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[aBc]

Quoted here from the new “HOME”
http://macos9lives.com/about-macos9lives :

“All downloads have been moved out of Google Drive
and made accessible directly from Mac OS9 and a
new website..."

accessible directly from Mac OS9 and a new website?

Is this in reference to the only 10 remaining
downloads directly from the Forum itself
AND that “new website” being the Hotline server…
hotline.macos9lives.com ?

If so, then maybe someone could possibly author a
“how-to” covering the varied and available Hotline
Clients and just how access and use is accomplished?

AND maybe even provide that YouTube link for the
“excellent” video about Hotline (by Nathan Powers)
mentioned here: http://macos9lives.com/hotline

[Knezzen]

Well, it is available (even not directly) through the website. I'm editing the page to make it more clear.

You can access all the downloads directly over Gopher (gopher://gopher.macos9lives.com) using Netscape, Classilla or a purpose made Gopher client like TurboGopher on your Mac OS 9 machine or something like Gophie on modern macOS, Windows or Linux. There's a very informative article about Gopher on Wikipedia for anyone interested.

So why do we do this? Is it to make everything horrible for everyone? No. We want some kind of security (as in stuff not able to be crawled by lawers, bots and whatnot). We do this by using well documented protocols not being used by the general public anymore and hence we have the downloads "public" but at the same time not "public".

Sure, we need more documentation on this and a guide on how to get started.
Anyone feel like contributing?
EDIT: I see that you edited the sentence on the "About the site" page, aBc. I'm wondering if my English is bad since there seems to be room for misconceptions here. The entire sentence is "All downloads have been moved out of Google Drive and made accessible directly from Mac OS 9 and a new website and forum theme updated the look while retaining vintage gear compatibility."
 
 
Is it not clear that the downloads are accessible from Mac OS 9 and not "Mac OS 9 and a new website"? I can add a comma perhaps and make it like this if it makes it more clear: "All downloads have been moved out of Google Drive and made accessible directly from Mac OS 9, and a new website and forum theme updated the look while retaining vintage gear compatibility."

[Knezzen]

AND maybe even provide that YouTube link for the
“excellent” video about Hotline (by Nathan Powers)
mentioned here: http://macos9lives.com/hotline

Done.

[aBc]

Nope.

Your English was not bad and the comma does help.
Still, possibly confusing to some.

Perhaps confusion stems from those of us more
accustomed to all of the downloads being available
“directly” via (and “on”) the Forum itself… whereas
now, another “layer” has effectively been added that
requires the use of a particular Hotline client
(dependent upon what specific machine - or OS) that
one is using to access the bulk of the downloads. [OR
Gopher / Gophie.]

Now, I understand the reasoning behind this and
realize the advantages. But if it was confusing to me,
perhaps it is also confusing to others as well?

At any rate, thanks for the explanation AND I did try to
prompt IIO into writing an explanation (or a guide) for
those possibly unfamiliar with Hotline and the
necessary steps that it might require. Because I am
fairly certain that there are some, like myself, that have
never used Hotline or even Gopher / Gophie before.

Just for the record, I’m using the “Nostalgia” Hotline
Client (Intel OSX 10.6 and up) on this Intel-based
iMac running High Sierra… and it’s all very new to me.
So maybe someone actually using a “period-correct”
machine might be a better candidate to author a
guide?

And thanks very much for the YouTube video.
It helped.

(As I still imagined 56K modems & DSL connections.)

[Jubadub]

Most people on Mac OS 9 can simply [url = gopher://gopher.macos9lives.com/1/downloads]click on a hyperlink[/url] to browse and download the files transparently from their browsers. As you can see from my message just now, though, using forum BBCode doesn't work (it changes "gopher://" to "http://gopher//" if you try), instead of HTML:

Code: [Select]

<a href="gopher://gopher.macos9lives.com/1/downloads">Mac OS 9 Lives! Downloads Section</a>
But that is not a problem outside the forum pages, as gopher links work the same as http ones.

Perhaps the main issue is the ability of finding the link itself? And making it look clickable? And next to the link, a note between parenthesis to say "Classilla, Gophie or another Gopher browser required"? Like this:

Mac OS 9 Lives! Downloads Section (Classilla, Gophie or another Gopher browser required)

Maybe that can be put inside the http "Downloads" page we can go to from the menu on the left side, under "Forum Menu"?

What do you think, @aBc and @knez? Would that be good enough?

[IIO]

that shoud have been done 2 weeks ago but as it seems it was my fault that it didnt, it seems i never sent the text proposal to knez.^^

will do that later when i am on my mac.
 
 
the "hotline" category will be renamed to "downloads" because that word seems to magically attract people.

