SSDL Files

[CRe]

Yesterday, Lynx and I made a script that extracts files from SSDL and we are making the files that we have retrieved available

to the public in one bunch. The files are in a zip archive and are available at the following mirrors (Thanks to L.C. for the hosting):

 

Files excluding banners (1.34gb):

http://www.hlrse.net.../SSDLBackup.zip

http://cdn.bluetoast.../SSDLBackup.zip

http://www.bluetoast.../SSDLBackup.zip

 

Banners only (2.60mb):

http://www.hlrse.net...kup-banners.zip

http://cdn.bluetoast...kup-banners.zip

http://www.bluetoast...kup-banners.zip

 

Enjoy,

CRe

[Testtube]

I would only have to say be very careful when downloading content from any of those links listed above.

 

I will also say that i noticed this happening as it put a lot of strain on the resources that hosts SSDL and this forum. This server which hosts SEVERAL SS related sites is donated to the community. When community members abuse the free service it moves me more towards leaving community completely. the SSDL server was never meant to have someone download the entire site in one visit In fact we ask that you don't do that.

 

With all the topics floating around about how we need to save subspace help subspace do this and that for subspace. Why the hell would you make the server inaccessible that hosts a large portion of the subspace network. In addition to that use up resources that are given for free to the community.

 

I am not going to ask for you to take the files offline as the damage is already done but i will say i am very upset about what you guys did to my server and my resources that i donate. And that future donations (EG the advertising donation and the advertising campaign i worked on of 400 dollars i was going to make) Will be given more thought before its made.

 

Edit additional information

What you guys did in one day came out to be 30% of all traffic SSDL gets out of a entire month

 

28 21899 3.58% 19363 3.69% 2023 2.64% 483 2.86% 423 4.85% 14997422 29.48%

Edited December 1, 2009 by Testtube

[»jabjabjab]

Yeah.. Raping testtube's server which he gave to the community...

[Hakaku]

Although I know I'm not contributing to the issue by adding this, but you can reduce the filesize much more if you don't use basic .zip compression. .rar (+best compression method) is a step up, but 7-Zip would be much better suited for such things.

[Testtube]

7zip does offer a better compression.

[»Maverick]

I fail to see the point of "backing up" the files of the ssdownloads.com website.

Why would you do that? It's not like the website will be down soon (because of this it might just be more likely) or the files being gone tomorrow.

 

If you want to provide a real backup, you should talk to Testtube and ask if you can mirror the website (setup a sync and modify DNS entries) as means of a backup server. If you would've done that, Testtube might already have told you that this would cost too much bandwith and strain on the current server.

 

All you did now was provide an unhandable unmaintainable copy of files that will be outdated tomorrow.

Edited December 1, 2009 by Maverick

[Testtube]

They did this for their own reasons and they could care less on who they screw in the process. I made several attempts to reach out to the community to help update the look and feel of SSDL to make it more functional and easier to maintain. Instead of helping this is being done.

 

And ill go ahead and put this out there. Its because of shit like this is another reason the community is dieing

Edited December 1, 2009 by Testtube

[krslynx]

Lol. Yeah, the 'community' is dying because CRe downloaded some files from Subspace Downloads, effectively somehow DDOSing ALL OF SUBSPACE. Stop being such a fucking drama queen.

 

If you'd jumped off your elitist pedestal in the first place and simply provided an iso of all the files, they wouldn't have needed to be scraped from your server in a bandwidth intensive way. If L.C. has other plans on providing hosting for the files, especially in innovative ways, then I see absolutely no reason to not help him in his endeavours. You have no right to tell him that he's not the person for the job.

 

@MMav: I do believe that L.C. had plans to mirror these files on other sites, and redesign the complete list of files so they can be downloaded and browsed in a more user-friendly fashion. They were not going to be downloaded as just a complete mirror.

 

"And ill go ahead and put this out there. Its because of shit like this is another reason the community is dieing"

 

No, it's just shit like this that's pissed you off - and I find it funny how people believe that the members of SSForum are the community. Subspace is a player driven game. If SSForum goes off-line, Trench Wars will still be alive, just like DSB will still be alive - oh and so will Hyperspace and any other zone. Websites may bring the community slightly tighter together, but they are by no means the foundation to the community in this dead, antiquated and stagnated game.

