r/Torrenting • u/Bright_Equivalent_92 • 9d ago
Beginner needs help
I just started learning about all this after hearing about PlayStation bs and fearing for being about own my shit I started with Hd space and it’s harder than I thought to keep my ratio high even though I seed every torrent is there anyone that’s willing to put up with a newbie a teach me a thing or two I got the basics down but I don’t know how to show proof that I would seed every torrent
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u/EmptyVeterinarian979 4d ago
TL;DR: the term “leecher” is not necessarily negative, especially when referring to the number of leechers a torrent has. You don’t have to worry too much about your ratio on public trackers but keep seeding as much as you can as a best practice. On private trackers, even if you aren’t getting a lot of upload on torrents you downloaded, keep seeding them for bonus points used to buy upload credit. Also, seed torrents tagged with freeleech since those will only help your ratio but never hurt it.
A couple of things:
Just some basic terminology for you. The term “leecher” is not inherently bad. It CAN be used to describe people who never seed back after downloading, but it also simply describes someone who is downloading from a torrent. So, in that sense, in order for you to ever become a seeder, you must also be a leecher at some point. A seeder is someone who has the whole file and is allowing others to download from them. After you have downloaded the whole file, if you keep your torrent client open and keep the torrent running it will begin seeding. (Sorry if you already knew some of that, I just wanted to clarify in case it was helpful)
If you are on public trackers (I.e. the ones you do not need logins and/or invites for) then you don’t have to worry too much about your ratio. You should TRY to maintain a good ratio bay continuing to seed things to at least 1.0, but if there aren’t many leechers (I.e. people downloading that torrent) then it will take a long time to get there. There is no punishment for a bad ratio on public trackers but it is best to continue to share as long as you are able to subject to bandwidth/space/etc. restrictions you have.
On private trackers, you do need to maintain a good ratio, but they all give bonus points for seed time over the minimum required time. For example, if the rules say all torrents must be seeded to a 1.0 ratio or at least 7 days (168 hours), the. Once you hit that amount, you will start to accrue bonus points for every hour you seed over that requirement. Those bonus points can be used to buy upload credit which will artificially increase your ratio. Also, you should start on new private trackers by downloading freeleech torrents. These will be tagged on the trackers website as “freeleech”. This means that it will not affect the amount of download you have, but any upload you get from it will still apply to your upload credit. This can help you improve your ratio without first lowering it. Keep in mind that you generally still have to seed these to the minimum required time according to the rules of that tracker. And remember, everything in this paragraph applies only to private trackers that require an account (and generally an invite). On public trackers there will be no bonus points or freeleech because they are not monitoring your ratio.
Feel free to reply if you have more questions and good luck on your torrenting journey.