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This is true, but who's to decide what's fluff and what's not? I know that personally, I really like having the board layouts with components labelled, especially since the component numbering that Sam's uses isn't always the same as the component labelling used by the manufacturer. A lot of the stuff can come in handy. I say just PDF everything. It's not like disk is in short supply these days, and even for people on dialup, a 10 meg file isn't all that much to download. I downloaded LOTS of very large files when I used dialup. It's not that big a deal. You could, however, break up each photofact, having one file that contained the entire thing, and then one file that was just the schematic and parts list, that way you could only download the part you need. If we archive things together, and set up a repository, and have many people mirror it, then it shouldn't bog down any one server. I've got 10 gigs of disk available on my webserver I'd be willing to loan to the cause.
A community can only survive and thrive if we all help out, pitch in, and work together. If we come up with a plan, and get organized about archiving information, and backup, mirror, and keep that information accessable to the entire community. I wouldn't worry too much about people leeching large groups of files and abusing the system, I mean, we have to trust each other and rely on each other for this to work.
I've got a handfull of photofacts that I'd be glad to scan. Trouble is, that these things aren't the easiest things in the world to scan into a computer. Sam's Photofacts are created from 11x17 paper, and I don't have a scanner that can handle the entire sheet at once. This isn't a problem for a lot of it, what you call "fluff", but the actual schematic would have to be patched back together in the computer. We need to come up with a system, a standard and a protocol to digitize and catalog information. Once we have that, then anyone can contribute.
We'll make this work. We just need to do a lot of thinking and a little planning.
-Ian
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