I prefer public trackers and torrents just because I don’t like gatekeeping piracy. I want those bits to be distributed as far and wide as possible. So anything I get and/or seed will be public.
Even if there are bad peers that don’t give back (which there are many), plenty enough times it’s just people with shitty under served Internet connections. I’m fortunate enough to have a good enough connection where that doesn’t bother me.
I hate the whole meta of private trackers. When I’ve joined a few in the past the whole focus on needing to keep up your ratio has been a larger barrier to downloading than leechers ever were on public trackers.
You can’t seed because several users have seedboxes with perfect connections and already have a billion-to-one ratio. I ‘theoretically’ have access to all this content, but I’m downloading ‘80’s workout video volume 7’ in the hopes that I can actually seed it for someone to get enough ratio to actually download something I wanted to watch.
I was on what.cd back when that was still a thing, I poorly chose my first few downloads and then never had enough ratio to download anything else ever again until I was finally kicked for inactivity.
Instead of actually fostering a working seed economy, most seem to just replicate a capitalist dystopia where a handful of users hog all the seed slots, earning more ratio credits than they could ever use while everyone else desperately tries to scrape together enough ratio to get something of value.
So by chance I was in university and invited into what by my roommate. I literally bought more internet bandwidth from my uni to handle an early freeleech event where I got to mega game the system (By accident! I didn’t really know what I was doing. And good thing it was a private tracker because I was on a bare connection. I didn’t know what A VPN was at that time, much less how to hide my identity online).
I thought my ratio was totally unfair so I never really abused it, but that’s kinda the problem. Only by chance I had like a 500 ratio, whereas someone like you had no chance ever to catch up to the earlier established players. Even though I wasn’t a victim of the ratio, the concept of your story is just another reason why I dislike private trackers.
That said, the best thing about what.cd was just how well organized and categorized it was. Library of Alexandria style shit, now lost to us. Plus the forums with some real music-heads were great, too, and you could really expand your music horizons by talking with those people. I liked that it was NOT a Reddit-style forum, so when something new dropped everyone had a say. Upvotes didn’t influence that kind of conversation. At any rate, I stopped pirating music so much maybe beginning in 2013 or 2014, but every time I look now the uploads are either 320kbps (overkill bitrate, garbage ancient codec) or FLAC (nice for archiving, but not what I want). So I end up DLing FLACs and then converting them into 128kbps Opus. It works, but my music horizons aren’t broadened without that what community. I guess all I mean is I don’t miss the private nature of what, but I do miss the community.
I've been a newbie on a bunch of private trackers, and there's almost always some way to get ratio, you just need to figure out that site's method, and be patient in not-downloading-everything until you can afford it.
For example, like many sites, what.cd generally had freeleeches around the site birthday and the winter holidays: nothing you downloaded counted against you, and whatever you uploaded got added to your account. They also often had artist freeleeches when an artist died; if What was around today, the site would be going wild with Jimmy Buffett traffic. Other sites have bonus points, where you get points for seeding even if no one downloads from you; and then you turn in your points for upload credit. Still other places, you can cross-seed content to get past the newbie ratio restrictions, then move on from there.
It is incredibly frustrating to be new on a site that has a whole bunch of content that you want, but if you're patient or you figure out how the site does things, you can get a lot out of them.
So you both agree that the system fucking sucks. Fundamentally, the hoops you have to jump through to do anything are far worse than the annoyance of bad seeds on public torrents.
The counterpoint is that obscure torrents are better seeded on private trackers. If what you’re looking for is even mildly popular however, private trackers just suck.
Do you need a private tracker? IMO, most people don't. Most people are happy with what they have, or are happy with what they get from public trackers and other places. It's really only if you're finding yourself unhappy with public trackers - you're not comfortable with the lack of privacy, for example, or you're often looking content that you can't find - that I would suggest looking into private trackers.
Sounds like you're just not the intended target for private trackers, and that's fine.
Ya, I just want to get content. I don’t mind giving back to the community for it, but needing to figure out some sort of ‘system’ is too much. I’m not looking for a mini-game.
This is a reason why I’m not on any private tracker. When there are 200 seeds all with better connection than me, then my ratio isn’t going anywhere. It creates this weird dynamic where you’re sometimes wishing people would stop seeding stuff; and that is clearly counter-productive.
I exclaimed “YES!” and started clapping after reading your comment. Just hell yeah. Beyond the weird issues that come with the model of seeding to gain access, there is something fundamentally off about the idea of private trackers, and you nailed it. It is antithetical to the whole enterprise of sharing. This transactional shit serves as a price tag that only the privileged can afford
Many times that’s true, too. One of the saddest things in torrents is seeing two torrents with identical contents that were created separately, or one just recreated so someone can add their website to it or something, thereby dividing the pool of possible peers.
