Hezus wrote on 2020-05-10, 06:44:

I did not mean to attack you personally about this. I think your website and the work you're doing on it is very important. […]
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SquallStrife wrote on 2020-05-09, 15:38:

That's a bit unfair. […]
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Hezus wrote on 2020-05-09, 09:41:

Good job on throwing up a lot of hurdles to make software preservation a hard job, I guess.

That's a bit unfair.

I explain in the first post why it's done the way it is.

It's not for the sake of being obstinate or elitist, it's purely a practical decision to minimise my administrative overhead.

There also isn't a hard file size limit, I am just wishing to avoid gigabyte+ size files for the time being, until there a hosting solution with more storage is in place.

I did not mean to attack you personally about this. I think your website and the work you're doing on it is very important.

I was just annoyed at the way it's working currently. Someone who's investing time into preserving software is not only blocked once from uploading it at your site because they can't register themselves, but even twice by this stupid forum PM rule. I'm certain quite a few people would just give up and throw the software in the garbage bin at that point. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish here.

I don't know if your able to do it, but a registration option and an upload limit (probably the size of a CD ISO) would save you a lot of administrative overhead and would open the site up to newcomers who just want to help out.

And it would also open up a lot of administration issues trying to weed out the useless stuff and the like that some people would upload... such as porn, etc.

Take a look at driverguide for example. They have a registration page and anybody can sign up and submit stuff. Pretty much everything on there has 10-20 copies of the same exact driver package.

I was kind of annoyed and having to send a PM to get an account for vogonsdrivers set up before I had an account. But it really is a good way to keep out people who have no business uploading stuff in the first place.

And if somebody doesn't have an account and they want something uploaded, it is easy to just post in the vogonsdrivers thread with a link to it and one of us that has an account will usually upload it pretty quickly.

Im not wrong there is not some good and supported cd images format with compression to save some space for images? Im using udf, but it never got too popular.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-10, 07:47:

Take a look at driverguide for example. They have a registration page and anybody can sign up and submit stuff. Pretty much everything on there has 10-20 copies of the same exact driver package.

Not to mention oodles of wrongly labelled, incomplete, virus infected, or otherwise broken trash, because it's not curated at all.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-10, 07:47:

I was kind of annoyed and having to send a PM to get an account for vogonsdrivers set up before I had an account. But it really is a good way to keep out people who have no business uploading stuff in the first place.

And if somebody doesn't have an account and they want something uploaded, it is easy to just post in the vogonsdrivers thread with a link to it and one of us that has an account will usually upload it pretty quickly.

This, pretty much.

It's something I've thought a lot about over the years. Especially more recently as I've had less ability to respond as fast as I'd like to.

Ultimately, VogonsDrivers is meant to be a curated resource, not a catch-all preservation project. Its main purpose is to be a resource for people fixing/building old PCs, mostly for gaming, which vibes with the hardware sections on the VOGONS forums. Preservation is great, don't get me wrong, but it's not the primary objective.

If I'd just made the barrier some arbitrary post count, that'd be pretty easy to abuse for somebody that wanted to deface the site. If it's open-season, then my disk space would be full in seconds, both from well-meaning people lazily uploading anything without checking for duplicates or relevance, and from not-well-meaning people that just want to cause chaos.

By doing it this way, I can see an individual's history of contribution and collaborating within the community, I can see that they're probably not a jerk, I can see that they've been around enough to understand what the site is about, stuff like that.

It's going to frustrate some people, yes, I know, and I'm sorry. But it works, and has kept the site crap-free and on-topic for 8+ years. There are 1557 files on there right now, you know how many I've pulled, in all those 8 years? 3. And they were for being off-topic, not related files from a well-meaning individual. I've removed zero files for being spam or other malicious/unwanted content, I've edited zero file descriptions for being defaced/vandalised/inappropriate, and I've banned zero people from the site. Ever.

Opening up registrations to the public is not a can of worms I really want to open, given the track record we have!

