Online Storage Services

[PotatoChips420]

Hello

I've been browsing the forum for some time, but I can't help but notice that most of the downloads come from online services with very bad restrictions towards free users. I mean like...captcha codes, reduced download speeds, waiting time between downloads, maximum downloads limits per day,etc...

...my question is: why choosing such services?, personally I've been using Mega,GDrive,Microsoft's OneDrive,Mediafire, which are WAY less limited(Mega and Google GDrive in particular, immediate downloads, no captchas not anything),and I had no problems so far.

So I am asking, why I never see any of the above services used?

 

[moemoe-kyun]

The reason is simple: they provide a good service for uploader such as large storage ( or unlimited storage ), long files keeping ( 30~90 days for inactive files and unlimited with premium account ) and they never ban account that upload DMCA contents. The 1st and 2nd reason can be solved with a cheap premium account ( normally 14$/month ) which will decrease about haft of to do work.
An additional reason is they support massive files upload method such as ftp which also save more time. ( ~100 files can be uploaded in few hours automatically, multiply 5 file hostings ).

 

[PotatoChips420]

Well Mega provides free account with 50 GBs of free storage, also (it claims) it never deletes accounts or single files due to inactivity...and making multiple accounts isn't even against their policies, also I've been successfully upload even 4 GB+ video files(single files), so I don't really see any limits there(aside from the 10GB daily bandwidth, which is plenty for most cases anyway).

Instead here I see tons of files splitted into many 200/300/400 MB's, each one with 60+ seconds waiting time to download(after some annoying captcha and stuff), with very limited download speed (even as low as 100 Kb/s, really?), while if I download anything from a Mega account I almost reach 1 MB/s (my maximum current line capacity).

Edit:
Just had a quick look on a random anime serie in the forum:

13 episodes = 13 download links, geez, why not a single download link to a folder with multiple files instead?

Oh really, 1 file every 2 hours? 1+ hour download each?, really?

Since I was going to download that serie, I'll bother to share it via Mega once I am done the downloding / uploading process, and let's see which service is better.

So I really (still) don't understand.

Edit #2 :
Never mind! downloading at 20-25 Kb/s from Rapidgator(estimated time = 5 hours for 600 MB(Half of an episode x 13 episodes), no thanks, I'll download somewhere else I guess(this is crazy -.-)

 

[moemoe-kyun]

^^ but corocoro doesn't upload only 1 series at once.
If you talk about storage, 50GB doesn't mean anything to us. For me i have now about 6TB collection. For corocoro i think he has more than 15TB now. Then mega account which has only 50GB, to store 1TB i need at least 20 accounts O_o. Oh yes i can have that many accounts but why i need to register that many accounts since with other services, i only need 1?

You don't understand because you never do it ( just like me 5~6 years ago ). The reasons i give in #2 are simplest thing. Well, you can try yourself since our forum now open for posting in download section. Hope you can keep registering mega accounts in 3~4 months.

From now i'll unsubscribe this thread.

 

[Arylin]

I think you've overlooked the point moemoe made in bold. I'm not an uploader but I've heard that Mediafire and MEGA aren't exactly friendly towards pirated content and those who upload them. I can't speak for Google Drive or OneDrive but AFAIK uploaders using those are in the minority; my experiences with those services usually involved legitimate downloads and small scale stuff, certainly not wholesale piracy on a daily scale.

Breaking up all those files into multiple parts also serves an important purpose for those of us not blessed with godlike Internet connections. I can easily tell you of the old days when I'd facepalm in frustration every time a huge file disconnected in the middle of a free download (multiple times, even), and by the time I got to the next large part someone had already DMCA'd the whole thing; I can easily imagine myself killing the uploader for uploading 6GB files at one go if I had to go through that again. These days I pay a monthly fee for a premium account, having chosen a service used by many uploaders (for the hentai sections, that meant Uploaded.ch). It's also worth noting that connection speeds in some parts of the world can't take advantage of the higher speeds offered by such services anyway.

 

[987987987]

I think you conveniently "missed" another important reason - these hosts pay uploaders per number of downloads, while the ones like Mega don't. The speed is slow on purpose to force users to buy premium accounts. The DMCA-resistance comes with the package either because the hosts can't afford to delete popular (illegal) files or can afford to not respond to takedown notices.

