While I'm not sure if your share ratio affects availability of quality torrents (except maybe with private trackers, but I've never had to register at one), it is always a good thing to give back at least as much as you take. In my case, I give back far more than I take...hoorah.

But what's your ratio? Are you a selfless seeder, or a thoughtless leecher?

And just to keep this topic from merely being a take-up-space sort of thing, what do you think of Bittorrent in general (IE: the lawsuits, the MPAA, the piracy)?

I personally think it's all right to use Bittorrent as long as you're not attempting to make a profit on your downloading or anything such as that...

--

Iowa's share ratio as of 9/6/07 - 2.87

my ratio is 1.3 but its caused by my crappy DSL upload speed. and my pc is online almost every day, seeding

I'm trying to get as close to 3x as possible unless there is almost no downloader activity for a torrent for a longer while.
For private trackers I try higher ratios, if possible.

Right now it's 2-3, but getting above 3 soon, overall. I had to reinstall the client and all statistics went with the old installation. But for each torrent it varies from 0.5 to 12, depending on how many downloaders there are out there
Not only do I think it's perfectly fine to seed, but the whole torent system would break down if everyone just leeched. I'm tired of all those tons of torrents with only downloaders and no uploaders. Those torrents are worthless junk.

Personally, I couldn't care less about the legal aspect. No excuses for downloading or anything. I simply do not care. If "they" want to bust me for it, fine. But I still don't care one bit. I know there is this "moral issue" here but again, I just don't care.

I downloaded through torrent just once, and I tried to get at least 100% after my one download was finished but nobody would request the same download so after a long time I finally turned it off and that was the last time I used a torrent. I haven't voted since I can't say I'm a torrent user.

Just a thought however. Uploading more than you download IS the right thing to do BUT I wouldn't feel so saintly because of it. After all you're doing it so that the system YOU use for YOUR own benefit stays viable, so you're primarily doing it for an ultimately selfish reason.

Still last time I checked there was nothing wrong about acting to one's own benefit, or about establishing a system based on mutual consent that benefits all involved parties at the same time. Just that I wouldn't count this for one's merits for Paradise.

:)

you dont do it "so your systems stays viable", you do it cause you dont want to be an Canalis Analis and share the soft with others=)

You do it because if nobody did it then nobody would be able to download anything, and nobody excludes everybody including you, that's what I mean with viability. But I didn't say "your" system, I said "the system you use", the system isn't yours.

wait, no, its not that you thought about what would you get. of course you download it cause you want it, but then you could just easily delete it from your hard drive as an annonymous person, but you think about others and seed for them. has nothing to do with a thought about you

btw im not quite sure what you mean with the system thing

This is my last post so as not to hijack the topic, :D I'll try to explain me better. I'm talking about the long term. Once you've got the files you want, you can stop sharing them and still you got what you want. BUT you know that these files are not the last ones you may be willing to download before the end of time. And you know that if everybody acted like you with their own files (some of them you don't have and you may want in the future) and didn't share more than grab, the next time you try to download other different files, you won't be able because nobody will be seeding enough.

So everybody shares in the hope that everybody else does likewise and the torrent network/system stays viable, that is in order for them to be able to download next time (not the files they already finished downloading). Sorry I can't make myself clearer than this.

EDIT: Oh wait MM said it as well in very simple terms:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mighty Midget @ Sep 6 2007, 04:14 PM) [snapback]309272[/snapback]</div>

but its not that it was "for you", its called empathy :P
you, as a random leecher could just delete every torrent after downloading it. but you seed it cause you think of others and dont want them to end up without seeds, you dont seed for "future torrents". its not that you thought about yourself when you seeded, cause you just dont have to