CENSORED on UK Nova.

[anxietyculture.com]

I recently posted in a thread in a forum on uknova.com (a registered-users-only bittorrent site), & was promptly banned for a week.

To make itself less of a legal target, the site only allows content which is not commercially available. That's up to the people who pay for the site of course, but one or two mods there seem to really enjoy taking the moral highground & telling users to buy DVDs...

As someone with a degree in philosophy, I felt entitled to point out (in my post) that all morality is personal (even that which claims to be universal), & so telling someone not to download something or to buy DVDs is no different that telling them to go to church every Sunday!

In making this point, I had effectively criticised a mod who had been moralising even more than the others prior to my posting what I did (although in truth I didn't even mention his name!).

Within a few seconds I found my post deleted, & my forum access removed for one week.
:jerkit:

Having seen the corrupt & cliquish way soulseek (trollseek) do business & deal with users, I am less surprised (but no less saddenned) to find the same sort of crap elsewhere on the net. I just wonder if maybe there is hope in the form of a BitTorrent tracker getting bolted on to this site? :)

I suppose that as the bandwidth comes from users in the torrent cloud, trackers are probably not that bandwidth-hungry, so maybe it's not such an ambitious thing for which to hope...

I should add that UK Nova have just had their annual back-slapping (sorry "awards") ceremony & that the mod in question has won "most helpful mod in the forums".
:retarded:

-Luther

[eclectica]

There's a little confusion over the terminology. "BitTorrent tracker" refers to the server which coordinates the uploading and downloading of a file amongst the swarm of peers who are connected to it, who all used the same .torrent file. A "BitTorrent indexing site" is one which contains just .torrent files.

The vulnerability of BitTorrent is that once the tracker server shuts down, the .torrent file becomes invalid. However, there is an attempt to create decentralized trackers with something called a distributed hash table, that allows the client to perform the function of the tracker server. That is a feature that came out in May 2005 with the Azureus client. BitComet introduced the DHT feature in June 2005.

Lately there has been an attempt by "private" tracker servers to block the BitComet client, because it shares files to anyone regardless if the file is designated as "private" in the .torrent file. Read about it at Slyck here (http://slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17181). UKNova has started such a ban today.

While BitTorrent is a good protocol for distributing specific files at a fast speed, it lacks any searching ability. I think that a filesharing network such as ED2K is superior because it is like a giant library. "Content owners" are finding that BitTorrent is a great way for them to distribute their files without having to use their own bandwidth, and in the future the BitTorrent protocol will be commonly used by them to distribute their proprietary "content".

The very centralization of the trackers also leads to the clique behind those who want "private" servers with access given only to members of "private" communities. I personally think that the notion of "private" is undesirable and gives false security to its members, because law enforcement agents have been able to penetrate those private networks too.

[eclectica]

I just wonder if maybe there is hope in the form of a BitTorrent tracker getting bolted on to this site?

I suppose that as the bandwidth comes from users in the torrent cloud, trackers are probably not that bandwidth-hungry, so maybe it's not such an ambitious thing for which to hope.

It's not something that I would want to do here because this site is devoted just to the forum, and I have little interest in setting up an index site or trackers here. The only thing that I may be interested in would be something like Downhill Battle's Blog Torrent (http://sourceforge.net/projects/battletorrent/).

[slx]

Tthe clique behind those who want "private" servers with access given only to members of "private" communities. I personally think that the notion of "private" is undesirable and gives false security to its members, because law enforcement agents have been able to penetrate those private networks too.

a larger problem is that the pvt networks is they're removing from the mainstream, the files they're hording ....

back in the napster days, regardless of who, what or where you were, you were an equal in p2p, that fact was a given...it didn't matter whether you were on dial up or a T-1 had 3 tunes to offer or 3000, you were allow'd to participate...that's how we got to where we are today..

unfortunately, my & many others, upload speed sux, unless i opt to pay upwards to $150 monthly, i can't do any better until cable decides to honor us country folk with their services or the phone company decides we're worty of their dsl....in the past, i've been envited to participate in couple of groups but was dump'd because i couldn't pump it up fast enough....as much as you might believe what you might read, not every household in america is adorn'd with hi-speed internet connections

sadly, with current day mentality regarding p2p, you either have to have for offering, what the mainstream status quo is looking for or have a very fast connection...and above all, be a pop member of the group

it's a shame that we've become a community of sneering people that decide who can and can't participate based on their geo location, selection of files available or popularity in the group

the new lingo shoud be g2g...there's been no honest p2p in a long time

[napho]

Expressing your opinions and downloading via a private tracker are incompatible. If you want to download, then just mind your business and maintain the .7 ratio. If you want to debate with folks, then join a forum with no files and just yak to your heart's content.

[anxietyculture.com]

Expressing your opinions and downloading via a private tracker are incompatible. If you want to download, then just mind your business and maintain the .7 ratio. If you want to debate with folks, then join a forum with no files and just yak to your heart's content.

