money. How do I that? What are the options for payment?

Second:

I have some issues, mostly some EGMs that you don't seen to have, that I want to donate (difficult, cause I live in Brazil) or scan. Any suggestion or tips for doing that? My scan is my printer, so I'll have to tear apart the issue... but it's ok, since I don't collect them. But could you pass the list of future EGMs you're going to add in the near future to avoid me destroying an issue for nothing?

Third:

I truly appreciate the philosophy of your project and your hard work.

Edit: Fourth:

Never mind the first comment - I've already learned that from the FAQ and will be making a donation shortly.

[Phillyman]

First:

I want to donate some money. How do I that? What are the options for payment?

Second:

I have some issues, mostly some EGMs that you don't seen to have, that I want to donate (difficult, cause I live in Brazil) or scan. Any suggestion or tips for doing that? My scan is my printer, so I'll have to tear apart the issue... but it's ok, since I don't collect them. But could you pass the list of future EGMs you're going to add in the near future to avoid me destroying an issue for nothing?

Third:

I truly appreciate the philosophy of your project and your hard work.

1) We accept donations through Paypal, see the button at the bottom of this page

2) That would be fantastic, we always are looking for help on the scanning front. I will try to get you a list of whats being scanned

3) Thanks

[hahnchen]

Well that sucks.

But I hope we'll still be seeing collected issues on google.

[KiwiArcader]

Geez .... A $2.50 donation to download the same amount as someone toiling their butt off to create new content doesn't entirely seem fair either to be honest. That in itself is a certain disincentive to producing magazines. The producers of the content should always be incentived more than person making a probably one-off payment.

Just an opinion though ......

[kbf_private_joker]

Geez .... A $2.50 donation to download the same amount as someone toiling their butt off to create new content doesn't entirely seem fair either to be honest. That in itself is a certain disincentive to producing magazines. The producers of the content should always be incentived more than person making a probably one-off payment.

Just an opinion though ......

I second that. I am of the opinion that there should be a sliding scale that calculates how much you can download based on how much you either donate or contribute. By contribute I mean either scan, donate, or purchase on ebay and have sent to a scanner.

For example:

1-5 magazines = $10 - 25 = 0.5GB

5-10 magazines = $25- 50 = 1GB

10-25 magazines = $50 - $100 = 2GB

25-infinity = > $100 5GB

The GB numbers are probably off, but you get what I mean. I totally understand Kiwi's remark because it usually takes anywhere from 3-6 hours, start to finish, to contribute 1 mag. Keep up the good work Kiwi!

[Phillyman]

I second that. I am of the opinion that there should be a sliding scale that calculates how much you can download based on how much you either donate or contribute. By contribute I mean either scan, donate, or purchase on ebay and have sent to a scanner.

For example:

1-5 magazines = $10 - 25 = 0.5GB

5-10 magazines = $25- 50 = 1GB

10-25 magazines = $50 - $100 = 2GB

25-infinity = > $100 5GB

The GB numbers are probably off, but you get what I mean. I totally understand Kiwi's remark because it usually takes anywhere from 3-6 hours, start to finish, to contribute 1 mag. Keep up the good work Kiwi!

Hmm an interesting concept, I only see one problem......I would need to create like 8 groups (as download permissions are by group). You have 4 levels for team members and 4 groups for people who donate funds. I tried to make the system reward anyone who helped, basically looking at it from the standpoint that $2.50-$15 does not break anyone's wallet.....but still allows us to keep buying new magazines. The only other problem I can see is that when you start asking for $25-$100 from donators.....it may seem as though we are selling the scans.

[Phillyman]

I am in talks with the creators of this forum and download manager as to solutions to this problem. Hopefully I can work something out such as blocking leechers and restoring privileges

[meppi]

The only other problem I can see is that when you start asking for $25-$100 from donators.....it may seem as though we are selling the scans.

It will not only seem this way, it will actually be a fact I'm afraid.

That goes against the principle of all the mags having to be available for free to everyone.

There might be a time limit like you see on rapidshare without an account, but at least it's free that way.

Once you step beyond that you can't say with a straight face that people aren't paying to download magazines, we would then be profiteering from the original editors and writers hard work, which is something I can't take peace with.

