Cartmanishere | 451 points
Many of you might not be aware, but I developed a site about a year ago to backup the content that gets posted here.
The site is megalinks.ml. I regularly posted mirror links for the content that is uploaded here to combat takedowns. But after a while I had to divert my attentions elsewhere and it has been sitting there like that since then.
So consider this a relaunch of the site.
All new host and domain. This site will be shutdown soon. Instead I have switched to the following -
All new interface for the site. A complete change in the way site looks and works.
Well the good news is that I have included that feature into this site itself.
I would like to present my goals behind this new site. This subreddit is a treasure trove of interesting uploads. Not just for downloading content but also for discovering content.
But due to copyright takedowns, many of these amazing uploads are lost.
With that in mind, this site has always been about acting as a backup for this subreddit. The top posts whose links are eventually taken down can have a working mirror elsewhere.
I am also renewing my commitment to backup as many posts as I can.
I'd like to present a brief description of how the site works.
That's all.
If you have any questions or suggestion regarding the site, you can comment here or PM me.
[-] achilles1515 | 20 points
This is great. Definitely used the old site quite a few times.
-One thing that sucks about searching in this subreddit is the possibility of having to wade through multiple posts, decoding links and crap, only to find out there are no active links for what you were searching. Is there any way your site can, in the background, be checking if links are active and display an ACTIVE/DEAD tag of some sort? If one of the backup links on this site gets taken down, do you plan to remove the listing on your site? Can users report dead links?
-Any plans to make searching more robust? For example, searching "blazing saddles 1974" will
-Is there any way we can donate via PayPal?
I am not home at the moment and can't check out the entirety of the site, so sorry if any of these questions have obvious answers.
[-] Cartmanishere | 10 points
Is there any way your site can, in the background, be checking if links are active and display an ACTIVE/DEAD tag of some sort?
When you open the details of any link. There is a tag that check if link is active or not in the background. It is only visible on desktop and not mobile.
Can users report dead links?
I will soon add that feature. There are many ideas that I haven't gotten around to yet. But this will certainly be added sometime later. Meanwhile, just report the link to me personally and I can delete it.
Any plans to make searching more robust?
Yes, there are. Like I said, I'm working on more features. This is also one of them.
Is there any way we can donate via PayPal?
Yes, there is. PM me if you're interested.
[-] doot_doot_doot_doo | 7 points
how are you backing up what gets posted here?
Are you importing over to new accounts?
Or are you downloading then re-upping.
I'm asking b/c it's been discussed that due to how they create hashes that in the cases where they dont just take down the offending account, but the offending file, everything in the import chain goes down.
Either way, appreciate your efforts and made use of the old version of your site
[-] Cartmanishere | 18 points
I'm importing to my account and then sharing a newly generated link.
This method only works to combat link takedowns but is useless when the actual content is deleted from their servers.
But unfortunately, downloading and then re-upping is frankly beyond my means.
From my observations, link takedowns are far more common than content takedowns. So it's useful to have mirror links even if they're just imports of another upload.
[-] doot_doot_doot_doo | 5 points
Agreed on all points there.
Thought I would ask in the off chance it was actually a down and re-up.
How are you combating the take-down of your re-posted links????? Are you polling them every so often to make sure they're up, and if down, generating new ones?
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
I do a routine check of all links in the database. And if a link fails, then I check if I still have the content backed up in some other place. If it is, then I mirror it and then replace original link with new link. If not, I just delete the post.
But you'd be surprised at the amount of links that are taken down from the site. It's way less than I had initially expected.
If you don't have a backup of the backup, then it's my opinion that your database is just increasing the chances of my uploads getting nuked (not disabled link, but removed content).
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
Mirroring your uploads neither increases nor decreases the chances of your uploads getting deleted from servers. As far as I'm aware, MEGA's policy is to delete the content when a copyright owner specifically requests for it.
This subreddit has a much much wider reach than my site. It's more likely for the owner to come across your upload through here than my site.