[Testtube]

Hey ass hat hate to break it to you 10+ years ago the community was tied together with websites. and even more recently with domains like subspace.net

 

This server that hosts this forum Not only represents the SSFORUM community but the community of several zones Some of them very large in the Community In addition to that this servers hosts for FREE personal sites of players and squads from this community. Its a good representation of subspace as any other example.

 

Using your same shit tastic example i can go and dos attack several SS zones and cripple them bringing them off line and as long as Trench is online and fine Subspace is just gravy Regardless how many people have lost thier "home" zone

 

 

This has NOTHING to do with being a elitist i am one of the most down to earth people in the game the difference is I happen to love it and have contributed more to it than you ever will. and i take offense when people take something that is in essence a gift and shit all over it.

 

So because i didn't provide him with all the files that i have layed out in my site that gives him and everyone else the right to fuck my server?

 

If i was a elitist as you say I would use my "subspace Pull" and have all that shit wiped from this site. replying to a message saying hey you douche you are fucking up my server because you are a child and you couldn't get what you want is hardly DRAMA

 

Drama would be me using what influence i do have to cause issues. None of which i am doing.

 

Based on your post let me add this

 

* one other thing that is killing the population of Subspace I think its people like you who can not see what was done is wrong and because you lack reasoning skills you guys are slowly dieing off. Survival of the fittest.

 

This of course is only a guess based on your reply.

 

I am upset that this happened but i am equally upset that people think this behavior is acceptable.

 

While you might be right if all of the subspace related sites went down would subspace still be alive? Sure it would but why add additional nails in the coffin In addition theirs people PAYING money out of their pockets for advertising campaign for this dieing game. You Google subspace and subspacedownloads.com is the third ranked link that comes up that was/is inaccessible during the same time people are spending money advertising the game.

 

Brilliant i cant wait to see a rebuttle your first reply was truly laughable

Edited December 1, 2009 by Testtube

[»doc flabby]

Its normally polite to ask someone before you download large amounts of data from a web server. If you don't want to ask, just do it slowly, so you don't kill the server...If you'd downloaded a file an hour, I doubt anyone would have noticed and you'd have downloaded the entire server in a few months.

 

 

The problem I think is the lack of joined up thinking and communication...and it goes to the core of subspace.

The SSCouncil is full of inactive people who don't talk, and generally hate the game and don't play any more. The few active members get frustrated with the uselessness and anti-innovatoin mindset of the council.

 

People get frustrated and end up doing things on their own without realising the concesquences....because of this lack of communication...

 

I suggest, we form a new council for Subspace, membership is determined by what you GIVE to the game (not what you gave) and your responsibilities to the game, and it should be forward looking, and inactive members removed swiftly. Why are we bothering with a failed organisation...

 

Some of the members would be the same, (Prittk and Ghost Ship, as they still GIVE to the game), but i think most of the current SSCouncil members don't do anything for the game anymore.

Edited December 1, 2009 by doc flabby

[Testtube]

This has nothing to do with the council and everything to do with the actions of Cre and Lynx and how they went about it. Not all of the content they retrieved was subspace related which means its of personal nature which then means it was stolen. More than likely stolen using accounts given to them for free from the web community

 

So lets keep track, They took the free resources that was given to them. They may or may not have used said resources to steal the content from my site. Including of which was private data non subspace related. Which resulted in the disruption of service for all involved on the server. And consuming a huge amount or resources (bandwidth) which i pay for in one day.

 

But all of this is okay no harm no foul They got what they wanted all is green in the world. Hell we have other people in the ss community hosting the shit they took!

[»doc flabby]

This has nothing to do with the council and everything to do with the actions of Cre and Lynx and how they went about it. Not all of the content they retrieved was subspace related which means its of personal nature which then means it was stolen. More than likely stolen using accounts given to them for free from the web community

 

So lets keep track, They took the free resources that was given to them. They may or may not have used said resources to steal the content from my site. Including of which was private data non subspace related. Which resulted in the disruption of service for all involved on the server. And consuming a huge amount or resources (bandwidth) which i pay for in one day.

