Uploading Files "Help" Page is Incorrect

Hi,

(I can't view the screenshot, I get a 404 error)

Downloads can only be added as part of a release. You should first add a release; once you've done that you should be able to upload files ,which will then show up in the downloads page.

I don't know why the image wouldn't load, I just now clicked it and it showed the screenshot in the browser.

But I finally found it. I seen someplace about a "release" on my project's page. And since I've been trying to fill in all the blanks I can (even though I have no idea what they do or what they are for) I ended up finding the page that shows "Add new file". So I could finally get some progress posted here. But now every time I try to upload my Tar.gz file ( it is 173.8 MB ) I get a page saying this.

Please try again

Sorry, there was a problem connecting to the Launchpad server.

Try reloading this page in a minute or two. If the problem persists, let us know in the #launchpad IRC channel on Freenode.

Thanks for your patience.

But I tried the IRC channel last night, but no one answered. But its possible it was because it was so late.

So I just gave up last night and went to bed. No offense, cause obviously this is being used successfully for hundreds of great projects, with very few problems. But SourceForge is much much more intuitive and they literally explain what most of the steps are for. I would just continue using SourceForge, but I need Launchpad if I am to submit my app to the contest, or to the Software Center at all.

You can upload your files on the release page.
    https://launchpad.net/pictureadventure/+milestone/0.0.1
Once you release a milestone, you can add release notes and a change log.
You can upload your tarballs and other files.

The general issue Lp has is that it is not clear that to register a releasee, you need to first register a milestone on a series. You can release the milestone. You can create a release directly from a series page, but you must still know that Lp organizes work into series.

@Curtis Hovey (sinzui) , as I mentioned in the comment I made above. I ended up finding the actual file upload page but just filing in every option I seen empty on my Project's page. And yup the milestone was one of them. But now I am getting an error page when I try to upload my "PictureAdventure(FullProject).tar.gz" file. Its only 170 MB which is less than the stated limit.

Every time I try, the page just starts loading for about 5 to 10 minutes, then gives me the below error page.
__________________________________________________

Please try again

Sorry, there was a problem connecting to the Launchpad server.

Try reloading this page in a minute or two. If the problem persists, let us know in the #launchpad IRC channel on Freenode.

Thanks for your patience.
__________________________________________________

But no one answered me on the IRC channel on Freenode.

As you did mention, it is an issue that LP isn't clear that you need to register milestones on series. But its really much more than that. Upon trying to start my project, I had absolutely NO CLUE about what to do at all about how to get my project set up and ready to be submitted to the Software Center. I know I need a PPA. but am still CLUELESS about how to go about that. The help.launchpad.com site does exactly that. It "helps" but doesn't really solve the problem as a whole. There are just plain WAY too many steps required to setup projects. I understand about using OpenPGP keys to keep things secure. And that's fine I can manage that. But the complexity of branches, series, releases, pushing branches and all the other convoluted and confusing details is just plain ridiculous.

All I wanted to do was make a simple Python game in "Illumination Software Creator", and enter it into the Showdown. I didn't care about winning. It was just a good reason to work hard to finish this idea I had. There really really needed to be a disclaimer saying that the Showdown was for experienced LP users. Because I have spent so much trying to get this to work, I doubt I have time to finish my game, learn how to package it into a format LP accepts, submit it to the Reddit, and hope the judges / testers have enough time to really try it.

I'm sorry for rambling in a simple comment. But this whole thing just really upsets me

I have seen several users report issues about long uploads. I do not think there is anything you can do in this case since there are several networking factors in play. Some users have placed they tarballs on another public server, then set the project series (https://launchpad.net/pictureadventure/0.0.1) Release URL pattern to find and import the tarball. The release file finder runs once a day.

You would not need a tarball if you pushed your work up as a branch, then used a recipe to build it into package and publish it to a PPA.