Nogripracing.com gone?

[Shovas]

...all I know is at present I feel like my garage burned down.

Same here

 

[Shovas]

Most of all, it would be tragic for the whole scene, to have NoGrip's huge files database lost forever (some 15 years of mod files for various titles).

I was thinking of ways to avoid this for any stockpile of downloads, like NoGrip, and, while I don't think there's a bulletproof solution, it seems to me that torrents could provide a way to distribute the files and allow many to pitch in while minimizing the risk should one person/server go down.

I would pitch in with my server and with my home internet (although throttled) but if you get a few more servers seeding and more home users providing a little bit of bandwidth you can aggregate a lot of bandwidth.

And the bonus would be that the files are in more locations so are less prone to being completely lost if that one central place goes down.

I sincerely hope NoGrip doesn't repeat the sad act, and that someone can put it back online again.

I'm actually somewhat keen to see what hosting NoGrip would require and to see if I could provide that. It would depend on OS, storage size, and bandwidth requirements, mostly, but I suspect finding hosting for that in North America (where I am) shouldn't be all that hard or expensive..

 

[frasie]

OH NO! This is real sad...
I am just a little trackbuilder for hobby; and NG was always the first adress for me to uploading my files!
I upload my tracks since 10 Years now ...
Hope that NoGrip comes back again... this great Site must survive!!
.... I real hope so!
Chears. Franky.

 

[Matt Y]

In about 5 hours NoGrip racing will have been down for a week.

I used to spend alot of time on the site and i enjoyed it, before getting banned over a petty reason back in 2009. So personally and maybe a little selfish of me to say this, but i'll be glad if there gone. Most of the Admin had egos the size of Brazil and hatted being corrected if they were proven wrong on a subject and because of that, it made the site toxic but feel bad for you who are still on the site.

I was banned from there for discussing being banned from F1classic.

 

[Kenny Paton]

I was banned from there for discussing being banned from F1classic.

Are you saying that we should keep an eye on you

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

shouldn't be all that hard or expensive..

We used up 77 terrabyte of data last month with RD so I beg to differ. Server bills for large sites can be massive.

 

[Shovas]

We used up 77 terrabyte of data last month with RD so I beg to differ. Server bills for large sites can be massive.

Okay, that's a lot. lol

I kind of expected large storage and bandwidth and in the back of my mind I was thinking of ways around it, like the torrent idea. The days of scaling on one server are fading quickly, especially when your focus is file downloads.

Bram, any chance NoGrip could host with you guys? Or is that the current situation which is now toxic? I honestly don't know :/ NoGrip must be tiny compared to RD?

 

[Deleted member 503495]

RaceDepartment is only missing a few games compared to NoGripRacing. If there were subforums and upload/download options, the NG community could transfer here.

If SimRacingMirrorZone goes down, it will be chaos. I wish they had a more centralized and organized download system for the files but that is straying off-topic!

 

[Shovas]

What's SImRacingMirrorZone all about? Never heard about it?

I think it's sort of on-topic to discuss how we can host all these files in this day and age and not risk losing such substantial amounts of people's efforts in one swoop like this.

I might be wrong but I don't get the impression RD wants to host files.

 

[Dave Stephenson]

I might be wrong but I don't get the impression RD wants to host files.

I didn't read that anywhere Modders are welcome to come upload their stuff. PnG went up this morning for instance.

 

[Shovas]

Guess I'm mistaken! Well that's good then. Any downsides to speak of hosting here? Limits? Max sizes, etc.? Seems like the modders prefer other sites?

 

[Matt Y]

It's now been a week since NoGripRacing went down and still no word from the people who run it.

 

[Rot Teufel]

sad since it was the last avaible repository for Rally Trophy (with the fix for widescreen and for remapping controls for SO above Vista), one of the largest for GTR2/GTL, usefull threads for old games like Nascar 2003, one of the oldest sites for racing community...

As other said, after BHMS (and RSC), this will be another big loss for virtual racing community.

