Help Hosting Blog Train Portions

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Help Hosting Blog Train Portions

I know finding a place that is both reputable and cheap (free) to host blog train contributions can be tricky. We've been wanting to do something here to help out, and we hope eventually to have a system for people to use. However, that will take a little work and first we'd like to see how things go.

If you do not currently have access to a system that will allow you to do a direct download for your files, we'd like to help. You may submit a support request here with a link to your download (Dropbox or Google Drive should work well for this, since it will just be me downloading). I will then upload it the the DigitalScrapbook.com storage and send you a link for a direct download.

Makes sure to select 'blog train file hosting' as the type of request:

Everything about this is subject to change as we figure out what will work best for everyone.

Links will only work for the month of the blog train.

We are hopeful that this will make it easier for everyone to download all the wonderful contributions. It can be tricky for people to navigate all the different free file hosting sites out there, and can cause questions of safety for some. And setting up a better system is not usually feasible for people doing this a fun hobby. Since we have a system set up that is unavailable to many, we'd like to use it to help everyone out! Yay!

Wow, Marisa! What a brilliant idea for all the new blog train participants!

I currently upload my blog train contributions/freebies to 3 different sites: Copy.com, Dropbox, and Google Drive, to give people a choice of where they download from. All 3 of these sites are free, clean and simple to use, with NO annoying advertising popping up all over the place - unlike sites like 4shared and Mediafire (unless the designer has a paid account which allows a direct download and eliminates the need for navigating through all the crap!)

Both 4shared and Mediafire have been causing a lot of problems for a lot of people recently (as seen on the forums) - personally, I detest both of them for all the advertising and the confusing buttons all over the place - but, recently, a lot of people seem to be downloading viruses and spyware instead of the files they went on the site to download.

Hopefully, this new system of yours will eliminate the need for designers to use unsafe sites.

Are we still OK to use our own sites, or do you think it will be better to have ALL blog train contributions hosted on your new system?

This idea is typical of you and Jordan - generous and giving, and just shows how much you care about every person who uses DigitalScrapbook.com.

Thank you so much!

@Robyn: If you're comfortable with your system, you can keep with it.

Does anyone have issues downloading from Dropbox or Google Drive? I know I sometimes get a bit confused with Google Drive, depending on how it's set up. Does Dropbox still have the bandwidth limit? Is that causing problems for people?

Thanks for the reply, Marisa. And yes, I think I'll just stick with what I'm doing for the moment, as it seems to be working!

As to Dropbox's limits, yes, they still seem to be in place for free accounts - I'm not sure if the limit applies with paid accounts. I did have one temporary stop on my account, for "excessive downloads", but I haven't had that happen again!

Out of the three I use, I prefer Dropbox to download from myself - I just love how clean-looking it is, one file name and one download button!

That's the reason why I wasn't ready to join blog trains: I wasn't sure of any place to upload a finished kit. But I guess now is the time to finally join the group. I don't have excuses anymore...

This is very helpful Marisa!

thats very cool of you to do that

Marisa and all designers, I wanted to enter this discussion, I am a recent member and have been downloading the blog trains contributions since April. Yes Robyn I too have discovered 4share is infected, I had always used it personally and ended up closing my account and I hate all the adds and buttons at Mediafire. As I have been downloading the blog trains I learned to open an account at Dropbox and stay logged in until I am done with downloading for the day. It is simple , very clean and quick for each download. Google drive always says it cannot scan the download but I have used it some anyway though I don't choose to if dropbox is offered. Hope my comments help in your choices for the public. I too Post on my blog with a link to each blog train so others will discover PixelScrapper.

Well articulated Robyn and Patricia. Thanks for all you do Marisa! I can't wait until some things turn around in my life, and I can afford to become a paid member. That's currently a luxury I can't afford, but you make it possible to enjoy your site anyway. If there's anything I can ever do for you, please let me know. smiley

Though I am not a designer and have no need to upload any thing, I am a fanatic & frantic freebie downloader!!! I can spend hours just freebie hunting and be in 'freebie-heaven'!!!...and if I have my heart set on a particular freebie which the designer has made no longer available...oh woe, woe is me!!!
Anyway, to get to the point, yes, I agree 100% that 4shared & Mediafire are C-R-A-P sites for downloading. Recently, I found that if u dld more than a few files from MF, the captcha nonsense & I am not a robot S*** keeps repeating...Immediate and direct dld is the best but expensive for the uploader...
Yes, Robyn, copy.com, google drive and dropbox are great!...Marisa...you are very generous!

