• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:59
CEST 11:59
KST 18:59
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-221Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-69SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-64PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)14
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Serral wins HomeStory Cup 29 StarCraft 2 at SC4ALL II Invite #4/8 - Percival Protoss AoE skill expression 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)
Tourneys
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance
Brood War
General
Are you ready for ASL 22? NEW HYPE VIDEO BW General Discussion [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60 ASL22 General Discussion Recent recommended BW games
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 Escore Tournament - Season 3 SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Diablo 2 thread General RTS Discussion Thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Iain M Banks Says He Has Cancer And Months To Live European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The Clem Fan Club INnoVation Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
NBA General Discussion Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8666 users

drop.sc's replay removal policy

Blogs > nunez
Post a Reply
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-01 19:57:11
January 01 2013 17:09 GMT
#1
      
update: all's well that ends well


reply from drop.sc
I've changed the policy so that users can't request replays to be removed anymore. (There are corner cases where the previous policy would be a problem, like you point out)


preface


it all started with an innocent submission, if there is such a thing, to the GM / Master map hacker and general cheating thread. quite the mouthful, i know.

after being accused of maphacking by a terran who would later be confirmed as a maphacker (that's usually how the story goes) the user yeohong decided to submit the replay he was accused in. however shortly after he decided to remove the link. at this point i had already grabbed it, and promptly reposted the link or re-uploaded the replay.

On December 14 2012 17:08 nunez wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 14 2012 13:19 yeohong wrote:
hmm. won't let me download. let me try again


why did you remove the replay link? it worked fine.

reposting it for later.

http://drop.sc/284214

whether i reposted or re-uploaded i am no longer sure but it doesn't really matter.

edit: from the hacker analysis of yeohong's opponent i had written a note that confirmed me reuploading the replay.
On December 14 2012 20:20 nunez wrote:
note: had to reupload, seems like someone removed the initial rep



miffed


browsing through the thread today, i remembered this curious case and decided to recheck the name of yeohongs account. to my disappointment the replay had been requested taken down by yeohong, for some reason that i am not aware and won't bother to speculate in.

i was miffed and decided to shoot off a mail to drop.sc support, because at this point i was pretty sure that i re-uploaded the replay, and after a quick check in the terms of service i did not see anything that i had done wrong.


faq


drop.sc quickly responded:

Seems like this replay has been removed due to other user requesting removal.

still miffed i set about querying why this other user's request for removal weighed more heavily than my re-upload of the replay. at this point i was still certain that i reuploaded the replay.

however before drop.sc could answer my mail, i found the answer i was looking for in the faq section of their webpage:

How can I remove a replay?
Unfortunately we don't have the resources to be the replay authority and decide disputes regarding replay removal. We'll remove a replay only if the original and logged-in uploader makes the request. Requests can be send to support@drop.sc

so regardless of whether i had reuploaded the replay or not, yeohong's request would be the one with the power to request removal, and worded thusly it looks like the original, logged-ins uploader's request will be honoured.


case


i do not think this is a good policy. the time of upload says nothing about ownership or rights, and if i were to guess i would guess that blizzard is sitting on those. from the sc2 eula:

5 Ownership.
All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Game and all copies thereof (including without limitation any titles, computer code ... and any related documentation) are owned or licensed by Blizzard. ... You have no interest, monetary or otherwise, in any feature or content contained in the Game or associated with the Account.

nor does it necessarily say anything about personal stake in the replay. i think it's fair to say that each 'upload' of a replay should be valued equal to others, regardless of the time it is uploaded.

i suspect the current replay removal policy was a compromise between culling the removal requests to a manageable size and providing a service that seems reasonable to provide to users in a reasonable way.

the way to make a good policy would be a policy that serves the community as a whole and the uploaders, while not straining drop.sc beyond what they find is reasonable. maybe this will entail too much work for drop.sc, but here are two different changes to the policy:

remove the request removal feature entirely.

    on a community level i think it is best to remove the feature entirely, rather than to keep it in. the number of cases where a replay is removed and it gains more 'undefined something that serves the community' than it takes is if not outnumbered, but at least close to equal to the opposite. that combined with the time saved by drop.sc, it seems like a reasonable choice.
    this might be a faulty assumption skewed by my personal interest in not having to store replays locally.

