I always try to view the NFOs before downloading a file. A handy feature would be to have a shortcut method to quickly and easily extract NFOs and view them.
Currently, I need to take these steps to view an NFO contained in a file collection in the search window:
- highlight/rightclick/select "add to queue"
- go to "Downlaod Queue" page
- expand the file collection (+)
- pause all files
- browse through the list to find the NFO
- unpause the NFO
- hit "connect to server"
( ... NFO downloads ... )
- open download folder
- browse download folders to find NFO
- open and view NFO
That's much too many steps to take just to browse/view NFOs that are contained in the search page! It would be much better if the process was as easy as reading text messages with any newsreader.
How about having a shortcut method of being able to right-click on a file collection in the search page results and select "view NFO" and (if an NFO exists in the collection) have the NFO transparently download and pop open a window for viewing, bypassing the download queue?
I'm only suggesting a popup text window because I thought it might be the easiest method to implement. An alternative method would be to view NFOs within Alt.Binz in a split-window viewer, similar to a traditional newsreader.
Similarly, if the user forgets to view the NFO in the search page, to be able to do the same thing (right-click/"view NFO") from the Download Queue page would be welcome.
NFOs downloaded using this shortcut method could be written to a dedicated NFO folder (in addition to the "download", "NZB", "temp", and "misc" folders) instead of routed as 'normal' downloads.
Since a lot of non-scene (n00b) releases often post .txt file attachments instead of .nfo files, the same rule probably should apply to .txt attachments.