It does not always save more than a non-neglibile amount of bandwidth. See the attachment. If there is such a concern over bandwidth, get rid of the images and styles, and make this site similar to a text-only site.

No, it is not a hard process, but it is not always one click, and it is not always less than a minute. Especially for one file, it is a PITA extra nuisance step, one that you have heard deters at least a few vB hackers.

It's not a huge concern, but it's always better to save some where we can.

Hmm, I wonder if TPTB thought about surfing habits in relation to zip files. At least some members could regularly request zip files twice, to view the archive content and then to save, whereas a request for a txt, php, etcetera file might be made just once. So, for the sake of discussion, if a zip is say fifty percent compressed, two accesses saves you how much?

Okay, there are other reasons to do with the future database front-end and other tracking purposes why we require the attachment for hacks to be in ZIP format. I can't discuss this publically but we request this for a specific reason that we cannot fully disclose. But it is for a reason and not merely to upset people.

Why not just create and store the zips on the fly? See this for an example. That way TPTB get zips, and those hackers that are annoyed, especially with one file, do not have to zip.

For anyone interested -- here is a Windows GNU/LGPL zip application that also handles gzip, tar, deb, rpm, etc.

It is tested and working in *nix via WINE.

http://www.7-zip.org/

</offtopic>

It's an IMPOSSIBLE process if you don't have the software on a machine. Bandwidth should be of no concern to a site this size, if you are on a hosting package where it is then you are on the wrong package. Cricky, even our site, which is on it's own server, has some ridiculous figure like 2000GB a month ! Any decent higher package would be a fixed speed, unlimited bandwidth.

Thank you, now we are getting somewhere instead of answers that make little sense. :)

I am confused why a zip compression tool is such a concern. There are a host of free ones out there.

For Macs:

http://www.maczipit.com/

http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/

http://www.macwindows.com/compress.html

For *nix:

http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/

I'm sure there are, that's not the point. Have you considered that I may not want (or be permitted) to install then on some pc's (like compay machines) ?

Paul, I appreciate that -- but if this will be a forum requirement because of the new system they are building, I think offering alternatives to how to work within it may help. :)