"Request Reseed" Feature

[FBP]

Hello. We've been a long time uploaders across different torrent sites, and while we were on Kickass torrents, the one particular feature that caught our eyes was the "Request Reseed" feature on torrents that have 0 i.e., no seeders for a long time. This was a really cool feature to keep a torrent alive and notify the uploader to reseed their torrents and keep them going.

Being a uploader, we know we can't seed a torrent forever. Especially if we upload lots of torrents really often, then, in that case, we would eventually have to make space for new files on our hard drives by purging the old ones. As not all of the downloaders seed the torrent to 1:1 ratio, many times the burden falls back onto the shoulders of the uploaders to reseed them. But unfortunately, TPB currently doesn't have any such feature to keep track of their torrents health.

This feature would make sure that a torrent never dies and great contents would always be available for the populace.

This feature can help both the site and the downloaders, as, the site would be free of dead torrents (at least close) and downloaders wouldn't go home empty handed on account of lack of seeders.

Here's our take on the feature:

> Any torrent that doesn't have any active seeder for a consistent 72 hours, then a "Request Reseed" link should appear for any visitor on the download page of that torrent.

> Once someone clicks on a reseed link, a notification to the uploader should be sent, via either email to their registered email of their TPB account, or at the Preferences page at https://thepiratebay.org/settings

The above is just a suggestion. Anyone can give their inputs on the feature.

Regards
FBP Team

[politux]

Naga-naga-naga not gonna happen. TPB seed counts are notoriously inaccurate which is a good thing to keep the MPAA confused. So this system wouldn't work even if it were implemented which it wouldn't be. KAT is dead for a reason.

[FBP]

Naga-naga-naga not gonna happen.  TPB seed counts are notoriously inaccurate which is a good thing to keep the MPAA confused.  So this system wouldn't work even if it were implemented which it wouldn't be.  KAT is dead for a reason.

The idea is about helping the downloaders to notify the uploader to seed or reupload a dead (torrents with no seeders/uploaders) torrent.

Maybe make this feature available for torrents uploaded by VIP and/or Trusted uploaders only.

Might as well put the reseed link permanently on the torrent page right under the comment link or somewhere, that way, the "inaccuracy" of the seed counts won't matter. It's all about keeping up torrents alive.

Btw, KAT is dead for many other reasons rather than that.

Regards
FBP Team

[politux]

If the torrent died it must not have been a good torrent since the swarm didn't bother to seed back. Natural selection.

[Spud17]

Politux is quite correct about the TPB stats being notoriously inaccurate. A Request Reseed option could only be successful if the stats were reliable in the first place.

If TPB implemented such a feature, the following would happen:

Millions of TPB users would start putting in reseed requests for torrents that are already well seeded. They'd look at the stats, see 0,0, and hit the submit button, and  everyone would be drowning in reseed request notifications.

Millions of people would also put in reseed requests just for the fun of it, it's why the torrent rating system was abolished, and why the 'report user' button was disabled - some people just like clicking stuff for lulz.

Those users would never learn the virtue of patience, and we've been trying to tell people for ages to be patient when downloading. New, popular torrents, such as the latest tv shows and movies, are usually well seeded for the first days or weeks, but over time, the numbers of seeders falls. After a year or so, you may find only a few dedicated seeders are keeping them alive. Single tv episode torrents die off quite quickly, whereas complete season torrents tend to have a healthy number of seeds for a longer time.

When it takes a long time to download a torrent, you appreciate the people who took the time and trouble to seed it to you, and so, you return the favour and ensure you seed it back at least 1:1, but often a higher ratio than that. If someone wants a torrent bad enough, they'll try downloading it regardless of the seeding stats. If the torrent is over a year old, then common sense should kick in and tell you there may be few or no regular seeders. Some seeders will seed larger torrents at nighttime when their innernetz improves, and some will seed for only a few hours a day, so the best thing any downloader can do with older, seemingly dead torrents, is to wait. Keep the torrent running in your torrent client overnight, and for days or weeks if that's what it takes. I once downloaded a 240GB torrent that took almost 6 weeks to complete, but I was so relieved when it came in, that I vowed to keep it in my torrent client forever, and every now and then, I start seeding it to see if anyone needs a seed.

If a torrent does seem dead, and you've been downloading it for a while with no activity, we have a forum for posting requests, including reseed requests:

https://pirates-forum.org/Forum-Requests

As you'll see from the ebooks section in particular, that part of the forum is pretty active, with a lot of members and uploaders helping out to fulfil requests. Our request forums are the most visited part of the pirate bay forum, and I've always been proud of the thousands of uploaders and other users who take the time and effort to locate/upload/reseed stuff for other users, often without thanks. We don't need a reseed torrent feature, we have the request forums and each other (ie the filesharing community) for that.

As for purging dead torrents, it is better to leave the fate of a torrent in the hands of the global filesharing community, rather than be responsible for it long term. Most uploaders don't have the bandwidth to seed all of their uploads all of the time. If they felt the need to keep their old torrents seeding all the time, they wouldn't be able to upload new content. It's the done thing for the majority of downloaders to seed back, so let go of your torrents. If they die, they die. Hey hum, that's life.

Define a dead torrent anyway. It's about how patient a person can be, because you just never know. That 240GB torrent I mentioned before could be classed as dead by some, because it's 2 years old and currently has 0 seeders, but if someone put in a reseed request for it in the request forums, I'd start seeding it, so not quite dead after all.

