I just made some purchases from the MP here.  Here is what I found when I viewed the zip files:

Nothing frustrates me more than unzipping a file and finding garbage files that have nothing to do with the package,  in all of the folders.

I understand that these files are generated automatically by various programs, but they are not required files for the end product.  

It takes seconds to open the zip, select the trash files and delete them.  Doing that re-saves the zip file minus the files that were just deleted!

IMHO uploading a messy zip file like those I've shown above, especially to a market place, is just sloppy!  

The Merchant should be looking for those types of files prior to submitting the file, and the Beta Testers should also being paying attention to stuff like that when they test the file.... I know I do when I beta test.

So come on guys/gals!  Clean up your act before you submit something for testing/sale, or pass something through testing!

I know from when I was a merchant that sometimes you can delete them and they can automatically reappear without knowledge....sometimes just uploadin to rendo can cause it, . it's very frustrating to say the least. And even more frustrating now as a non vendor when I open a zip and see them all lol

Acadia your right ..IF you find that many in one zip file its plain wrong ..
ONE thumbs file might be in there ..depending on how fast windows puts one back after deleting the file.. but the amount you show in one zip ... strange that the testers did not see that huge amount of them..

But i cant imagine you find these amounts of them in many zip file
Having so many clearly points to a error in the windows the vendor uses..

Thnx for pointing this out. i for sure will be extra allert to them ...

Chris

Winzip has an option "exclude system files" when you are making a new zip.  That way you won't wind up with the annoying "thumbs.db", among others.

Some users has system files not visible, so they can't tell they are including them.

 I haven't ran into that problem so far with the zip that comes with Totalcommander, which I pretty much use for all file handling..  But I've seen them generated like crazy with other programs.

Ditto Grappo.   I use another of those old Norton-style progs (FC/W)
so I'm never fooled by Windows automatically generating or hiding any files. 

Relying on Windows to guard Windows is always dangerous.

Those all look like Macintosh system files (at least the DS_Store). Maybe something went wonky in the conversion ;o).

Laurie

* .DS_Store is a Mac-specific file that stores the custom attributes of the folder.

* thumbs.db is the thumbnail cache file (usually only comes on when the merch has Thumbnail views on in the folder). It's Windows-specific.

• .Trashes (it shows up occasionally) is in OSX - it's the undelete info for files that were deleted in a given folder.

In all cases, it is drop-easy to use a 3rd-party file compression program (e.g. 7zip works great on Windows) to open the zip and edit out the crap.

Quote - * .DS_Store is a Mac-specific file that stores the custom attributes of the folder.

* thumbs.db is the thumbnail cache file (usually only comes on when the merch has Thumbnail views on in the folder). It's Windows-specific.

• .Trashes (it shows up occasionally) is in OSX - it's the undelete info for files that were deleted in a given folder.

In all cases, it is drop-easy to use a 3rd-party file compression program (e.g. 7zip works great on Windows) to open the zip and edit out the crap.

With Winzip all you have to do is double left click, select the files and then click "delete selected".  Bam!  files deleted and the zip is automatically resaved. Literally takes about 3 seconds from start to finish.  Which is why I get so frustrated when I open a zip and see all of those garbage files inside the zip. They aren't needed and they just add to the file size.

Quote - > Quote - * .DS_Store is a Mac-specific file that stores the custom attributes of the folder.

* thumbs.db is the thumbnail cache file (usually only comes on when the merch has Thumbnail views on in the folder). It's Windows-specific.

• .Trashes (it shows up occasionally) is in OSX - it's the undelete info for files that were deleted in a given folder.

In all cases, it is drop-easy to use a 3rd-party file compression program (e.g. 7zip works great on Windows) to open the zip and edit out the crap.

With Winzip all you have to do is double left click, select the files and then click "delete selected".  Bam!  files deleted and the zip is automatically resaved. Literally takes about 3 seconds from start to finish.  Which is why I get so frustrated when I open a zip and see all of those garbage files inside the zip. They aren't needed and they just add to the file size.

Same with WinRAR (Laurie loves her WinRAR...lol).

Laurie

You're right, that is annoying. I don't think my zips got all of that stuff, but I'll keep an extra eye on this when zipping my new items from now on.

Another annoyance is a ton of empty poser directories.  You can't tell if files are missing, or just that the person copied a whole directory structure over without comparing the readme to the files.