 

[Highbank]

Very sad indeed...perhaps this needs to be a lesson for those content creators who put all their eggs in one basket...one source is not a wise place to leave all your hard work...we just never know when these things will happen...there are still many viable sources out there that could and perhaps should be utilized, it might keep some egos in check as well...just sayin'

 

[Highbank]

...in addition...as a user, I need a bigger storage drive to gather said eggs...

 

[jgf]

FWIW, a little snooping (Accessify and Whois sites) reveals little about nogripracing. It changed ownership in Feb. 2014 and "public access to Nogripracing ownership data is restricted due to privacy matters"; previous owner was Eamonn O'Doherty. Domain is registered through GoDaddy to "Registration Private Domains By Proxy, LLC" and doesn't expire til Jan 2019. Since June 2015 they have been hosted by OVH SAS in France.

BTW, their Farcebook page has also disappeared.

Since the demise of RSC NoGrip became arguably the best "one stop shop" for race sim info and files, but their draconian rules and regulations, and somewhat arbitrary enforcement of them, deterred many people. They have more banned members than any five other sites of my acquaintance (I'm surprised I'm not one of them).

To the person inquiring about SRMZ (srmz.net), they are the repository for all things GPL related - mods, tracks, patches, information.

 

[DucFreak]

Very sad indeed...perhaps this needs to be a lesson for those content creators who put all their eggs in one basket...one source is not a wise place to leave all your hard work...we just never know when these things will happen...there are still many viable sources out there that could and perhaps should be utilized, it might keep some egos in check as well...just sayin'

You're not the first I've seen saying that. I think you're partially right but also a bit too harsh.
Perhaps there are modders who puts eggs in one basket. Maybe I just haven't met one yet.

Unless a modder is producing payware mods stuff, what I've seen being done by the large majority is same since the old days - that is, uploading and announcing to the places with most exposure and highest ethics for the game title in question (whichever those are at that moment), while at same time allowing the hostage of those files to other places (and the news being spreaded, on and on), so that others can host them too in other smaller (or less known) places, which in turn may become (who knows?) the next top popular place in the future.

I'm of the opinion that modders are fully responsible for their files, but it's not really only up to modders to take care of the files hosting and spreading.
What I guess I'm trying to say is that, just like there are modders sharing their works and rejoicing with it, there are also altruist or selfless people who have great ideas and skills to help construct such places (like RD, like NG, etc), who materialize such structures.
The bigger websites have (supposedly) organized staff and the better means to do it (that's why they get to be chosen for hosting mods in the first place!). But the smaller websites have to be pro-active if they too want to be out there.
Modders can't know every odd place out there.

Or maybe I'm just from a different school.... I've grown into the hobby thinking it works like this: "you like my mods? Have a website that can host it? By all means, go ahead and host it there too, please!"
It's all community effort afterall, and that's how thing always have worked for ages and ages, whatever gaming scene there is with a community.
But noone can predict something like what is happening with NG. There were signs and warnings on the walls before RSC and BHMS went kaput. There were no such signs or warnings for NoGrip.

 

[ti2blegrr]

Mediafire should be a modders best friend.

 

[Shovas]

As a paying member on NoGrip, I am a little purturbed that it's just suddenly gone...with our money. That's frustrating. I mean it's not the end of the world I think it was $25/year or something. Still.

 

[Shovas]

Mediafire should be a modders best friend.

I think the real problem is the searchable index of mods that NoGrip had and its way of presenting them in an organized way and allowing for notifications and discussions.

EEC is pretty much all mediafire/file hosting links, as I recall, and that's great, too, just as long as there's a website that puts it up in an organized, trackable, watchable (notifiable) way.

I've been taking another look at the way RD does it and it's not bad. I wish there were sub-categories in the ones I'm interested in (older titles) and I wish download *search* was front and center when you're in the downloads section instead of hidden in the top Search tab but I think RD could work for us.