April Fools!

I guess the jokes on me. I took advantage of the free(?) downloads last night only to find that I now have -1212 points. What's up with that?

According to your profile you have a number of downloads finishing several hours after the promotion offer had ended, thus we took points for all of them, had you done one at a time instead of 4 it wouldn't have happened.

Interesting. Perhaps you can direct me to the rule that says I must download one at a time. I'm unable to find it. Do you just make them up as you go along? The offer asked that I "go leech like crazy!". Tell me where I failed.

Rules doesn't state, but when you start a number of downloads after the offer has expired then it's only natural that we'll charge points, and because we allow people to have multiple downloads going and only charge points after the download is fully done it means you can start more downloads than your points entitle you too, it also means that when they're done you'll go in negatives so it all adds up in the end.You have a few PSX downloads finishing several hours after the offer expired, those are the ones that were charged your _free_ points for.Tell me why you feel so screwed over?

Also, the reason you should have done them one at a time - It's not the rules, it's the internet.
Four downloads, one at a time, each taking 1 hour of download time.
DL1 finishes at 1 hour. DL2 starts at 1 hour and ends at 2... and so onFour downloads in one go will go at 1/4 of the speed, and all take 4 hours.If you'd gone one at a time, you'd have had some of them finish before the points stopped being free.

mwah, almost right but not quite, there's some overhead with HTTP connections meaning that opening multiple connections can often bring an increase in download speed.

yeah, I've heard about that too, how is that possible? it doesnt seem very logical to me...

well, its a good thing i guess that i do not check in with the forum much, i guess so i miss the offer, although, i going to need all the extra download, if Emuwizards continue to be down since i have one less source for my roms =(, well about the negative points, do not be worry just go play those games that you had downloaded and when you are done, your points will probably be back to the positive side and one more thing, thanks for teaching me something new, that the points are reduced only after the download is finish, i always thought you guys minus the points first before we can download, since that happen to me 1 or 2 times when i was downloading one of the files that needed points.

We've changed the behaviour since.

Seph · #4Rules doesn't state, but when you start a number of downloads after the offer has expired then it's only natural that we'll charge points, and because we allow people to have multiple downloads going and only charge points after the download is fully done it means you can start more downloads than your points entitle you too, it also means that when they're done you'll go in negatives so it all adds up in the end.You have a few PSX downloads finishing several hours after the offer expired, those are the ones that were charged your _free_ points for.Tell me why you feel so screwed over?

Well, I suppose I feel screwed over because this notion that my points are not deducted until the download is finished is either unfair or completely false.
All of my downloads were listed as costing 0 points. If they were not then not only would I have not downloaded them but I could not have downloaded them. It has been my experience that when I start a download my points are deducted immediately and I am unable to download anything for which I don't have sufficient points. If a download is listed as costing 0 points it should cost 0 points regardless of when it ends.Look, I don't have a problem with the points system. I like it. I figured by the time I finish Breath of Fire 4 I'll have enough accumulated for my next download. Then you go and unlock the pantry and say 'help yourself'. Don't punish me for eating like a pig.

I'm not punishing you, but if the downloads had been done a few hours after the offer ended then I could understand it; but they weren't, they were listed as done an entire 6 hours later; I can't help that really.The downloads aren't logged until they're done because we had problems with people timing out and then still getting logged, so it might not be perfect but it's the best way there is.I honestly don't feel for you on this one, the points are free and you got what you were charged for; okay so it's not perfect, I'll give you that, but the way PHP and HTTP works it's either A and B, each one has it's advantages and disadvantages and we can't just choose the good of both and leave the bad.Had you used just one connection it wouldn't have charged you as the script would be the one from when you first started it, but due to the download manager downloading small blocks and opening new connections constantly it switched to the new one, we can't really protect against that.

Replying to #11

You don't FEEL for me? I don't need you to feel for me. I need you to treat me fairly and make some damned sense. You say you'd understand if they had ended a "few hours" later. How does that matter? If you can understand 2-3 hours you can understand 6. As I've pointed out these downloads were listed at 0 points. As soon as I came across one that wasn't I stopped. At the time I had nearly 500 pts much from my efforts uploading screenshots. How do you not understand that subtracting zeros should not make a positive number negative?[quote author=Seph Re: Download Problems]
Sorry for not being clear. Only non paying members arent a priority unless the problem really is on our part, which it usuall isnt.
[/quote]Perhaps you feel because I am not a premium member I am not deserving of fair treatment. However, I do not subscribe to the "beggar's can't be choosers" credo. It is in your best interest as a business to treat everyone equally. Everyone begins as a regular member and only a positive experience breeds subscribers.

rasta, points are not taken UNTIL THE DOWNLOAD FINISHES. You started 4 downloads when it cost 0 points. that is fine; what happened in your case was the downloads were still going when the free downloading ended. Therefore, when your downloads ended, you were charged for them. Had they finished before the offer ended, you would not have been charged.

This discussion is through on our part, if you do not agree then go somewhere else. I'm sure you can find your PSX ISOs elsewhere.