any logged-in uploader can remove his 'version' of the replay, when all logged-in uploaders has removed their 'version', the replay is removed.

    this would be the most fair policy for the actual uploaders. each upload would be equally valued, which is better than having the original upload take precedence, since as earlier mentioned, time of upload does not say anything about ownership or personal stake.

    codecrafting it does not seem like this would be that hard to implement, but codecrafting is codecrafting. one could keep a count of how many logged-in users have uploaded the same replay, for each removal request it is decremented, and when it reaches zero it's safe to replay.
    this codecrafting is useless, but meant to demonstrate that it might not be very hard to implement for drop.sc. it could really wrong


lesson to be learneth


on a personal level, i noted that with the current replay removal policy i should always keep a local backup of the files i upload to drop.sc, since if somebody has uploaded the replay before me, they seem to have the rights to remove it. maybe you want to as well.
      


*
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
netherh
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United Kingdom333 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-01 17:42:06
January 01 2013 17:40 GMT
#2
Enh. nvm.
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-01 17:47:11
January 01 2013 17:46 GMT
#3
well, the point was that it didn't matter if i had re-uploaded or re-linked the replay. i don't know why you'd want to imply that i'm lying on such a trifle, not only is it irrelevant, but also rather inappropriate.

i tried to show in the second proposal that it would not be of great difficulty to keep tabs on how many 'original uploaders' there were, grossly simplified and horribly inaccurate, but still.

edit: you bastard.
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
Clbull
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United Kingdom1439 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-01 17:52:02
January 01 2013 17:50 GMT
#4
drop.sc sucks and it doesn't surprise me that they'd do something like this. A few months ago, they basically performed the major dick move of disabling much of the functionality of their site (such as browsing and searching for replays, replay packs, streams etc) for ages and held said features hostage to a typical Paypal donation drive. During this stage all this site would let you do is upload replays and download replays from a link you already have. It basically had the same functionality as ReplayFu, a predating competitor site.

Now, they FINALLY monetise the site but they make searching their replay archive and uploading replays in a Replay Pack require a Pro subscription. Yes, you can browse replays but if you want to filter results, you have to pay up.

The way they monetised the site was really bad, and it seemed sucky they'd do this after holding major site functions hostage to a donation drive. It'd be fine if they just ran more ads.
jcroisdale
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States1543 Posts
January 01 2013 19:52 GMT
#5
On January 02 2013 02:50 Clbull wrote:
drop.sc sucks and it doesn't surprise me that they'd do something like this. A few months ago, they basically performed the major dick move of disabling much of the functionality of their site (such as browsing and searching for replays, replay packs, streams etc) for ages and held said features hostage to a typical Paypal donation drive. During this stage all this site would let you do is upload replays and download replays from a link you already have. It basically had the same functionality as ReplayFu, a predating competitor site.

Now, they FINALLY monetise the site but they make searching their replay archive and uploading replays in a Replay Pack require a Pro subscription. Yes, you can browse replays but if you want to filter results, you have to pay up.

The way they monetised the site was really bad, and it seemed sucky they'd do this after holding major site functions hostage to a donation drive. It'd be fine if they just ran more ads.


If they could just go back to how the site was 1 year ago. They really did have the most streamlined replay uploader.
"I think bringing a toddler to a movie theater is a terrible idea. They are too young to understand what is happening it would be like giving your toddler acid. Bad idea." - Sinensis
CecilSunkure
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2829 Posts
January 01 2013 20:18 GMT
#6
On January 02 2013 02:50 Clbull wrote:
drop.sc sucks and it doesn't surprise me that they'd do something like this. A few months ago, they basically performed the major dick move of disabling much of the functionality of their site (such as browsing and searching for replays, replay packs, streams etc) for ages and held said features hostage to a typical Paypal donation drive. During this stage all this site would let you do is upload replays and download replays from a link you already have. It basically had the same functionality as ReplayFu, a predating competitor site.

