Best Practices for Daz3D torrent Titles & Descriptions

[Sid]

Looking good

But I have just spotted a real problem:

Examples (the board doesn't like TinyURL type URLs, so replace the DOT with an actual dot; YMMV when actually uploading):

It's not just the board--TinyURL type URLs will get you into trouble if you use them on TPB.

People should be able to see where a link will take them before they click on it.

When I say "trouble" I mean that at first the domains will be banned (so they will be automatically excised from your torrent descriptions). If you continue to try different redirecting URLs it will be assumed that you are deliberately attempting to trick people into visiting sites they wouldn't choose to go to if they knew what they were up front.

[ThunderHerd]

Following up on your examples, I feel the titles get a little too cluttered by including the product type (hair, character, scene, etc.) and the literal SKU string (not the SKU itself). The type of product is usually apparent from the name, and can easily be determined by looking at the description and/or the promo pic. We can assume that any number in the title IS the SKU, no need to point it out. I set it off in brackets to give some sort of visual separation from the rest.

The DAZ3D - Poser (or whatever program(s)) at the beginning helps with the initial search. Yes, Poser is a program and DAZ3D is a vendor, but they have been used in torrentdom forever so changing those now will be really confusing.

The name should be as shown on the product page, with appropriate abbreviations when it gets excessive (Acc for Accessories, MFD for Morphing Fantasy Dress, Exp for Expansion, etc.) I don't really like it when certain artists always include their brand in the product name, but sometimes it is the only way to tell them apart, especially characters with a short simple name. If it's two or three letters it doesn't really interfere very much, but some like to spell it out with 10-15 characters. (But that's just a pet peeve). Adding a type or category is almost redundant, not really adding any value.

The description can be where you add as much or as little detail as you want. I usually copy/paste the product page blurb, add a promo pic or two, and that's usually enough. I'll add something if the artist has said little more than "Enjoy my stuff".

You can also add tags (on the upload page) to help users find related items. I've used it to add DAZ3D, Poser, or the name of the original uploader when resurrecting lost torrents. I've read elsewhere that tags sometimes don't work, but better to put them in anyway than never have them.

I'll fall back on the generally lazy nature of human behaviour (mine included) to say: keep it simple. (I won't add the usual fourth word to that phrase, as I don't think anyone here is stupid). As long as the essential info is included, no one should have any trouble determining what is in the torrent.

[Morlock]

Yeah I suppose I prefer titles without SKUs myself, but maybe some people would like them.

I'd rather keep the torrent title concise, just enough of the product name to get the job done, and put the full title from the product page in the torrent description; in other words, just because the vendor can't be concise, doesn't mean we shouldn't be.

As for the initial string, I think the best way is to make a block. Spaces tend to mess with searches, IME. More to the point, I think Daz3D - Poser is about twice as long as it needs to be; Daz3d is going to filter out anything but DS/Poser content. But tradition is tradition, I suppose, so whatever folks want. On the other hand, tradition doesn't really mean much when 10k torrents just went kaput, and everyone's starting over.

[Dipole-Dipole]

IMO the title of the torrent should be EXACTLY the same as the title of the product on the site that it's purchased on (except in rare cases where something is constantly being taken down, like renderotica stuff), and appended with a DAZ3D or POSER or both at the beginning. That way if you're searching for something you know what the uploader named it, and can find it quickly.

I also don't see the point in not just linking directly to the product page, if you want more info on the product just go to the page using the link. I never suffered any negative repercussions from directly linking to DAZ's store page on KAT. DAZ doesn't care, and individual vendors don't have access to redirect information.

---

One thing that you have to remember is that there are a lot of people with content they would like to share that won't if the process is too complicated and they feel like there are too many hoops to jump through in order to do it "right."
You have to balance that of course with the need to make things easily searchable.

[De4lt]

I like ThunderHerd's method:


DAZ3D - Poser* - Product title
-------------------------------------
Image link

Product link

Product description

I tend to omit product descriptions if I'm uploading a bundle as it can make the text on the actual torrent page very lengthy if you're including like 12+ items in the bundle. 

That method is straightforward and quite clear. And at the end of the day if you need to know more about a product it's easy enough to Google "Daz3D product name" and get good results.

[wolfenspiel]

Hmm. Just a thought, but almost any scheme we come up with will likely be good, and as long as we put Daz3d and/or Poser as the first word of the title, it will be easy enough to locate...just difficult locating something specific. At least for now, that is.

Why? Simply because previously there were almost ZERO Daz torrents here, and the few that were, were inactive or for pre-V4 models. We seem to be the first serious group here at TPB for Daz/Poser products. There "might" be a couple tutorials from Lynda or something floating around here, but for the most part there was jack squat until we joined.

Now, everyone searches differently, and sometimes the search engine itself can affect how a person searches...like trying to get around the db maint. error, for example. I have no idea how a SKU will affect a search, and as we're a small group, I don't know how many new people will be bothering to include it in a title, especially if they grabbed their shared item from a ddl site that maybe the uploader didn't include it, or it's something older from pre-DIM days, or someone like my dumb-ass who creates a DIM bundle with a random SKU number with the DIM Creator -UNofficial.

I agree though, for some people who search by SKU#, it should be included somewhere, but maybe it should be placed in the description rather than title, where it *should* be found by Advanced Search. (I say *should* because I have yet to search for anything by SKU, and there are still very few Daz torrents here that a simple browse tells me what's available and what isn't).

You're always going to have newbies downloading and contributing, and there's always going to be someone who doesn't even know we have a group here. Sid pointed out that half the dl'ers out there don't even know there's a forum here, not to mention, the people who actually read instructions always seem to be the ones who don't need to...except for me, because I'm always forgetting shit in my "old age". This means that while we can work out a nice convention for US, unless we take a VERY proactive stance to get newbies in here, and get them to follow our lead, we're still going to end up with non-conforming torrents.

I tend to rush things at times and forget to look up the SKU, and if editing our uploads here is impossible, I can see others doing the same thing.

Anyhow, this isn't meant to be a dis on anything, just things to think about while deciding on a proper standard. In fact, it's probably a good idea if we DO become a bit proactive, and if we come across some decent uploaders for Daz/Poser content and we don't see their name in our group, we should probably leave them a message or a comment on their torrent to check us out, where we can teach them our standard and how they can search for things more easily themselves if they use it.

[Sid]

This is a little off topic but it does have some relevance.

TPB search isn't great (it only indexes torrent titles, not descriptions, which you should bear in mind) but it isn't actually that bad--I generally manage to find what I want if it is there.

If you want to try something else, you can use google to search TPB e.g. daz3d site:thepiratebay.org

And you could have used Torrentz to search TPB but since it's gone one of the newly emerged clones will also serve e.g. https://torrentz2.eu/search?f=daz3d (just find the torrent you want, and then when you check the details follow the link to TPB, assuming there is one). Be a little wary if a torrent only exists on a site you're not familiar with.