But if you're still concerned, I can just promise not to post your upload links publically. A personal backup will be enough.
I'm not barring you from sharing my content, lol. Do what you want with it. I want it to get into as many hands as possible :) .
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
I want it to get into as many hands as possible
Then we both want the same thing.
there's a reason why the sub has a rule about reposting links
Yes, I understand the reasoning behind the rules. And it makes sense. But the point I'm trying to make is that this sub attracts the attention of content reporters. That's why it's risky to simply import and post on the subreddit.
But that's not the case with the site. Since it has a much smaller reach than this subreddit, the chances of content being reported through there are much less than it just being reported from the subreddit. Like I said, it doesn't add any chance of your content taken down. It's about as likely as it ever was.
OK :)
Allow me to make one suggestion: your database needs a "Documentary" category :)
[-] Cartmanishere | 3 points
Are you planning to do the necessary work to keep your backup accounts alive beyond 3 months, or whatever the timeframe is after which MEGA shuts down inactive accts?
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
I don't exactly know what the criteria for being inactive is but I also routinely login into all accounts and perform some operation once a month just so I would not be considered inactive.
For now, none of my accounts have been disabled due to being inactive. So I guess it must be working.
Why do I need to signup to view links?
[-] Cartmanishere | 8 points
To make it harder for bots to view the links.
[-] neckbeardgamers | 5 points
Why? /r/megalinks links don't last long enough anyway so why would they need to be mirrored. I don't understand the purpose.
[-] Cartmanishere | 6 points
I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe if links on /r/megalinks don't last long, that's why it is important to mirror them.
[-] neckbeardgamers | 2 points
I thought you were just reposting links...
Okay I sort of understand what you are doing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/megalinks/comments/7blmf9/meta_relaunch_of_megalinks_mirror/dpivtfu/
You are importing links shared here to your megalinks account and sharing new links associated with your account which works on takedowns, but not when content is deleted. I will try your site when I encounter a link that is down. But I think your accounts will quickly get flagged if you mirror even a small fraction of the content posted here in that fashion.
[-] Cartmanishere | 3 points
But I think your accounts will quickly get flagged if you mirror even a small fraction of the content posted here in that fashion.
Hasn't happened yet. Let's hope it keeps that way.
[-] JulianCatablancas | 3 points
Thank you :)
[-] silvercloudv2 | 3 points
You are the bomb ily
[-] Like50Wizards | 3 points
I fail to see a need to sign up? Any reason why that's a thing?
[-] Cartmanishere | 4 points
To make it harder for automated bots to view them.
[-] Like50Wizards | 2 points
Only reason I'd want a site like this. Guess ill look for RSS feeds, Reddit has RSS feeds for subreddits right?
[-] Cartmanishere | 3 points
[-] Like50Wizards | 2 points
Oh
Thanks :D
Nice job, but you need to give credit to r/megalinks uploaders that work their butts off for us. I know bo_burnem didn't upload that content, it was /iPhunwa2, /ecchh, etc...
[-] Cartmanishere | 4 points
I am aware of that. I used to do this initially. But it just added extra work for me and I didn't really think it would bother anyone.
If you are posting links yourself, I welcome you to follow this convention.
If you don't want to give people credit, that's your sleazy decision, but the way it's set up now, you do give credit to the person submitting the link (often you). So you in fact can see the value of giving credit, you just have no clue that it need to go to the person who did all the work. I don't upload, and even I can understand that.
[-] Cartmanishere | 6 points
I honestly didn't think it would bother anyone. As an uploader, it wouldn't bother me.
And on the site, it's just a way for me to keep track of posts. In case the links get taken down. I've never thought about it in terms of credit.
But if any of the uploaders are bothered by this, I'm willing to take appropriate measures to fix it.
Uploaders are supposed to come to you to ask for credit!!!??!
Again, I reiterate: you ARE crediting someone, the person submitting the link (often yourself). So you KNOW about attribution. You just choose to do it incorrectly.
