Bonus points

[ktasera]

I'm wondering what people think about bonus points on trackers. I ask because bit-hdtv just changed their rules for buying upload credits with bonus points to be a bit more strict, so I was thinking about it. Do you think bonus points encourage people to upload? Make it easier for people with slow upload to have a good ratio? In general, how do you think a bonus system contributes to the success of a site?

[filonome]

i think bonus points are good, why is getting a bonus ever bad....

[sleepyy]

Theres quite a few different ways bonus points work , some help you buy credit some just help you keep a ratio if you could not upload fully on that one torrent on the site that requiers you to upload in full on each torrent,

I think it's a great idea it makes people want to seed to achieve the next user level meaning more seeding keeping torrents around longer.

Some you use the system of points for user to make requests.

All around it a fun way to keep the site going and is unique

[1000possibleclaws]

They encourage more downloading, not really less uploading. Users with a small bandwidth wouldn't be able upload a lot anyways, but this way they can download more, increasing overall traffic on the tracker.

[TP635]

And more importantly, the system keep the rare and older torrents alive; more people will be willing to download them, knowing that all they need is keep them active in the client and earn seeding bonus from them.

[Dark Archon]

bonus systems are awesome, it makes a torrent like a little economy. the karma systems on F*N and i*S are brilliant.

[broomhead]

I think it's good, it helps people with not the best connections. and it makes ppl seed more

[pandabear]

Because its lets people cap there line to 1KBps, and collect up all those bonus points, and get upload bonus.

[fazzy07]

Bonus system is a must on certain trackers like HD trackers where files are big and not everyone can seed back.
It depends on how the bonus system is setup and how hard earning points is really
If lot of trackers incorporate it, it would be very helpful to people with low speed upload at least for old torrents

[TP635]

Because its lets people cap there line to 1KBps, and collect up all those bonus points, and get upload bonus.

That was the reason why What shot down the idea. I think that there are ways to go about getting around that problem. I am sure those tackers that use the system are aware of such problem and must have some form of solution to it to make the system workable and fair.

[contravene]

I like bonus points. I don't think people should be penalized for seeding a torrent if no one else downloads it. There should just be a minimum for hit and running to go along with it.

[BrownWren]

About capping speed usually a good mod can kind of tell when thats happening... such as you have 0:00 ratio and ten people have dld and finished the torrent after you have... Kind of is suspicious.

As for bonus points I think they are good for a number of reasons. One is encouraging folks to seed longer even if no one has leeched from them they can get the credit for seeding. Also a good way for a member to welcome new users by gifting them with some for upload credit. Also a good way to get members active on Forums and be part of the community. Not that everyone wants that I know

[pandabear]

All the same, it can easily done like ST does, with the bonus points depending on whether you are transferring data or not, and depending on how many torrents you seed (with a max of course)

[BrownWren]

It can be easily done but as I said an alert staff member can see and do math most of the time :)

[Cabalo]

Because its lets people cap there line to 1KBps, and collect up all those bonus points, and get upload bonus.
...unless there is a progressive speed-related bonus like there is at stmusic, so far the best system i have seen (heard BCG has a similar approach).
It keeps them alive for longer, more seeded torrents, and i am not afraid of downloading old stuff. as for old stuff, speeds aren't an issue for me.

i use stmusic as my primary music site exactly due to that system.

[pandabear]

About capping speed usually a good mod can kind of tell when thats happening... such as you have 0:00 ratio and ten people have dld and finished the torrent after you have... Kind of is suspicious.

As for bonus points I think they are good for a number of reasons. One is encouraging folks to seed longer even if no one has leeched from them they can get the credit for seeding. Also a good way for a member to welcome new users by gifting them with some for upload credit. Also a good way to get members active on Forums and be part of the community. Not that everyone wants that I know

Uploading 100mb at maybe 10KBps, when you have a 80KBps line, and you cap it, it is hard for the staff member to really see this. Because figuring out S/L ratios, maybe drain on there bandwidth, other torrents they are using, are near impossible to see whether its someone with a cramped line or someone who is capping. I mean you can't as a staff member go and say your not uploading fast enough, take this warning, because that would go against everything.

