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Taking the load off CM Mods - a hypothetical


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We all know the hard work that ColumbusOHGamer has done with cmmods and how much it's valued.

I also appreciate that cmmods may not be around for ever - CohG has enough to do with his life and the expense and time required may be too much at some point. So I'm proposing that in the future we could make use of Grouper to share files amongst ourselves. It's not intended to replace his solution, nor am I attempting to slight the enormous amount of work he's done. Far from it.

I had considered the possibility of a file-sharing approach before but the nature of these programs means that it's not possible to easily track down the mods we all love. Grouper is invitation-only and that means that it's easy to make a CM Mods specific group and share only mods within that.

If you'd like to run some trials with me on the efficacy of this solution, please post here.

It's best suited to those of use with broadband/cable connections, but if you're on a modem and want to give downloading a go, you can post here too.

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Actually, I wouldn't mind letting someone else take over. Having 6MB/512KB bandwidth get sucked out for cmmods.com kinda sucks at times. Like when I want to d/l a file and I get 2k/sec d/l speeds. :(

Your biggest problem is that there are just too many users. I have ~8000 registered at cmmods already. For a single person to manage a user list for access to the shareware would be overwhelming.

But if there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

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You're probably right about the difficulty of sorting files and managing users. Grouper isn't really designed for large groups, and 8000 is (not surprising) but a huge number.

When I get a couple of days I'll set up some testing systems and email you two chaps to see how it performs.

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What about sharing via eMule. It's add/spyware free, and works quite easily.

The problem with any filesharing solution is that you don't know who's uploading what, but I guess that could still be a potential problem at CMMODS, but maybe not as likely.

Edit: Sorry, there's not a Mac version, I thought that there was. eMule has a sister program called (you guessed it) eDonkey. That one may have a Mac/*nix version.

[ June 28, 2005, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: GJK ]

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I use EMule and it relies very heavily (as far as I can tell) on large numbers of people sharing the same file. Therefore (for example) Gordon Molek's late war potato peel camo PanzerGeArbeitSchlect XIV (with 3 people sharing) is unlikely to be available to anyone at any time, whereas Hot Cheese Smeared Plastic Boobied Terror Chicks is going to keep cropping up whether you like it to or not.

It's up to you what you download, of course, but in Grouper you can share different files with different groups. So (for example) in the CM Mods group I can share all my CM Mods, and in the Ham Salad Recipe group I can share all my ham salad recipes.

The other issue with EMule is getting a 'lowID' rating. This is caused by (either) not sharing enough files or being behind a router on your broadband connection. LowID cannot connect to LowID, which means that two people on routers can't exchange files.

I've sent an invite to Bonxa and he's joined - anyone else want to give it a try?

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Soddball, we don't seem to be online at the same time very much. In in GMT+1 (Sweden).

I have now also shared some mods I have. Do we think all mod creators are happy so long as their names are associated with the mods files? It would be nice to get a standardized file name for all the mods too. Something with the name of the artist first, then the name of the modded thing, or the otherway round.

We'll have to give it some time, it costs nothing to have it running anyway.

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Bonxa,

I don't have Grouper enabled all the time at the moment because it kills my online gaming (which I have been doing too much of in the last couple of days).

I managed to get a couple of files downloaded from you quite smoothly. Your internet speed is :mad: fast!! My ADSL is 2Mbit downstream but only 256k upstream. :mad: :mad:

Anyway, I will look over the weekend at standard name structures, and maybe a standard folder structure aswell, similar to CM Mods has at the moment.

Thanks for your help.

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The system seems to work very smoothly for downloads and uploads (although much depends on who you're downloading from).

I'm going to stick with the CMMods folder structure and look at file name structures and then go for an official set up over the weekend.

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I'm not sure bittorrent is such a good idea with the small amount of downloads of the same file going on at the same time. We're not that large a community after all. And we would anyway need somewhere to store the torrents.

Let's try out this Grouper thing and then in a few months we can evaluate it. smile.gif

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Bittorrent would work well if people would keep a folder with the mods they already downloaded open as long as they could. That way you help with everything you have, not only with what you just downloaded

Since you can limit upload speed, and since you can have multiple bittorrents running (one for CM mods, one for everything else) that would be an ideal solution.

People have to realize that bittorrent has been designed precisely for a community like the CM community. Lots of people with lots of freely distributable data that they want to share (and are allowed to) but no desire to put everything on one web server and pay for it.

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There is absolutely no reason to go for a single-vendor protocol, especially if it is single-vendor, single-platform, closed-source, small-company implementation aka a toy, when there is a standard protocol with multiple implementations available.

The life expectancy of this is much less than cmmods.com.

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Originally posted by Redwolf:

There is absolutely no reason to go for a single-vendor protocol, especially if it is single-vendor, single-platform, closed-source, small-company implementation aka a toy, when there is a standard protocol with multiple implementations available.

The life expectancy of this is much less than cmmods.com.

And of course the minor point that CMMods relies exclusively on the good will and sound finances of a single person seems to have leapt past your attention.
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One way to ease the burdon on cmmods.com is a 'swap meet' barter system among friends. Instead of everybody rushing to individually download a new set of mods (like all those Shermans or all those PzIIIs) one guy in a circle of friends could do it, quickly burn a few CDs (or file transfers, or whatever technology he has at hand) and simply hand them out to his buddies. That way, there's an incremental decrease in burdon on cmmods.com, mods still get distributed, and in case the unthinkable happens (again) the mods will be able to live on being bartered among players in a decentralized manner.

Also, I believe Zimorodok had said while cmmods.com was down his own mod site was being much less heavily utilized than he had expected.

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Originally posted by Soddball:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Redwolf:

There is absolutely no reason to go for a single-vendor protocol, especially if it is single-vendor, single-platform, closed-source, small-company implementation aka a toy, when there is a standard protocol with multiple implementations available.

The life expectancy of this is much less than cmmods.com.

And of course the minor point that CMMods relies exclusively on the good will and sound finances of a single person seems to have leapt past your attention. </font>
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