Download section @BRP

[styopa]

For people new here, remember there is a Download Section where files can reside.

@Chaosium: as far as I can tell, there's no way to SEARCH the download section and the organization ...well, isn't much.  (There's a "Mongoose Runequest" section but no RQG section months after RQG is released?  There's a "Classic Runequest" but no RQ3?  No RQ6/Mythras?)

Could you perhaps have a moderator or your web guy address this?  I think there are a lot of people putting together crazy-useful stuff like Phil's character creation sheet but if people can't find them you're going to be crippling today's very internet-savy/-connected generation from taking advantage of them.

[David Scott]

This best put in 

for the attention of @Trifletraxor who runs the site.

[styopa]

18 hours ago, David Scott said:

This best put in 

for the attention of @Trifletraxor who runs the site.

Lol, you can store 15gig for free with google drive, or ONE HUNDRED gig for $2/mo.

[g33k]

11 minutes ago, styopa said:

Lol, you can store 15gig for free with google drive, or ONE HUNDRED gig for $2/mo.

Yeah, but the ISPs & co-lo providers (needed to run the forum s/w) aren't so generous.    😞

[simonh]

From my experience, forum download sections are where files go to die. Nowadays anyone can have a Dropbox or google drive account to share stuff from, so there isn’t as much of a need for a shared repository.

[PhilHibbs]

6 hours ago, simonh said:

From my experience, forum download sections are where files go to die. Nowadays anyone can have a Dropbox or google drive account to share stuff from, so there isn’t as much of a need for a shared repository.

Except that that person may switch to another provider, or reorganize their Dropbox, and not update all their old forum and Facebook posts. They might die and their account be closed, or hacked and get everything infected with viruses which are then replicated into Dropbox.

I think it's probably better to index the downloads section through threads - if you upload a file, make a thread for it. Link to that thread from a wiki. Link to the thread from Facebook. Keep the thread up to date by editing the first post to link to the latest version. Problem solved.

It's a real shame that you can't host Google Sheets on file download sections, because my RQG Character Creation Spreadsheet suffers from this exact problem. Fortunately, using it requires making your own copy which can easily be re-shared online, so plenty of people will by necessity be mirroring it in case my original disappears somehow.

Edited October 16, 2018 by PhilHibbs

[g33k]

9 minutes ago, simonh said:

From my experience, forum download sections are where files go to die. Nowadays anyone can have a Dropbox or google drive account to share stuff from, so there isn’t as much of a need for a shared repository.

A badly-indexed and/or non-searchable download section... yeah.

But most folks' dropbox/GDrive/OneBox/etc are equally not indexed, and (by virtue of being random internet users' data) are even less find'able.

People expect to find RQ/CoC/BRP content on a place like BRPCentral.  I d/l from here sometimes.

I've also gone to the d/l section trying to find stuff -- that I was reasonably confident was here... somewhere... -- and left frustrated.

[SDLeary]

2 hours ago, simonh said:

From my experience, forum download sections are where files go to die. Nowadays anyone can have a Dropbox or google drive account to share stuff from, so there isn’t as much of a need for a shared repository.

Well, a shared repository is normally a more organized one. For me at least it tends to be one that is easier to find things in a timely fashion, not having to sort through Google ad placements and returns of more unscrupulous sites that might put RuneQuest in their clouds JUST to get additional hits.

SDLeary

[styopa]

I think the point is that in 2018 customers need more than just a FTP site, which is (pretty much) all the D/L section is today.

Hopefully they're working on it.

[g33k]

14 minutes ago, styopa said:

I think the point is that in 2018 customers need more than just a FTP site, which is (pretty much) all the D/L section is today.

Hopefully they're working on it.

Dunno ... "they"?  Why would "they" work on it?  Who even are "they"?

 

Chaosium hosts their own "official" downloads at Chaosium.com (and stuff at glorantha.com, too).  I don't really see them backing the BRPCentral d/l section, honestly.

@Trifletraxor is already putting in more time and effort than is reasonable to expect as a donated effort.

Who is this "they" you speak of?

...

I could maybe see Trif putting up a Patreon page to fund some better storage, indexing, etc ... ?

 

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

Who is this "they" you speak of?

I think he means Invision who produce and host the software: https://invisioncommunity.com/buy

There is a downloads app, but this a forum not a download resource. More apps = more time to manage.

 

[simonh]

10 hours ago, styopa said:

I think the point is that in 2018 customers need more than just a FTP site, which is (pretty much) all the D/L section is today.

Exactly. A wiki is a much better format for a resource repository, but they usually have limited storage as well. For example fandom, which hosts the RQG wiki, limits uploads to 10MB, it's really just intended for images but makes for a good way to organise and annotate material.

I'm just saying file storage itself isn't a particularly good match to the Forum format as forums don't really give you the tools to organise and present it. But then organisation and presentation is a different problem to storage anyway.

Edited October 17, 2018 by simonh

[SDLeary]

18 hours ago, David Scott said:

I think he means Invision who produce and host the software: https://invisioncommunity.com/buy

There is a downloads app, but this a forum not a download resource. More apps = more time to manage.

 

And, IIRC, more money that Trif has to pony up.

SDLeary

[soltakss]

On 10/17/2018 at 6:12 PM, SDLeary said:

And, IIRC, more money that Trif has to pony up.

He's loaded though, he just sells a few trollkin ... 😉

[SDLeary]

9 hours ago, soltakss said:

He's loaded though, he just sells a few trollkin ... 😉

But doesn't he have to keep them for the cold northern winters, or has global warming taken care of that already?

SDLeary

[Trifletraxor]

The download section is horribly indexed, but invisionpowers download app is not very user friendly in that re-organizing it will take a horrendous amount of work - which is why it has been postponed time and again. It does however have a search function - you just need to tick the "files" box when using the search field. So proper tagging of files is important when sharing and uploading. We have plenty of storage through Amazon, so that's not a limitation anymore. I've added .gdoc and .gsheets as possible extensions. 

[styopa]

Thank you.

Would it at least be possible to get an RQG section for itself, to at least allow people to browse the "newest" stuff submitted for RQG?

[Trifletraxor]

Sure!

https://basicroleplaying.org/files/category/65-runequest-in-glorantha/

[Austin]

On 10/22/2018 at 7:03 AM, Trifletraxor said:

Sure!

https://basicroleplaying.org/files/category/65-runequest-in-glorantha/

It also might be worth updating the subforum's tagline from "Runequest forum for Chaosium's roleplaying game system, classic editions and the upcoming one" since RQG has, after all, upcame.  

[Trifletraxor]

On 11/7/2018 at 11:47 AM, Crel said:

It also might be worth updating the subforum's tagline from "Runequest forum for Chaosium's roleplaying game system, classic editions and the upcoming one" since RQG has, after all, upcame.  

You got a point there!

[drablak]

On 10/12/2018 at 11:59 AM, styopa said:

For people new here, remember there is a Download Section where files can reside.

Thanks! I didn't know that before reading your post.

[styopa]

22 hours ago, drablak said:

Thanks! I didn't know that before reading your post.

There's some great stuff in there.

[seneschal]

And at this point, some of the uploaded files can be found nowhere else.  It is a service worth maintaining no matter how “primitive” it is.

[Atgxtg]

10 minutes ago, seneschal said:

And at this point, some of the uploaded files can be found nowhere else.  It is a service worth maintaining no matter how “primitive” it is.

Yeah, I think we have the Ark of the Covenant in there.  

[seneschal]

1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

Yeah, I think we have the Ark of the Covenant in there.  

Whatever you do, don’t open the lid!