[BrownWren]

True but you can do some checking and watching... and if it appears to happen on more than one file ... then you can question further.

[dinko]

bonus are always help to those having low upload speed or without seedbox :) even there are few generous guys who use such bonus to boost other user's UL ratio .

but I do feel some site with low seed must have something like bonus to help leechers to build ratio :unsure:

[pandabear]

True but you can do some checking and watching... and if it appears to happen on more than one file ... then you can question further.

All the same you don't have to be too clever to exploit the system. So no site take that kind of risk. Even FTN had a lot of trouble with the ratio free system, making sure people didn't cap there lines, or do things like download, and seed it later, when the leeches have died down.

[vinhkhang01]

Bonus is always good for users. That's why it is called BONUS.
For site owner, it could be bad or good depending how it's applied.
As a site owner, you want more people to use your site right. It encourages people to seed longer and keep older files staying alive longer. I think it does more good than harm even in the point of view for owners.

[fOrUmAs]

I'm wondering what people think about bonus points on trackers. I ask because bit-hdtv just changed their rules for buying upload credits with bonus points to be a bit more strict, so I was thinking about it. Do you think bonus points encourage people to upload? Make it easier for people with slow upload to have a good ratio? In general, how do you think a bonus system contributes to the success of a site?

well yea i think bonus system if good if site want to have more active torrent on tracker and by bonus system they encourage to people to seed or stay as much as possible..of course that bonus system also help people with slower connection:)

[twist off]

Hmph, what bonus?? In majority of the trackers, there needs to be hours and hours of seeding to get 1 GB...

But, its free, so whatever...

[stoi]

depends on the type of bonus.

we tried the karma bonus where members would get points for thankyous/comments/forum posts. lets just say it lasted 30 minutes before we turned it off.

and regarding the limiting of uploads, and going back to it later, you will always get members that find away around everything, thats just human nature, doesnt matter what we put in place to help them, some will take the piss.

But we find that having it as 100meg for 1 point, its actually quicker to upload then to sit around waiting for no leechers, especially if you take the 72 hours seeding time into consideration as well.

I know our system isnt perfect, but its the best we can come up with for now, im pretty sure it will change again though if we spot any flaws in it (its already been changed 3 times now because of a few bad apples)

[DyNast]

I like bonus systems for a few reasons:
1) I like when I can buy some GBs\invitations or whatever I can with the bonus points... after all, I get them for doing something I need to do anyway (seeding... OK, some trackers also have this bonuses for IRC idling, but you get my point)

2) It motivates people to keep on seeding which means that there are more seeders, usually, in this kinds of trackers (theoretically, there's no way I can prove such a thing except with common sense)

EDIT:
Damn! I was too gready and didn't exchange my bit-hdtv bonus points on time, and now there's nothing I can really do with my 1k bonus points ;(...
I could have gotten a few nice GBs :blink:

[mss74]

Bonus points are great, really encourage seeding even when there aren't many leechers.

[buggyfresh]

Because its lets people cap there line to 1KBps, and collect up all those bonus points, and get upload bonus.

Well...some trackers cap the bonus pts too e.g. uploading at less than 20 kbps you only get 0.05 bp/hr. So to cap the torrent at 1 kbps woudl take 20 hrs to get 1 bonus pt ;)

[stoi]

that has its drawbacks though.

0 leechers

1000 seeders 1-10 leechers

not everyone could upload anything in that scenario, which is why we dont do it like that.

[mera]

Anything that gives you an option is a good IMO. :)

[fOrUmAs]

Because its lets people cap there line to 1KBps, and collect up all those bonus points, and get upload bonus.

Well...some trackers cap the bonus pts too e.g. uploading at less than 20 kbps you only get 0.05 bp/hr. So to cap the torrent at 1 kbps woudl take 20 hrs to get 1 bonus pt ;)

yea that is also true

but what pandabear said yea that is also happening that people cap they line to 1kB/s but that can be very easy to fix, for example on DarkSide u need to seed more that 10 kB/s to get bonus point and that would fix the problem..

but the bad thing there is if u seed there but no leechers u will not get any bonus :wacko:

[Giveaway]

i think they are ok
implement them