I can't even find mafia to download it

I finally found it by clicking the tiny "GITHUB" button at the top of this page that I hadn't noticed. It just looks like a decoration, as if to say, "We are associated with this thing." A logo: that's what it looks like to me. There is no clue that it's clickable. But it took me to a page full of absolute mysteries. I don't even know what things like "forks" mean. What is all this? Pull requests, Actions, Insights? I scrolled. I don't know how many times I'd seen that row of buttons, but they look like decorations to me. The first one is "release r26737." Having finally realized I need to look for... dark camouflage colors that might be actual links, I tried that. At last I was at a page that had actual links that look like links -- after I scrolled down in hopes of finding something helpful.

So now I can finally do fresh downloads, and of the latest version. You can bet your butt I bookmarked that https://github.com/kolmafia/kolmafia page and added a note (tag) to click the "release" button. I can resume my troubleshooting. I'm going to start with the "RECOMMENDED JAVA" button at top of this page that leads to https://adoptium.net, because of the Java errors and bizarre behaviors I've been getting.

Y'all. Please. I promise, "I am not a dum." And I've been using computers constantly since the mid-1970s, the Internet since the '80s. I used to run 3 characters each on 3 different computers in KoLmafia sometimes (yes, 9 accounts simultaneously is ridiculous). I spent hours on this before stumbling across the recommendation of not getting Java from the owner of the official implementation / trademark. I started by looking for Sun, remembering their development of Java in the '80s. A lot of time trying to just find a place to download mafia. Everyone's experience is different. My concern now is that uncountable potential KoLmafia users might give up instead of using something I've loved dearly for many years.

Dearest developers, will you consider adding or changing just a thing or two, to help? Just a nice, bright button that says "Download KoLmafia here" would have helped me enormously. Thank you. Oh, maybe the same for the version of Java you use?

This was my original post that I was about 2 seconds away from posting:

Hi. I'm really sorry, I don't know why this is so hard for me. I used KoLmafia for 4-5 years, was away over 10.
I actually have downloaded an EXE version and used it for a few weeks now. I've downloaded multiple JAR versions, too. EXE works on one Windows 10 computer, but none of the JARs do. On the other, JARs work, and not EXE. I had to install Java on both machines.

So I have things I need to troubleshoot on both computers. But I can't download any KoLmafia version because I simply can't find them now. I wish something just jumped out at me on kolmafia.us or any of the linked github pages that said, "Download KoLmafia here." Please help me with a link directly to download. Thanks.
 

heeheehee

Developer
Staff member
@fewyn (since I don't think any of the rest of us have control over the forums layout)

We can certainly update the github readme to make the links more obvious (e.g. something like "Click the above buttons for more information").
 

fewyn

Administrator
Staff member
The problem with setting up some kind of direct download is we don't have any kind of "official" method, I've personally been using one of the auto downloaders for years but that's Windows only. I could just put a big download button and link to the latestarchive on Jenkins/Github but that's also not super clear either as some users might not even have Java 17 installed. I'm open to ideas/suggestions on what to do though if anyone else has any thoughts.
 

Mitchd

New member
Kolmafia is a great program. But, it's got perhaps the worst update / download etc. setup I've ever seen.

There's too much schrapnel left from the old days. Get rid of Jenkins links, etc. (ie, just leave a link (or redirect) to github from all the old things). Just keep github and the forums.

So many times I've dreaded updating, because I have to click backwards and forward and over and over and not find what I'm looking for. I used to run the .jars but now they don't work for me (I forget the shell command switches and cbb groking them) so I'm stuck looking for the installer in a haystack.

Forget what dam Java we need we can figure that out. Just a clear, obvious, prominent link to the one-and-only downloads area. Thanks.

Good job on everything else though, cheers,
mish
computer scientist like forever, eh.
 
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