Hobbes Improvement Suggestions

This is just a suggestion page for Hobbes files sharing site improvements:

1) Changing upload from FTP to HTML (Eliminating Anonymous FTP?).
I will like to suggest to keep both options. That people can upload via anonymous ftp and via HTML too. Once people get used to use HTML to upload files, it will be interesting to see if people stills uses ftp, if not, it will be a good time to phase out the ftp anonymous uploading.

What about ftp? Is people still downloading files via ftp, or only via http? It will be interesting to read what his statistics say about how users download files from their site.

2) Changing Structure of the Archive.
The structure of the archive needs updating, but not a major overhauling. I was thinking some days ago how to organize hobbes and I created this draft structure in Freemind (please see the files attached). This (like eveything) is open to discussion.

3) Changing Look/Feel of the front-end website.
This was the point where I don't know a solution. I tried to find a decent and modern solution for file sharing, the way hobbes works and I can not find anything interesting. I don't know if the people at hobbes can do some development to improve their site, or if we can discuss an interesting script (preferably open source) that can be used in hobbes.

The idea is to have the simplicity that have hobbes, organized by folders and inside the directories have the filename, description, date and type/size.

Upload via HTML had to be also included in the site. Plus an easy way to administrate the files and upload the description.

4) Defining How to fill the upload file fields
Hobbes has an README.TEMPLATE file with the information required to upload a file. The issue is that there is not a clear suggestion of what to put on "Short Description" and "Long Description" to have the common information and make it easy for the users to understand which file are you downloading.

For the moment I'm uploading files to hobbes using the following suggestions:


 * Archive Filename
 * I just name the files as long as it makes sense, including the version number or date in case of not having version number.
 * For Example:

Adaptec_AIC-7870_1-0.zip

Arieel_C-2-0.zip


 * I try to follow some rules:
 * Forget the 8.3 limitation.
 * Do not leave blank spaces
 * Use uppercase/lowercase as it make sense for the name of the software.
 * Name spaces are separated with lower dash (_) and version number with regular dash (-).


 * Short Description
 * On this field I try to name the software, version and date, and do not include anything what the software does. This is because the "short description" is the one showed when you navigate the directory structure of the site, and you need a place to put the name of the software and version.
 * For example:

Adaptec U320 SCSI Controller 1.0 (1994-03-07)

Arieel C 2.0 (1996-06-20)


 * Long Description
 * On this area I really like to explain what the software does or what the driver support. This is the place to include long descriptions and all the text here is searchable on the hobbes site. I even include the name of any other filename it was used to have on the past.
 * For Example:

Arrieel is a stylish desktop clock which floats on top, a calendar that shows the week and day of the year and be able to show legal holidays. It has an alarm which remind you of imported daily events with a stylish message box and a nice tune. Support lot of national setting and a hole bunch of languages. (20arieel.zip)

OS/2 driver for Adaptec U320 SCSI Controller. Old Adaptec 78xx driver (v1.0), doesn't Trap 0003 (aic7870.add) (aic7870.zip)

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