 

[PotatoChips420]

I can't talk about being paid for downloads, since I wouldn't do it for money in the first place.

About DMCA-resistance thing, I don't really get your point here, I mean, look at how many threads user reports of broken links there and there, look how many times an uploader had to replace links, I don't see all this DMCA resistance honestly, I actually see a lot of stuff being taken down on a daily basis.

I suppose its pretty convenient do split 10+ GB of stuff into 400 MB files, especially when the download speeds are abysmal low(and whole day won't be enough to download even just 2 GB of stuff at 20 Kb/s I guess?),and off course, one could pay for a premium account for faster downloads all right, but then I see, how many different online storages are used here again?, I would need to pay at least 10 different premium accounts!,if the forum had rules like"Okay uploaders, now all of you use this and this only site to upload and share your stuff, so whoever wants fast downloads he will only need to pay for a single premium account for the same service!", now that would make it more reasonable.

I can see the convenience of having a single account for large amount of data (1 TB ++), but what I've learned from my experience when it comes to uploading for sharing or even just backup is: never trust anything or anyone, you can have external HDDs as backups, they can break, you can have multiple copy of the same backup at your home, then one day a thief breaks in and suddenly all the copies you had means nothing you can have a big archive online, but then for any reason you lose that account - all data gone.
Having multiple accounts in the other hand means, even if they take down an account, you just lost a small portion of your stuff, that you can either re-upload or recover locally, its always better than losing 6TB+ of stuff linked to one account, right?

You think its really that much hassle having many accounts? I have about 50 myself if I sum up Google/Micrsoft/Mega/Mediafire, they only issue I have is that Microsoft's OneDrive policy is to access your account at least once a year to avoid deletion, that's why I am slowly transferring to Mega / Google instead, since they "claim" that there's no deletion over inactivity, but whatever.
Having many accounts its an issue?, I can register a Mega account in 2 minutes using a temporary E-Mail, 2 minutes for an extra 50 GB of space, seems convenient enough for me isn't?,all accounts use temporary E-Mail addresses that are linked to one single E-Mail address, so I don't have to check 999 different E-Mail addresses,they're all in one E-Mail account, and I don't even need to have access to it anyway once I registered my account I may as well delete the Mail address(the only reason I don't its as precaution).
Having many accounts its an issue because your content its divided into many parts?, not really a problem, there's a small thing called "links", let's suppose for example that I have uploaded an entire anime serie into the account number 23 of Mega, do I need to access that account to download my stuff or get the link?, nope, since I had the link from it even before I started to upload the anime serie there, all I need its an HTML file where do I store all the links for each Anime or Movie or anything I want to store, no need to login any of my accounts once the stuff has been uploaded and links were taken, If I want to share anything I just have to pass a download link(that I already have).
Do I have to post 200 links? nope, if I want to share multiple files at once, instead of posting 200 links like I often see everywhere, I'll just post the link directed to its folder, which includes everything inside, even 10.000 files inside a folder shared with a single link.

DMCA takedown?, I am not 100% sure about that, but in Mega you can import a file or even a folder from an account to another, so let's suppose I want to share something which is in the account X, all I have to do its to transfer to the account Y by importing a copy of the files - just need to login to account Y, go to the link of the related stuff I want to share, import it to my account, and use that link to share, now, I am not sure since I never tried it yet, but in case of a DMCA takedown, do they delete the stuff in the account Y AND also in the account X?, because if they only delete the stuff from the account Y, all is have to do its simply re-import the same files again from account X to Y or just make another account (Z) and import the files there, no need to upload anything again, got 40 GB of stuff? click Import and done, its like you're uploaded it again.

If paying accounts means safety, well good for you, I hope you never happen to lose an account with 5TB+ of stuff, even if you live in South Korea with those awesome fiber optics connections, I guess its not that fast to upload 5 TB of stuff again,yep?

 

[Arylin]

You might not do it for money, but some uploaders might (if not all). Dismissing this point would pretty much make your argument moot to them since you'd never get it.

