Looking for a good alternative to what.cd

[jstorm44]

I was really excited a couple weeks ago when I got a what.cd account however, it is so difficult to seed there even with a seedbox, which I have, that all that awesome music might as well not even be accessible to me. Normally I would just cough up the money for upload credit until I could get a decent amount of content to seed but what.cd will not give upload credit for donations. What I am looking for is a music tracker with a very good collection of FLAC content that WILL LET MY BUY UPLOAD CREDIT!!!!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[anon]

Just do what the really cool seedboxers do, autosnatch almost every damn thing that hits the tracker ;)

Alternatively, you can simply get your music elsewhere (DDL forums, RuTracker) and keep What for things you can't find there.

[mjmacky]

Since you're willing to pay for music, I have a kind of strange suggestion. Buy the CDs???

[Z0M813]

Although I've never liked this suggestion much, download & seed as much freeleech as possible. The app packs for windows & mac are always being hit, also the FLAC and v0 of all freeleech releases since you want the larger FLAC releases (being harder on ratio). If you have a list of content you want, try downloading from latest release to oldest or at least most popular to most obscure. Starting out it may be a decent compromise to settle for mp3 until you build some buffer.

Since you're willing to pay for music, I have a kind of strange suggestion. Buy the CDs???
Of course THE best advice is to upload content not already on what. Freely available content is allowed to be added now, but as mjmacky said, if you're willing to shell out the cash, why not buy some stuff IRL and even if it's already on site because chances are it is, many times less popular formats haven't been posted. Usually other seedboxes will pickup new stuff automatically. All or just some of the above combined with seedbox speeds really should be enough to stay above req ratio unless you're looking to rebuild your music library.

I find it fairly easy to remain above required ratio if you're seeding all of your unique snatches at least 72hr/week.

As for an alternative that matches what's content without ratio troubles, I don't know if there is one especially for FLAC. :[

[stan]

Follow Anon's advice. Sign up at Rutracker preferably using Goggle Chrome as your Browser. You will need it for the auto translate. Ratio is incredibly easy. I know a Whatcd Elite user who on making the transition uploaded 3 TB on a single Eminem flac just for the sheer joy of actually uploading something instead of sat in your client for months on end.

Basically the choice is yours.Download a single mp3 track off Whatcd or a 20 GB flac discography off Rutracker. Takes about the same time to seed it back.

[anon]

If you have a list of content you want

...bookmark it and go nuts on the next freeleech! :lol:


As for an alternative that matches what's content without ratio troubles, I don't know if there is one especially for FLAC. :[

ca_aok always says RuTracker can be a good alternative if you know how to interpret ripping logs and spectrals. Since he knows about this sort of stuff, I suppose that's how it is. I was never a FLAC fan since it made no difference with the audio "equipment" (namely some cheap headphones) I have, short of using more disk space. When I used torrents I always went for V0 or 320, now I'll take whatever has the most comments on Warez-BB.


Basically the choice is yours.Download a single mp3 track off Whatcd or a 20 GB flac discography off Rutracker. Takes about the same time to seed it back.

That's true. Seeding in RT is pretty easy. Even somewhat obscure stuff will eventually increase your ratio given enough time, or at least that's my experience. It's still a good idea to seed as much as possible, though, for two reasons - one is the obvious, the other that every torrent yields 1 time bonus every three hours, and you can use those to download more torrents every day (it's explained here (http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/04/rutrackerorg-time-bonus-system-news.html) and in another FST thread).

[stan]

Lots of the Flacs there are straight uploads from Whatcd , Pedros and Exigo. True you should be more careful with the Russian rips.The problem with them is mostly just the fact it is one file rather than individual tracks.

The fixation with 100% true rips on What and the rest mostly stems from the ratio problems. You do not want to chance downloading something that is not exact. It may be deleted and superseded with another rip leaving you with nothing to seed.


If perchance it happens on Ru then just download another 30 GB.:D

[megabyteme]

I find it fairly easy to remain above required ratio if you're seeding all of your unique snatches at least 72hr/week.

^This.

I think a lot of people forget about this, and get stressed out about not being able to build up a buffer, or at least seed 1:1. My account is in good standing, and I'm only required to hold an 18%. I keep just keep my downloads actively seeded, and over time, my upload % has made it to a "healthy" 69%. Remember: to be a good member, you don't need to have a 60X upload buffer with 100TB/sec upload speeds- you only need to meet the requirements set by the site. And it actually makes it difficult for people to maintain a 1:1 ratio when others get over-zealous, and try to be "super members".

I am happy WhatCD understands that it is difficult to upload on their site. They could sell upload credit (like other profit-motivated sites do), but their primary goal is getting people to enjoy the music, and make an effort to seed back.

Good advice, Z0M813! I agree with your other points, too.

[jstorm44]

Thanks for the rutracker suggestion, that has really been helpful, and should have realize earlier that I should just actually go an buy music to upload since I am will to pay upload credit, dont know why i didnt think of that earlier. Although rutracker is a little odd and in Russian( though chrome takes care of that) it really helps for my big FLAC discography downloads. By the way ZOM what does IRL stand for?

Megabytreme- that is another problem I have, I dont really understand how what.cd calculates ratio, prolly cause i have not really taken the time to and also because I have been conditioned to believe that I must maintain a 1:1 bare minimum and I have to have like a 2:1 to be able to download anything......perhaps I really just need to change my outlook on what I view is an acceptable ratio.....further more I haven't even used up my 1st 6GB of download credit yet......I guess I am just being overly cautious because I really want to be a good member at what.cd and it took me a long time get a membership and I dont want to do anything to screw up my accessibility to this unbelievable music resource

[anon]

By the way ZOM what does IRL stand for?

In real life.


Megabytreme- that is another problem I have, I dont really understand how what.cd calculates ratio

If I remember correctly, your required ratio goes up or down according the percentage of snatches you've seeded. If you seed everything for a long time, it'll be at 0.0 until you reach the 20GB downloaded barrier. If you seed nothing, you get the standard 5GB of "free" downloads, and then the (stricter) ratio requirements will apply. Seeding habits in-between those two extremes will yield the logical results according how many of those snatches you've seeded. I think that if you click on "required" in the block that displays your stats at the top of every page, there's a more thorough explanation to read.

[sunsak]

pedro and exigo so goodl for it

[anon]

pedro and exigo so goodl for it

Good equals high level.

[jstorm44]

been looking for the url to pedro's cant find it.....does the tracker still exist?

[anon]

xbtmusic dot org.

[jkl49]

Are there any other alternatives to what.cd? Has to have Flac content, and would be nice if it was easy to maintain a good ratio. I know about waffles and rutracker, but the latter mostly has single-file iso rips from russia. Pedros and Exigo were also mentioned here but if there's any other sites that have Flac content, feel free to offer up any/all additional suggestions if possible. Thanks a lot, I'd really appreciate it.

[stan]

There is a Chinese tracker called Open.CD but that will be hard going for you if spending 2 minutes in Cuetools splitting the single file Ape, Alac or Flac is too much trouble for you.