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Is that acceptable? Things have changed (I think). Since some months, this has became usual here.

Is this due to some change in BSE rules?

Or should we (repetively, again) ask, in comments, for more accurate information in the question itself? Or give up about that.

Also, is the usage of pasteall or any equivalent has became the good habit here (no more blend exchange)? Even if the question makes sense only with the linked file, in long term?

What is your opinion about that?

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As far as I'm aware this rule still applies What is the problem with posting an image (or link) and asking “How do I do this?”. "Just fix my file" questions should be closed if they can't be understood without downloading a file.

I have pulled back a little on immediately closing though, because as a moderator any votes are binding, so as soon as I vote to close it takes effect immediately, not giving users time to respond, which may seem a little discouraging for first time users, so I tend to await a little.

As for using PasteAll rather than Blend.Exchange, I have relaxed my enforcing of that rule a bit recently.

As mentioned by BatFinger, Blend-Exchange as a "permanent" hosting provider would be unnecessary for many situations and overkill as one-size-fits-all solution. Hoarding certain files for "all eternity" somewhere seems really unnecessary and will gradually accumulate as internet pollution.

Besides that many files, especially ones in question, are really only relevant to answer said question, and have limited value afterwards. As Gandalf mentions they are probably downloaded once or twice to identify the issue by any potential the answerers, and then beyond that point I think the interest decreases abruptly, and I suspect the number of downloads falls to zero quickly after getting an answer.

I'm pretty sure no one is downloading hundreds of donut files, or old incomplete "stripped down" blends, small enough to fit size constraints any more.

Files on answers though are a whole other matter of course. People will likely be far more interested in files that provide understanding about solutions.

I wonder if Blend-Exchange can provide any type of file access statistics over time. Not sure if there's any system in place that can provide some access traffic history of files over time so we can confirm or deny my theory.

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  • $\begingroup$ Unfortunately, it seems like user provided files are mostly just for us to confidently sort the question into exactly what kind of duplicate it is. I don't know how to get around the problem that asking a question in the right way almost requires the same knowledge as fixing it to begin with. $\endgroup$
    – Nathan
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 17:13
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    $\begingroup$ "asking a question in the right way almost requires the same knowledge as fixing it to begin with" Sadly almost true. On the other hand, asking the question the "right way" forces you to diagnose the issue in a way that you narrow it down enough to almost fix it yourself $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Mod
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 17:54

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