Erik

@KJakker There are too many variables to base subscriptions that way. Designing a system to fairly account for such restrictions would be mind-numbingly obscene.

Ouch, some drones are quite expensive and not meant to be hitting utility poles. The video quality makes me think of the old training drones we had ten years ago.

This is the problem concisely. If you put an obstacle in front of people, they will use every means necessary, thought of and not, to circumvent that obstacle. I call it rat in a maze syndrome if that's even proper terminology. Just like the southern border wall in the United States, if you build it twenty-five feet tall there will be a store that opens on the other side selling twenty-six feet tall ladders. If you build the same wall with a footing ten feet deep, someone will tunnel eleven feet under it. If you build the same wall fifty feet tall with an unscalable surface constructed out of concrete and rebar, someone will grow a giant sequoia tree next to it, wait fifty years and use it to scale the wall. There is no obstacle that can't be overcome, that is the genius behind brain cells.

Yep, seriously. I thought the topic was something more relative to CA so I clicked it only to find out it was about another game you've been watching YouTube videos on. I laughed and typed "click bait" with a thumbs up emoji. You then send me a PM telling me to delete your account. SMH

click bait

The current count is: 3,631 accounts on this site have more than one account. 715 of those accounts have more than 5 accounts associated to them. Our top offender has 44 accounts associated to them.

That is the greatest and wildest story I've ever heard, but how neat is that? Personally, I don't know a single person who could ever claim they have an entire drop tank in their basement.

I appreciate your input, and I understand your concern. Here's the problem more directly so hopefully everyone can understand it. The 5-file download limit per day does not work. Because free email accounts exist people go to the furthest extremes possible to beat a system put there to prevent unlimited free downloads. There are no options for us. We either switch to fully free downloads which is financially destructive, or we go to a pay for content model. It will not matter if we put an age restriction on the accounts, we'll end up with the same burden just one or two years down the road. I have believed in the honesty and integrity of people for over 23 years doing this. I have supported them financially and I have believed that they would get their fill and things would calm down. Today CA delivers over three terabytes of data every month and that number continues to climb. Then there's the other side to managing the multitude of accounts people create to download, it takes me hours every single day to weed through them, 365 days per year no breaks or no time away. I pay to work here. To make things worse it's only making those people mad when their accounts get suspended. They go out onto the internet and talk trash about what we do and how horrible we are, but they never once look at it from our perspective. I challenge each of those people to make a luxury sized car payment, a mortgage payment for some, every single month to work at a place where you're the enemy while you're paying for their download content. The change is here.

This is a permanent change. All the options aren't rolled out yet so this is by no means a finished product.

Next time send a PM, posting email accounts and such in a public viewable space isn't the best option. Thank you.

I think we should discuss this in the Modder's forum where everyone can have some input. Can you post your question in the topic over there where we're discussing the download changes? Thank you, Erik

Modders will not be affected by any of the changes. Erik

This is the topic to discuss any questions you may have about the upcoming changes to our download section. Before the complaints start, we are changing our download section as the announcement says. Free downloads will be disabled at midnight tonight 27 December 2024. Our paid subscription accounts will not be affected. Please pardon our dust while we make some changes and thank you in advance for understanding. Erik

Yes, AdSense has been making huge changes and cluttering sites globally with horrible ad placements. As advertisers we can no longer place most ads. AdSense places them on our site based on a bunch of factors for visibility. I have been submitting support tickets for months trying to get this cleaned up but when they fix one thing, they break something else. If we didn't need the ad money for the site, I'd pull AdSense completely until they fix it. I'll send you a PM but thanks for letting me know. Erik

No takers on the traceroute?