I think one of the most interesting ideas in BitTorrent v2 is that hash trees are formed per-file, not per-torrent. So two torrents with identical contents could, if I understand this right, basically be considered one and the same. It would be cool to see more wide adoption and promotion of BT v2 blog.libtorrent.org/2020/09/bittorrent-v2/
I’m on a few private trackers, never paid a penny towards any of them, and have high ratios in all of them
It did take me a little work and spent some time seeding stuff I didn’t really want but I got there with a shitty home connection (my connection is pretty good now but I built those ratios with dog shit speeds)
I sort of agree. When everyone is trying to seed to up their ratio, getting stuff is easy and fast. But maintaining your ratio is a nightmare. The place is essentially starved of downloaders because even people who want stuff can’t get it for fear of ruining their ratio. The only reason I had a positive ratio on what.cd was that they occasionally had freeleech days where you could download freely and only uploads counted. On those days I would just get the most popular torrents on the site and upload the shit out of them.
While these problems exist in any private tracker, I do still miss what.cd.
I don’t have much free time to play around and never had the chance to be in a popular private tracker . It’s quite imposible for me … I mean wait for slots? A random date? An interview … forget it .
You’re downloading old and/or unpopular stuff. For you to upload content someone has to be actively downloading that content (that’s how the bit torrent protocol works at the most basic level). If you choose some 5 year-old FL of a Game of Thrones pack with 7,000 seeders, that’s on you
The incentive structure just doesn’t seem designed well. It creates a zero sum game. When downloading you can either:
Not seed to 100%. This damages your ratio
Seed to exactly 100%. In terms of ratio maintenance across all seeders this option makes the most sense
Seed past 100%. You build up your own ratio but deny other downloaders from reaching 100% which hurts their ratio. They must spend longer seeding the torrent to reach 100%, which further decreases the likelihood of subsequent downloaders from reaching 100% when seeding
When you seed past 100%, you essentially have to rely on bad actors to create more upload work for good actors. If there are no bad actors then seeding past 100% is to the detriment of other good actors, who you want to protect because you also rely on them for system health. And private trackers aim to minimize the number of bad actors.
Some great private trakers implement a system where users are rewarded for the time they spend seeding rather than the amount of data seeded. This creates an incentive towards keeping torrents available to everyone for a long time, which makes the whole system healthier.
and some other trackers completely ignore all of that and make it extremely hard to gain ratio. if they all had a bonus points system that would be great though
Yeah, RED guarantees access, but it’s also possible to gain access without it; it just takes longer. Sites like TorrentLeech can serve as valid proof for certain sites during applications, for example. Additionally, AlphaRatio also has some recruitment.
I got around this by just downloading some big freeleech porn packs or a couple new release shows/movies. My highest ratio item is an anime episode I downloaded minutes after release
Use Sonarr or Radarr, it will download content for you as soon as it is available on the tracker. Since people are mostly looking for new stuff it works really well to boost your ratio. I have at least a ratio of 10 (first episode is closer to 20) for every Ahsoka and Futurama episodes. For Asteroid City I’m currently at 18.
Sonarr and Radarr actually take a bit after the initial upload to discover it, autobrr can grab quicker because it relies on the irc announce channel of the tracker.
I’ve never had any need, except for audiobooks. Getting into myanonymouse is just a case of knowing the rules and passing a wee test. Maybe start there?
I recently joined myanonamouse and it’s working great so far. The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to make my qbitttorrent + vpn docker container accessible for seeding.
I’m using PIA and qbitttorrent is set to use that port. I also forwarded the port in my router, but myanonamouse wouldn’t show me as online/connectable.
Don’t forward the port in your router, it’s not required and is just adding a vulnerable entry point into your network.
You can use a port checker tool to see if the port you are using is open (using the VPN IP). If it’s just myanonamouse that’s not recognising it, I recommend asking for help on there :)
Don’t forward the port in your router, it’s not required and is just adding a vulnerable entry point into your network.
You can use a port checker tool to see if the port you are using is open (using the VPN IP). If it’s just myanonamouse that’s not recognising it, I recommend asking for help on there :)
It’s a good idea to start with MAM since they have interviews twice a week, and you can access invites for other trackers in the forums once you get to vip (which requires 4 weeks of membership, and a ratio above 2.0)
One of the nicer things about it is that you can gain bonus points (which is how you buy extra upload credit and VIP) just by being an available seed. Due to the shear number of books on the site, you won’t be seeding often, but they make it desirable to keep it available in case someone needs it by giving you a certain number of bonus points per hour depending on various factors.
That’s a lot of work. I can’t imagine putting that much effort into downloading, not when Usenet doesn’t require anything but a couple dollars a month.
