Yes I’m certain. The notification as described is new today and it will no longer allow you download unless you disable your blocker. Prior to today you only got the ‘we ask that you disable’ but were still permitted to download the file. I guess it is what it is. What irks me a bit is they went on record to say non-premium users would not see a service degradation despite the introduction of their paid service. Yet here we are. And I quote from their site:
“It’s important to note that the introduction of Flightsim.to Premium does not change the core mission of our platform: to provide a free and accessible flight simulation community. All of our current features and functionalities will remain available to all users, regardless of whether or not they choose to upgrade to Premium. We will not introduce any new limitations or change our core features. There will be no limitations on downloads or other restrictions for non-Premium users, including no throttling or speed caps or anything similar: The difference with Premium however is, you get access to are more-expensive, high-performing server network, which obviously also costs us more. Flightsim.to Premium is an optional way for users to support our platform and its ongoing development, as there has luckily been great demand to donate. We remain committed to providing a valuable and enjoyable experience for everyone who participates in the community, whether Premium or not.”
That’s strange. It no longer works for me. The red notification comes up and will not allow a download unless adblocker is off. Perhaps they introduced a daily download limit or something? I did get a few updates today from the site. No mention of such a restriction that I could see however.
I just downloaded with adblocker on once again. I think I know what’s going on here. They are likely in the midst of making changes to their website right now as each time I’ve gone there today the layout is different. Just now I’ve gone into a download page with adblocker on, but I cannot see any of the uploaded pics by the author however can indeed download the release. Once I disabled the adblocker (Microsoft reports 165 cookies were blocked), the uploaded pics appeared once again along with all the ads. So perhaps they’re trying to block all pics by the author unless you disable adblocker and it accidently blocked the download access too? Content to wait this out a while longer until their website changes are compete before I form a final opinion. I do like this site and hope it continues as it was initially represented.
Yes, perhaps a glitch. Just went back in with adblocker on and I still see no images on the freeware release pages but all the pics are there for the payware offerings, including a new popup chat window. Seems they are in the midst of a number of changes to their site and am content to let the dust settle before seeing what’s what. Regret having raised this possible issue but I did initially get a denial of download service as described earlier. Had I known they were in the midst of numerous site changes I would not have reported my experience.
I can’t verify most of this since it’s all quite subjective… But I can download and look at my speed.
I’m a free user, not paying for any premium, but downloading a DEM of 1,7GB at… oh… I was too slow… but it showed something like 12,8MB/s in Firefox when I checked last.
I’ve just had the same message. I used AdBlocker in Chrome. I have it permanently paused for flightsim.to Now, even with ads permitted and AdBlocker paused, it will not let me download.
Happy to see ads. Happy to pause my AdBlocker. Not happy to remove it entirely from Chrome because of something flakey in the .to website. As for going Premium? Yeah, right!
UPDATE: I emailed flightsim.to support and had a response in less than 20 minutes. It turns out that DuckDuckGo privacy essentials extension in Chrome was also functioning as an adblocker. I pasued that and problem solved. Looks like they just closed up a loophole. I’ve no problem with that. Impressive support response by flightsim.to
Happy to report the site appears back to normal again for me. Layout, download permissions, images, adblocker use, all seem to function as they did before today once again. Glad this appears to have been a few hiccups during site maintenance.
I´m on Firefox with “Adblock Plus”, NoScript, Ghostery and a couple of other addons.
I was able to download some addons when pausing Adblock Plus for fs.to.
BUT: other addons additionally needed Ghostery to be paused temporarely, otherwise i just got this red warning page, telling me to deactivate things or go premium.
So they may have several “levels” applied during the last days. Addons which i havent updated for a couple of days seem to be a bit less critical in what we need to deactivate than addons which have recent updates. In other words, it could be that recently the page triggers a newer/harsher strategy, demanding more things to be active.
I wonder if premium users can REALLY keep blocking anything, as free users need to let them sniff into our browsers and collect data.
I thought people might be interested in some information on my transition to Flightsim.com from a Content Creator’s point of view.
