PoisonedParanid.com - Long-term file archiving for X Scripts, Mods, and Saved Games

[bluesoulsez]

I would have had this ready to launch a month ago but I had to deal with a death in the family.

https://poisonedparanid.com

I want to point out that most of the features are still to come, but file sharing sites drop like flies and I'm tired of having developers work lost to history.

The services for the site are paid in full for the next three years and I will be working on automated solutions to ensure that I there is no single point of failure for the files I archive. The web server performs backups to a server at my home, I will be adding integration for Amazon S3 soon (when I get a better estimate of size and cost), files are backed up to a cloud backup provider as well as the Internet Archive, and I will be releasing torrents with incremental "patches" of data so they can stay alive for a long, long time.

My goal is to archive every script, mod, or saved game that has been posted to the Egosoft forums and is still available for download. This will likely number in the tens of thousands of files.

As I finish adding management tools, I may take on volunteers to assist with archiving, but right now the form is a bit geeky and I'll need to improve the way that works before I add staff.

A roadmap can be found at https://github.com/pxdnbluesoul/poisone ... projects/1 but this thread will serve as the primary discussion place for the site.

I'm excited to finally launch this, there isn't much to see yet but bear with me and I think it may be the best site of its kind when I'm finished.

[bluesoulsez]

Right now joining the site doesn't get you much of anything, but I encourage modders to register anyway so you can be given control over uploaded files that you wrote. Those tools haven't been developed yet but are on the roadmap.

If you have a file you'd like to archive, please post a link to the file or the relevant forum thread and I will process them.

[Anubitus]

Hey bluesoulsez, this is a great initiative you are working on. Thank you for this. Too many mods have been lost already, all those hours spend on making great content, gone forever... I am sure this will be a welcome download and backup system for the comunity.

One thing though, not everyone likes it when their work gets uploaded somewhere else whitout them giving permission or them even knowing about it and losing control over their uploaded work in the process. Perhaps consider asking the author befor you upload someones elses work.

You have permission to upload my work if you can give me control over the uploaded files.

Good luck with your project.

AnU

[bluesoulsez]

Hey bluesoulsez, this is a great initiative you are working on. Thank you for this. Too many mods have been lost already, all those hours spend on making great content, gone forever... I am sure this will be a welcome download and backup system for the comunity.

One thing though, not everyone likes it when their work gets uploaded somewhere else whitout them giving permission or them even knowing about it and losing control over their uploaded work in the process. Perhaps consider asking from the author befor you upload someones elses work.

You have permission to upload my work if you can give me control over the uploaded files.

Good luck with your project.

AnU

This is an admittedly difficult area to satisfy everyone on. The long term plan is something along the lines of how the Internet Archive handles it. If someone authorized to do so requests a file be taken down, it will be delisted, but the file will still be preserved. Should the file no longer be available through any primary sources, the file will later be relisted.

I believe I already archived one of your files, available here. Credit is always given and a link back to the relevant thread is always provided. Right now, the tools for manipulating a file are not developed enough to turn over to end-users and developers. Well, they probably are, but they could be prettier. I've left myself flexibility in the database where it can take either a string for an author or a user ID within the site, so I'll be able to back-link all files to developers that do register on the site.

EDIT: I want to clarify as well, that a file can be listed and not hosted on the site. It can be such that the only link is to a file URL under the control of the developer.