Oolite Bulletins

The goal of this project is to simplify the installation process of OXPs for new players and collectors. There are more than 500 package currently, many of them worth a check but needed too much repetitive work to getting them.

The previous solution based on ideas in OXPs for new players topic: grouped the most wanted OXPs into large zip files, but the maintenance of these is problematic.

The new plan for the  OXP Collection is to use a client software which can update your AddOns folder (if you want) when a new version available, download changes only and no unzipping needed due to store unpacked .oxp folders.

New players can safely download the Basic.oxp and Lookout.oxp folders. Before others should read the OXP_Collection_readme.txt file in the hosted top folder (namely AddOns).

The  wiki page of OXP Collection contain a possible download howto.

Edit: download currently disabled, need to discuss it below with the authors.

You can help in the maintenance of OXP Collection: I want to share the password of storage with some people. The work is easy: when a new version comes out from an OXP then unzip it to the proper (synchronized) folder, then the client will upload it to the server. If we collaborate then only a part of work needed to do by a person (often others done it before you).

The benefit within this group is the totally automatic update: do not need to press download on preferred folders to check for updates. So collectors wanted.

I sense a large can of worms, incoming..

To begin with, I'd like to request you remove my Q-Bomb Detector from the collection. I like to keep track of how many downloads it's had. This collection takes that ability away from me. (not to mention that asking before taking it upon yourself to do this would have been the polite thing to do)

Removed, but we has some counting due to when somebody want to see this collection in the client then he must add the host login to the contact list and we also will se the login name of the requester. We can not count if a single person download it more times but we can count the users.

Also ther are an API which maybe help to make a counter (anybody? ).

Hi Norby,
While this looks like a good idea, it may cause problems for various reasons. I remember somebody else tried something similar a couple of years ago and sadly it all ended acrimoniously with many OXP authors feeling unhappy and the member who did this leaving the board under very unhappy circumstnces
Like Dizzie many of us like to keep a note of our downloads and this will not be possible for me if any of my OXPs are included - I haven't actually looked yet so I don't know if they are.
The other problem of course if when OXPs are updated/re-released as the new version will not automatically be included in the parallel downloads. As an OXP author yourself you understand the huge amount of work involved in even a simple update, particularly where updating the documentation (wiki pages, web pages etc) is concerned, and therefore most authors will not welcome having to do extra work for a second download site. Unless you undertake this yourself (and it will be a full-time job!) things will get out of synch and could just lead to confusion.
I'm sorry if this sounds a bit negative as this is clearly an attempt to address a real problem, but history suggests that this concept is doomed to fail, I'm afraid.

I'm sorry, Norby, but I don't like this idea at all. If the Green Gecko is included, please remove it.

Diziet Sma wrote:

asking before taking it upon yourself to do this would have been the polite thing to do

+1 Dizzy.

The fact that Norby didn't ask before doing this will have got a lot of OXP author's backs up. Plus there could be licensing issues too, especially with the older OXPs.

Norby, why did you not speak to the community first before embarking on this project?

Another thought here is security issues. I do not like the idea of a website (http://www.wuala.com/) I've never heard of before being given access to my harddrive.

So, I won't be signing up. I'd rather have full control over what OXPs I have on my computer.

I was too fast, sorry guys. Downloads disabled to discuss the concept.

@Diziet Sma and Thargoid: I like counting also, so I will check for more possibilities, at last resort I can try to make it in php.

@Dev team: please tell if a similar effort is ongoing, or which topic we need to check.

@Smivs: Thank you for the memory, I do not want to make unhappy members, and without authors we can not collect anything, but maybe ther are a better and acceptable solution than the current - this project try to find out this.

I do not want to force authors to make a second upload, I planned to do this work with fan users. I think if the maintaner team is enough large then can update enough fast and without need too much work on a single person as I tried to describe it in my second post.

Moreover in longer time we can lay down the fundaments of a central solution by half-solutions if the dev team accept some ideas born here.

@Cody: I started a manual_downloads.txt which contain wiki links to OXPs which excluded by author request. Green Gecko now added in.

@JazHaz: I am sorry, I was focused to found a solution of the traffic limit and forget to communicate properly. I introduced my idea about sharing here and waited 10 days for reactions before I extended it. I got no answers so I supposed no problems with it, this was my fault. Now we can make a new start, we have as many time to discuss it as we want.

I choosed the hosting service from Wikipedia comparsion list, the firm exists since 6 years so I do not think it is less safe than others in this list but thank you for mentioning, I like security also.

Norby wrote:

@Cody: I started a manual_downloads.txt which contain wiki links only to OXPs which excluded by author request. Green Gecko added into this txt.

Thanks, I appreciate that. As you see, this type of project is fraught with potential problems.

Cody wrote:

As you see, this type of project is fraught with potential problems.

I see, surely this is the reason why not maded it before. But I like to solve problems, as play a crossword game: more interesting if not too easy.

Norby wrote:

... play a crossword game: more interesting if not too easy.

I too like crosswords (of the cryptic variety), and there I agree with you.

As I mentioned above, similar ideas have been floated before. The one I was thinking of was a mirror site for OXPs, and it did come to a very sad end with the member who started it leaving the board and feeling very unhappy with the way he was treated. This was particularly unfortunate as his intentions were good and he tried to offer a service which was (and probably still is) seen as very helpful.
Also, Dizzie and others including myself long ago started a project called 'OXP Central' which was intended to be a single source for all OXPs. That failed as well.
The problem with this type of project is that it tries to take a massive body of work, from numerous authors and with a whole raft of different licensing and monitoring requirements, and tries to make them all the same in all respects. Because the authors use a variety of download sites, licenses etc, and many like to keep accurate figures for their downloads this cannot be done, so such attempts are doomed before they even start really.
While I don't know the details of what the Devs have in mind, I suspect that a simplified way of finding OXPs is being looked at. However, that will not be able to cope with the variety of requirements the authors have so a unified download site is realistically not something we are ever likely to see.

JazHaz wrote:

I'd rather have full control over what OXPs I have on my computer.

You have full control with client software also (until you use your own login and not the maintainer password which can do automatic updates). With your login the client will do nothing first. If you select a folder to synchronize then you can upload your files to your store but will not touch anything if you not setup it and it is not needed for downloads, so you can simply ignore this feature.

When you want to get something, you must give the login name of the user who store the content, then you can browse his store and download exactly what you want. For example if you do right click and download on the "Welcome Mat 1.13.oxp" folder then you will asked for a destination folder on your machine as if you use an internet browser - you have full control over it but you can save the step of unzipping a few hundred times in the future.

In addition new players can click on the Basic and other folders which fit into his personal style to download many OXPs in a few step, and collectors can get the whole AddOns folder (2GB) with one click.