Psyringe Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Hi there. First of all, sorry that my first post here is a complaint. I was never active in these forums, but TESSource has been in my Morrowind bookmarks since 2003, and I regularly visit this site. However, for a while now I'm encountering download problems that make the site barely usable for me. The problem is that hundreds of Morrowind downloads appear to be broken. Instead of providing a download link, the popup window just tells me "No filename supplied. There was an error with the download link. Please report this." This happens with lots and lots of mods, in fact it happens with so many mods that I currently don't feel comfortable to point anyone looking for mods on other forums to TESSource because of these continuing technical difficulties. I've tried downloading with several PCs, different browsers and different operating systems, so I'm fairly certain that the problem isn't caused on my end. If you want to see it for yourself, just go to the advanced search, choose the category "Morrowind" (nothing else), and sort the list that comes up according to last update, in ascending order. Then try to download *any* mod from the first 30 or 40 pages. I haven't checked them all, but I made about three dozens of tests and have found one single mod there that I could actually download. So, unless I've been excessively unlucky in my picks, this seems to indicate that 30-40% of all Morrowind download links are broken. Now, I'm a long-time visitor of TESSource and I certainly won't start to bash a site that provides such a service for the TES community for free. However, I do think that these problems should be fixed, and I'm a bit worried about the dedication of the site admins to do so, because AFAIR the download problems exist for some time now and I don't see a statement addressing them in the site news. There's a post right here in the forum where another user mentions a download problem, that post is a week old and hasn't received an answer yet. It would be nice to hear what exactly the problem is, how many files are affected, and how and when it could be fixed. As I said, I don't want to bash the people that spend time and money to run this site, and I understand that there are other problems (like the script kiddie) that need to be addressed, but the scope of the problem and the apparent lack of an official statement regarding it leave me worried and, understandably I hope, frustrated. I may also add that you want to recruit supporters for your site (and endeavour in which I wish you success), but I'm a bit doubtful whether people would spend money on a site that's currently more frustrating than helping because of the many broken downloads. Also, to at least *see* the page where you ask people to support you, they have to find a working download - so the more downloads are broken, the less people see your request. Also it's very nice to see you're thinking about improving the site, adding tags, improving the rating system etc. - but shouldn't it be a priority to repair the database first? I mean, what does it help to have a nice system with multiple tags when I still can't download the mods it leads me to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Povuholo Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Well as you can see here the broken downloads for Oblivion mods are being fixed. There aren't as many as in the Morrowind section though. Maybe many Morrowind mod downloads are broken because of all the changes the file system has had since the file has been uploaded. They haven't been fixed because not many people download them, or they won't bother to report the broken file and download it somewhere else. Some report it by posting in the comments section, but you can't expect Dark0ne to read every single one of them. Also, the only way these files can be fixed is by re-uploading them, which means we have to get that file from somewhere and re-upload it, copy the original description, etc. Your guess is that 30-40% of the Morrowind mod downloads are broken, so that would be one hell of a job. o_O The only reason this is doable for Oblivion is because there are less broken files there, more are reported and Buddah has a huge oblivion mod archive on his computer. I guess me or somebody else could re-upload specific broken morrowind mods when asked. If they are worth re-uploading of course, 'ring of ubar destruction and daeth!!11!' just isn't worth it. I'll keep an eye out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psyringe Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 Thanks for the link. I didn't check the Oblivion section of the forum. One further question: Also, the only way these files can be fixed is by re-uploading them, which means we have to get that file from somewhere and re-upload it, copy the original description, etc. This implies that the files have somehow vanished from the TESSource server. Is this true? I had hoped that perhaps only the database was broken, so that the script looks for the file under a wrong name or at the wrong place, while the file itself was still on the server. If this were the case, then the downloads could be fixed by re-matching the database entries with the files in question, which shouldn't be *that* much work. The nature of the error pointed a bit in this direction - the error is "no filename specified", not "file not found" or something similar. To me, this seemed to indicate that "just" the script and/or the database was malfunctioning. This explanation seems to be supported by the fact that the database has other problems as well: About 300 files have an impossible upload date (01/01/1970), and there are other mods like this one with the notice "no file uploaded yet" - which nevertheless have several hundred downloads of said non-existing file. So I hoped that "just" the database was broken, and could be fixed by correcting erroneous entries. But if I understood you correctly, the problem goes deeper and the files are not available anymore. Is this correct? What has happened to them? Regarding the script that Dark0ne used to determine the broken links, I'm a bit doubtful about the results. There are many mods that don't appear in the script output although the files are inaccessible (this one is an example). Also, the script listed many mods as "missing" which are actually there - these are especially mods with non-standard characters in their filenames, as can be seen at the bottom of the list. I suspect that the script couldn't deal with those non-standard characters and therefore produced partly erroneous results. So, in any case, it would be great if someone could look into the database itself, or at the scripts that are running after choosing a file for download, and determine what's exactly