They are still the people who come first and we have no right to claim any compensation for what we do, since we are basically copying their work.

Sure it's for a good cause, but once we start charging a mandatory amount, we should just change the "thank you" to a "screw it, we want money" page.

[meppi]

The problem isn't that we don't want to let everyone download the magazines off the server directly, but that we can't.

If it were up to me, and I'm certain Philly feels the same way about this, I would open up the download section to everybody, and I do mean everybody.

But just as most of you have a monthly bandwidth limit, so does the server sadly enough.

So it's just not feasible for us to open them up completely.

Even with the donations we're taking, Philly has had several instances where he had to pay the server bill himself.

That's why the system you see currently was in place until yesterday.

But like most things, some people will always try and look for a way to cheat the system and take more then someone else.

Which is exactly what's been happening, and as of late it's really getting out of hand.

If it clearly states that you get x amount of downloads, you just don't go around creating 10 accounts so you can leech 10 times as much as regular members are able to download.

Such a mentality screws it up for everyone.

In the short term this might seem like a small nuisance but if enough people do it that way, we would end up losing out hosting server and where would that leave all of us?

So don't think we are out to piss people off, or shut people out until we get compensation from them.

The only reason this happened is because we want retromags to be around for many years to come, instead of just a couple more months.

I will do my best to upload as much mags to rapidshare as I can, but I'm already over my own limit this month, so you will have to have a bit of patience until the weekend when I can start uploading again.

I know the rapidshare thing isn't ideal, but as far as "free" hosts go, for the end user anyway, it's a system that will ensure that anyone is able to download what he or she wants.

As long as they have a bit of patience to wait for the time limit to run out again. (reading the magazine you just downloaded will seem the time pass faster btw )

[KiwiArcader]

I hear you and Phillyman's comments and I certainly don't disagree. And I am not advocating shutting the ability to download the magazines at all.

BUT ... there's a cost to the bandwidth that is used ... not that I know what it is ... and we shouldn't be shafting contributors .... so maybe you need to rethink the site access to something along the lines of...

Contributors [people creating the finished products] .... direct access

Financial contributors .... direct access but a lower limit necessary to keep bandwidth at acceptable levels

Anyone else .... rapidshare links ONLY

It solves an issue with people creating accounts as they dont get access to direct downloads or have reduced limits if they contribute financially only and apart from a few of us having to keep a Premium rapidshare account going .... which would semi fund itself if people download via Points ... the costs are reduced on Phillyman's pocket. And there's always the torrent Phillyman created on Mininova etc

The people like yourself, KBF_Joker buddy etc are the ones that make the site. Without you guys creating the magazines this site has no future. So you shouldn't be wasting time having to mod time wasters to the detriment of getting new mags online thus exacerbating the issue further.

Just an opinion though ......

[Phillyman]

So I log in today and what do I see.....More Clones

I deleted all the clone accounts yesterday and today they are still being created.

The blacked out ones are Myself and Newsbot and someone that I made a 1 time exception for

[kbf_private_joker]

So I log in today and what do I see.....More Clones

I deleted all the clone accounts yesterday and today they are still being created.

The blacked out ones are Myself and Newsbot and someone that I made a 1 time exception for

This may be a question already answered, but have you talked to the site developers and asked if there is a way to not allow more than 1 account created from the same IP? Seems like that is the root problem.

[Phillyman]

This may be a question already answered, but have you talked to the site developers and asked if there is a way to not allow more than 1 account created from the same IP? Seems like that is the root problem.

Correct, For some odd reason unknown to me.....the system will block you if you try to register a new account with the same email.....but not with the same IP. They are doing a huge update to the forum software that should be coming in the next few months....hopefully its fixed in that release

[KiwiArcader]

Just ban all direct downloads from non paying or magazine contributing members and allow newbies & losers to use a rapidshare link only. Simple and effective really..... it doesn't make any difference whether they create an account or not. No more impacting your bandwidth then ......

Or am I being too simplistic in my thinking?

Hells teeth .... I'd even use a rapidshare link if it was the only way of taking direct downloads offline until you sort this issue out. And I'm sure most reasonable people around here would probably agree with too I'm betting.