Well, if you want to roll over and play dead any time a mod pursues a personal grudge against you, that's up to you. I, on the other hand, prefer to speak what seems to me at least to be the truth, irrespective of how I think it's going to be received by power-crazed forum mods.

In the end I messaged an admin about it, & she stepped in to stop this mod's ego from running away with him, & so all is well again.

Nyaaaa! :D

There is no good reason why expressing your opinions and downloading via a private tracker should be incompatible. It just depends on who is involved in running the site, & how much weighting they give to freedom of expression vs not treading on the toes of mods with big egoes.

[napho]

I guess Iwas just being practical. When I want a download, that's all I want. Anything that interferes is unacceptable. It's a case of greed over principle .

[anxietyculture.com]

I guess Iwas just being practical. When I want a download, that's all I want. Anything that interferes is unacceptable. It's a case of greed over principle .

I don't think principle need enter into it:

You talk of greediness: Well, in your terms you were/are "greedy" for downloads. ...Others might be "greedy" for help, advice, or for various other kinds of social interaction which fora permit. As to what one does with torrent sites, it's just a question of what kind of "greed" floats one's boat.

In such cases where mods aren't jumped up little pricks who compensate for having been bullied at school by over-moderating in internet fora, there's no incompatibility here at all.

:)

[slx]

You talk of greediness: Well, in your terms you were/are "greedy" for downloads. ...Others might be "greedy" for help, advice, or for various other kinds of social interaction.



dude...if you're looking for all that, i'd highly suggest you check out a few aol or yahoo chat rooms...i'd bet you'll find all that & more.....

when most go to a p2p they just want a download not a blow job

[anxietyculture.com]

dude...if you're looking for all that, i'd highly suggest you check out a few aol or yahoo chat rooms...i'd bet you'll find all that & more.....

when most go to a p2p they just want a download not a blow job

surely if you want to discuss UK tv programmes, then a site offering uk tv programmes for download will probably have a fair few like-minded users with whom it's going to be worth discussing the content you're all downloading

your meat-fisted solution overlooks the basic point that good moderating means as little moderating as possible

rolling over & playing dead to the ego-fiend mods is not the way to achieve progress on the net

"discussing things elsewhere" only works till "elsewhere" turns into yet another clique of power-hungy censors

no, the only way to get anywhere here is to not take bullshit decisions lying down

I fought all the way, & I got my account access restored

I recommend others do the same if they find themselves the victims of crap over-moderating

[nicobie]

All moderators make me laugh.

Very few do I laugh with.

However, remember that there are a few kewl mods out there.

[eltaco]

couldn't agree more with you, anxietyculture.com. I'm a member at uknova. used to be hanging out all around that place. irc, forums, you name it. once i got to know how the insides work at theirs, I got pretty disgusted and bailed. now I just leech, keep a decent ratio and don't touch anything else. I once tried to reason with a high-up mod. Long emails and whatnot. Results were zippo and a lot of time was wasted. In the meantime, a manipulative bitch worked her way up the foodchain and now acts as administrator.

before I indulge, just mentioning again, I totally agree. But there are things that need to be said.

"TEH INTARWEBNET IS NO DEMOCRASSY!!1" - It's a private site, so the owners have every and all right to censor, kick, ban, revoke privileges and whatnot at their own discretion. The principle of it is the same as your own home - you can choose who can stay, who you'd like to leave and you yourself make the rules. And legally, there is nothing stopping a home-owner. The only result is, that people will eventually stop visiting - if that.

Having said that, many sites are supported by community donations and thus, through legacy, should belong to the community. Furthermore, I strongly support the notion that a community site belongs to the community - donations or not.

But hell, I don't care anymore. I've done enough in that department and most didn't really help. As someone said before, if you're looking for free-speech, got to a forum. If you're looking for warez, go to a warez site.

I've been playing with the idea of opening up a site, that is dedicated to this issue. Taking the power from single people on community sites and giving it back to the community.

But, meh.. I just use torrent sites now liek a tool. I don't care about their communities anymore.

[eclectica]

But, meh.. I just use torrent sites now liek a tool. I don't care about their communities anymore.

The bittorrent protocol never encouraged much of a community but was just an efficient way for people to distribute and acquire popular files that are in demand. That is why it has such appeal now with the "content industry".

Real filesharing to me has some semblance of a community and is not merely an anonymous darknet (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=825) spitting out bytes to an unknown undestination; where you feel that a real person can discover music through a search and can download it from another real person; where you have the opportunity to chat with the person or browse the person's shared folder; and where you can discover more interesting music or other people who share the same interests.

But this is not to say that bittorrent sites can't have a community. The Pirate Bay (http://thepiratebay.org/) has a good community, because most people feel so indebted to it that they want to give back to the site, and implicitly its community, since they have received so generously from it.