Bandwidth is NOT the issue. vb.org already has gzip emabled on the server pages. so using zip files is the same as text files in terms of bandwidth.

Sigh, that's another one of those "don't ask" decisions from the top.

I really hope it's a really good reason, and the reason has to be secret, and us cattle users should not know anything about it. It's at least less insulting than the "malicious developers" reason from the other thread.

This is really not the way to build and lead a successful community, and the more of these surprise "secret" reasons for decisions you keep coming up with does not bode well for the forum, and the efforts people have to put in for the privilige of sharing their work here.

Licensing is vb.com's responsibility and the more you want to squeze and burden honest members for the sake of possibly spotting a couple of bad apples here and there is not worth ruining this forum for the rest. The more you keep doing these things, the more need there will be for an alternate place, and if that happens, you'd even lose the ability to request simply entering a license #. So please stop it already, it's really getting sick.

This isn't a really valid argument in 2005...

Microsoft Windows has had inherent ZIP file format for both compression and decompression since Windows 98SE. It is a standard feature in all Windows computers sold today.

All Unix/Linux based Operating Systems (including the Macintosh OS X Series) install TAR which can decompress and compress ZIP encoded files as well as TARBALLS. Beyond that each of them also comes with GZIP which is a comparable utility.

I have not needed to install a ZIP utility on my computer for the last five years no matter what operating system is installed. They have become standard utilities.

If by some off chance your company computers do not have these utilities and having one installed is vital to your work then I am sure network services can easily install one for you. If it is not necessary for your work at said company, then you most likely shouldn't be modifying vBulletin at work. If your OS is so old that it doesn't have these capabilities then you should really look into upgrading.

Yes, you can say it adds an extra burden on you but do not try to make up invalid excuses.

Wow, I'm sure you guys think this makes perfect sense....

If their company (I guess they have to have Windows, and must install zip) etc. etc. or one shouldn't be using company computer (even at lunch time) ....

This is the pitfall of deciding for eveyone in secrecy and then thinking of excuses why it should work for everyone.

But they don't have to install anything... Windows computers support ZIP files by default.

Not making excuses for anything. Nothing has been decided for secrecy. Having a standard file format instead of 10 different compression routines or other file formats is a common sense decision. Has nothing to do with Jelsoft's policies.

Why do you assume all companies must have Windows? Most of my emplyers run Ultrix or HP-UX, and some run Solaris.

You mean like the site making up invalid excuses about bandwidth ..... "people in glass houses" springs to mind.

I don't... Those OSes ship with utilities that are capable of Zipping and Unzipping multiple files as well.

I specifically mentioned Windows in my post because you did. I can ZIP and Unzip files on my webserver which isn't windows based and there was no additional software installed.

As stated above, bandwidth is only one consideration. However for anyone running a website, bandwidth is your primary expense and should always be looked. Someone above said that Jelsoft should be able to get by with 2000 GB of bandwidth a month, that just isn't happening. This site is not on its own server. It shares a server with vBulletin.com which has humongous bandwidth demands with the thousands of emails and vBulletin downloads it has every day.

omg people if they only allow .zips then people can only upload zips arguing about it wont change the fact. 99.98% of the os installs out there will have support for zips in 1 form or another. there are also php programs that will zip files and unzip files for you. stop being so pigheaded. they could have said all programs have to have their own installer in an executable format(exe). now that would have gone against many. but zip is universal.
also i dont know of any company that likes you to work on other projects at work other than what your assigned to do.
last time i checked solaris had zip compression in for along time(unix has it built in longer than windows/mac OSX). dont be an obstructionist just because your panties get pulled up under a wegie. if you could make some valid points then it would suite you case much better. the way it sounds to me you are just some bratty teenagers throwing a tantrum because your not getting your way

oh btw keep up the good work vb-team(org/com)

The alternative is to allow single text or php files. :) Perhaps they should have been more open about this "request" in the first place, We still don't really know why it's a requirement of the "new system". (It's not really even a request is it, since the ability to do anything else has been removed, it's really a "you have no choice" order).