Still .... we brought on ourselves when we started making Nintendo Powers & EGM's by the truckload as it brings all the fanbois leechers like a bee to honey. And they do anything except contribute/pay to get around limitations going by experiences on other sites.

[MBJ]

It's a shame that these restrictions had to be implemented but I can see that it's necessary. In related news, I had to stop seeding the mega-torrent a couple of weeks ago in order to keep my Comcast account in check. It appears that the salad days are over. :(

[E-Day]

Don't forget that even if you only allow one account per IP, the person can can still use a proxy to get a different IP and register anew. That used to be a pain until the add-ons for Netscape/Firefox came out. Now it's a matter of a simple click. But it should cut down on the number of scum cloning accounts so they can leech more. I know the world economy is tanking, but is $2.50 really that much?

[meppi]

Don't forget that even if you only allow one account per IP, the person can can still use a proxy to get a different IP and register anew. That used to be a pain until the add-ons for Netscape/Firefox came out. Now it's a matter of a simple click. But it should cut down on the number of scum cloning accounts so they can leech more. I know the world economy is tanking, but is $2.50 really that much?

Good point. I thought about that as well, but didn't want to post it as it might give people ideas.

And yes I'm aware that quoting it again won't help either.

[E-Day]

Basically no matter what you do, there will always be people who create multiple accounts to leech stuff. The best way is to do what Phillyman does and check for clone accounts and ban them. No computer or program will ever best human intervention

[KiwiArcader]

Nah .... make the direct download link available for paying users and content creators only and anyone else has to use the available Rapidshare link. If they get sick of waiting for the Rapidshare freebie links they can donate to the site to access the direct download button or they pay for a rapidshare account where they can queue files up etc. Either way we win because even a Rapidshare subscription gives the link owner points per download which can be used to subsidize the account fees etc for making the download available. Win - Win

[meppi]

Nah .... make the direct download link available for paying users and content creators only and anyone else has to use the available Rapidshare link. If they get sick of waiting for the Rapidshare freebie links they can donate to the site to access the direct download button or they pay for a rapidshare account where they can queue files up etc. Either way we win because even a Rapidshare subscription gives the link owner points per download which can be used to subsidize the account fees etc for making the download available. Win - Win

Not a bad idea with the resent happenings.

Although I have to say that the Rapidshare point thing doesn't help that much though.

On my account which I've been using for nearly a year now to upload mags, I have in that time only earned enough points to extend the account with 1 measly month.

When you know that a 6 month account costs €30, then you know I only got a €5 bonus for that.

Not to mention how much it weighs upon a monthly ISP limit where every Gig you download or upload over your monthly limit costs 1€ per month.

To get a bit perspective, my ISP limit resets on monday and I have already had to buy 20Gig extra this month. :-/

That's a big reason why I'm no good for seeding torrents as well.

[KiwiArcader]

I hear you .... but once you've got it up onto Rapidshare that's it ... no more continuing bandwidth issues for you or the site for that file. That's why it may be preferrable with all the goings on recently to make rapidshare links the onlu option for the genral populace and direct downloads strictly for contributors [financial or content creators]

Thus everyone still gets access on the files depending on their status.

[E-Day]

If the rapidshare idea is used, then there should be a rapidshare account made for this site, where everyone who uploads can log in to it and dump the stuff there.

Would MegaUpload not be a better choice. As far as I know, they do not have a file size limit of 100 megs. At least not if you have a membership, as far as I know.

[KiwiArcader]

If the rapidshare idea is used, then there should be a rapidshare account made for this site, where everyone who uploads can log in to it and dump the stuff there.

Would MegaUpload not be a better choice. As far as I know, they do not have a file size limit of 100 megs. At least not if you have a membership, as far as I know.

Who really gives a toss whether the site owns the rapidshare account?

If the site wants one then fine, if they want to pay for the account go for it. The first time someone who has access gets a grudge then decides to delete everything in the account will scotch that one good and proper. Meppi & Phillyman obviously have one as they've been creating links for their uploads. Same for me now ... as I put N64 manuals etc up online I create the link back to my Rapidshare upload. If you dont have an account when you make a submission advise someone and we'll upload it to one of the accounts and get a link made to it.