Dropbox discontinuing rendering of HTML content

Guessing you still need to pay for it? Or am I being dumb and got mixed up with something else?

This is so frustrating. Such a simple feature with a huge impact on the community. Also going to explore the other options out there, so I will be keeping an ear out. I appreciate the suggestions others have already posted here. Having to pay extra is not ideal, if doable at all, personally. I know others have mentioned this, but the fact that this unexpectedly comes within weeks of trying to organize a beta test with a couple different compiles is aggravating. Sigh.

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There goes the Google Drive option then… :confused:

Yes, recently it seems like there’s a disturbing and decidedly user-unfriendly trend towards some sort of mobile focused web 3.0 crap that is apparently to run on a “cable-tv” model or something.

What does this mean for those of us who frequent this site to read the works in progress? From the sounds of it there won’t be a way for us to see these w.I.ps. now. Please tell me this isn’t the case.

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I cannot say how long it will take but with @dashingdon file and @Malebranche mad skills with db we are working on a solution, meaning you will be able to host WIPs. May not work like dropbox but should be simple to use.

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Active users are hurrying to find alternatives. What’s really sad are that all of the dormant WIPs from inactive users will stop working unless they notice and/or update their links. Better get your last few plays in before October 3rd, just in case…

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There are options out there, we just need to find them. One we can always use is webs.com, an old but free to use website creator where writers can upload their own file to their own website.

I’ll soon have Blackraven and Colonising Kepler 62e up with a link on there. Not ideal (uploading files is slow) but it works until a better solution can be found.

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Yes, many of the unfortunately unfinished “golden oldies” will be rendered unplayable due to this. :cry:

Some internet providers, like mine, also still offer you your own “free” complementary webpage, but I guess if they do to use that you’d need to be a bit more tech-savvy than I am.

You should look at the text through scenes/startup.txt and download them or paste them into notepad and save, then host them, if they mean that much to the community, no one will mind so long as you credit.

Like I said, it would need someone with more skill in that area then I have to set that all up in a functional webpage, saving some of them for myself is a good suggestion though.

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I think webs.com now requires a premium account to host some files? correct me on this if I am wrong or if someone tried to use webs.com to host their game links? :flushed:

It might be worth looking at Blot - it allows you to store files in Dropbox and then renders them via a third part server, you can design the style of web page you want to display your files in, it can be used with your domain name if you have one.
Hosting costs $20 / year
https://blot.im/

This is really sad as there are a few games I loved that the writer is no where to be found and or unreachable. I would gather up a bunch of these and host on my server with full credit to the write but not so sure this is ethical, plus right now really unable to find the time right now to gather up all the code for each game.

Do not do this. Do not take other people’s games and then host them yourself and share with others. While I understand you’re coming from a good place, it’s not right to take others games and place them somewhere else without the original author’s consent.

I would say no, this isn’t ethical. Download them for your own use certainly. Don’t share with others.

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It’s a grey area, surely if those games have been left publicly accessible, it’s safe to assume the majority wouldn’t mind them staying publicly accessible? That said, I guess the issue comes when the person who re-hosts it suddenly disappears, and the original author - if they ever should return - can’t get it taken down.

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I disagree strongly with this. I don’t think it’s a grey area at all. I don’t think anyone should rehost someone’s game without their explicit consent and I do not think we should be encouraging people to do so.

Yes it will be a pity to lose our favourite WIPs, but they are works in progress. They’re posted here explicitly for the purpose of community feedback in order to improve the games. They’re not being published here. These are not free games for our consumption. The author isn’t intending to relinquish any of their rights by posting the games on the forums.

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I was not expecting this thread to derail into the abandonware debate that has been raging for several decades.

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I have tried a few different things with our own Wordpress.com page and they all ended in much teeth gnashing. It is definitely not friendly towards hosting this kind of content, unless someone else here knows something I don’t. Will have to try again elsewhere! Sorry. :confused:

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I’m not encouraging anything, merely musing, and who said anything about relinquishing rights? However, it is a simple fact of modern society; if you don’t want something shared online, don’t put it online. Whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad, once it’s online, people can (and will) take it. For the record, no, unless there’s an explicit notice, I don’t think it’s a good thing. It is worth however pointing out that some games/code and content do include such notices, and where they do, people should feel free to abide by the authors wishes and reuse/host that content. A lot of my own material on this site is free for people to use as they wish. Whilst I freely admit that I wish there was more of this in the world, web and this forum, I am by no means an advocate of “we own it because they’re not active anymore”. Please don’t get me wrong in that respect, I’m well aware that copying and reusing copyrighted content without permission is illegal.

That said, my point was meant to be that I would imagine a vast majority of old WIP authors would be OK with it. No, I know that doesn’t make it “OK”, ethically, nor legally to go ahead and make assumptions. We can’t know for sure that they won’t come back and ask us to take it down (my second point in the post above), and if the person who uploaded that has also disappeared, then of course, we’d have a huge problem.

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