Download Changes

Download Changes
Admin's picture

You may have noticed we're in the process of making changes to the pages that contain downloads. As always, (well, almost always:)) we're responding to user feedback and trying to improve the Juice experience.

The changes we're making will help in a couple of ways:

  1. Contributors will be able to upload updates to their own tools. Updates will be posted faster and our users can benefit from the new features quicker. In marketing speak, "time-to-market will be decreased".
  2. We'll be able to track how many times a tool or utility is downloaded. This is cool because popularity is often an indicator of a tool's usefulness. We'll be able to do some fun things with this information like create a "top downloaded" list.

Here are the visible changes you'll start to see immediately:

  1. Users will have to be logged in to download files.
  2. It will be impossible to bookmark a link directly to the download file and then (without logging in) be able to access the file. Users have to go to the page the file is listed on, log in (see change #1), and then download the file.
  3. The download link is being moved to the bottom of the page.

We hope to have all of the download pages updated in the next day or two. We're hoping these changes are welcomed and won't cause too much inconvenience.

3.666665
Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

Cool!

Sounds great. Thanks!

Really cool

erikw's picture

The changes mentioned are really cool, and will be more enjoyable.

I hope that submissions will also be posted earlier. Now it sometimes take two or more day's before downloads come on the Juice.

Regards
Erik

Great improvements

I think these are great improvements. Although I like to download stuff without the need to log in. But I guess that is necessary to avoid manipulation of popularity.

Well, I believe that the

riva11's picture

Well, I believe that the download counter menu will be used a lot as a nice reminder.

Thanks for these interesting news.

Regards
PM

Download Changes

Sweet,

I had asked before some time with Juice sometimes for a download counter. Now has we him.

And it is well that updates now are faster to order.

greeting
Frank

Another suggestion for the Juice site

erikw's picture

Can you also take a look at the section in the left with the highest rated content.

That is not updating anymore.

The highest thread is number 349 and that is definitely not the highest rated program.

Regards
Erik

Highest rated content

Oh Oh,
if this is really in such a way, I look there since daily!

@Highest rated

Admin's picture

Nope, it's not stuck ... just "mature".

Out of the box, this list was generated from the *average* vote (sum of all votes divided by number of votes) a given node had received. We noticed a problem with that approach when we started seeing cool tools with twenty 5-star votes and a single 4-star vote ranking lower than a tool with a single 5-star vote.

So, you know me, I hacked the code.

Now, the database simply sums up the votes (4+5+3+4+5). I figured this formula did a good job of recognizing consistently quality content.

But, alas, it doesn't make for a very dynamic list. (Not to mention it tends to favor old content over new).

We'll keep our eyes open for a better solution.

JM

Suggest

My suggest... (JK)

WordPress

and Plugin

regards
Frank

I live in Joomla

erikw's picture

I only live in Joomla.

Great web tool, works fine, and I have some knowledge of PHP. That's probably the only programming language that I really understand.

Regards
erik

I agree, Joomla is a great

riva11's picture

I agree, Joomla is a great CMS and easy to maintain and if needed to change.
Regards
PM

Better solution

erikw's picture

Juicemaster,

You should also take a look at the Juice Points system.

The last 2 hours it posted 5 comments but did not rewarded the points.

Probably that is also some damaged code?

Regrads
erik

I've missed out on a lot

Jordan's picture

I've missed out on a lot too over the last week or so but I figured it was because I'm a Symantec employee I got points for non-business related posts only.

Ya I'm with Erikw, I've

Jordan's picture

Ya I'm with Erikw, I've been trying to figure out how the Highest Rated Content feature works too and have been wondering if it was broken.

Download Changes???

I don't know.

Yesterday I have 69 Downloads for ALayer-MakerV1.1
(Highest rated content).

Only 4 Hits by download counter.

Today:
69
5

What this?

Why the data are not taken over?
From "Highest rated content" to "download counter"

Regards
Frank

Apples and Oranges

Admin's picture

Hi Thunder-man,

The "Highest Rated Content" system ranks Juice content based on how users have voted for that particular piece of information.

The "Download Counter" is an actual count of the number of times your tool or utility has been downloaded. (Since I applied the code, which was, like, yesterday.)

Hope this helps.
JM

Apples...

Oh yes, thank you this helps.

And I thought this would be different. lol

greeting
Frank

Download Counter

The Download Counter counts each updated version of a program separately. This introduces some inconsistency. I would suggest (if possible) to count downloads per tool page, not by the actual file. Then it doesn't matter which version got downloaded, since the latest version would get the download count from its predecessor.

RE: Download Counter

Oh, this I have just also seen
Now I have a counter on 2 files

Advanced Layer-Maker v1.1 and 1.2

I think, which I not sensibly, or?

Greeting
Frank

Download table

Admin's picture

Sorry guys,

The download counter is tied to the files themselves. I'm afraid if you upload two versions of a file, they will each be counted independent of the other.

There is a "page view" counter at the bottom of each page (next to the printer friendly link) that keeps track of the cumulative views of a single page.

JM

Why keep older version?

Is there a reason you keep the old version?

In general it is ok to only provide the latest version. Only in some cases it is an advantage to be able to get the older version too, e.g. incompatibility to the new version. Or when there is a bug in the latest version. But I guess most users keep the old version until the newer has proven to run correctly.

Thus I think you can take the older version from the pages. Or is there a reason to keep the older versions that I'm not aware of?

Thanks.

Deleting old files

Admin's picture

I agree that there's probably not a good reason to keep the old files.

I'll delete the old version.

Very soon you'll all be able to manage your own submissions and add or delete files as you wish.

JM

Download counter /Validation error ???

I got this announcement

Validation error, please try again. If this error persists, please contact the site administrator.

What this?

greeting
Frank

Download Counter?

Oh no, where is then the download counter?

greeting
Frank

Download Counter

Admin's picture

Sorry Frank,

The download counter was pretty easy to scam. I wondered from the beginning if the benefits outweighed the risk.

This afternoon someone started using a script that ran up the download count of one of the tools to about 2,500.

I'll turn it back on when I write code that will limit abuse.

JM

Ui - 2,500

OK, thank you for the info.

Frank

Download Counter ???

Hey Juicemaster,
if we soon retrieve the download counter?

greeting
Frank

The List

Admin's picture

Hi Thunder-man,

The download counter is on the list (of things for me to work on) but it's not at the top.

This is functionality I would like to see too but I'll need to write code that can't be spoofed by a script that automatically increments the counter.

Thanks for caring :)

JM

Code for downloadcounter

erikw's picture

Juicemaster,

In my opinion it takes a lot of time to protect from malicious code, and if people want they still crack it.
A couple of weeks ago we saw someone speedingup points by sending code that generated hits on the getsvs. Every hit gave 0.1 point.

If you have knowledge of php like me, it is easy to do this.
I can get over 100 points a hour if i wanted to cheat.

Regards
Erik
www.svs4u.nl