***.filefront.com sites are now permanently offline

xap4o · Post by **xap4o** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:55 pm

http://forums.filefront.com/announcemen ... fline.html

Post by **AceMastermind** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 5:48 pm

commanderawesome · Post by **commanderawesome** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:17 pm

The only "warning" i had seen was that the sites would go offline for a half-hour at seemingly random intervals. It's sad to see them go.

Lukily, between the Web Archive and GameFront proper, most if not all of the files there should still exist. But I advise everyone to back their files up while they still can.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:28 am

Please tell me that the following

AceMastermind wrote: http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... lefront-ii
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... attlefront
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... ire-at-war
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... corruption
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... di_Academy
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... c-commando
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... d-republic
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... sith-lords
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... f-the-sith
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... tlegrounds

contains all the files that were linked from the Filefront network site as well. Cause if they don't, happy searching - the web archive seem to only have indexed the website to the point of the download links - and these look like that:

Code: Select all

http://starwarsbattlefront.filefront.com/file/gofetch/ZmlsZWZyb250fHx8OT
QxNTR8fHxVM1JoY2lCWFlYSnpJRUpoZEhSc1pXWnliMjUwSUVOdmJuWmxjbk5wYjI
0Z1VHRmphdz09fHx8Mi4wfHx8NDI1fHx8L01vZHMvVG90YWxfQ29udmVyc2lvbnNf
YW5kX0JpZ19Nb2RzfHx8Y29udm9wYWNraW5zdGFsbGVyLmV4ZXx8fDMwNzQwN
Tk0MTU0NjMxNA==

So no direct gamefront.com link which still exists...

And even if the pages containing all files for a specific game on Gamefront are complete it would be quite a hassle to find the appropriate file that belongs to an archived Filefront site entry...

EDIT: Dark Times II isn't listed in the Gamefront list for SWBF2 files, however I can find it using the general search function of Gamefront. So the stuff is there, but not to find other then searching explicitly for it.

This also means that all files are now under the deletion policy (deleted if not downloaded on regular intervals), right? So we should hurry if we want to save them for us... I am considering downloading all of the, it's "only" 57.71 GB according to the site statistics of the archived page.

Post by **AceMastermind** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:07 pm

_DeltaForce_ wrote:Please tell me that the following...contains all the files that were linked from the Filefront network site as well.

I don't know if it has every file, I just posted those hoping it could provide some direction since there are no more direct links, Gamefront is a mess in general.

EDIT
Yeah a search for dark times 2 using the search at the top of the page will list this as the first return:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/17157700 ... ng_son.zip
the path to this file is:
Star Wars Battlefront 2 Files > Mods > Total Conversions and Big Mods

There is no "Mods" category here:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... efront_II/
or here
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... tlefront_2

The media category at this address:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... t_2/Media/
is different than this one:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... _II/Media/

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:28 pm

I noticed this as well, showing categories that aren't really there...

Honestly, I don't get it. Their whole website is a mess, not only the original Filefront network sites. Either they shut down everything and say goodbye to the internet as they are obviously not willing or able to fix their websites, or they leave it just running and don't do much about it, including the Filefront network sites. This is the same as with XFire recently and with GameSpy before them, everything is slowly dying and people go on and praise the new fancy stuff... *depressed*

Post by **[RDH]Zerted** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:53 pm

That sucks. They told everyone they were closing on April 1st a long time ago, they could have at least warned people this time when they actually closed.

Now, I would like to say in the defense of our corporate overlords that they did return to the network sites to look into them when they could, but, as I said above about not knowing what made what work, they ended up not doing much of anything to fix the issues. It's not their fault, the way the sites were coded were never really meant to make sense to those who created it as they never expected others to ever look at it

Quoting the external thread, it is their fault. They could have hired better programmers that could learn the code or they could have rewritten everything. Half my job is upgrading old programs and tools. At the very least they could have warned everyone. And slightly better would be to release a torrent of all assets they're abandoning. But no, they chose a sudden closure. The blame is all on them.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 5:04 pm

I think they can't be blamed for the actual shutdown of the site, as it just didn't pay off anymore and in the very end it's a company running the websites. But they could definitely have warned people. Also I doubt that the services did cost them a lot at the end. It's just 60 GB of files for SWBF and the site *did* receive less visits overall, making traffic not a big problem i'd say.
Mainly ignorance of the people sitting in the management, deciding about things they have never seen before...

the way the sites were coded were never really meant to make sense to those who created it as they never expected others to ever look at it

I don't know a lot about programming, but the little I do know includes how important good commenting of source code and overall flexibility in the code is. If you code something you have to make sure someone else can understand it as well, in case you aren't around anymore to fix issues / add features. That's extremely ignorant...

So... is there anything we can do about it? Bulk-download all of the content listed on the SWBF2 files list on Gamefront? Which by far doesn't include everything as it seems... Maybe also try searching for all good-known mods and maps using the global search function on Gamefront and saving them locally, so that some dropbox / google drive / whatever can be built later on, containing the most important SWBF2 addons?

