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Ty Halderman

Archive cleanup

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Hi all,

Just a note about some cleanup that's going on in the archives.

There are several criteria that would normally have rejected wads in the past but unfortunately I haven't (1) spent the time to do so, and (2) really had a setup that made it easy to check out the files themselves. I can now do so and some of the files involved have now been rejected after the fact, sometimes even years after the upload.

There has never been an issue with bad quality wads being uploaded--I've wanted to reject some for that but that's different from an intentional attempt to mislead the end user, either by misrepresenting the wad in the text file, or by having contents that are obviously just garbage intended to irritate (like 100+ copies of a texture for no reason, etc.). Usually those stand out because of the high rate of compresssion (90+% when it's a binary file). Also, if I can't open the wad file with any tools, it's going to get rejected with an email to the author.

From this point forward, in addition to all the recently added email verification, I'll be downloading and examining each file for content. More of my time, but it's taking more time later when I get a complaint to go back through, so I'll just do it from now on. I have some automated tools I can use, and will write something further if needed.

Anyway, tl;dr I have now rejected the following files for the reasons shown (usually among others). There are other files as well that I'm working on, but in some cases I'm corresponding with the author via email and that's ongoing, and more to come as time permits me to dig further through the archives.

Again, crap quality is not a criterion for rejection, for which I apologize. However I'm always happy when one of these being rejected for other reasons actually is crap too...

33in24		misrepresented as levels 1-33, only one square room as MAP01
bbfourty	one small level in a 437MB file--I can't examine the PISS lump 
		but that's got to be where the trash is.
chemdept	300 copies of a 10MB bogus lump
chemstat	Trojan lump ZFIX screws up your Zandronum configuration file 
		(controls, name, graphics settings), plus 8191 bogus 1MB @ERROR lumps
crom		609 copies of a bogus text lump among other things
demanh		20300 bogus entries in SNDINFO plus 64MB of ASCII pics and 600 copies 
		of "GODILOVEASS"
hentaicn	One-room map with 59000+ enemies and a script to play an ear-splitting 
		sound over and over.
infebase	300 copies of a 10MB bogus lump
magmtowr	1838 copies of an ASCII pic 3278 bytes = 6MB of junk
newordr		1490 copies of a text line plus 11MB lump of repeated text 
nukeproc	300 copies of a 10MB bogus lump
terryhtr	906 bogus lumps totalling 11MB
uacih		5 copies of a 0.5MB sound, no levels or other lumps
xbrood		497 copies of a bogus lump totalling 54MB
=-Ty

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cool

Hm, if crap can't be criterion, how about abundance of scripts depicting assraping being a criterion? Just wondering.

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There's a difference between a wad that baits you with a good-looking description and starting room, just to lead to assrape screamers and a wad that either inflates itself to hundreds of megabytes (or even a gigabyte or two) or wipes your config (or worse). While I dislike Terry wads, I don't see a problem with them if they're not malicious files.

Besides, there's also the reviews.

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I love when unknown people out of sudden come out to defend these wads with laughably ridiculous "arguments". Maybe they are the authors? We shall never know.

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j4rio said:

Hm, if crap can't be criterion, how about abundance of scripts depicting assraping being a criterion? Just wondering.

Hey now, terrywads serve a very important purpose on the archives. They make people appreciate all the effort put into everything else on the archives considerably more.

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I appreciate your efforts and the use of your spare time to make the archive a nicer place to browse Ty.

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j4rio said:

cool

Hm, if crap can't be criterion, how about abundance of scripts depicting assraping being a criterion? Just wondering.

One can dream of a YouTube content-ID kind of guard bot. It would help blacklisting away warez music for one (though understandably it would require tons of research and, to be legal, tons of $$$ for all the royalties). It may also help weeding out garbage, but that's even less realistic, given the many forms the ugly can take.

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FYI I have now started rejecting anything with bogus "filler" lumps, as they serve only to spam the archives. A good example just now was nukebase, with 3815 bogus fillers, not to mention repeated ACS lines to fill up the log.

If someone uploads a level with a minimal map (think basically one room full of viles) and a bunch of sound files, that's not going to make it either.