Contact
I initially contacted Flightsim.com to ask about their policies before deciding to use them. The biggest difference here is the emails I received were not written like a legal document. Making any contact much easier to understand.
Flightsim.com was also very approachable and overall very positive in their outlook.
Uploads
First and foremost I was really surprised how well done the upload process was at Flighsim.com. It is easily as polished and as easy to use.
You also have the ability to do updates and record update changelogs for your uploads.
The transition to Flightsim.com did require some effort but because I wanted to transition my screenshots to the fit the square thumbnails used at Flightsim.com but otherwise there was little extra effort required. I also took the time to update some of my older content.
You have the right to delete, lock or hide your content right from your upload screen and there appears to be no restriction. You don’t have to get the site owners to delete it for you and they won’t prevent you from blocking or deleting certain content.
While Flightsim.com doesn’t have a dedicated Donate option, they are happy for you to include your own donate link. This is as easy as setting up what Paypal call a button (in effect a web link) which you can then add to your upload page.
Flightsim.com doesn’t place any benefits behind an “Exclusive content” checkbox.
Because of the cross platform content hosted on Flightsim.com you have to select a category when creating your upload. The only negative is that once you have created an upload for any particular category, there doesn’t appear to be any way to change it.
Downloads
Download speeds are definitely faster.
There is no annoying timer before your download starts.
There is no annoying popup to click before for your download starts.
Download numbers. Its early days but download numbers are much less. Having said that I had found recently that download numbers were generally lower than had been in the past, most likely because of the increased content available. But as Flightsim.com gains more content they will also gain more users, so I expect the download numbers to improve over time.
You need to be logged in to download or upload, but creating a user ID is free.
Features
The main difference here is that Flightsim.com supports FSX/2004, Prepar3d as well as MSFS. So finding MSFS content may not be as clear cut as it is elsewhere. Flightsim.com landing page also groups all recent uploads together from the 3 platforms in one place. So it is a good idea for Content Creators to add MSFS to the start of their upload name.
You just need to look a little further to find the recent MSFS content which is grouped together on this page. Recent MSFS Files - FlightSim.Com.
You can also browse all MSFS content on the page linked below, although you have to expand the various MSFS categories on the right to see the content. Downloads - FlightSim.Com
Flightsim.com also has a forum section for the various platforms it supports.
Flightsim.com also has a direct message option to allow your supporters to directly contact you.
Should you boycott Flightsim.to?
Definitely not. Competition always benefits the end user. And a lot of good content is only hosted at To. I just think you need to know that the alternatives have already done some serious catching up. There is nothing to stop you hosting your content on both platforms, although Flightsim.to has blocked me from uploading.
Yes, thanks. I’ve been checking your content there and have grabbed a couple liveries.
I’m not expecting you to know the answer to this so maybe it’s more of a rhetorical question at this point, but if fs.com starts to host a lot of free content and their storage and bandwidth requirements grow increasingly large, will they be able to fund things with just adds and some premium content, or will they also need to explore some of those things we might not like about fs.to?
Flightsim.com have been around in one from or another sicne 1983 so they know a bit about survival. I’m sure that they would have a plan to cater for future growth.
I think I must be missing something here. I’ve used fs.to for around 18 months. I’m not a content maker I use it purely for downloading various addons that I choose which will enhance my simming experience. Some I have paid for some are free. I know advertising is annoying but it gets revenue that enables the host to keep going.
Look at to for instance. We pay to watch and still get adds. Why? Because it’s expensive to keep running.
Free content is free for goodness sake. Watch an ad download the gizmo and get on with life.
The guys who make the additional content either free or pay ware have my full respect but let’s be honest if it wasn’t for slick hosting sites who DO have costs it would end up like it did with the old flight sims. Lots of different sites offering lots of different bits and pieces some very good but a lot of it very bad and of course open to to all manner of download nasties.
Yes fs.to do need to get it right with the creators but life tends to work better if it works both ways.
That’s my two penny worth. Gday.
The major disagreement was not about ads, or paid membership, but about their TOS and the content creator’s inability to delete their own content. I suggest you read back more before forming an opinion based on missing information.
