Lost addon links!

[Sailorjohn]

I recently tried to help Nemo access Ferda's wonderful East_Africa scenery. The forum link from which I downloaded it 6/2010 is gone. I then checked the Egypt_Nile scenery...couldn't find that link either. Because these sceneries were too large for the Library...the links were the only download source. Nemo then reportedly checked his Black_Pearl and Viking_longship links...they're also gone. It seems that while "The Crew" was busy dithering about what color wallpaper and logo design to 'upgrade' this forum...they also ran 'Autoprune' and deleted all old threads not having recent entries! So the primary purpose for having the forum in the first place...to maintain a repository for user content...has been compromised for a 'new look'. I won't belabor the point, other than to note that leadership by committee seldom works; no one person is really in charge. Someone has to step up and OWN it! They don't command warships by committee!

So...I strongly urge all those who have so generously supplied their time and talents to provide addons for VS and VSF...please check to see if the links for their addons are still here, and still work! I hope Ferda reads this, and can restore the links to his deleted sceneries. But I fear there are many other addons that have disappeared. As a member of hangsim forums for a decade, and a VS'er even longer...I recall many previous addons being lost forever due to hacking, forum crashes, accidental deletions, etc. Looks like it's happened again!

[hjsmuc]

I fully agree with Sailorjohn here. I have been a member for a rather short period only but there seem to be a couple of valuable add-ons missing in the library. They are sometimes being talked about but they cannot be found. In times of cheap cloud storage space we should be able to regain access to these add-ons if the authors help us. Hopefully there will be a lot of participation. With the consent of the authors we would also be able to provide the files directly from the users. Cheers, Hans.

[Bartolomeus]

I think SailorJohn has right. I can also upload and provide the Addons (also the larger files and of course with the permission from the author) on my website.

Marko

[Nemo]

In realta, the autoprune was there for quite a while before the forum was updated. Until recently the moderators had only moderating permissions, and so were unable to do anything regarding the auto-prune, which was added by one of the administrators (either Ilan or Victor).

When Ilan decided that a new forum look was wanted, and the other moderator/admin stepped down, we were given admin permissions so make necessary changes. One of the first things I did was to turn off any auto-prune that was activated for any forum, since I know that the games rely heavily on third party add-on content, and I wouldn't do anything to compromise that, and the links and topics to avalible downloads. I was shocked when I noticed that so many were gone, and that auto-prune had been activated.

But since so many have been lost, I do too urge anyone that has had their topic lost, please upload them again.
If they're too big for the library, http://www.fileswap.com is a good hosting website, which is free, and you have an account where you can manage your uploads. Of course, there are many file hosting sites, but I've found this one to be one of the better ones. Download speeds are good there, too

[teepee]

I must heartily agree with all the participants on this subject. There are a few of us who rely on the skills of others to supply the add-ons, both vehicles and scenery. I had a VS crash and my backup was corrupted. I lost most of my sceneries and discovered that ones of Norway, Sweden and many vessels were no longer available. Please, those who may still have this data, make it available again.