this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] Repossess6855@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Out of the loop, private trackers?

[–] gregoryw3@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Private sites that people upload torrents to. A lot of them have requirements like “upload at least 1 content that we don’t have” and “must maintain a seed ratio of x”. Most that I’ve seen either have closed registrations, requiring someone to invite you as a referral, or they have interviews to make sure you’re not malicious”.

I’ve always wanted to be in one because every once in a while I can’t find content that’s old/obscure and it’s super annoying and supposedly private trackers have a bunch of old/obscure content as-well as super new stuff like blu ray rips and native stream rips.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A lot of them have requirements like “upload at least 1 content that we don’t have” and “must maintain a seed ratio of x”.

I can attest to seeding requirements, but I've seen lots of private trackers, and only very few have rules like "upload at least 1 piece of content that we don't have." I would say those ones are in the minority, and most are happy to accept people who only download as long as they keep seeding and keep their ratios up.

I’ve always wanted to be in one because every once in a while I can’t find content that’s old/obscure and it’s super annoying and supposedly private trackers have a bunch of old/obscure content as-well as super new stuff like blu ray rips and native stream rips.

Depends on the tracker. Cinemageddon literally only traffics in B-movies and so the worse and more obscure the film is, the more likely it is you will find numerous copies on CG.

[–] Enigma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Can you please explain the difference between seeders and leechers?

[–] StickBugged@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I'm fairly certain a seeder is someone who has already downloaded the file and is actively "uploading" it so that leechers get better download speeds. Don't quote me on this as I've never really torrented anything ever. For more accurate information, just use google

[–] Hunter2@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The way torrenting works, you're getting different parts of a file from different people, while at the same time you're also sharing the little parts you've received so far with other recent downloaders.

Seeders are people that already have the full file and are spreading (seeds) for other users to download through the same torrent.

Leechers are those that are currently downloading the file but still have not finished.

The term "Leecher" is also used to call those that delete the torrent as soon as it finishes dowaloading. It's good practice to seed it (upload), at the very least, for the same amount you downloaded.

[–] Enigma@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So everyone is a leecher until the file is downloaded and you tou only become a seeder by allowing the upload to finish? Is that correct? Sorry, just got done driving 17hrs so my mind is a little mush.

[–] worsedoughnut@lemdro.id 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mostly you've got the right idea. Important to note that seeding is not only done after you have 100% of the file downloaded (the whole time you're downloading you are also uploading back the files you already have up to that point) but private trackers mostly make the assumption that anyone in the peer swarm that isn't at 100% yet is leeching until proven otherwise.

[–] Enigma@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Oh okay. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

Givers and takers. Seeders have the complete file and leechers are currently downloading the file.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

EDIT: I think it is amazing that I have 10 upvotes, and -1 downvotes, resulting in 11 upvotes.

invite only torrent sites.

reddit used to have its own private tracker, baconBits, spawned on christmas day 2009. It shut down May of last year.

there's plenty of others, though.

The benefit of private trackers is that since they're invite-only, you don't really run the risk of running into copyright cops who want to send you cease and desist notices. They generally tend to go for the easy fish at the public trackers like 1337x and torrentgalaxy. There is a sort of "circle of trust" on private trackers and it can be really easy to get your account banned if someone you invite got banned. They take the circle of trust pretty seriously on a lot of them. (That sounds more scary than it is, I've never seen it in practice, but the general rule is "don't invite people who will cause trouble, because you'll be accountable for their behavior since you invited them.")

Also, many private trackers have an upper limit on users, and stop accepting new users when they hit that limit. Keeping user bases small also keeps you more "under the radar."

Finally, private trackers are also a source of many scene groups releases, so if you get on certain trackers, you'll have faster access to certain releases.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate being that bitch but I gotta clear up:

“The benefit of private trackers” is what this poster meant.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, I put this comment up half asleep before work earlier. Corrections edited in.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I see your edit—I use Memmy and I used to be able to see separate downvotes and upvotes, but I cannot anymore. I miss that! Maybe it’s a setting somewhere. I didn’t downnvote ya and I’m sure everyone else didn’t because your comment was helpful and we could understand in context what ya meant ;3

I hope your helpful butt is already on all of the private trackers you desire to be on! I’m on a couple I love, but there’s always the white whales of trackers I can’t be assed to work my way up to hahaha

[–] zahel@cosmere.xyz 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Invite only torrent sites.

Retention and availability of seeders is higher.

You have to seed each torrent for a certain period of time at minimum (usually a week or so) and maintain a good overall upload/download ratio total (1.0 +)