[FBP]

Politux is quite correct about the TPB stats being notoriously inaccurate. A Request Reseed option could only be successful if the stats were reliable in the first place.

If TPB implemented such a feature, the following would happen:

Millions of TPB users would start putting in reseed requests for torrents that are already well seeded. They'd look at the stats, see 0,0, and hit the submit button, and  everyone would be drowning in reseed request notifications.

Millions of people would also put in reseed requests just for the fun of it, it's why the torrent rating system was abolished, and why the 'report user' button was disabled - some people just like clicking stuff for lulz.

Those users would never learn the virtue of patience, and we've been trying to tell people for ages to be patient when downloading. New, popular torrents, such as the latest tv shows and movies, are usually well seeded for the first days or weeks, but over time, the numbers of seeders falls. After a year or so, you may find only a few dedicated seeders are keeping them alive. Single tv episode torrents die off quite quickly, whereas complete season torrents tend to have a healthy number of seeds for a longer time.

When it takes a long time to download a torrent, you appreciate the people who took the time and trouble to seed it to you, and so, you return the favour and ensure you seed it back at least 1:1, but often a higher ratio than that. If someone wants a torrent bad enough, they'll try downloading it regardless of the seeding stats. If the torrent is over a year old, then common sense should kick in and tell you there may be few or no regular seeders. Some seeders will seed larger torrents at nighttime when their innernetz improves, and some will seed for only a few hours a day, so the best thing any downloader can do with older, seemingly dead torrents, is to wait. Keep the torrent running in your torrent client overnight, and for days or weeks if that's what it takes. I once downloaded a 240GB torrent that took almost 6 weeks to complete, but I was so relieved when it came in, that I vowed to keep it in my torrent client forever, and every now and then, I start seeding it to see if anyone needs a seed.

If a torrent does seem dead, and you've been downloading it for a while with no activity, we have a forum for posting requests, including reseed requests:

https://pirates-forum.org/Forum-Requests

As you'll see from the ebooks section in particular, that part of the forum is pretty active, with a lot of members and uploaders helping out to fulfil requests. Our request forums are the most visited part of the pirate bay forum, and I've always been proud of the thousands of uploaders and other users who take the time and effort to locate/upload/reseed stuff for other users, often without thanks. We don't need a reseed torrent feature, we have the request forums and each other (ie the filesharing community) for that.

As for purging dead torrents, it is better to leave the fate of a torrent in the hands of the global filesharing community, rather than be responsible for it long term. Most uploaders don't have the bandwidth to seed all of their uploads all of the time. If they felt the need to keep their old torrents seeding all the time, they wouldn't be able to upload new content. It's the done thing for the majority of downloaders to seed back, so let go of your torrents. If they die, they die. Hey hum, that's life.

Define a dead torrent anyway. It's about how patient a person can be, because you just never know. That 240GB torrent I mentioned before could be classed as dead by some, because it's 2 years old and currently has 0 seeders, but if someone put in a reseed request for it in the request forums, I'd start seeding it, so not quite dead after all.

Thanks for your detailed reply. Quite logical and well put. I am aware of the requests section of the forum, I just wanted a feature right on the website to save people's journey.

But it's understandable that people might abuse such a feature so in that case, putting in efforts to come down to the forum, register, and posting a request would make it a lot harder for spammers. So I too agree it's better such feature doesn't exist.

Thanks anyway for your time

Regards
TBP Team

[politux]

Yeah! What Spud said <3

[Mr.Masami]

Would be nice to get notifications that someone requested reseeding after just clicking a button on the torrent page.

Requests could be forwarded to SB that is connected to the TPB account.

Also requests should be made available only to the registered users on TPB and possible only once per torrent to avoid abuse.
Or make it available to all but make it disabled after one usage, and re-enable it after 24h or something like that.

I seed new torrents for a ~week sometimes longer then I need slots for next torrents but I have all releases on my disk and can reseed if requested.
This would make things easier, right now I'm checking comments on non-seeded torrents if someone did request it but I think not many people will leave comment on a dead torrent.

---

Found same suggestion after a while:
https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-Request-Reseed-Feature

Please close this thread.

*update: thanks for merging.

Was thinking about it a little more and the ideal solution for abuse would be:

Only registered users could use the request button.
Request button would get disabled to everyone for 24h at the requested torrent.
Accounts would be restricted to one usage per day for the whole site.

Maybe add another button for users who would like to get reseed notifications as well in their accounts, like subscribe/unsubscribe for notifications.
And additional settings in the profile/settings page where you could tick if you want e-mail notifications or only on-site notifications.

[sharingiscaring2023]

A simple reseed request button that notifies the uploader on the site. It would help enormously for those that cannot seed everything all the time and it shouldn't be extremelly hard to implement.

More generally are new features ever added? Or is the developement of the site completelly halted?

[Spud17]

It's not going to happen. Uploaders are under no obligation to seed long term (see my detailed reply above), it's up to those who have downloaded a torrent to keep it alive. Uploaders would get bombarded with reseed notifications from people who have only tried downloading something for a few seconds.

Yes, new features are added from time to time. The latest was the additional UHD and CAM categories. No, the development of the site isn't halted.

Threads merged.