What actually happens when you have a low U/D ratio?

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:05 am

I download mostly rare stuff from torrents, like music or movies that 99% of the population has never heard of. so most of the time, seeders on these torrents greatly outnumber the leechers, and it's difficult to maintain an >1 U/D ratio on these torrents. For most torrents, my ratio hovers around 0.0%, and my question is, is that bad? How does the BitTorrent community "punish" users who have bad U/D ratios?

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:19 am

Some torrent clients are programmed to give those with low ratios the lowest priority when it is qued to upload. Private torrent sites might not allow you to download anymore until you raise your ratio.

A good example of that is blackcats, there are always 8520734587209474 seeds and 2 leechers so when you download something you can never upload it back and your ratio will be screwed for good and you cannot download any more.

Post by **Nach** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:35 am

Bit Torrent itself doesn't punish. The algorithm is written in another way, those who share more are rewarded, in that they are given rarer pieces before someone else gets it. The idea is the faster you upload, the more what you have that is considered rare now is common, and you get something else rare, thus making the download faster for everyone. The way the algorithm works, uploading less only hurts yourself in theory. However this doesn't apply once there are more seeds than downloaders. In that case, clients will rewards other uploaders by giving them priority over those who upload less, but if you're the only downloader, or there's only a few downloaders, it doesn't really matter.

And as pointed out above, some sites setup trackers that those who share ratios fall low are locked out of the tracker, which is dumb to say the least.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Tue May 29, 2007 12:54 pm

Cyrus wrote:A good example of that is blackcats, there are always 8520734587209474 seeds and 2 leechers so when you download something you can never upload it back and your ratio will be screwed for good and you cannot download any more.

Then it must be a really long time ago since you visited (either that or you haven't bothered looking). They have a seed points mod now, which rewards you with a 1:1 ratio for staying on the torrent for a set period of time after you finish (depending on the size of the file), even if there are little to no leechers. And it works great.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Tue May 29, 2007 10:41 pm

lockharte wrote:seeders on these torrents greatly outnumber the leechers

I think you mean the other way around.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Wed May 30, 2007 3:03 am

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:25 am

lockharte wrote:no

Oh, true. Sorry.

So, when you say "rare stuff" you mean rare in the real world, not rare torrents? Because if they were rare torrents, wouldn't there be more leechers than seeders?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:15 am

rare as in the greater population isn't interested in those torrent's subjects.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:13 am

yeah it's frustrating, i've been leaving most of my torrents on and nobody is downloading from me. so my best bet now is to maybe dl some coldplay or radiohead and continuously seed(once i finish dling) those torrents.

btw, does anyone know how i can view my overall U/D ratio?

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What actually happens when you have a low U/D ratio?

What actually happens when you have a low U/D ratio?

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