With regards the variety of hosting services, you have two options: (a) choose a service that a good number of them use (which is my choice with Uploadable.ch, mentioned above), or (b) pick a single trusted uploader and get premium account(s) for the ones he uses. Your argument about needing 10 premium accounts has no merit when most of the uploaders tend to gravitate towards certain common services. In the years I've been on AS they've gone through Uploaded.net, Turbobit, Rapidgator, Bitshare and Uploadable.ch, among others. I planned and bought my accounts accordingly; it's easier to adapt to them than trying to get them to adapt to you. If one day everyone goes MEGA I'd buy premium for that as well and dump Uploadable. Having everyone only use a single service would actually be even more limiting, and I'd oppose it wholeheartedly.

The way I see it, individual links can be taken down by DMCA, but in some services you risk the whole account getting banned. That means everything linked to that account goes off at one go, and that's a hassle (no matter how inconsequential it might be to you) for those who upload a large amount of content on a daily basis. You also risk losing the money spent to keep the account active for the period; losing a few links that you can reupload is cheaper by comparison.

I'll not comment much on multiple accounts, except to say that perhaps they don't keep everything forever; Moemoe's declared collection in his post earlier is less than half of mine. They wouldn't need multiple backups across a dozen accounts if they're just interested in limited-time sharing or getting a bit of payment to keep doing so.

In any case you'd likely find the same treatment at quite a number of other sites, so good luck trying to be the one getting every uploader to switch to match your particular circumstances.

 

[corocoro]

About DMCA-resistance thing, I don't really get your point here, I mean, look at how many threads user reports of broken links there and there, look how many times an uploader had to replace links, I don't see all this DMCA resistance honestly, I actually see a lot of stuff being taken down on a daily basis.

A series or ten going down is inconsequential compared to a whole account being blocked.

I suppose its pretty convenient do split 10+ GB of stuff into 400 MB files, especially when the download speeds are abysmal low

This has already been addressed. The larger the parts, the higher the risk of broken downloads for people living in countries with dodgy internet.

if the forum had rules like"Okay uploaders, now all of you use this and this only site to upload and share your stuff, so whoever wants fast downloads he will only need to pay for a single premium account for the same service!", now that would make it more reasonable.

We have been approaced by hosters offering us large monthly sums if we forced people to use them in every host. However, it goes against our policy to restrict people that way. This will not change just because you see our morals as inconvenient.

I can see the convenience of having a single account for large amount of data (1 TB ++), but what I've learned from my experience when it comes to uploading for sharing or even just backup is: never trust anything or anyone

That's why I use multiple hosters along with some other, more reliable, backup methods.

You think its really that much hassle having many accounts? I have about 50 myself if I sum up Google/Micrsoft/Mega/Mediafire

Which would equate to less than 2.5TB of material. Given your other statements, you're probably somewhere between 1 and 2 TB. How cute...

I have 23TB of anime in my archive. That's 460 accounts just for the permanently stored material.
Add in that I often upload multiple versions and you will easily get to 600+ accounts.
At that point it also becomes impossible to fill up old accounts after deletions or to transfer stuff in advance.
Given that on some days I (re)upload several hundred GB, the whole idea of using free accounts becomes even more preposterous.
And no, I'm not going to pay over $300 per month for premium accounts at MEGA either.

Having many accounts its an issue because your content its divided into many parts?, not really a problem, there's a small thing called "links"

Folder links are inconvenient. It's easier to download the way things are presented now since you can just plug it into a download manager and call it a day.

let's suppose for example that I have uploaded an entire anime serie into the account number 23 of Mega, do I need to access that account to download my stuff or get the link?

I have multiple series taking up more than 50GB for a single version. Just saying.

DMCA takedown?, I am not 100% sure about that, but in Mega you can import a file or even a folder from an account to another, so let's suppose I want to share something which is in the account X, all I have to do its to transfer to the account Y by importing a copy of the files - just need to login to account Y, go to the link of the related stuff I want to share, import it to my account, and use that link to share, now, I am not sure since I never tried it yet, but in case of a DMCA takedown, do they delete the stuff in the account Y AND also in the account X?

A DMCA takedown requires you to delete the offending material from the server, which means the physical files. Since importing only creates a new link, all those files would die at the same time.