 

But all of this is okay no harm no foul They got what they wanted all is green in the world. Hell we have other people in the ss community hosting the shit they took!

I agree totally this was wrong...i think pretty much everyone agrees, you don't need to defend yourself, bandwidth is expensive, and high CPU usage will kill a server, i run a webserver myself, i know all of this. I would be pissed as well.

 

What I was trying to do was move this thread in a wider direction, to look at the causes of this behavior, because it happens fairly freaquently because this comes down to fea, suspicion and frustration. People in this community don't trust each other, they worry when the next person will suddenly disappear, fucking up shit, or they get frustrated with the lack of progress. Having an offsite backup/mirror of the SSDL website isn't such a bad idea, but the way it was executed was terrible and damaging, but with communication this could have been arranged in a way that didnt harm the game. Perhaps they could have posted the idea in this forum, we could have discussed it, and found a solution.

 

If we can produce an area for people who GIVE to the game like yourself to communicate. I personally think its time for the people bankrolling this shit to take some more control and responsibility over the direction of the game, after all its only though your general donations this game continues, so we should be working together and communicating in a working group. This way we can get things done, and use peoples skills in a positive way.

Edited December 1, 2009 by doc flabby

[Hakaku]

Having an offsite backup/mirror of the SSDL website isn't such a bad idea, but the way it was executed was terrible and damaging, but with communication this could have been arranged in a way that didnt harm the game. Perhaps they could have posted the idea in this forum, we could have discussed it, and found a solution.

Thing is, you can't really say that open discourse wasn't attempted before. For anyone who doesn't remember, refer to this.

[Testtube]

There was still no evidence that a mirror needed to exist. (other than personal gain/self gratification) And if a mirror was needed to be placed online it should be left to me to set it up.

 

And to be honest the bottom line is this is not the way you go about it. Any way you look at it Whatever your agenda may be this is absolutely the wrong way to do things.

 

Not only the subspace content was taken but personal content was also removed. In addition to that some of the content that was stolen and now being redistributed cost me money to acquire So now i have damages and we start to enter into the terms of legalty

Edited December 1, 2009 by Testtube

[»Xog]

I'm sorry someone had to make you go through so much trouble, TT. I want to say thank you for everything you've ever done for us and hope you continue doing it. Edited December 1, 2009 by Xog

[»freakmonger]

yea there was a downtime yesterday when I got a "server too busy" error when trying to access SSForum. Was wondering what was going on.

[krslynx]

Although you've made a barely comprehensible reply, let me retort on the parts which at least make some sense. I'll try to ignore your childish abrasiveness and your empty and pointless attempts to belittle me as I make this reply too...

 

Firstly, you're using the argument that because we downloaded all of the files from SSDL, we've somehow now made SSDL redundant. This is a fallacy and I can only put that down to your shallow logic of why we have collected the files from SSDL. Furthermore, sites which have the features that SSDL has is not going to harm SSDL, but should only cause SSDL to start to innovate more, and improve the way that it works. In your replies, and in your actions of not handing files to L.C., you're doing nothing more than fight competition and set SSDL as the only subspace website which provides the features that it does. Your actions of doing so can be easily seen when you make replies like this:

 

Testtube:

'This is my site. With content that i have put up maintained and paid to have online for years I don't want to give the data contents away to you or anyone else so they can throw together something that i have been working on for several years. Its my hobby work on your own.'

 

The simple fact is that the files which you host on that site are not yours. If somebody else believes that they can improve the game further by providing other means of download (which still wouldn't damage SSDL) then why would you prevent them, other than because you want SSDL to be the only ship in the ocean. The simple fact is that reliance on one person, one server or anything like that in Subspace has only caused the community in general more trouble than it has good. Instead of embracing an open attitude towards competition - you've monopolised yourself, and on top of that you've tried to belittle anybody who's questioned your ways with your abrasive and childish replies. You then provided L.C. with an ultimatum, you demanded that you would not compress all of the files and send them to him - yet you stated that he can manually download each file one-by-one from SSDL to get what he wants.