EDIT: I shiver when thinking about how often in the past I posted links for SWBF2 addons pointing to the Filefront website on forums across the internet - and now they're all useless. How many people will find posts on forums by people, pointing to Filefront, by searching the internet and coming to the conclusion, there aren't any mods anymore for SWBF2, as all the links are dead? That's sad...

Post by **Maveritchell** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:07 am

Hidden/Spoiler:

Edit: Whoops, totally misread your posts.

RIP SWBFFiles, though. A lot of us put a lot of effort into that site, and it was a good repository for years (and then a crummy repository for a few years subsequent). I could talk for a long time about its steady, painful decline over the past six? seven? years. It's kind've a relief that it's finally shut down for real.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:44 am

Maveritchell wrote:It's kind've a relief that it's finally shut down for real.

Not for the ones that do not have a local copy of all the files

The reviews and screenshots are preserved on archive sites as well. I wonder, though, for how long these archive sites store websites...

Out of curiosity, Mav: The reviews you wrote on Filefront as a staff member, do you have the copyright for them, or are they actually owned by Gamfront - or whoever owns the Filefront network sites?

Post by **Maveritchell** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:54 am

_DeltaForce_ wrote:Not for the ones that do not have a local copy of all the files

I know there's a strong element of "what could have been" with files you've never tried, but as someone who's played nearly every mod and map that's been released, you're not missing a whole lot. Everyone who's worked on the various SWBF map archives (AlexSecura and [Padawan]Helkaan, notably) have made sure that the vast bulk of the mods people want to play are available. The rest of the stuff is dross that's been burned away. It's sad to see a piece of a community go like this, but people have been frantically archiving things for the game for the past half-decade.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:Out of curiosity, Mav: The reviews you wrote on Filefront as a staff member, do you have the copyright for them, or are they actually owned by Gamfront - or whoever owns the Filefront network sites?

Who knows? I certainly don't. I'm sure there were legal disclaimers in place that would have clarified the use of the backend and whose content it was or wasn't, but I don't have a hard copy of any legalese, and I didn't sign anything when I volunteered there. Smart money says that it really doesn't matter.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:40 am

Yeah, you'r Diet Dr. Pepper right. It's mainly just the feeling of seeing everything go and not so much that you would have actually played every single mod and map. But still, as you can find every file that was on Filefront by adding the appropriate category name at the end of

Code: Select all

http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/gamingfiles/Star_Wars_Battlefront_2/

I may as well try to download everything. Shouldn't be that hard to automate it. I guess I just don't want to see SWBF2 dying and the shutdown of Filefront is another major waypoint to SWBF2's deathbed.

Just wondered out of curiosity, must've been a lot of work going into these reviews I guess. But oh hey, time goes on. And Star Wars Battlefront III is more or less around the corner... Just hope EA doesn't spoil it

Post by **Fusion** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:09 pm

Good, I'm glad some of you were on the ball with this. Was going to drop in to make sure it was known. Glad that most of the old maps could be saved.

ARC1778 · Post by **ARC1778** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 8:02 pm

Permission to make a, "can someone upload this mod" thread?

BF2-Master · Post by **BF2-Master** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:52 am

The site's been dire for years and it seemed inevitable but it's still sort of shocking when one thinks of just how well-run this place was almost a decade ago. I'm glad I have as many backups as I do - I still had files I intended to re-download later though, which sucks.

Feels like a bit of a final blow to the SWBF2 fandom as it was. Emphasis on the past tense here. There's still a community, but it's a different animal than the one dying here.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:52 am

BF2-Master wrote:I still had files I intended to re-download later though, which sucks.

You still can. Not sure for how long, though, as they might start to delete files.
Just check an archive website of Filefront to browse the files list. And then add the name of a category at the end of this URL:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... lefront_2/
There you can find all the files that are listed on Filefront, including sub categories.

razac920 · Post by **razac920** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:44 am

It's not "every" file that was on Filefront, since if you go to http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... nt_2/maps/ and sort by "recent" you see that the latest maps they have date back to August 2012. So there's still the last 3 years that's missing.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:52 am

Dang it, you're right. Sorry.
I just looked up how many files were there using the search function and it was more then on Filefront even, so I determined it'd be all of the files there. Very smart of me *sarcasm*

Post by **AceMastermind** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:55 am

The more recent ones can be found at this link
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... lefront-ii

I'm trying to find and post all of these obscure links in my first post.
If you're looking for something specific then use their global search at the top of the page, not the one above the files.

_DeltaForce_ · Post by **_DeltaForce_** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:28 pm

AceMastermind wrote:The more recent ones can be found at this link
http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/ ... lefront-ii

Are files listed in a category listed in the "main page" (not within a category) as well? If so, this link holds only a single file from 2015.

Global search does, for example, not reveal "Alaris Prime: Gorge 1.0" by AQTOutrider.

***.filefront.com sites are now permanently offline

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