Now, they FINALLY monetise the site but they make searching their replay archive and uploading replays in a Replay Pack require a Pro subscription. Yes, you can browse replays but if you want to filter results, you have to pay up.

The way they monetised the site was really bad, and it seemed sucky they'd do this after holding major site functions hostage to a donation drive. It'd be fine if they just ran more ads.

Yeah it really is terrible. Their replay collection was pretty good for a while, but if you limit the amount of replays coming in all of a sudden through pay requirement, then a lot of people will stop using the site... Meaning you have a lot less replays coming in, meaning if you pay to use the site you'll have a worse future selection than when the site was free.
netherh
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United Kingdom333 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-01 20:39:56
January 01 2013 20:38 GMT
#7
On January 02 2013 02:46 nunez wrote:
well, the point was that it didn't matter if i had re-uploaded or re-linked the replay. i don't know why you'd want to imply that i'm lying on such a trifle, not only is it irrelevant, but also rather inappropriate.

i tried to show in the second proposal that it would not be of great difficulty to keep tabs on how many 'original uploaders' there were, grossly simplified and horribly inaccurate, but still.

edit: you bastard.


I edited my post out well before you replied, as I figured there wasn't any point getting involved. Still, since unfortunately you saw it first.

Of course it matters. If you relink, that's copying an url - the replay has nothing to do with you at all, so there's no reason not to honour a request to delete it by the person who uploaded it. As I said it seems pretty sketchy to evade this point and pretend like it's a "trifle". It's more or less the basis for the entire rest of your post, but you somehow "can't remember".

But there's only one original uploader, so it's also perfectly sensible policy to do what they do at the moment. Also, It won't ever affect personal replays, since you're always going to be the first person to upload your own replay and hence considered the owner. It doesn't really seem like much of an issue at all.
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
January 01 2013 20:56 GMT
#8
On January 02 2013 05:38 netherh wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 02 2013 02:46 nunez wrote:
well, the point was that it didn't matter if i had re-uploaded or re-linked the replay. i don't know why you'd want to imply that i'm lying on such a trifle, not only is it irrelevant, but also rather inappropriate.

i tried to show in the second proposal that it would not be of great difficulty to keep tabs on how many 'original uploaders' there were, grossly simplified and horribly inaccurate, but still.

edit: you bastard.


I edited my post out well before you replied, as I figured there wasn't any point getting involved. Still, since unfortunately you saw it first.

Of course it matters. If you relink, that's copying an url - the replay has nothing to do with you at all, so there's no reason not to honour a request to delete it by the person who uploaded it. As I said it seems pretty sketchy to evade this point and pretend like it's a "trifle". It's more or less the basis for the entire rest of your post, but you somehow "can't remember".

But there's only one original uploader, so it's also perfectly sensible policy to do what they do at the moment. Also, It won't ever affect personal replays, since you're always going to be the first person to upload your own replay and hence considered the owner. It doesn't really seem like much of an issue at all.


it's a trifle because this blog isn't about that single incident, that single incident was just the preface that led to me realizing what the drop.sc replay removal policy was, which this blog actually is about. so it's insignificant, like i already stated in the blog. i thought this was easily understood, but i am glad we cleared it up nevertheless.

for the record i edited the op, the analysis post of the hacker in the replay had a note stating that i had to reupload the replay, so i guess i did. so much for your malicious insinuations.
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
netherh
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United Kingdom333 Posts
January 01 2013 23:01 GMT
#9
On January 02 2013 05:56 nunez wrote:
it's a trifle because this blog isn't about that single incident, that single incident was just the preface that led to me realizing what the drop.sc replay removal policy was, which this blog actually is about. so it's insignificant, like i already stated in the blog. i thought this was easily understood, but i am glad we cleared it up nevertheless.

for the record i edited the op, the analysis post of the hacker in the replay had a note stating that i had to reupload the replay, so i guess i did. so much for your malicious insinuations.


