Using Dropbox for file attachments
Elsewhere a question has been posted about adding mp3 files to messages. I suppose that if that were possible, then the mp3 files would add up on the MasterRussian server, gobbling up valuable space, increasing the size of the database and eating up a lot of bandwidth. That's probably not a good thing.
Here's my suggestion: there is a service called dropbox.com. It needs registration, but that's free and comes with 2 GB of online space. You only have to pay if you find you need more space than that.
Its primary use is sharing files among individual computers you might own. For example, you write a text on your desktop computer and store it in your Dropbox, and it turns up automatically in the same folder on all your other computers (notebooks, smart phones, regardless even of operating system because there are clients for Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iPhone...) once these computers connect to the internet and snychronize with your Dropbox.
The folders or directories in which you store such files are like local directories, so you do not even notice that you are working with Dropbox, there is nothing special to do.
For the purpose of sharing files with other people there are two additional folders in your Dropbox. "Photos" is, as the name implies, for public galleries, and the folder which is useful for the purpose of sharing files is "Public". If you record for example an mp3 file to share with people on this forum, just store it in the Public folder. It gets uploaded to the Dropbox server. Then right-click the file and you will find an entry for a Dropbox submenu in the context menu. One item in that submenu is "copy public link". You can paste that link into a message here, like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/989886/dropbox-demo.txt
Using that link anyone can then download the file.
You keep complete control over the file, if you want to remove it you simply delete it from your local Public folder on any of your connected computers, and it will be removed from the Dropbox server as well (after which you should remove the link from the message here, too, or else it will just lead nowhere). Or you can let it lie there indefinitely. No user sees any advertisements, no user needs to wait for a download to begin or gets reduced download speeds, no jumping through hoops as you have to with most other services.