I have also used MEGA, Copy, Hightail, Bitcasa and OneDrive (Microsoft-based) as free hosts, too...if that helps anyone!

NOTE: Copy is being discontinued as of May 1, 2016.

An FYI, for those like me who didn't know....

During my research to find reliable hosting, I discovered that Copy will be discontinuing service as of May, 2016. I hate that, because it was a really nice, user-friendly site. Below is a link for more info.

Copy Discontinuing Service

I was just about to come post that, too. I'm so sad....I loved that it would sync to a local folder and I could grab what I needed from there. smiley

If you have Amazon Prime, then Cloud Drive is included...looks like 5GB via Prime and an additional 5GB on the Kindle Fire.

You can also pay for additional storage.

If you have an Acer computer, then you got Acer Cloud (abPhoto, abMedia, abFiles), too!

More:

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) (5 GB as of 2/4/2016; this is different than Amazon Cloud)

Box (10 GB Storage / 250 MB Max File Size as of 2/4/2016)

JustCloud (claims to be unlimited as of 2/4/2016)

SpiderOakONE (2 GB as of 2/4/2016)

Apple iCloud (5 GB as of 2/4/2016; not sure if you have to be an Apple user or not, though)

Cubby (5 GB as of 2/4/2016)

HiDrive (5 GB as of 2/4/2016)

IDrive (5 GB as of 2/4/2016)

Stream Nation (20 GB as of 2/4/2016)

pCloud (5 GB as of 2/4/2016)

Syncplicity (10 GB as of 2/4/2016)

THIS claims to give you 10TB of cloud storage, though I cannot verify that.

DriveHQ (1 GB as of 5/25/2016)

Thanks Tina!

Great info! Thanks so much for doing all the legwork, Tina! smiley

I love dropbox and I have the paid version and have so much room I would never use it all.

Thank you so much for your research, that list just came in handy!

I now have paid accounts with Dropbox, Google Drive and Jumpshare. All are clean-looking, with NO ads, and simple to use. I highly recommend all three sites.

FYI for those that use or want to use dropbox. If you change the 0 at the end of your link to a 1 when you post it, it will make your link a direct download link instead!

Oh my goodness, thank you for this tip Shelley! I have always wanted to know how to do this and for some reason just haven't gotten around to figuring it out directly:(

Thank you, thank you:)

Thanks for all the information everyone! smiley

Wow, Shelley! That's something I never knew!

I have a paid subscription for Media Fire, almost a year now. I have been very pleased with it so far, and have not had any complaints from anyone so far. I got a real good deal last year with lots of space, that I have not even began to touch yet. I hope when I renew, I will get it for the same price. I have 1TB, and only used 16 GB so far. Marisa, I think it's a great idea if people could just click on each person directly from your site and instant download. When I post my monthly portion for your blog train, I try to post the link to this site where you have the final list? Is this the way I am supposed to do that? The other blog trains I participate in, we have a coded list which will give the link to each person participating. I wasn't sure if I'm doing it correct or not.

Wow, Shelley! That's something I never knew! thank you!!! smiley smiley

Marisa, i have dropbox free, and i prefer Dropbox to download from myself . My parts are always free in my blog...(no only one month) smiley smiley

@Tammy: Just link to the final list in your post, then people can find all the contributions. I find that easier to manage than a list which could break, or be difficult to add newcomers to.

Thanks for the helpful information. I will be getting a dropbox account and joining the blog train. Do you have a color palette each month, or a theme? Where do I find that information?

Thanks Anne C

Yes each month is a color palette with theme, which each individual can interpret to their idea of the theme. Each month in the DigitalScrapbook.com Blog Trains, below all the sticky posts, you will find each month's palette/theme.

Marisa has all the way through June posted so you can pick and choose any or all of them to work on.

The folders marked for example "Nov 2018 Blog Train - Working" is where all the discussion and previewing take place. Once we get close to time then another post entitled something like this "Nov 2018 Blog Train - Final List" will be created and posted as a sticky post. In there you add a preview of your completed blog train contribution & link or links where to find it. smiley Look forward to seeing what you come up with if you decide to jump in! smiley

Hope that helps!

Because this thread got updated I came to read it. Do people still have problems with Mediafire? I know I haven't had any issues with it, either uploading or downloading, so I'd like to know if there are still problems, because I use it too for uploading my files. I'm blocking all the ads etc. on my computer, so all I see is the downloadbutton (and the little black/white screen) on the downloadpage and when I click it, it's a direct download. I can use dropbox too or Google drive etc. but Mediafire works for me so I didn't find it necessary.

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