 

So, in reply to your outlandish request - a script was made to visit each download link (and not visit each page on top of that, therefore not raping your servers as much as somebody clicking each link to download) and store the files, so L.C. could continue with his projects. Let me say again, all of this could have been avoided if you'd have embraced a more open attitude towards the development of this game, and provided L.C. an easier way to download all of the files, but as you said - the damage has been done.

 

Now, I can bet that you're going to babble on about how long you've been a patriot for Subspace - by paying loads of bills and whatnot, and then go on about how SubspaceDownloads does not need to be replaced as it's had such a shining uptime and blah blah blah, but to reply in an instance: Reliance on ONE person using a CLOSED system is completely futile and is probably the SOLE reason this game has stagnated as much as it has. Competition and open standards only causes those maintaining their systems to continue to maintain their systems, and innovate to make things better.

 

"This has NOTHING to do with being a elitist i am one of the most down to earth people in the game the difference is I happen to love it and have contributed more to it than you ever will. and i take offense when people take something that is in essence a gift and shit all over it."

 

Your actions prove otherwise. Instead of helping L.C. create something better than SSDL, you crippled L.C. completely and provided him nothing but an awkward way to gather the files which would simply be otherwise impossible to gather in Continuums current population and development climate.

 

"So because i didn't provide him with all the files that i have layed out in my site that gives him and everyone else the right to fuck my server?"

 

If you don't provide a service that needs to be served, and you openly set yourself out to be the ONLY person in the community to provide that service, it will eventually be served by another means. Furthermore, I fail to see how a mass download of the files on SSDL *FUCKED* your server - it never even DOS'd your server. It's no secret that SSDL only gets a fraction of page visits that it once did, and therefore only serves a fraction of bandwidth it once did. Adding that to the fact that downloading ALL of your content in a single day only constitutes to 30% of your monthly bandwidth, and I can safely state again - your server never got fucked.

 

"While you might be right if all of the subspace related sites went down would subspace still be alive? Sure it would but why add additional nails in the coffin In addition theirs people PAYING money out of their pockets for advertising campaign for this dieing game."

 

And as I'm going to iterate, just because the files are openly available it doesn't mean that SSDL is suddenly going to go down. I think that this should be pretty Q.E.D. at the moment, as the files are now all available to anybody, and hazaa, SSDL is still there. I never said that SSDL/SSForum/w.e other SS site shouldn't be here, you just jumped to that conclusion when you without realising you made yourself, and your own emotions mutually exclusive to SSDL and SSForum.

 

I admit and agree with doc flabby though - we probably should have warned TT first (although, he'd have said no - and we'd have still done it anyway...). I also agree with the rest of your post, doc.

 

Then, moving onto your next post you've gone as far to accuse us of stealing or breaking the law. I guess this is just a typical trend you see far more now-a-days.. If you can't innovate, litigate.

 

TestTube:

"Not all of the content they retrieved was subspace related which means its of personal nature which then means it was stolen. More than likely stolen using accounts given to them for free from the web community"

 

I have no idea what the latter half of what you're saying means, but I can assure you that nothing was stolen. Although I am not going to release my code publicly (I will release it to people whom I see fit), I will go over how everything worked.

 

Firstly, I noticed that every file on SSDL was linked to a file id - these ranged up from 1 to ~1300. The base URL for each file ID was:

 

http://subspacedownloads.com/download.php?fid=

 

The script then iterated from id 1, up until the last id was found (there were checks in place to find null or non-existing values). The simple fact is that every file downloaded was public, and available simply by adding a number to the end of the above URL. If you had any private data after the above template URL, then you're naive for doing so and I suggest that you re-think where you place your private information. I'd also like to reiterate that nothing was stolen, so perhaps you should either revise what you think stealing is, or work on expanding your lexicon. Furthermore, the script is friendly as it downloads in chunk and only commits to one download at a time - therefore shouldn't have placed any noticeable strain on your bandwidth in terms of denial of service, or CPU.