The default position should always be integrity not sleaziness.
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
Uploaders are supposed to come to you to ask for credit!!!??!
That's not what I said at all.
I'm saying if the uploader community feels disenfranchised by my "sleaziness" then I will take measures so that they feel content again.
So far, you're the only complaining about this. And by your own words, you don't even count as an uploader.
So only thing more I can say to you is -
[-] juditasdude | 2 points
Thanks a lot for this! will definitely look into it, looks great. I'm sorry but I don't quite understand point 3, the Account dispenser project. what are thos accounts? for downloading like if it where a paid preimium account? sorry for the noob question thanks!
[-] Cartmanishere | 3 points
Normally you would need to go to mega homepage and signup using your email to upload or import any of the files. Account generator does all that for you and gives you a free 50GB account so that you can just login and use it for downloading, importing and uploading.
You don't have to worry about email verification. You also don't have to worry about storage space limits since you can always make a new account.
[-] juditasdude | 1 points
Thanks a lot for that explanation!
I get this error when using the PIA browser extension with "disable website referrer" enabled:
Forbidden (403)
CSRF verification failed. Request aborted.
You are seeing this message because this HTTPS site requires a 'Referer header' to be sent by your Web browser, but none was sent. This header is required for security reasons, to ensure that your browser is not being hijacked by third parties.
If you have configured your browser to disable 'Referer' headers, please re-enable them, at least for this site, or for HTTPS connections, or for 'same-origin' requests.
More information is available with DEBUG=True.
Why do you want me to enable referer headers?
[-] Cartmanishere | 0 points
"disable website referrer" enabled
I guess you know the cause yourself. The site as it is doesn't work without a 'Referer Header'. It's nothing that I have control over, it's part of the framework I used for development.
I wasn't asking for an explanation of the error, but if you have no control over the backend, then I understand :)
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
I'm actually using Django as a development framework. Their CSRF is intentionally strict. There's nothing that can be done by me.
https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/16870
[-] hashtagpow | 1 points
nice! makes it SUPER easy to search through tv shows. i feel like i need to always have dozens and dozens of GBs of tv shows on my tablet at all times and since finding this sub i've probably downloaded 200GB of tv shows (and comics, which is something else i need my tablet/phone filled with). i was hoping for a long dead year old link to gilligan's island was there, but nothing showed when i searched. regardless of that, though, this is a cool idea.
[-] Cartmanishere | 3 points
Just because it wasn't on the site, doesn't mean I don't have a backup of it tucked away somewhere. ;)
Here you go. And also added to the site.
[-] hashtagpow | 1 points
oh my god THANK YOU <3
[-] red_storm_risen | 1 points
Awesomesauce, boss.
[-] SourceDetective | 1 points
I feel like i've seen that username on PHD. Do you have an account there? :p
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
No, I'm not on there.
[-] SourceDetective | 1 points
Oh ok. Thanks for replying!
/u/Cartmanishere you're an absolute champ - thanks for everything you're doing for this community!
Great site, a couple of improvements which I think would work.
Have a link checker which checks if the file still online, if a link is down it is flagged by a user who then can re-upload the link to that post similar to what you see in comments on many boards.
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
When you view the details of a link, it checks if the link is active or dead and shows the result on that page.
And I'm working on a feature where users can report a link to be dead which can then be updated with live link or removed.
Thank you for your suggestions. And I'm glad you liked the site. Cheers.
[-] motominator | 1 points
It would be great if the new site have a section for collecting requests for content.
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
I thought about it. But it doesn't really work that way. If you ( or anyone ) else has a request, it would be more quickly fulfilled if posted in the requests thread on the subreddit. It would be pointless for me to collect requests on the site.
[-] motominator | 1 points
Well then if uploaders track the requests on this subreddit regularly, then that solves the purpose anyway.
[-] vcdupper | 42 points | Nov 08 2017 14:37:59
Thank you for this again
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