Caltrops - Rants





	[quote name="Zseni"][quote name="Fussbett"][quote name="Zseni"]dial-up connection[/quote] ... So this story takes place in Australia?! Ray of Light's farm? [quote]But only three people actually jump on the torrent. The uploader uploads....the first guy to get a full copy bolts. There are now .7 copies shared between the two dudes left. The uploader uploads. The next guy to get a full copy bolts. Etc. [/quote] I'm sure I don't have to point out the extremeness of this case, but EVEN HERE the first leecher helps get the .7 copies to the other two. Without the leecher, the DIAL-UP USER (We'll call him "Rolf") would never get .7 copies to the second two dudes in the same amount of time. Surely if the first leecher stuck around, the two other dudes would get the file even faster, but saying he's caused harm is 200% incorrect. Without leecher #1, leechers #2 and #3 would still be sucking the sweet dial-up pipe alone, and wouldn't have .7 copies.[/quote] It's not all that extreme. Also, the harm is in frustrating the original uploader. Yes, the hit and run dude heroically uploaded, but he also bolted and left the remaining uploading to the dude with dial-up. The dude with dial-up would like to check his goddamn email. He's pissed off. He stops seeding. Question: is he an asshole? Those other two guys and everyone else who jumps on the torrent are all shit out of luck now. I don't know why you're defending the fuck out of the concept of limitless leeching or, more specifically, hit-and-running, except out of understanding human nature more perfectly than I could ever hope to. But I think even us highly-evolved leechers with sound moral codes could do well to consider the frailties of lesser humans and indulge them from time to time. I'm re-seeding a torrent at Oink right now that all kinds of people (with positive ratios!!!!) hit and ran on. I don't have to reseed; I could just delete the torrent. If I were one of those two dudes downloading from me right now, I'd be happy that someone came along to seed instead of deleting the torrent. Over at ThePPN there was a huge discography torrent from some j-rock band, it was 2.2 GB, the first two people to finish hit and ran on it and left her holding the bag, and she was pretty pissed, and I don't blame her. She didn't have dial-up, but those two guys were still assholes. I think uploading torrents and seeding them is doing people a favor, and that favor should be reciprocated with goodwill. I'm not saying that hit-n-running should be some kind of punishable offense, I'm just saying that 1. it does do harm and 2. it should be considered very impolite and inconsiderate. It's one thing to hit and run on a torrent with 15 seeds and 3 peers, but it's quite another to bail on the only uploader of a 2.2 GB torrent with 81 peers queued up. I can't believe we're even arguing this. It segues nicely into a discussion about the difference between etiquette and law, and how law overrides etiquette and eventually dissolves the social fabric that sustains practices of etiquette. The Oinkery of banning bad sharers does nothing to promote polite leecher/seeder behavior, for example, or just check out your hulong/MMA front pages for another example. [/quote]