what are pretimes?

[cullen7282]

This question may seem stupid but I've heard people talk about pretimes before but have never really understood what it meant. Can someone please explain? :unsure:

[ulla]

Pretime means the time taken by a tracker to upload a torrent after its has been rls on the net. People prefer torrents with decent pretimes so that they can get the content earlier

correct me if im wrong

[binocular]

From FSF:

Pre-time:
Often there’s a message that accompanies a new torrent and it looks similar to this - "Uploaded 4 mins, 54 secs after pre". Since proper ’scene releases’ are not directly pre’d on BitTorrent sites (normally it’s done on IRC), there’s always a waiting period before it arrives even on the most elite private trackers. This "pre-time" means it took almost 5 minutes for the tracker to offer the release as a torrent. The shorter the time, the better. And 5 minutes is a damn-good pre-time! It goes without saying that pre-times vary greatly between private trackers - some are closer to the pre’s ’source’ than others, and are thus notoriously known for great pre-times.

[Disme]

From here: http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/pre.html


Pre
Synonyms: pre'd, pred
Terminology | Dictionary | Explanation

When a releasegroup pre's a release, it will be available for other people and the distribution will start. Also the releasename will be registered in the pre database (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/predatabase.html).

A releasegroup pre's their releases at a limited amount of sites (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/sites.html), where the group is affiliated (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/affiliate.html). Before the pre, the release will be uploaded & spread to a hidden group directory on all the group's affil sites. This group directory is a special directory which is only accessible to the members of the releasegroup. When the release is spread to all sites, it will be pred. The release will then be moved to the public zone, so all other users on the site gain access to it and spread it to other sites.

The guy from the releasegroup who pre's the release, will use a special command line (pre-command), in order to perform the pre. Usually, this command is: site pre *releasename* *section*. For example: site pre Stargate.Atlantis.S03E14.DVDRip.XviD-GoTV USTV. The pre guy will usually use a pre-tool (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/pretool.html) to pre the release simultaneously at all the sites.

Usually, the sitebot (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/sitebot.html) will announce the pre in the irc channel. The announcement will look something like this:
[Pre in USTV] GoTV just launced Stargate.Atlantis.S03E14.DVDRip.XviD-GoTV (361MB in 30F)

As soon as a release is pred, racers (http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/racer.html) will spread to the release to other sites in order to gain credits there. As a racer, the advantage of having a group on pre is that you immediately can start racing, and you don't have to wait for files to get transfered.

[binocular]

From here: http://www.aboutthescene.com/dictionary/pre.html
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What an authoritative explanation! :01:

[kareemamir]

Ha, cheers Disme. Pretty much sums it up

[cullen7282]

Thank you all. I now understand :D

[Swift]

hope you don`t request sct and ftn after this :lol: