DropBox and Skins

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Flyco
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DropBox and Skins

Post by Flyco »

I am getting messages telling me that my basic drop-box is full, and asking whether I want to pay to get more storage. Since the answer is "No!", I have investigated and found that 1.8 GB of my 2 Gb allowance is taken up with 'skins'. Much as I am in favour of Squadron skins, this does seem excessive.

I am not entirely conversant with how Dropbox works. When I ty to delete the skins in 'my' dropbox it tells me that this will delete them for all other users, something I do not wish to do without notifying everyone.

Can anyone help, I do not want to lose the dropbox facility - for one thing I would no longer be able to upload missions to the Server?s

Any suggestions?
Wing Commander Alan Johnson - RAFAir UK
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Robbo
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Robbo »

Alan,

I'd be happy to host the skins in my OneDrive for all to access if they are still required, but do we need to keep all these skins?

The Skins are uploading to my OneDrive and the link to the folder is below:

RAFAirUK - Skins

I assume the website links to dropbox when folk want to download the skins advertised on the Download page. If so I'm happy for this to link to my OneDrive and I can provide a specific link to replicate the dropbox version.
Plt Off Ian 'Robbo' Robson
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Richard Rodgers
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Richard Rodgers »

Hi Alan,

I don't have access to the dropbox but the way dropbox works is like this.

One person/computer has the main RAF Air dropbox account active. I am assuming that our account is active on the server in France but I can't really remember how we set it up many moons ago. If it isn't the server that has the main dropbox then it will either be on Neil's, Ade's, Paul's or Matt's computers as they were here when we set it up, but I will be very surprised if it isn't on the server as it could cause issues if it isn't.

Anyway, anything that is put into the main dropbox counts towards the FREE 2GB allowance. For this reason it is vital that anything that is no longer required is culled from dropbox and if it will poss be needed in future store it elsewhere.

There are several ways access to dropbox or dropbox files/folders can be given, but you will need to check with Neil etc as to how access has been granted. Full access is usually given by the main dropbox host (RAF Air) to whoever by inviting them to have access to the dropbox. This method requires the invitee to have dropbox software installed on their computer and if they accept the invite from RAF Air they will then effectively gain a SHARED folder on their computer that is a duplicate of the main RAF Air dropbox. This method can be risky at times as it gives the invitee free reign to bugger up the dropbox and delete files if they are not careful. Other methods of giving access can restrict access to individual folders rather the the whole dropbox. This restricted access can also be set as Read Only which means the invitee can download files but can't delete or upload. An example of the Read Only type is the Liveries Package that is in the Downloads section of your Pilot Centre on the main site as you are at liberty to download the files en mass but are unable to delete or upload.

Sadly I do not know, perhaps I should, who has full access to the main RAF Air dropbox but if we assume that Neil, Alan, Matt, Ade, Paul, Will and whoever else have FULL access. If any one of you ADDS or DELETES a file to/from you own 'shared duplicate' of the RAF Air dropbox, those files will either appear in or vanish from everyone else's shared folder, but more importantly from the Main RAF Air dropbox.

This is what the warning message is telling you. If you delete from your folder, it will vanish from everywhere else as well.

Dropbox is a very powerful sharing platform with many setup options, but it can often be rather annoying in the way it does things.

I use it all the time at work and have a paid business version that gives 2TB of storage, but even with that I have three customers who I always keep a backup of the dropbox they share with me on a NAS drive as several times they have totally buggered things up and so I was able to re upload the files for them. Just like the good citizen I am.

Please check with all of our users before deleting anything that you are unsure of.

Could I ask you to do a screen capture of the files/folders within your dropbox folder and send it to me at admin@rafair-dcs.co.uk. I will start a thread in the Exec Section solely for DROPBOX so that we can keep a complete updated list of it's contents. That way it can be mulled over what needs to go or not prior to actually doing anything.
Gp Captain Richard Rodgers - RAF Air UK
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Flyco
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Flyco »

Thanks for that Richard. I had rather thought that was how it operated. The obvious way to clear it, I would think, is to transfer the Dropbox data to a suitable folder set up on the main server - assuming it has the capacity. Someone, therefore would need to go through the Dropbox and remove out-of-date or other unnecessary files - I would be happy to do that for the files that I have uploaded. I do, in any case, need to go through all the different versions of my missions and either ensure they are on the Server Missions directory or no longer valid.

Thus when, say, When anyone uploads a new mission to the Dropbox, they should immediately go into the Server and copy that item into the appropriate Server Mission folder, and then delete it from the Dropbox. We clearly need to restrict Server access (via TVNC) to a limited and known few, which I think is already the case.

If anyone else, who is not one of the ‘chosen few’, uploads an item to the Dropbox, it can then be removed through regular pruning, either by the original poster or one of the ‘Dropbox Police’.

The above would allow members to circulate data (skins, documents, missions etc), which would be allowed to stay, probably for a limited period.
Wing Commander Alan Johnson - RAFAir UK
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Flyco
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Flyco »

Richard, I have now deleted all my garbage from my RAF Air Dropbox. Now when I select Dropbox it shows the following:

.dropbox.cache Folder
dropbox Folder with 2.08 GB of data - see below
.dropbox File 1kB
desktop.ini Config setting 1kB
Get Started with Dropbox.pdf 676 kB

In the dropbox folder it shows:

2.5 Missions Folder 170 MB
Mods Folder 82.3 MB
OCU Files Folder 9 MB
Skins Folder 1.83 GB (Yes GB!) Most with very recent dates
.desktop.ini
Plus seven files including .lua, shortcuts, .cfg, .txt files

Hope this helps.
Wing Commander Alan Johnson - RAFAir UK
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Richard Rodgers
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Richard Rodgers »

Would be interesting to know what is in the skins folder as the one that Matt has setup for A10c, F18, F14 & Harrier is approx 280mb.

I guess it is all the other personalised ones we used a year or so ago.
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Flyco
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Flyco »

The breakdown of the Skins is as follows:

RAF Air UK Skins Pack - Zipped 292 MB
- Unzipped - A-10C 357 MB
- Harrier 18 MB
- F-14B 32 MB
- Hornet 452 MB

UK 41 F - total of 9 skins 50 MB each

97 Sqn Pink - Zipped 284 MB 13 named skins including Me, Ade, Jack, Matt, Neil, Paul R, and Richard, plus 4-5 who have left and one un-named

Clearly there is some (a lot?) of duplication, but it is going to take someone a long time to go through them and sort them out. I suggest that we allow each Sqn or AC Group to choose up to 3 skins for each ac to be used by all members.
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Richard Rodgers
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Richard Rodgers »

Undoubtedly some duplication there Alan.

Good idea to limit the number of skins per Sqn.

If any individual members wish to have their own personalised skins for single player that is up to them, but if we want to run a tight ship o this we can't have any skins in use for MP other than those that we use as a group. Otherwise if someone is using a skin that we don't all have, their aircraft will be seen as the default yankee grey bird and that defeats the whole object of Squadron skins.

You have all put a list up of Dropbox users and I have asked Neil to remove access to anyone on the list who should no longer be allowed access. Once that is done it may well be worth all the Sqn OCs getting to gether over a beer to decide which skins they want to have as their chosen ones.

Then we could have those, and only those, on Dropbox and bin all the others.
Gp Captain Richard Rodgers - RAF Air UK
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Flyco
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Flyco »

My understanding is that for a skin to be visible by a specific player in a mission, that skin must be set in the mission and in that players Saved Games folder. It does not need to be on the server, and certainly not in the Dropbox. I suspect members have been putting them on the drop box to make them accessible to all users.

If that is the case, then putting them on the Dropbox is pointless unless all members have read rights to that ‘box.

Can someone with more knowledge than I confirm that?
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Richard Rodgers
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Re: DropBox and Skins

Post by Richard Rodgers »

You are totally correct Alan. No skins are required on the server, but for any skin to be visible to other players in MP all players MUST have that skin on their system whether they fly that aircraft or not.

Our Dropbox is essentially for use as a main storage centre that various folks have full access to. Missions, skins etc etc should be stored on there. From memory the flight server is set up so that when loading a mission, you would have access to look in the missions folder of Dropbox. By having a central storage it saves buggering about sending various files to the Admin and mission guys as they all have instant access.

Any files/folders on Dropbox can be securely shared with anyone without giving them any access whatsoever to Dropbox itself. This is done by creating a share link via our Dropbox account. This is what we have done for the Liveries Package download.
Gp Captain Richard Rodgers - RAF Air UK
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