Soulseek

We're happy to announce a new service for privileged users that we've been experimenting with for the last couple of weeks. If you've donated recently and have privileges time left you probably know this already, as we've notified privileged users via mass message a while ago.

I get to check off a few big ones with tonight's build. The user info feature is something I know has been sorely missing in SoulseekQt since the very beginning. I've never been particularly happy with the way it turned out in the original Soulseek client, but I wasn't sure how I'd prefer it. The way it ended up this time around feels like an improvement. The user picture and textual description are shown contiguously on one page using an HTML control. Extra information like upload slots and upload availability are shown in small fields on top.

This one fixes a non-response of the SoulseekQt client to a somewhat less common type of upload request coming from the original client. It's not a huge deal on the individual user level, but I've been wanting to do a little more advertising of SoulseekQt, and I figured I'd get this out of the way before I start. Other changes include:

It's been a rough few days, trying to figure out how not to undo all of the work I did standardizing Unicode as the client's de facto method of handling strings. I literally went through three separate conversions. The first to ensure that the data system could easily handle switching to any new method of storing basic values, seeing as I had changed it once, then back when it turned out Qt's Unicode QStrings couldn't handle extended ASCII characters as gracefully as I needed them to.

Update: It appears the across-the-board conversion to Unicode is making the new build unable to download files with extended ASCII characters in their name (shared by users of the original Soulseek client.) I've pulled the download links and auto update notification until I can figure out a solution.

Though most of you would probably find the update notification to be the most useful new feature of tonight's build, most of the work went toward implementing user-initiated uploads, seeing as those had to be made to work in both directions if the feature were to be considered complete. To attempt to send a file to a user, right-click their name and select 'Upload to user'. A share browse window will open showing your own files, or at least what subset of them should be available to the particular user based on your shared folder privacy settings.

One of the most oft requested features over the years, and one I've always resisted strongly is that of automatically banning users who aren't visibly sharing anything from one's download queue. I have no desire to repeat the many fine points that have been raised time and time again on either side of the argument in a multitude of discussions here and on our original forum. Suffice it to say that I understand that Soulseek relies on openness, on the willingness of its users to share the things that they love with those around them.

Whew, that took a lot longer than I expected. To wit!

As I've had to port SoulseekQt to 64-bit Mac, I do intend to start offering 64-bit versions of the SoulseekQt client for Linux eventually. Until then, user frd was kind enough to post instructions for getting 32-bit SoulseekQt running on 64-bit Linux. You can read them here.

Update: User Dewb wrote an Ubuntu specific guide that also shows you how to integrate SoulseekQt with the Ubuntu shell.

I usually wait longer before releasing a new version, but I've been working on a user notes feature, and am quite pleased with how it turned out. So I figured, why the hell not. This is the equivalent of the user notes feature in the original Soulseek client, but with a better integrated, more prominent user interface that makes it less of a secret feature. To add or edit a user's note, use the corresponding context menu option. The attached note will appear next to their entry in your user list and any other list you put them in, meaning the unshared or ignored lists.