If paying accounts means safety, well good for you, I hope you never happen to lose an account with 5TB+ of stuff, even if you live in South Korea with those awesome fiber optics connections, I guess its not that fast to upload 5 TB of stuff again,yep?/QUOTE]Reuploading five TB can be done in a month pretty easily. I speak from experience. Anyway, since I'm using multiple hosters, a single one closing wouldn't hurt too much anyway.

 

[PotatoChips420]

I am speaking in a more general term, off course someone with 23 TB doesn't fall in the "general" category, not even to mention someone that can upload 5 TB of data in a month isn't the "average" user exactly(I can barely upolad 5 GB a day, running 24/24), being such an "extreme" case kinda makes you out of the picture by default: its like a professional talking into a rookie club, off course the professional may and will have different ways to do his things, but a professional / extreme's ways aren't exactly suitable by default for more average people.

But let me understand a point that's beyond my comprehension apparently: how exactly a link to an online folder its inconvenient?, how exactly sharing 50 links its more convenient than sharing a single one?,you mentioned download managers okay, but you also said that splitting files its convenient because of some people's dodgy internet connections, but aren't download manager made so even if you disconnect you can always resume an interrupted download anyway?, its kind of a contradiction there.
Also you know, you don't need a download manager to download multiple files from an online folder, no need to copy-paste multiple links,just select multiple files like you would do in a normal desktop environment, just saying.

Also I don't get how having 2 TB of data its "cute" in any way, not everyone downloads everything and in multiple version as well, I've been surfing the internet since late 1990, and If I were to download everything I had a slight interest for(and assuming I had a proper internet connection and enough storage), I would probably have double the amount of your data, at least.
But since I am more an average user with a limited interest in things, I am pretty selective when it comes to movies, TV shows, animes, games, and any kind of digital stuff, so I end up downloading and keeping only a selection of them, I assume your 23 TB of data are all very important to you?, I don't know about that, for me, even a 100 KB file its important, if I download a single JPG file, that's important, I am not the kind of user which download something just to view it a single time and then forget about it.
Also, wanna switch connections for a month?, I'll give you my 1 MB/s download speed and my blazing 100 Kb/s upload speed, and let's see who downloads / uploads the most

But then, how many users are out there with 1 TB of data?, and how many are there with 20 TB of data?, I can guess that for every "extreme" user with as much as 20+ TB of data there are at least 100 "average" users with around 1 TB of data, so even if you hold a lot of data its doesn't really have that much significance.
You said that 23 TB its 460 accounts, fine, that's how much exactly, 1,3 accounts per day for a year? about 3 minutes each day? the horror o_o
If you can upload 5 TB of data per month that's about 100 accounts, which is 3,3 accounts per day(assuming you upload every month 5 TB which its kinda hard to believe), which is about 7 minutes a day, eeh.

Also for importing files between accounts, I wouldn't be sure that a takedown would delete all its copies since I already tried importing a file from one account to another and deleting the original, and, the copied file was still alive and well, downloadable no problem.

Again this whole conversation its kind out of the picture, not everyone have 20+ TB of data and that crazy uploading potential, I think for an average user with a "mere" 1-2 TB of data having multiple free accounts its way more convenient.

 

[tadams587]

Every time I see a uploadable link, or working torrent I can download content that I'm interested from, I'm all like, "Thank the gods, I can actually get to play/watch this sooner than later." How much data does uploadable allow you to upload with one account?

 

[corocoro]

But let me understand a point that's beyond my comprehension apparently: how exactly a link to an online folder its inconvenient?, how exactly sharing 50 links its more convenient than sharing a single one?,you mentioned download managers okay, but you also said that splitting files its convenient because of some people's dodgy internet connections, but aren't download manager made so even if you disconnect you can always resume an interrupted download anyway?, its kind of a contradiction there.

To use a download manager, you need a premium account. Same for resuming a download. Free downloaders won't be able to do either, so no contradiction here.
Having the single files in the thread also means one click less for the person downloading since they don't have to open the folder first. Might just be my personal preference, but I hate downloading from folders.
Last, but not least, with a couple thousand series/version combinations it becomes impractical to move them to the folder after uploading. HTTP uploading is inefficient when you have to move large amounts of data around, so opening the folder and uploading to it through the browser is an absolut no-go.

