Refrain from counting downloads of own resources

[Solu9]

This is a rather simple suggestion.
From time to time I need to download my own resources. This mostly happens just after I have uploaded a new resource and I need to check if everything works.
I don't really like that the forum counts this as a download.
I know it doesn't mean anything it just feels kinda wrong.

So it is possible to detect if a resource is getting downloaded by the uploader of said resource?

 

[SA Dashie]

The loophole with this kind of issue is that you could use a proxy to get a new ip adress to gain download counts.

Otherwise I would suggest to use the ip adress of all the places the uploader has been to stop download count from happening from that connection.

Although this isn't really much of an issue in the first place.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Otherwise I would suggest to use the ip adress of all the places the uploader has been to stop download count from happening from that connection.

I thought it only counted 1 download per IP address per unit of time already.

 

[HappyTauren]

Does this really matter?

 

[Ralle]

It counts one download per IP yes.

The simple solution is to see if the user is logged in and then see if the user is the author. But you can just log out then and download your stuff. Beginning to cross reference IPs by the IPs of the userbase seems a bit intense for me.

If anything, I think we should make it check if you are logged in and the author. I can imagine that maybe you feel that it's wrong to count it and you would feel better if it was not counted when you download yourself?

 

[Solu9]

Does this really matter?

No not really. It doesn't mean anything. Like I said in the OP it just feels wrong. And if there is an easy fix, why not change it.

If anything, I think we should make it check if you are logged in and the author. I can imagine that maybe you feel that it's wrong to count it and you would feel better if it was not counted when you download yourself?

Yeah, just that. I guess most users who upload resources are logged in most of the time anyway. And cross reference IPs is way over the top from what I expected to be done.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Number of your own downloads is usually negligible.

 

[HappyTauren]

No not really. It doesn't mean anything. Like I said in the OP it just feels wrong. And if there is an easy fix, why not change it..

Well, I didn't quite explain where I stand, sorry, what I meant is, I know it isn't an easy or simple fix and there's always a way to abuse the system, so I didn't think it would've been worth going far to 'fix' it.

 

[Ralle]

On the other side, if you just don't want the download to count, you can open an incognito window and download it that way.

 

[Dr Super Good]

If your own downloads are a significant part of your download count then you really need to advertise your resource more, or check if it is even visible.

 

[Solu9]

On the other side, if you just don't want the download to count, you can open an incognito window and download it that way.

I didn't think about that. I guess case closed.

If your own downloads are a significant part of your download count then you really need to advertise your resource more, or check if it is even visible.

Yeah... that's not the case.

 

[TheLordOfChaos201]

easiest solution is to just use the IP address of the computer and not their routers location

 

[Dr Super Good]

easiest solution is to just use the IP address of the computer and not their routers location

I am not sure you thought that solution through too well. The IPv4 address which THW servers see is the router's (or proxy's) IP address from which the location can be approximated based on how address ranges have been allocated. The local IP address of the computer (behind proxy or NAT) cannot really be seen by the server and there is also a fair chance it is not very unique due to the natures of NATs and local networks (192.168.1.XXX).

What you are suggesting does not really apply to IPv6 as well since the IP address the server sees is unique for every computer. I guess NATs could still be used but they should not really be needed outside of servers with IPv6.

You might have meant the computer's MAC address which is unique for every IP capable piece of hardware. This generally is not visible to the server as it only makes sense at the link level (Ethernet MAC address only makes sense within a single Ethernet network).

 

[The_Silent]

This is not important enough for the work required to implement it. Imo