Why do people seed torrents?

This has been bothering me for a while, I don't understand why people seed torrents?

Sure, if you have something you want to share with the world then create and seed a torrent, but why do people seed torrents after they have downloaded the whole thing? Obviously reasons of etiquette must come into it, but is there any other reason?

Personally I have just been downloading to 100 and removing the torrent.

So...why should I not do this?

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Reply 1

omicronlyrae

Some people are just nice. Personally I don't see the point and do what you do :p:

Reply 2

IWantSomeMushu

It takes away the whole point of file sharing! You my friend are just a super leech. If nobody seeded torrents then you would not be able to download torrents. Say if you get a film I think you should at least seed while you're watching the film seeing as you aren't using you internet connection.

Reply 3

nuodai

I know some people who keep it seeding until they've put back the same amount they downloaded out of goodwill because, if no-one else was seeding, they'd have got nothing. Also, most seeding occurs (by default) when you're actually downloading the torrent, but that's not what you're talking about. If a torrent is legal, though, there's no reason why not to seed it if you don't have a bandwidth limit.

Reply 4

Seanisonfire

Because some people see it as a community thing and helping others who need the same thing. Especially if its hard to get hold of. I don't see why etiquette and being nice arent enough reasons to do it.

Reply 5

300mg

Well if everyone did that then the whole thing wouldn't work. Things like torrents have a good community base which encourages people to see. Personally, when I used to use torrents I never seeded.

If you seed then you're constantly uploading which is using your monthly bandwidth allowance too.

Reply 6

hec

yea while waiting for responses I googled a bit and the reasons seem fair enough, finished downloading what I was downloading and got my upload on unlimited now. reasons given are fair enough

guess I am just surprised that so many people do what is good for the society of information sharing

time to get a bit of good karma to my name I guess.

Reply 7

Puma

Because some people are polite.

Reply 8

Oogamy

In addition to bona fide reasons, private torrent trackers tend to monitor and advertise their member's transfer ratio. In these community settings, reputation can play a part.

Reply 9

gummers

I seed for either 72 Hours or to a ratio of 1:1.. Its a piracy community, keep it up.. Also if you are staff/member of a private tracker you will understand more although if you just leech off places like mini etc you will just get and go..

Reply 10

heroine

i don't understand either but i'm ridiculously grateful that they do lol

Reply 11

obscurename

I only seed while it's downloading or if I've forgotten to switch uTorrent off :frown:

Reply 12

Blaah Blaah

I think some torrent programs also limit your download rate if you don't seed things back properly, to ensure everyone's sharing how its supposed to be shared. Although this might have just been a scare story.

Reply 13

username266003

Because they're nice. And there are also some punks like you who don't seed. I always seed if my PC is on. I try to keep my share ratio at at least >0.5 for every file, and often >0.8 or >1.

Reply 14

gummers

Blaah

yes it was.

Reply 15

CE.Guy

because sometimes, private trackers have a rule saying what your seed:size of file ratio has to be, like some are 2:1, which is why they are PRIVATE, and hep you to download :wink:

Reply 16

mikeytk

If everyone was like you, OP, then there would be no torrents.

It doesn't cause any hardship for you to keep your torrent client open for a while. Seed!

Reply 17

nuodai

gummers

Torrents are used for zillions of things other than piracy, particularly in the free/open-source software community, although I'm sure that's somewhat outside of the scope of this thread.

Reply 18

hec

I'm trying some uploading, as I do have a (labelled as, but not) up to 20mb connection, which although it's probably closer to 5mb in reality, still can pack a punch I guess.

can people see if I just get 100 and remove torrent? out of interest

Reply 19

Dez

Blaah

The BitTorrent protocol makes this impossible, but private trackers will link your IP to a website account, so they can monitor what you're doing that way.

However, if you have seeding disabled, you're unlikely to be able to download from other leechers (the ones that have seeding switched on of course) as clients will actively snub leeches that do not seed. Once the download has finished there's no reason for you to continue to seed, but being selfish really isn't helping people ~~get free porn~~ overcome the media tyranny. An eye for an eye, as they say.