You said that 23 TB its 460 accounts, fine, that's how much exactly, 1,3 accounts per day for a year? about 3 minutes each day? the horror o_o

Let's put aside you dictacting how I should spend my free time for now. You are also forgeting that just because hosting providers don't care about the little you upload, it doesn't mean someone like me will get the same treatment. I've had talks with hosting providers about the amount of data I upload before and I can't imagine those would've gone as (relatively) well if I had been a free user. The numbers are just to illustrate the scales we are talking about and to give you an idea of how different the management of the data you and I hold would be.

Also for importing files between accounts, I wouldn't be sure that a takedown would delete all its copies since I already tried importing a file from one account to another and deleting the original, and, the copied file was still alive and well, downloadable no problem.

Reread what I wrote.

Again this whole conversation its kind out of the picture, not everyone have 20+ TB of data and that crazy uploading potential, I think for an average user with a "mere" 1-2 TB of data having multiple free accounts its way more convenient.

You started this thread targetting not the average user, but uploaders here; me in particular. As such you received (from multiple people by now) the appropiate answer: what might work for you as a "rookie" won't work for the "professionals" (to use your terms) and as such your suggestion won't ever gain traction.

 

[PotatoChips420]

Well when I made the thread I didn't realized that something like 90% of the threads in the anime section were created by you, I didn't noticed there was such a predominant presence, I wasn't referring at you specifically anyway.
The only thing I've downloaded from this forum yet its an old hentai game
http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/hentai-games-38/japanese-[2004-09-24]-noel-noel-307923/

I've given my thanks to the uploader, anyway I doubt I'll ever download anything from here with an average download speed of 100 kb/s(or even lower from some services like rapidgator), I'd consider this as a last resort if I really can't find what I am looking for anywhere else.

But
I am going to try to share some stuff myself here, but first, I'll have to do some test first, as I mentioned before in the first page, I don't know how the providers I use act toward DMCA claims and such, so I'll share some random anime AMV in the appropriate forum section using a dummy Mega account and test what happens when it gets taken down(I'll import the file to other accounts to see if they also gets deleted), off course I don't want to risk to lose several GB's of data since average users like me takes days to upload even just a few GB's of stuff.

brb testing.

Edit:uhmm"only steamable content", that's may be problem since Mega isn't streamable from the desktop (it is from android for...some reason), no AMV then, guess I'll download a short hentai OVA and go with that.

 

[corocoro]

A few last words of advice: from the hosts you listed, MEGA will be the least likely to block your account for DMCA issues as far as I've heard. Avoid FUNimation-licensed content (especially Black Butler/Dragon Ball/Fairy Tail/Hunter x Hunter) and Kara no Kyoukai. Start transfering everything out of your Mediafire accounts sooner rather than later because they're on the way to the grave already.

 

[PotatoChips420]

Well I don't know under which license this is listed, but I've choosen something small ('cause my awesome upload speed), of around 55 mb, to be more precise this:
Sei Shoujo The Animation(single,subbed episode)
in
http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/...ion-small-size-mp4-hentai-269266/index14.html
And currently uploading on a dummy Mega account I just created(which I'll call it"A"),once the file will be uploaded(I'll call the original file"B"),I'll "import" it to another Mega account(which I'll call "C"), which will make another ?copy? maybe,which I'll call it "D", then I'll take the link from the account "A"referring to the file "B" and I'll post it in the above-mentioned thread as an"extra mirror", and I'll pray some evil soul to report the heck of it.
This isn't about checking if Mega will delete it or not, I am pretty sure it will if it gets a report, what I am "experimenting" here is if the file "B" in account "A" will be deleted due to report, even the file "D" in the account "C" will be deleted as well, plus if account "A" will get any consequences (suspension/ban?), and if the same will happen to the account "C"(suspension/ban?).

That's pretty much sums it.

Also why files in Mediafire are going into the graveyard? O.o

Update:
Its done
http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/...ze-mp4-hentai-269266/index16.html#post1870088
I did everything as explained.
I provided an extra mirror for the above mentioned file, now I just have to wait / hope some nice guy to report it

 

[pumasrevenge]

About DMCA-resistance thing, I don't really get your point here, I mean, look at how many threads user reports of broken links there and there, look how many times an uploader had to replace links, I don't see all this DMCA resistance honestly, I actually see a lot of stuff being taken down on a daily basis.