Perhaps the main issue is the ability of finding the link itself?

having active links for that kind of stuff is always cool and we will do that, but it does not solve the issue that newbies might not be able to use it the way it is intended.

those who do not know hotline and those who use windows to browse the net will most likely also not know how to add helper apps for alien protocols to their brower.

i did that in IE 5 mac times for various apps, but in a modern FF i do not even find where i could do that setting.

...

regarding the reason why people do not visit the new system... i actually think that there are not so many people who are looking for rare multimedia apps or system extensions (which would not also be on garden/repository) for a 25 years old system.

and you can be sure that those who do will also understand how to operate some form of ftp client even if it is new to them, so that cant be the reason. if oyu can operate photoshop or nuendo you will also be able to cliick an icon, enter an adress, and drag a file.

extending the library and prodiving better sharing options is a project inside a very, very small filterbubble.

during the last 8 years about 250,000 people were downloading files, about 8 or 9 were uploading files, and the majority of downloads is the macos9 images.
nobody ever noticed that we did not not have NI plug-ins for TDM or that there are only 3 drivers in the "drivers" section.

but who really expected it to be different.

[Jubadub]

[...] and you can be sure that those who do will also understand how to operate some form of ftp client even if it is new to them, so that cant be the reason.

I wouldn't be so sure of that... A lot of very IT-casual people would freak out at the sight of anything as "complex" like FTP that their browser (likely) no longer supports... Yet such people will want to resurrect their old Mac, or their father's Mac, or grandfather's Mac... And/or seek other software.

[IIO]

yeah, today everything is web based.

but it is much easier to download files from ftp/hotline/firstclass/whatever compared to the usual download forums, websites or sharehosters.

for example you can now download images and burn them directly under windows, you can continue broken downloads, and you can also upload without hassle, which is the prerequisite for new contributions.

that might sound ignorant but i think that if someone does not get hotline or FTP to work he will also not need quark express preflight extensions, a surround mixing enviroment or a collab SATA driver in alpha version.

btw. can you refind the forum post with the generic SATA driver attachment? have fun searching.

[IIO]

multiple files were corrupted and had to be replaced, and nobody ever noticed it - that is the truth about people downloading 25 years old music software from us.

[Architecture]

I am still looking for as many TDM Plugins I can find. I have the DAE Gold folder and "The Goods" but would like to see what else is out there. If needed I have quite a few files from the old forum I could post as well.

[ivanshpak]

What to do with those downloads that were on the forum that are not on the HOTLINE server?

[IIO]

I am still looking for as many TDM Plugins I can find. I have the DAE Gold folder

the new sorting system includes TDM / RTAS / AS products but the usual meta categorisation (such as possible for the other plug-in types) for protools plugins is not really satisfying.

that´s why we of course kept those 2 bundles tested by PTGuy (i.e. the former forum content) for certain protools versions in addition to the new things we add.
bundles or installers per protools/protools hardware versions seem absolutely appropiate for that stuff.

What to do with those downloads that were on the forum that are not on the HOTLINE server?

to our knowlegde nothing has been lost yet.

i´ve just postponed my uploads and organisation schedule because it does not make too much sense to work for 3 weeks on that for only 3 people (and atm all of my macs have various issues so they are a pita to work with.)

the OS9 images are synchronized and are also available via hotline.

[Knezzen]

Nothing is lost from the old downloads. Everything that was available on the old download boards are available on the Hotline server and Gopher, but in new sorting (thanks IIO!). We do appreciate new additions of course. If you do have any, please upload them to the Hotline servers Uploads folder


The corrupt files IIO is speaking of have been corrupt all along. I have downloaded everything from DieHards Google Drive on multiple machines and what IIO found corrupt has been that way on the old boards as well.

[IIO]

i forgot how to access the retired forum posts.

could you export the former forum post for the mactron instant DAW as html file using your browser and put it (anywhere) in the HL?
then i will see if and how we should add it again in case it contains some important information.
it is quite a popular download.

[Knezzen]

I can add the instant DAW images to the site downloads though

[CMW]

Does anyone have the download file for New Pitbull Pro for Windows 7 and up? The ubersoft link on the downloads page is broken. 

[IIO]

I can add the instant DAW images to the site downloads though

not really neccessary, it  will only start debate about every single file in the future.

but i would make it a plain .txt file so that you can read the instructions in gopher and hl before you download without knowing what it is and how to operate it.

the old forum post could be moved into the cubase forums though - without the files - to promote it a bit(!)

[IIO]

ubersoft.org is down... he runs a hotline site where you can contact him (but he probably knows )

[Knezzen]

I'll host all the clients locally ASAP, so this doesn't happen again.

[IIO]

i think i found out why uploading emtpy folders do not work.

it also happens with folders containing a 12 kilobytes file - then you get an error. a folder with a 50 kb file works.

probably an old HL bug which did not appeared with upstream speeds below 2M back in the days.

so users can not upload an upload-folder as i planned, they have to use a textfile to ask for stuff.