Ethics of Torrenting

[Board of Command]

Do you hit and run or do you stick around? If you know what I mean...

[Lucifus]

I hit and run occasionally, but thats pretty rare, like I just finished dling and gota major urge to play BF2/CSS. 80% of the time I stick around for about a week.

[complich8]

such a strange way of asking that question...

Torrenting from my home connection (10/1), I generally seed public torrents to about 1.5-2.0, or however long they get to.

Private torrents, I generally seed for 1-3 weeks, or until the ratio climbs up to the 1.0+ neighborhood. On more competitive ratio sites, this is fairly difficult to do.

From ... faster places, I generally seed public to ~15.0+ and private to however far it goes before the torrent completely dies off (typically 2.0-3.0 on a good torrent).

If I'm particularly hurting for bandwidth and a torrent's eating what I need, I'll throttle it down or stop it altogether.

I used to be much more generous about my bandwidth, seeding until I needed space. But ultimately, on a private torrent going much above 1.0 is bad for the community, and on a reasonably large public swarm, well ... after 1.0ish I don't care anyway, I've got better uses for my upstream.

[RyougaZell]

I used to hit & run, but because I took nearly 9 hours to download a file with my crappy 96k connection. When I migrated to 1024k I switched to direct downloads... my upload is crappy and Im never able to upload decently.

[Yukimura]

I try to seed to 2.0, and but since I hate uplaoding I also try to avoid torrents whenever possible.

[Assassin]

always hit and run....though i tend to let my torrents run durign the nite so i dont have to deal with speed issues during normal activities. Most of the time the torrent will finish in a few hours, but it'll keep up'ing till i wake up 8-10 hours later.

I almost never care about seeding since most of the stuff i download comes from the eztv tracker, and by the time i have it downloaded theres like 20k seeders anyway. im not gonna waste my time seeding just to fulfill my patriotic duty. For torrents that have low seeders, i'll let it run, but if theres no peers, or i can't connect to any peers for whatever reason, i'll close it.

[BioAlien]

In my case,
1- Get the Torrent.
2- Download the file(s).
3- Once done, if it is a movie i leave utorrent On while watching and delete the torrent after its over, if a game/program/watever else, i just delete the torrent and install/run the thing i just downloaded.

That mean pretty much that i don't seed. Since for some reason, while uploading, even if it is just 10kb/s, i lag.. :( (internet browsing goes slower/ program take longer to run, etc..)
( my awesome internet connection: http://www.videotron.com/services/en/internet/caracteristiques-xtm.jsp )

And leaving my comp open during the night just to upload is out of the question, it is already overheating as it is.. i don't want it to melt.

[XanBcoo]

always hit and run....though i tend to let my torrents run durign the nite so i dont have to deal with speed issues during normal activities. Most of the time the torrent will finish in a few hours, but it'll keep up'ing till i wake up 8-10 hours later.
I do the same thing as well when I know I won't be at home. If I know I'll be out, then I won't mind letting a torrent seed all day.

Usually I hit and run though...To the point when leaving it to seed doesn't even cross my mind.

[Kraco]

Usually I try to achieve 1.3-1.5 ratio before removing the torrent, at Boxtorrents always around 1.5 to keep my recorded ratio there. Although, like Assassin, if it's a torrent with thousands upon thousands seeders, I just don't see the need and sometimes hit'n'run. Also, if I have lots of torrents waiting to be downloaded, I may end it sooner to get the next ones running.

My ISP really hates torrents, and I can't use but a fraction of the max speed for torrenting at any time (up or down, it's a symmetric connection), or the connection will become very unstable indeed, meaning a few seconds connection breaks every couple of minutes or so. This is the main reason why I don't pretty much ever stick around to seed to ratios of 10 and so.

[masamuneehs]

unless it's a relatively recent torrent that has way more seeders than leechers (like, a DB release a day afterwards, usually a thousand more seeds than leeches...) then I just cut and run. i figure nobody will have a problem getting the episode for quite some time.

Otherwise, I let my "ratio" run up to exactly 1, then cut it off. I DL'd it once, someone else DL'd it once from me, I think that's even.

Only exception to all of the above is where I see there are only a handful of seeders for a show that I really like. Then I'll seed anywhere up to a 10 or 12 to 1 ratio.

and, as for the elephant in the room, if torrenting is even ethical in the first place, I'll answer with a resounding: "i don't think it matters".

[Turkish-S]

i pay for my private torrents so i don't feel like uploading. And if i download public torrents i almost always have a ratio of 1:2 when i'm done downloading so i close that too ...