Not every hoster handles these DMCA-requests the same. Mediafire for examples deletes right away (at least I made an experience like that), Megaupload didn't even bother with these requests in the past and how it's done with MEGA I can't say. I often read that files were deleted, but in my case I never had a file deleted. The next question is, if the copyright owner of such a file even bothers to move against such files, since it doesn't change anything anyway. Otherwise you can also take steps to prevent the takedown of your file. Firstly, a link encrypter as a countermeasure if they use some programm to search the web for such files. Secondly, never name your file like the movie/music etc. I mean, that's the easiest way for them to find such files. I'm sure there are more countermeasures out there, but for now I think it's enough. I'm not really a pro in this section, but copyright was a topic for my matriculation :D

DMCA takedown?, I am not 100% sure about that, but in Mega you can import a file or even a folder from an account to another, so let's suppose I want to share something which is in the account X, all I have to do its to transfer to the account Y by importing a copy of the files - just need to login to account Y, go to the link of the related stuff I want to share, import it to my account, and use that link to share, now, I am not sure since I never tried it yet, but in case of a DMCA takedown, do they delete the stuff in the account Y AND also in the account X?, because if they only delete the stuff from the account Y, all is have to do its simply re-import the same files again from account X to Y or just make another account (Z) and import the files there, no need to upload anything again, got 40 GB of stuff? click Import and done, its like you're uploaded it again.

And in my case this is too easy. I can just speak in case of Uploaded. If a file on Uploaded is deleted, then all of the copies of this file on Uploaded are deleted too, because Uploaded deletes all files with the same MD5 hash code (or something like that) of a file. Which means, it's not enough to change the name of the archive, you need to change the name of one file in the archive, then archive and upload them again. Don't know how other hoster handles it though. Experienced it firsthand, hehe.

I used many services already (Mediafire, Zippyshare, Share-Online, MEGA, Firedrive, Turbobit, Bitshare etc. etc.) but for now I'll limit my uploads to uploaded. No, it's not because of the money, but because of the fact that their servers work fine for me. I know, maybe this sounds ridiculous, but believe it or not. First I used Mediafire and Zippyshare, but Mediafire deleted too many of my files a long time ago and Zippyshare was nearly the same (just without a notification of the takedown). I no longer use Turbobit and Bitshare because of the general public and Share-Online banned my account once because I logged in with too many ip's in one day or something like that (I have a dynamic ip which changes a few times/day). And I don't really like MEGA and Firedrive because of the server stability. Just one out of three uploads will be done completely and the other two will stop at 99% because "an error occured" (in case of MEGA). In Firedrive I upload three files, each one will upload completely and one minute later just one of them is listed in my account and the other ones are vanished. And sometimes I even got messages that some of the MEGA files can't be downloaded anymore although they are available (not even in jDownloader). In this case the download will start with around 10 kb/s and one minute later the error "Temporarily unavailable" occurs. Would be nice if this only would last for a few hours, but in most cases I had to reupload the file since it lasted a whole week or so (and no, I never had a second backup of it on MEGA).

And I said "general public" because I'm also subbing animes and there I asked who prefers which service and why. Zippyshare and MEGA were the favourites (because free user friendly) followed by Mediafire and Uploaded. Most of the people who voted for Uploaded had a premium account directly on Uploaded or on a service which allows you to download with fullspeed from various services such as Uploaded.
Now we (the group I'm in) use Uploaded and MEGA whereby (according to the Wordpress statistic) around 20-30% of the clicks on download links are from Uploaded.

Here on AS I'm just offering links to Uploaded because of the problems I have with MEGA and since I just have 90 kb/s upload speed I surely won't upload a file with 70 MB three times. In the time where the file is available on MEGA you already could have downloaded it on Uploaded.

And just as an information. You can easily bypass the waiting time on services and yes, you can even reach around 400 kb/s on Uploaded as a free user if you're downloading in the right region and in the right time. Mostly I'm reaching around 150 kb/s, but I mean, this is twice as much a my upload speed -_-

Edit: Noticed that my second paragraph was already mentioned in the other posts, haha.