Thank you for understanding, everyone! <3

I'd rather that SquallStrife keep it as it is than have it turn into DriverGuide, no thanks.

Yep. And for pure, "dump all the things" preservation there's archive.org.

I completely support the current approach taken to the VOGONS Driver Library by SquallStrife.

Chips & Technologies - 655XX Series Video Drivers - Windows 3.1x - V.3.23

This was the last version they released.

Does work with the 65530 VGA Flat Panel chipset.

I have an issue with a post on vogonsdrivers.com but I cannot find the proper place to post it. Will someone please direct me. Thanks.

The vogons drivers library thread of course:

VOGONS Driver Library

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-12, 06:37:

The vogons drivers library thread of course:

VOGONS Driver Library

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That is an intuitive sounding response however if I follow your link to it's destination I find no links or icons to create NEW posts, only replies or quotes of existing posts. If I then go to "http://www.vogonsdrivers.com" I find the same situation with recourse only by way of PM to SquallStrife. When I try to PM him/her I'm told PMing is only for members. I thought I was a member but I guess not. What I've just told you is part of my "gripe" but there's more.

I'm not sure I fallow, I'm not quite sure what the problem is ether. But if I'm understanding everything right, vogonsdrivers.com is not a forum there is no posting on it. There is a thread about the site here as linked above witch you can reply too.
You can PM SquallStrife from here ucp.php?i=pm&mode=compose&u=19248

austinham wrote on 2020-05-12, 15:10:

I'm not sure I fallow, I'm not quite sure what the problem is ether. But if I'm understanding everything right, vogonsdrivers.com is not a forum there is no posting on it. There is a thread about the site here as linked above witch you can reply too.
You can PM SquallStrife from here ucp.php?i=pm&mode=compose&u=19248

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Well, I guess you didn't finish reading my last response. I have tried PMing SquallStrife and was not allowed because I am not a member. Your link just says I'm not authorized. So, I'm looking for someplace appropriate in the forum to post my issues and hopefully SS will notice. So far I'm not doing very well.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 14:51:

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-12, 06:37:

The vogons drivers library thread of course:

VOGONS Driver Library

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That is an intuitive sounding response however if I follow your link to it's destination I find no links or icons to create NEW posts, only replies or quotes of existing posts. If I then go to "http://www.vogonsdrivers.com" I find the same situation with recourse only by way of PM to SquallStrife. When I try to PM him/her I'm told PMing is only for members. I thought I was a member but I guess not. What I've just told you is part of my "gripe" but there's more.

Yeah, you reply to the thread to add a new post to the thread. If you aren't quoting, it will just add a new reply to the end of the thread.

There isn't a specific forum category just for vogonsdrivers... just that thread.

I'm hoping this post catches the attention of SquallStrife (SS) who is the contact listed on this: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com page. I have tried to contact him by PM as the page requests but I was told I can't because I'm "not a member." I thought I was.

Anyway, the page shows a picture of 11 different Microsoft Sidewinder devices. Reading the full text of the page I got the impression that when I downloaded the associated zip file I would have drivers for all (or most) of the pictured devices. I've seen the file structure of a few of the original Sidewinder driver disks and the file structure of the zip file was very different. I was expecting several discreet drivers but instead there was a long list of files and a few folders. There aren't any instructions or "read me" files. There is one SETUP.EXE file and another _SETUP.EXE. After experimenting with both of those files I discovered that they both loaded the same driver, the one for the FF steering wheel. Now, as it happens, that was one of the files I was looking for so that's good. But I also have a NON FF wheel and I know there is a different driver disk for it. Unfortunately, I cannot figure any way to install it (or anything else) from the zip file contents. So, I'm hoping SS can provide some clarification as to whether all 11 of the Sidewinder drivers are really in the zip file and if so how to install them. If any of you reading this happen to know SS please direct him here. Thanks to all in advance.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 18:24:

[...] Unfortunately, I cannot figure any way to install it (or anything else) from the zip file contents. So, I'm hoping SS can provide some clarification as to whether all 11 of the Sidewinder drivers are really in the zip file and if so how to install them. If any of you reading this happen to know SS please direct him here. Thanks to all in advance.

