You CAN, but why? It's still lossy. It has the same effect of changing the file name and nothing else. It also creates confusion during shares/trades. I would advise tracking down a real lossless copy, rather than just faking it.
FLAC is a format that should have no quality loss, and mp3 is a format that does have quality loss. So it's not a true FLAC if you've created it from an mp3.
Never convert mp3 to FLAC, and never convert FLAC to mp3. They are completely different things that should remain separate from each other.
"DO NOT CONVERT THIS RECORDING TO MP3/WMA/OGG or any other lossy format, unless it's for your OWN use, and nobody else's."
Your draconian "never convert flac to mp3" statement appears to contradict your tolerant statement quoted above (from your Rapidshare topics).
Mike Van wrote: "DO NOT CONVERT THIS RECORDING TO MP3/WMA/OGG or any other lossy format, unless it's for your OWN use, and nobody else's."
Your draconian "never convert flac to mp3" statement appears to contradict your tolerant statement quoted above (from your Rapidshare topics).
Why do you need to please your ego so much? Congratulations, you pointed out a slight inconsistency.
If someone is new to FLAC, the best thing you can do is tell them that it's better quality than mp3, and encourage to keep them as separate entities. If you encourage them to convert from FLAC to mp3, it's possible that they'll miss the whole purpose of FLAC existing in the first place, because they'll see mp3 as being the superior format for file size reasons.
Not to make comparisons, but... check out the recent FLAC shares and mp3 shares. Observe which ones are getting more downloads and replies. The majority of the community has made it clear that lossless is the way to go.
Just so that there won't be any inconsistencies in my philosophies for you to waste your time on in the future, I'll be sure to have a "no lossy" disclaimer on later file shares.
And please, stop equating pro-lossy attitude with tolerance, and pro-lossless attitude with intolerance. Mp3 was the best digital format 5 years ago, but times change with new knowledge and technologies. If anything, being pro-lossy is an intolerance to change, because the majority of today's trading communities have shifted to being pro-lossless. You might as well call all pro-DVD people intolerant, because they see VHS as the inferior format.