Ok,
Everyone knows that it is against the rules to distribute UBB files. But some of the time when there are bugs in hacks...it would make things much easier. For example instead of everyone *****ing at borg because they installed his hack incorrectly, they could use beyond compare to see what they did wrong.

This could of course not be done over a public forum...this would make things way to easy for pirates. They could just collect all the files and have a UBB (though the work of putting it all together might not be worth it anyway). BUT...infopop could make it possible. They could make a section that people could only get into by using their user name and license number (much like the members section is now) but make it so you could upload edited files (like on a message board). That way only people who would have access to the original files could access these hacked files. infopop would of course have to put up a disclaimer that they do not support these hacks, and will not give any help with them...and you use them at your own risk...but that is not much different from the hack instructions that are posted at their code hacking page.

I think this would be a great way for people to troubleshoot what went wrong with their hack installation...and make it so hack creators don't have to do quite so much tech support.

Do you think there is any chance that infopop would ever do something like this? If not why? It would prevent piracy...and help hackers. It would be very useful for template stuff.

It'd be a great idea. But I doubt they'd go for it.

For one, where are the files going to be located? I mean, I doubt Infopop would be willing to host all those files that aren't officially supported by them.

And if Infopop doesn't host them, someone else will have to - almost 99.9% likely that it will be on a server where they are not secured by the license login system. One warez site owner finds a way into there, and then starts harvesting the addresses to all of the hack files. Those get leaked onto his site, and the stuff hits the fan.

Like I said, it's a great idea, and one that I would full-heartedly back, should IP actually find a way to make it work. But I seriously doubt it...

---Skorpion

No.

And don't get caught hosting them.

It's simple. If you can't figure out how to add someone's hack don't add it. And if the person writing the hack doesn't want to support it then don't post it.

[ April 10, 2001: Message edited by: navaho ]

nav,
I was not going to do it...I was suggesting infopop do it (since there would be no fear of piracy that way). I don't have problems doing the hacks...this was more as a help to the people to create the hacks. Sure you can say "if you can't install them...then don't use them" but people never listen to that advice. They forget simple things, and then act like real jerks to the person who wrote it. And if everyone who did not want to walk every person through a simple install did not post their hacks...all of us that can figure out things would be hurt because we would not have many hacks.

Oh well...it was just an idea, I was not suggesting someone do this without infopop's blessing (it would be impossible to do it securly without their support anyway).

Another major obvious problem would be that most modifications affect a lot of the same files... cgi and templates. Me dropping CC's modified files for pm's into my site would certainly break borg's who's online to smithereens. And there are endless varieties of the above scenario... there's no way you could not break your site everytime you tried to add one or 2 functions here and there.

true...you could not just blindly install files from other people onto your board. You would need to use something like beyond compare to see where the differences are between your code and their code. I suppose it would be more trouble than it was worth...and would prob be a lot of added load on the infopop servers.

This is what my Modules concept is all about....