http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEwNjkyNDA2OQ
That's a referral link. A bit of shameless self-promotion on my part, but, hey. I like free gigabytes.
I did a search and didn't find any topic about it, so I thought I'd let you guys know, since this seems like it'd be right up your alley.
Dropbox works by installing a program and creating a folder on your computer. Within that folder, you can create new folders. These'll host anywhere from 2 to 10 GB of files for you on the dropbox servers, and allow you to share them with relative ease. It's got three primary benefits:
Easy Filehosting
Say Cpadolf wants to post his sparkster TAS in a thread but doesn't feel like using microstorage because it's just a short, temporary thing. Well, now, BAM, he drops it in the 'Public' folder, right clicks to copy the link, and here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10692406/cpadolf-sparkster.smv
It's there and once the smv is no longer needed, he deletes it or moves it out of the folder and it's off the internet.
Of course, he could just use MicroStorage for that, so that one's not a big deal.
Backups of all your WIPs
Since the files are copied to Dropbox's server, they stay there even in the event of a hardware failure (which I know has affected TASes in the past). Even after you delete a file, Dropbox holds on to it for 30 days, giving you plenty of time to fix a mistake or change your mind. Not only that, but if a new route or trick is found earlier on in your run, you can just revert the file to the version it was in a week ago, and BAM, saves you from having to redo the whole run up to that point. It's like giving you extra savestates every time you save the file!
Collaborative TASes
The last bit of awesomeness TASers might benefit from is having collaborative projects being able to be worked on simultaneously. A good example would be the 120-star run in SM64.
So, say you get all the TASers working on that run to download Dropbox. They create a Shared Folder called "SM64 120 Stars", and put all their runs to be hex-edited together in there. Now, not only are the files easily available and backed up for whoever puts together the final run, but if someone feels the urge to try to improve a Star, they can access ANY WIP in that folder and edit it at will. And if you end up with drama in the community, with someone deleting or saving over the files, it's not a big deal because you can revert and undelete those files, then kick the troll out of the folder.
So, yeah. It's a nice little tool that's gaining popularity, and I figured TASvideos might benefit a lot from it, since all of these have been problems at one point or another. That's all.