Getting serious--sorry it took so long but I really didn't realize what was happening. Poor quality due to being a bad or new mapper is one thing, but this is obviously intentionally disrupting the community and won't be tolerated.

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Okay, here are the results of the latest purge. Can't believe someone has actually emailed me defending all this crap as "okay" and that I should let it stay, but someone just did. He's going to assume a new name on DoomWorld and post his opinion here, and I'll post the rebuttal I used in my reply email to him.

I maintain the official DOOM archives, not just some site anyone can upload to, and I feel it is my resposibility to the DOOM community to at least refuse to keep obviously malicious and intentionally disruptive files out of this archive. And as I think I've said before, final decision rests with me, and that decision will be for the benefit of the DOOM community, as it has been for the last 15 years as maintainer of the archive and the last 20 as an involved member of the, at the time, nascent community.

And on to the results. Generally, "bogus" means something that isn't one of the standard lump names or types, and usually is filled with text or graphics, and appears many times in the file simply to use up space. Let's face it, I can tell a real upload from one of these.

amt		1,000 copies of a bogus lump
atgvh		557 bogus lumps out of 617
cmas1		2MB in 46 50KB bogus lumps
demonr		150 bogus lumps out of 166
dlabs		22,582 bogus lumps (a new winner)
doors		287 bogus lumps out of 303
dsyou		4,464 bogus lumps
duskp1		50 duplicate copies of 5 graphics at 674,405 bytes x 50 = 33MB+
dvz		4,474 bogus lumps
fmmass		784 bogus lumps
fort_mad	500 bogus lumps
ghoul4		Bogus PK3 structure with multiple-level empty directories, absurd MAP01 (964,980 sidedefs among other things)
harenarr	890 bogus lumps
iotsch		1,144 bogus lumps each containing repeated text
jcpack		419 bogus lumps plus 3MB of other filler
nukelab		1,245 bogus lumps
phbsuact	2,090 bogus lumps
ravaged		4,809 bogus lumps
reborn		621 bogus lumps
reface		257 bogus lumps plus 9MB of other filler
rthell		4,464 bogus lumps
scorri		2,902 bogus lumps
sigtagny	1,430 bogus lumps
tmoc		9,246 bogus lumps
toh		2,861 bogus lumps
tohodoom	271 bogus lumps totalling 23MB
uacmn		115 bogus lumps plus sound fillers
unholyd		6,550 bogus lumps
universa	3,186 bogus lumps
BTW someone has just uploaded a new wad full of assrape references and scripts, but which do not have the above negative criteria, probably as a test of if I'm censoring that theme or actually rejecting wads based on the previous conversations. So assuming I get an email response from the "author" of UACTALES, I'll be accepting into the archives because it obeys the rules, as it does not have the repeated space-wasting lumps. My apologies to the players, who I'm sure would prefer valid levels that have been well thought out and not the result of some juvenile activity.

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Ty Halderman said:

Okay, here are the results of the latest purge.

...
uacmn		115 bogus lumps plus sound fillers
...

THERE IS A GOD, AND I HAVE FOUND HIM!! :D

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So it's official, Terry WADs are going to be deleted from the archives after many years (if I read correctly). I'm surprised that Ty didn't do something about this a long time ago when this became a problem.

Also, are you really deleting UACMN? Don't get me wrong, that WAD is a pile of shit, but it left us a legacy of crap that we cannot forget.

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NiTROACTiVE said:

So it's official, Terry WADs are going to be deleted from the archives after many years (if I read correctly).

As Ty said - "Poor quality due to being a bad or new mapper is one thing, but this is obviously intentionally disrupting the community and won't be tolerated." - so any that don't comply with the amended guidelines are likely to go. Though UACMN and its brethren are bound to find a home elsewhere, if only in my growing collection of superseded, withdrawn and rejected wads.

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Untamed64 said:

Does this mean Nitroactive's Crapwad Quadruple feature is going to end?


Nah, he plays ones not on the archives as well.

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Ty Halderman said:

I maintain the official DOOM archives, not just some site anyone can upload to, and I feel it is my resposibility to the DOOM community to at least refuse to keep obviously malicious and intentionally disruptive files out of this archive. And as I think I've said before, final decision rests with me, and that decision will be for the benefit of the DOOM community, as it has been for the last 15 years as maintainer of the archive and the last 20 as an involved member of the, at the time, nascent community.

