Are ratio trackers becoming a bittorrent wrecking ball?

[spaceboy909]

With public trackers, nearly everything you try and download is either mislabelled (a scam) or is really slow to download. You find yourself spending hours downloading a new movie release only to find when you've got it that its got some password scam that really is just designed to get you to go to advertising sites

There is a lot of that out there, but in 6 years of heavy bittorrent use, I've only been burned once! And it's rare that it takes me more than a day to get a large file.

A lot of people get burned simply because they will click any link that looks cool, and visit any old index that pops up. A little bit of caution and a pinch of 'street smarts' and you can easily avoid 99% of it.

Of course, I'm speaking from experience only in certain categories, such as actual DVD movie releases, tv shows and music.

I have no interest in warez or box office stuff like CAMS. Those may be bigger problem areas.

With private trackers (typically ratio based ones) you have a community of registered members who can download torrents that they know they can trust to be what they say they are and at exceptionally fast speeds. The ratio system was devised to ensure that people seed when they have downloaded so that other uses can enjoy that same fast speed. The more seeds the faster the torrent! Most sites, like my site for example work on this basis, but also generally offer incentives (like free leech periods so you can build on your ratio, or donation incentives, and credit systems) to make it more of an enjoyable experience for all. The credit system works based on how much you bother to seed your torrents. So even if you dont have a fast upload bandwidth, you can still accrue credits. The credits can then be used for various things, (depending on the tracker) most specifically for 'buying' upload ratio. All any private tracker generally asks is that you (a)seed back what you've taken, or (b) at the very least, seed back for a reasonable amount of time. I hope this has been imformative guys, I feel it really needs to be said just how much safer and more rewarding private trackers are.

Regards, Xodianbarr

Private/Ratio based trackers do have the best speed. I won't argue with that.

But it's just a huge PITA when a normally heavy seeder like myself has to constantly battle the system just to barely stay above the ban line.

And I'm not in a position to have 300 multi-gig torrents constantly on seed. 5-10 is my normal range. I like to help people complete files rather than serve them the 'trickle of death' across my entire collection.

Based on your info, it sounds like there may be better systems out there than the one that banned me. I may give one of them a whirl, but overall, I personally would rather deal with the very rare dead torrent at 99%, than to have to constantly stress out over ratios and ban threats.

My experience in the last 6 years has seen extremely few files that I was unable to get off of public trackers.

[ploopsy]

Private (ratio enforced) trackers often have new and hard to find stuff and download speeds are usually above average. The only downer is you have to seed back till you hit a certain ratio or risk getting cut off. this might be though to keep tabs on when you are seeding like 40 torrents in 1 go. Private trackers are also more secure since you have to get an invite and register before you can snoop around.

Public trackers are usually slower since there are allot more leeches for the seeders to take care of since no one has to seed back. They are also less secure.

Personally I prefer public trackers since I am in no rush to get anything. I also binge download allot (1 or 2 days a month of whording) so my downloads are collectively going at full speed.