 

Now, I completely see why you're pissed off. Don't get me wrong, if there was another way to do this - I'd have done it but you openly made L.C. look like a fool by belittling him and I have no doubts that if I had asked you for the files in bulk - you would have said no. On top of that, around the last time that L.C. was talking to you about making the content mirrored I attempted to contact you personally *several* times over AIM, yet you never responded. We'll touch on this more when I talk about the replies that doc flabby has made.

 

TestTube:

"I am not keeping it to myself the content has been available for download for 6 years? or longer. I am simply saying I will not just zip up ssdl contents and then hand it over to you. Nor anyone else."

 

Also, your attempts at turning this into a legal case are again laughable. The content which was on SSDL is not your content, and if you possess any copyrights to the content then I am sure L.C. will happily accept any DMCA claims that you might have provided you explicitly state which files are copyrighted to you.

 

Furthermore, I can see exactly where doc flabby is coming from. The problems that were faced in this thread, are faced throughout subspace in general in terms of development. Some new order needs to be made, and it needs to be made soon in order to help the development of this game move to hold as much of our population as possible.

 

Hopefully, instead of trying to offend and belittle one another we can continue this thread in a more pragmatic way - it'll be the last thread I'm posting to on these forums.

Edited December 1, 2009 by krslynx

[CRe]

I'm just going to go full out here. This is a stressful situation for me as it is for you. I did not by any means expect this to happen.

L.C. approached me about this script and I felt that it would be nice for the community if these files would be mirrored. I apologize

for any damages that have occurred to the server and anyone else and hope that you will not pursue legal action as with my current

real life situations I can not afford for those to happen. Again, I apologize. Is there any way I can get in contact with you in private on

subspace or by email?

 

Sincerely,

CRe

[»Xog]

I'm just going to go full out here. This is a stressful situation for me as it is for you. I did not by any means expect this to happen.

L.C. approached me about this script and I felt that it would be nice for the community if these files would be mirrored. I apologize

for any damages that have occurred to the server and anyone else and hope that you will not pursue legal action as with my current

real life situations I can not afford for those to happen. Again, I apologize. Is there any way I can get in contact with you in private on

subspace or by email?

 

Sincerely,

CRe

 

This is a noble approach.

[Samapico]

imo:

http://www.redzone.ie/image/Storm-in-a-teacup.jpg

[»jabjabjab]

If your going to do anything that you know could pose issues, as first. I don't care if CrE> make's himself look better by apologizing, he knew better that this shit would happen. Don't act stupid, and if you cannot afford to pay for damages for blindly doing something for someone else then don't do it.

[Testtube]

I have no plans about pursuing anything legally. However I believe what you did how you did it at the very least not morally right and as i have said could be illegal. Based on the abuse of resources your script used. At this point in time i request the content be removed from the servers hosting it. If the party's involved are in need to specific files I request they come to me directly to try and work something out.

 

I will say if this is your approach on how you plan on helping then i think its best you leave. Your approach at getting what you wanted was damaging and i would assume a person of average intelligence would of found a better way

[Samapico]

I don't see how a script that downloads 1 (publicly available) file at a time can really be "damaging"... It's not like if they hacked in your server and copied directories or whatever...

Sure 1.5 gigs in a day is a lot of download, but it seems exaggerated to me that damage was done. That said, I do agree that it probably wasn't probably done in the best way, but...... well... refer to above picture

[Testtube]

i think the content was more than 1.5 gigs

 

 

I don't see how a script that downloads 1 (publicly available) file at a time can really be "damaging"... It's not like if they hacked in your server and copied directories or whatever...

Sure 1.5 gigs in a day is a lot of download, but it seems exaggerated to me that damage was done. That said, I do agree that it probably wasn't probably done in the best way, but...... well... refer to above picture

[»CypherJF]

Not to put my head in the lions mouth ... there are likely web crawlers probably doing the same exact thing since it's not disallowed in the robots.txt (unless, you're doing something crafty with the download.php)... Granted, the crawlers themselves probably only pull a few resources at a time. Not a grab all then run. *shrug*