Hi Rob,
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To avoid mass downloads and huge bandwidth bills everymonth, I require that people have a verified basic free account (free on the site) before they can download files.
Understandable. Hobby or not, it costs $$$. I imagine the bandwidth can be a real issue, depending on who your ISP is. And again, I have no issue at all with donations. I'm pretty sure I've donated to Orbsydia in the past myself, I've also donated to both Ryandor and RunUO.
This may have changed (not sure?), but one of the problems with the basic account was that the daily transfer limit was so restrictive that you might be able to download a few .uoa files and that was it. So in reality, you couldn't really download with a basic account. Again, this may not still be accurate, it was at one time but you may have fixed it since then, but its one of the reasons I brought it up.
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As for core team members they own direct copyright to the tools and programs they make. OrBSydia does not own these, but they have kinda shared there talents and skills with members of the orbsydia community.
Yes, but what this whole debate about was the Orb TOS that has been included with programs that are not written by Orb. A TOS indicates authority to issue a TOS, as in ownership of the program.
As I said before, I do appreciate Orbysida for being a great resource, for running the site and hosting the files. I was only piping in about the whole TOS issue.
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UOAR 2.4 was released to the masses as open source, I've never hid that and anyone asking for it in the past I've given it to aka HellRazor, you know better.
What I meant by that was, during the recent downtime at Orbsydia, when others attempted to post links or to host UOAR or UOL until Orb came back online, they were told by yourself and other Orb community members not to post links, and in fact those that posted links were asked to remove them. Again, to do this implies ownership of the programs. I think to do that changes the nature of Orbsydia (knowingly or unknowingly) from a place that consolidates utilities to a place that attempts to control the utilities it hosts.
Yes, during that period you did provide the source and executable on request, and in fact, in those threads where people were told not to post links to the programs, I would usually pipe in and direct them to you.
You were kind enough to send me a copy of the source earlier as well when I asked you, which I appreciated! (although I had previously gotten the source from Xandor before that, I had lost it). But since Xandor open sourced it, the source really should be made available publically in my opinion.
But anyway, that's not my point, my point is that by telling people they can't post links to a program, you are implying that you own the programs and you're exerting control over something that really isn't yours to control. And this was during a period when Orb was offline and they weren't otherwise available.
Personally I don't see any harm in someone posting a link to something so that people can access it during the site redesign.
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When I read threads like this on this site it feels like this is what your doing about orbsydia ... I've always been here to help those that ask for help and led a hand when asked, with out having any type some secret agenda.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm not trying to bash you or Orbsydia. I'm just posting some opinions and observations on the TOS issue. As I've said here on Ryandor elsewhere in the past, I think the more UO EMU support sites there are, the better off we all are. Orb in particular is a great resource with a great community. The .uoa file archive by itself would make Orb a stellar site, having all the other stuff there available for download is icing on the cake.