GreyGhost said:

As Ty said - "Poor quality due to being a bad or new mapper is one thing, but this is obviously intentionally disrupting the community and won't be tolerated."

Just wanted to say here that reading this makes me very happy. Thank you.

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Not much to be happy about, the kids will just upload more of that stuff but this time without copypasted entries and everything will be the same as now. People had a problem with these wads not because of the copypasted entries.

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Memfis said:

Not much to be happy about, the kids will just upload more of that stuff but this time without copypasted entries and everything will be the same as now.

I'm not going to be at all surprised if the next influx of content on /newstuff contains 40 bogus-lump-free terrywads.

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At the very least, I'm very pleased to know that Ty has this approach (to the problem, and to the community). That he cares.

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scifista42 said:

At the very least, I'm very pleased to know that Ty has this approach (to the problem, and to the community). That he cares.


You sure?

BTW someone has just uploaded a new wad full of assrape references and scripts, but which do not have the above negative criteria, probably as a test of if I'm censoring that theme or actually rejecting wads based on the previous conversations. So assuming I get an email response from the "author" of UACTALES, I'll be accepting into the archives because it obeys the rules, as it does not have the repeated space-wasting lumps.

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Linkrulezall said:

I'm not going to be at all surprised if the next influx of content on /newstuff contains 40 bogus-lump-free terrywads.

I think you're absolutely correct, and there's not much I can legitimately do about that. I've said as much to the Terrywadists who have sent me hate mail and posted YouTube videos about it. "If you don't want them deleted, upload them without the bogus stuff"

It would be nice if they'd put something in the description as "Terry" so people could make their own decisions, but obviously the "fun" is in tricking people by use of a good looking text file. I have received 6 so far that are cleaned-up versions of the originals, and I have no legitimate complaint with the wad itself, which is my mandate. Trust me, if I could delete anything like that I would, but I feel that censorship is out of line for my role. I am considering moving them to x-rated but that would mean going back through all the existing files and moving many others, and frankly I don't have time for that too.

Thanks to all for the supporting comments. I know this is a splinter of a large, good community that's causing the trouble, and I almost hate to give them this much attention. I'll be quietly removing further wads without fanfare; read the REJECTS file if you're interested.

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Thanks for your continued dedication to the Doom community, Ty! Sending those sorts of wads to /x-rated/ would definitely make sense, considering their contents, and I'd imagine that that alone would make most people think twice before downloading them.

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With the potentially malicious wads out of the way there should be no issues what so ever with Terry maps.

Thank you for going that extra mile and for keeping this place alive.

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Ty Halderman said:

I think you're absolutely correct, and there's not much I can legitimately do about that. I've said as much to the Terrywadists who have sent me hate mail and posted YouTube videos about it.

People like this?


His "explanation" as to why you started doing this is rather amusing, if nothing else.

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Pizza! Someone denied Ty pizza and I'm a clone!

Thought it was amusing myself. Hopefully they'll get their cleaned up files uploaded and we can put this behind us (bad joke).

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I didn't expect this and must express my gratitude for it. These people are immature idiotic outsiders who were long ago shunned from the real Doom community and in response have formed their own stunted deformed genetically defunct substitute which functions something like a mockery of the KKK, with its members riding in on a white horse in the middle of the night to leave flaming shitbags on everybody who doesn't rank somewhere on the autism spectrum's porches.

Expect retribution to come in every possible form. Along with incredibly low intellect comes incredibly high ego.

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It's really awesome that the archive is still going strong after all these years. Who's the man? Ty's the man.

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Awesome to see that the spam is being deleted. It makes sense from a database perspective to save the actual space for those who want to use it. Rejoice!

I get that all terrywads won't be rejected, but if they aren't taking up more than their fair share of space, I don't think it's an issue really.

(Also, props for deleting the bullshit 0 star ratings on Obsidian's wadfiles.)

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There's still some Terrywads on the archives that have bogus lumps in them. When are going to update the rejects lump? For some reason at least to me, it's most recent update was back in April 3 of 2014?

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