[darkshadow]

public torrents i stop as soon as im done downloading, it usually reaches like 1:3 anyway
Unless its some sort of rare thing im downloading, then i will seed for another 24 hours.

Private torrents i simply seed for 72 hours, if i can spare the space on my hdd, ill seed it for as long as i can spare it, otherwise its gone.

[complich8]

and, as for the elephant in the room, if torrenting is even ethical in the first place, I'll answer with a resounding: "i don't think it matters".

Maybe "civics" would be the better term?

[Assertn]

I don't really know the difference between the 3 poll options...
It's a pretty horrible analogy.

[Carnage]

It took me 11 seconds to understand the analogy, you need to word it a little better.

I dont really use private torrents. So as for public torrents, half the time I hit and run and half the time I seed for about a day or 2.

[Board of Command]

Since I was the one who started the poll I should probably say about bit more.

Public trackers = always hit and run
Private trackers = seed to 1:1


I don't really know the difference between the 3 poll options...
It's a pretty horrible analogy.
Drive-through = order something but just drive off afterwards without even waiting for the food
Wait for burger = wait for burger, but let them keep the change
Wait for change = sit in the car with your juicy burger beside you, while waiting for $0.03 in change

[Danad_corps]

always hit and run....though i tend to let my torrents run durign the nite so i dont have to deal with speed issues during normal activities. Most of the time the torrent will finish in a few hours, but it'll keep up'ing till i wake up 8-10 hours later.

I almost never care about seeding since most of the stuff i download comes from the eztv tracker, and by the time i have it downloaded theres like 20k seeders anyway. im not gonna waste my time seeding just to fulfill my patriotic duty. For torrents that have low seeders, i'll let it run, but if theres no peers, or i can't connect to any peers for whatever reason, i'll close it.


Thats exactly what i do. I usu. get my stuff from places where my 30kb/s isn't going to make a dent in the overall upload rate and it would take forever to get to a respectable ratio (usu. due to the size of the files). If there are few seeders, I stick around. If i am the only seeder, I'll stay till theres another seeder at least.

[Death BOO Z]

I try to get to a 1=1 ratio for most video torrents, even when it's a bitch to upload 2gb of daria goodness. Manga is a diffrent subject, since it's almost always over crowded when it's out.

well, when worse comes to worst, i can always delete the statistics file and start over...

[Ryllharu]

Unfortunately, at school we have a rotating weekly bandwidth limit, so I can't let upload run free. Home isn't any better, because if we upload too much in too short a time, the cable modem seems to shut off and needs to be reset.

It's more of a point of keeping on good terms with my respective service providers than being selfish.

[el_boss]

I always wait til I have at least 1:1, but I usually have 1:1 by the time my download is finished, so I stop seeding when my UL speeds drop to like ver low 30kbps or something. By then I already have 1:7 or something.

[Bucket]

Some of you people act like uploading is costing you time and money, or causing you physical pain. If you've got an always-on connection, and you can get a client with a scheduler, you have no excuse. Help torrents work they way they're supposed to work.

[suckitdry]

always hit and run....
I almost never care about seeding since most of the stuff i download comes from the eztv tracker, and by the time i have it downloaded theres like 20k seeders anyway. im not gonna waste my time seeding just to fulfill my patriotic duty.

Hey! Who's your dead friend? He's dead!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Middlefingernew.JPG

[Board of Command]

Some of you people act like uploading is costing you time and money, or causing you physical pain. If you've got an always-on connection, and you can get a client with a scheduler, you have no excuse. Help torrents work they way they're supposed to work.
Most ISPs in Canada have a monthly bandwidth limit. A lot of people use Sympatico and Rogers which are 40 GB and 60 GB respectively, if I recall. I use Teksavvy Premium which is 100 GB. So yes, to some people it is not in their best interest to seed to a 1:3 ratio or something.

[complich8]

Another point to consider is that if you get to a torrent on the tail end of the initial rush, a lot of times it's hard to find interested peers to seed to. If I'm at 0.5 and I'm leaking out like 5K at the torrent (when I've got plenty available), then me being there is doing more against the health of the torrent (by uselessly hitting the tracker) than for it.

[itadakimasu]

i heavily seed things i support like bleach,and things i had trouble getting that have very few seeds. but things like software i will usually not seed much after they are done. i have a couple eps of bleach with a ratio of over 300, just depends how long i leave it on.

[nests]

Yeah I'm still seeding The last 2 episodes of Bleach and Naruto as I type this

[Koyuki]

I usually seed till I have a 1.0+ ratio. My total ratio is 1.2 :).