• allocsb@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    The incentive structure just doesn’t seem designed well. It creates a zero sum game. When downloading you can either:

    1. Not seed to 100%. This damages your ratio
    2. Seed to exactly 100%. In terms of ratio maintenance across all seeders this option makes the most sense
    3. Seed past 100%. You build up your own ratio but deny other downloaders from reaching 100% which hurts their ratio. They must spend longer seeding the torrent to reach 100%, which further decreases the likelihood of subsequent downloaders from reaching 100% when seeding

    When you seed past 100%, you essentially have to rely on bad actors to create more upload work for good actors. If there are no bad actors then seeding past 100% is to the detriment of other good actors, who you want to protect because you also rely on them for system health.

    • EddyNottingham@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Some great private trakers implement a system where users are rewarded for the time they spend seeding rather than the amount of data seeded. This creates an incentive towards keeping torrents available to everyone for a long time, which makes the whole system healthier.