Um no. Nothing is "cleared up". The timeline seems thus:

1. Yeohong uploads replay.
2. Yeohong removes replay link.
3. You repost replay link.
4. Yeohong requests replay removal -> replay is removed.
5. You whine at drop.sc for removing the replay, and re-upload it.
6. Re-uploaded replay is not removed, and remains viewable today (note last edit on your post was back in December): http://drop.sc/284277

Drop.sc removed a replay that Yeohong uploaded, at Yeohong's request. Your re-upload of the replay remains untouched.

Your post explicitly states that drop.sc removed your own upload of a replay at the request of another user. I can't help but point out that they have done no such thing.

The evidence still suggests that you're lying.
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
January 01 2013 23:15 GMT
#10
On January 02 2013 08:01 netherh wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 02 2013 05:56 nunez wrote:
it's a trifle because this blog isn't about that single incident, that single incident was just the preface that led to me realizing what the drop.sc replay removal policy was, which this blog actually is about. so it's insignificant, like i already stated in the blog. i thought this was easily understood, but i am glad we cleared it up nevertheless.

for the record i edited the op, the analysis post of the hacker in the replay had a note stating that i had to reupload the replay, so i guess i did. so much for your malicious insinuations.


Um no. Nothing is "cleared up". The timeline seems thus:

1. Yeohong uploads replay.
2. Yeohong removes replay link.
3. You repost replay link.
4. Yeohong requests replay removal -> replay is removed.
5. You whine at drop.sc for removing the replay, and re-upload it.
6. Re-uploaded replay is not removed, and remains viewable today (note last edit on your post was back in December): http://drop.sc/284277

Drop.sc removed a replay that Yeohong uploaded, at Yeohong's request. Your re-upload of the replay remains untouched.

Your post explicitly states that drop.sc removed your own upload of a replay at the request of another user. I can't help but point out that they have done no such thing.

The evidence still suggests that you're lying.


i reuploaded the replay earlier today after it was sent to me from drop.sc after emailing them about the issue.
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
netherh
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United Kingdom333 Posts
January 01 2013 23:19 GMT
#11
On January 02 2013 08:15 nunez wrote:
i reuploaded the replay earlier today after it was sent to me from drop.sc after emailing them about the issue.


But your note saying you re-uploaded the replay is in a post with last edit on 14th December - and that replay is still accessible.
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
January 01 2013 23:24 GMT
#12
On January 02 2013 08:19 netherh wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 02 2013 08:15 nunez wrote:
i reuploaded the replay earlier today after it was sent to me from drop.sc after emailing them about the issue.


But your note saying you re-uploaded the replay is in a post with last edit on 14th December - and that replay is still accessible.


that replay was the one that went missing, that i reuploaded earlier today. it had the same url.

or was it all just an elaborate ruse many weeks in the making...
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
RSL Revival
09:00
Season 6 - Playoffs Day 6
Rogue vs SolarLIVE!
Tasteless839
IntoTheiNu 371
ComeBackTV 327
Ryung 274
RotterdaM273
IndyStarCraft 178
3DClanTV 89
Rex63
CranKy Ducklings48
CranKy Ducklings SOOP7
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Tasteless 963
RotterdaM 294
Ryung 274
IndyStarCraft 178
Rex 77
LamboSC2 0
StarCraft: Brood War
Zeus 2193
actioN 653
BeSt 456
Larva 424
Soulkey 390
Killer 320
Pusan 156
Sexy 116
ggaemo 96
soO 77
[ Show more ]
Hm[arnc] 74
Mind 67
Sharp 60
ZerO 57
JYJ 50
Purpose 26
Terrorterran 18
HiyA 15
910 5
Dota 2
canceldota41
Counter-Strike
fl0m3673
byalli798
Sick108
x6flipin93
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King118
Other Games
singsing929
Livibee107
ZerO(Twitch)7
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 31
lovetv 13
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH314
• StrangeGG 64
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV586
League of Legends
• Jankos1476
Upcoming Events
OSC
3h 1m
OSC
14h 1m
WardiTV Weekly
1d 1h
The Patches Monday
1d 6h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
PiG Sty Festival
2 days
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S3: W6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
RSL Revival: Season 6
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
Thunderpick World Champ.
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.