SquallStrife's job isn't to supply tech support on the drivers posted in the archive. Why don't you make a thread in one of the hardware subforums where more of us can help you out? This isn't the right place for these sorts of questions.

xjas wrote on 2020-05-12, 18:41:

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 18:24:

[...] Unfortunately, I cannot figure any way to install it (or anything else) from the zip file contents. So, I'm hoping SS can provide some clarification as to whether all 11 of the Sidewinder drivers are really in the zip file and if so how to install them. If any of you reading this happen to know SS please direct him here. Thanks to all in advance.

SquallStrife's job isn't to supply tech support on the drivers posted in the archive. Why don't you make a thread in one of the hardware subforums where more of us can help you out? This isn't the right place for these sorts of questions.

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You might want to have a look at the page in question as SS has volunteered himself for exactly that. I would be happy to post anywhere deemed appropriate. Do you have a suggestion? I thought about the hardware forums but since my question is about specific software I felt sure someone would direct me elsewhere just as you're doing now. I posted here because another member suggested I should.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:25:

xjas wrote on 2020-05-12, 18:41:

SquallStrife's job isn't to supply tech support on the drivers posted in the archive. Why don't you make a thread in one of the hardware subforums where more of us can help you out? This isn't the right place for these sorts of questions.

You might want to have a look at the page in question as SS has volunteered himself for exactly that. I would be happy to post anywhere deemed appropriate. Do you have a suggestion? I thought about the hardware forums but since my question is about specific software I felt sure someone would direct me elsewhere just as you're doing now. I posted here because another member suggested I should.

SquallStrife's statement on the driver site ("If something breaks, get in contact with SquallStrife via PM on the VOGONS Forums and we'll fix it as quickly as possible.") is about the function of the driver site itself, not tech support for individual drivers. Similarly, the thread we're in now is for issues or contributions related to the site.

You were directed here because it sounded like you had an issue with the site.

As advised you should start a thread here asking for help with your particular hardware: General Old Hardware

I'm amazed that someone thought that SS himself was offering to troubleshoot issues with the drivers themselves, and not the site. No one person has that kind of time on their hands given how many drivers are on that site and how many downloads occur.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:25:

You might want to have a look at the page in question as SS has volunteered himself for exactly that.

No, I'm responsible for the site itself, the files are contributed by members of the community. I couldn't possibly be familiar with every file on there.

With that in mind, you'll have better luck if you reach out to whomever uploaded the file. You can see who uploaded it on the file listing.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:25:

I would be happy to post anywhere deemed appropriate. Do you have a suggestion? I thought about the hardware forums but since my question is about specific software I felt sure someone would direct me elsewhere just as you're doing now. I posted here because another member suggested I should.

As Pierre32 said, General Old Hardware is correct, you're trying to get a joystick working right?

SquallStrife wrote on 2020-05-12, 23:24:

No, I'm responsible for the site itself, the files are contributed by members of the community. I couldn't possibly be familiar […]
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ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:25:

You might want to have a look at the page in question as SS has volunteered himself for exactly that.

No, I'm responsible for the site itself, the files are contributed by members of the community. I couldn't possibly be familiar with every file on there.

With that in mind, you'll have better luck if you reach out to whomever uploaded the file. You can see who uploaded it on the file listing.

ram1009 wrote on 2020-05-12, 19:25:

I would be happy to post anywhere deemed appropriate. Do you have a suggestion? I thought about the hardware forums but since my question is about specific software I felt sure someone would direct me elsewhere just as you're doing now. I posted here because another member suggested I should.

As Pierre32 said, General Old Hardware is correct, you're trying to get a joystick working right?

I'm working on a steering wheel not a joy stick----same thing really. The file in question was uploaded by someone called Robin4. Unfortunately, I will be equally unable to PM him as I was with you (SS). The site says I'm not a member.