No, that’s why I wouldn’t even ask for one. No point wasting so much time tending a ratio when I’ve got a faster experience that doesn’t require me to do anything, and doesn’t depend on random strangers to work.
opensignup pages like r/opensignups (now retired) but there are alternatives online, the AvistaZ/CinemaZ/PrivateHD discord has surprise invites and usually they open around christmas and/or black friday.
Look I get that private trackers are probably safer and have a mored dedicated community but personally I still love anyone that keeps it public and keeps the knowledge of torrenting open and available as a tool for new people to discover.
I just use the public torrents, I have an IP Blocklist, and I seed the shit out of the stuff I download if it’s got less traction on it.
I will probably find a private group or something once I realize my obscure watching habits leave me out of finding stuff unless I can literally find it physical or get lucky but for now I’m a free pirate.
Some further evidence from playing just now. My friend was sailing the ship and the wind was at our backs, he had to take a phone call so I took over and the moment I sat down the wind abruptly spun around 180 degrees and is blowing in my face. Aaaaaaaaaa
just to make one of the powers you get later seem more useful
I want moder power to be useful so fucking bad dude. Last time I played I tried living on a little island that I terraformed into a small fort that rises out of the water, my only way to come or go with ore was by boat and I STILL never used it.
Despite being in literally the most optimal use case for having it that power just feels so lack luster. It would be wayyyyy better if it was just like a passive effect that made RNG better or half cool down or something. As it is I’d rather just use bonemass or Deer since they are more universally applicable
Yeah, there are exceptions like Overboard, Storyteller, the Alien Isolation sidekick game or the whole Lifeline space series, but they’re all lost in an ocean of crap.
I am not entirely sure about the English names for the parts of a boat but I try my best: the Boat always tries moves towards where the bow is pointed because of the keel below the ship which acts like a guide rail because it creates a path of less resistance. And the hull makes it very hard to much it left and right. So even though the wind comes from a 45° the shape translates that in mostly forward movement and a little bit of sideways movement. Like a toy car you are stepping on: you are acting as a downwards force but the wheels translate it to forward movement. I hope that somewhat gives you a bit more insight!
Good explanation. Another way to think about it is with modern sails and hull design it’s more like a wing. The sail above the water is the more obvious wing shape, and with some designs that use a centerboard or daggerboard that is like the other half of a wing turned on its side. With water having more drag than air, the centerboard is the continued wing shape under the water only shorter.
Actually from what I remember from a reddit thread a while back, someone did the math and rowing against wind seems to be faster on average in valheim in any case except if you're in the storm or sth like that. It feels slower cuz its a boring slow line but it ends up being faster
The stores have a serious problem with discovery which makes it unreasonably difficult to find the good original games in the sea of shovelware, but the good stuff IS out there.
People say they hate free-to-play and that they’d happily pay once for access like a normal game, but the stats say otherwise. Almost no one pays for premium mobile games, and that’s why no one bothers making them.
People who use ‘mobile game’ as an insult are usually wilfully ignorant about the platform and just have an axe to grind.
As an aspiring dev, I always tough of mobile as platform limited by it’s past.
We got used to free crappy games because the hardware couldn’t do more. Since then the platform evolved quite a bit, but the equation on people minds stayed the same, mobile games = (free,crappy,gotcha).
Maybe I part of the problem most games I play on mobile are through emulators and quite honestly I do it to burn time not to enjoy the experience for that I would go for my pc, I would like for a change of paradigm and stopped supporting and playing simple gotcha free games, but I think the paradigm will never shift, unless something big breaks out for a couple bucks that creates a trend or even a genre.
People say they hate free-to-play and that they’d happily pay once for access like a normal game, but the stats say otherwise.
I wanted to replay Planescape: Torment, and I knew it had a mobile version. Oops, it's not compatible with modern Android. Situations like those teach me to stop bothering with mobile. Then there's the fact that if I want to play the game on a larger screen once I'm home, not only do I not get the desktop version of the game included with my purchase, but there's also no standard, easy way to sync my saves. Like someone else here in this thread, I stick to board game adaptations and things like Slay the Spire (which I've also thoroughly played on desktop).
People who use ‘mobile game’ as an insult are usually wilfully ignorant about the platform and just have an axe to grind.
The mobile games that bubble to the top and are the most played are often driven by some of the worst business models, so it's not surprising to me when the term becomes a pejorative, even if there are good mobile games out there.
Agree with all of this. People who deride games just because they are mobile are not much better than those people who see video games as being strictly for children
I’m not entirely sure but it always seems like a in-game time of day thing to me. In one of my worlds I used to leave to swamps in the morning and return at nightfall and that would put the wind on my side but if I reversed the times the wind would be against me.
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