Yeah the empty directories thing is probably a leftover from final testing - when you unpack an archive into a separate area and those empty directories aren't there, and then you hook to it in Poser as an external runtime, empty directories will get created by Poser. 

thumbs.db proper gets up my nose, too.  Who in their right mind uses thumbnail view anyhow?  Real men use list view.  :) 

I certainly hope someone from testing is reading this. I am, as well - I do have products in the MP and have made a point to make sure that the thumbs.db files aren't in any folders with images when I'm done working with them. However, I don't work alone, and it's quite possible that my business/creative partner might not be quite as particular.
To re-hash an old pet-peeve of customers, I absolutely hate the use of "!" exclamation marks to try to order things. Why not numbers? Maybe have one exclamation mark and then a number so that people can actually see the name of the pose file or whatever and not just a bunch of "!!!!!!"....

Quote - To re-hash an old pet-peeve of customers, I absolutely hate the use of "!" exclamation marks to try to order things. Why not numbers? Maybe have one exclamation mark and then a number so that people can actually see the name of the pose file or whatever and not just a bunch of "!!!!!!"....

OH yeah.. right on. 

How about no exclamation points ;o). I hate it when ppl try to bump their stuff to the top of the list...lol.

Laurie

As a user that was always something that got on my nerves - it makes a sorted list totally unusable when people actively try to break the sorting.  It's like that shit in the telephone book where you see dozens or hundreds of businesses named "AAAAAAAAA Toilet Cleaning Service".  For single files inside my own directories I might do it but never for the directory itself.

The biggest issue with thumbs.db is that, being a system file it is not normally visible in explorer due to the default view options. This would be (IMO) why you find products with them in the zip, people dont know about them. If you dont know much about windows, you would have never gone into view properties and told windows to display system and hidden files, and therefore thumbs.db would be invisible

but they should have FAILED store testing !!

My last product submission was initially rejected for having these files in the zip.
The marketplace tester was kind enough to give me a link to this neat little utility called "clean archiver"
which will Exclude these files when preparing Zip Archives for Windows users

Cheers

Regardless of what program was used to pack the files, the store tester should catch all these db files.

They (store testers) certainly hone in on readme file structure.  There are programs testers use to quickly find out if files are absolute, etc. 

All you need do in WinZip, as pointed out by Acadia, is open the zip, right click on files you wish deleted, and that's it.

:)

Quote - Hi am Not Sure when you purchased those items that have the mac "D.S. Store" files,

but they should have FAILED store testing !!

Relatively new items. Purchased them yesterday.

I suspect someone is asleep at the switch :)

In response to some of the other posts:

Quote - ....sometimes just uploadin to rendo can cause it

There is no way that uploading a zip file can add extra files to the zip!

Quote - But i cant imagine you find these amounts of them in many zip file
Having so many clearly points to a error in the windows the vendor uses..

Whilst it is hardly a disaster to find one ".db" file in the zip, it's still sloppy, as the db file serves no useful purpose as part of the package.

Quote - Some users has system files not visible, so they can't tell they are including them.

Excellent point. The image above shows the Windows settings they need to use, to see all the files and extensions.

Quote - Who in their right mind uses thumbnail view anyhow?  Real men use list view.  :)

Correction. Wimps use thumbnail view, men use list view, real men use details view! 

I'm a real man?!

:P

Laurie

Quote -
Thanks for bringing this up Acadia. If we buy a product, we should not have to worry about cleaning up other peoples trash.

In response to some of the other posts:

Quote - ....sometimes just uploadin to rendo can cause it

There is no way that uploading a zip file can add extra files to the zip!

Quote - But i cant imagine you find these amounts of them in many zip file
Having so many clearly points to a error in the windows the vendor uses..

Whilst it is hardly a disaster to find one ".db" file in the zip, it's still sloppy, as the db file serves no useful purpose as part of the package.

Quote - Some users has system files not visible, so they can't tell they are including them.

Excellent point. The image above shows the Windows settings they need to use, to see all the files and extensions.

Quote - Who in their right mind uses thumbnail view anyhow?  Real men use list view.  :)

Correction. Wimps use thumbnail view, men use list view, real men use details view! 

Nah, mate.  Real men know the info is available elsewhere in the window without using details view.  

Quote - I suspect someone is asleep at the switch :)

yep.
They Should have never been Approved in the first place.

Quote - I certainly hope someone from testing is reading this.

I hope one of the Mods or Admins has seen this and has posted the link in their private forum for the testers to read.

In XP you can turn off creating those thumbs.db in the first place. look under the view tab in the folder options. why have those things take up valuable disk space that could be used for storing more poser content.  might not be available in all os. I don't see it in lesbentley's screen shot.