going wrong and which mods are affected. Btw, if it helps, I've got about 9,500 Morrowind mods on my PC right now. I've already found some of those that were missing (for example, I've got all of the mods from www.catskill.net here). So if you want, I can send probably send you some of the missing files. It would be helpful to have a reliable list of the missing files though. (Also, I unfortunately cannot *guarantee* my help, since I have other duties and may suddenly disappear for several months). But feel free to ask me if you need some files that may be in my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Povuholo Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 This implies that the files have somehow vanished from the TESSource server. Is this true?I don't know exactly what happened to the files. If anyone knows, it's Dark0ne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psyringe Posted July 30, 2007 Author Share Posted July 30, 2007 Hi - it's me again. :) First of all, the problem that I mentioned in the first post is gone. Hundreds of files that were previously inaccessible are now back online. Thanks for that! There's still the occasional non-working link or missing filename, but the problem by far isn't as wide-spread as it was. There are also many mods which don't have any files associated to them, but I guess that these files have been taken down for some reason. There's however one oddity left that makes me wonder: No file with an upload date between May 3rd 2005 and July 26th 2005 can be downloaded. For me, they all download as a 0 kb file. Incidentally, from May 3rd onwards, the download script changes the names of the downloaded files. Intelligent Pck Guar, uploaded June 22nd 2004, gets successfully downloaded as "PackGuarCTN.zip". The next mod that was uploaded (according to the database) is The Leather Breton V3, uploaded May 3rd 2005. The script tries do download this mod as "upload-1115103675-LeatherBretonV3.zip" and fails, it only downloads a 0 kb file. All mods uploaded after this one show the same error. The first mod afterwards that can actually be downloaded is Mournhold Texture Replacer, uploaded June 28th 2005. Between this mod and the PackGuar mod, 104 mods have been uploaded. 24 of those had their files taken down, but 80 of those should have a file (according to the database), but the download only produces a 0 kb file. It's odd that between the mostly worling downloads of mods uploaded before and after these dates, there's an upload timeframe for which no download seems to work. I hope that with this description of the problem I can contribute to a solution. Please ask if my description is unclear or if you need further information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psyringe Posted August 6, 2007 Author Share Posted August 6, 2007 I hate to be a PITA, but is the problem that I described in my last post acknowledged by the staff? Is there hope for a solution? Can I be of any help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psyringe Posted August 31, 2007 Author Share Posted August 31, 2007 Folks, I don't really know how to put it. I absolutely admire people who invest their spare time into running a site such as this one, which hosts tons of mods for free. But ... ... you see, two posts above I described a problem with 80 broken downloads. I took care to describe the problem as good as possible, so that it would be easier for you to determine its cause, and perhaps even fix it. I also offered to help. After one week passed without an answer, I asked again whether the problem is known to the staff and whether I can be of any help. Now a whole month has passed and I still don't even know whether anybody even read my description of the problem (which btw still persists). Currently I'm asking myself why I took the time to describe the problem. Have I simply wasted my time? Anyway, I'm directing my attention elsewhere at the moment, so I'll have to end my offer to help. It stood here unanswered for a whole month, so please understand that I'd rather direct my energies elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddah Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Folks, I don't really know how to put it. I absolutely admire people who invest their spare time into running a site such as this one, which hosts tons of mods for free. But ... ... you see, two posts above I described a problem with 80 broken downloads. I took care to describe the problem as good as possible, so that it would be easier for you to determine its cause, and perhaps even fix it. I also offered to help. After one week passed without an answer, I asked again whether the problem is known to the staff and whether I can be of any help. Now a whole month has passed and I still don't even know whether anybody even read my description of the problem (which btw still persists). Currently I'm asking myself why I took the time to describe the problem. Have I simply wasted my time? Anyway, I'm directing my attention elsewhere at the moment, so I'll have to end my offer to help. It stood here unanswered for a whole month, so please understand that I'd rather direct my energies elsewhere. Just for the record, files that are reported as broken using the report button get priority as we then know someone is looking for a particular file, I also have a rather extensive archive of morrowind files, and those that have been reported have been fixed either by LHammonds or myself. But it must also be realized that this is done as time allows, as we both have lives, work full time and have families to nurture and provide the necessities for. The easy solution would be just to delete the pages that are not reported as no one seems to miss them, this would reduced the number of broken files quickly and permanently and the issue would pass unnoticed by the vast majority of the community. However we will try to the best of our ability to restore any files that we either have or can find somewhere else on the net. These files didn't break all in one fell swoop, it happened over time and it will be rectified over time. Something in particular you want restored, use the "REPORT" option and tell us what the issues are, small files I do from home, 24k dual up, the larger ones I do on my lunch break from work where I sometimes have high speed access. No I am not cheap, in reality dsl is cheaper than a dial up it just is not available in the rural area I live in. Buddah Currently I am re-uploading this morrowind file as it was reported as being broken, and verified as such: Vivec Voice Addon MW ONLY v1.0 file link: http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=594 should be re-u ploaded within the hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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