MSFN chatroom, and torrent tracker

[Alanoll]

I see a flaw in the BitTorrent plan, which is why i dislike torrents. There's no guarantee that people will be able to connect to any of the seeders.

I know, my university has ALL P2P protocols blocked at their routers (yes, it's possible I've setup many for companies doing this, and no, it's not just the ports, it's the entire protocol) so torrents would be useless to me. That being said, I shouldn't be the one to hold it back, but my school can't be the only one that does this.

Then you run again into the problem of...most of the members on this forum reformat occasionally, that runs the risk of the seeder not reseeding the file when done, and the file dying as a whole.

In principle it's a good idea, in practice however, it won't last. You'll need a dedicated seeder, which serves the files and never loses the files and rarely ever goes offline...wait...that sounds like a webserver...

I really don't mean to keep shooting down your ideas prath...

[prathapml]

You'll need a dedicated seeder, which serves the files and never loses the files and rarely ever goes offline...wait...that sounds like a webserver...

I know, but atleast the bandwidth necessary for that seeder will come down - MUCH LESS than if he used a webserver.

Moreover, war59312 & ryanvm would testify to the mental trauma, that a suddenly popular download can cause - bandwidth usage for them in such times would shoot up to astronomical levels. Whereas the same thing on torrent could have reduced the load to much much lesser (like hardly 10%).

And yes, some places do block P2P. And some places are even worse - they block accessing the net. But you cant stop progress in other countries just because some african children couldn't afford computers! Something will be worked out, probably a hard-to-find http link for them, or whatever. And yes, i know you dont mean to shootdown ideas.

[Zxian]

And yes, some places do block P2P. And some places are even worse - they block accessing the net. But you cant stop progress in other countries just because some african children couldn't afford computers! Something will be worked out, probably a hard-to-find http link for them, or whatever. And yes, i know you dont mean to shootdown ideas.

Or possibly, if a specific user is unable to use BitTorrent, then they can request an upload to YouSendIt or similar services. No wait times, up to 1GB file size, and a temporary solution.

Alanoll's just being the realist here...

[XPerties]

Remember a few months ago when RyanVM's site went down because he exceeded his bandwidth? He'd never run into this problem now! When 1000 people all want to download 100MB of files... that's a lot of bandwidth to pay for

You never seen nLite site go down. Sounds like RyanVM's site needs some sponsorship.

With torrents even those who run servers can setup multiple seeders across several servers which would draw premium bandwidth.

The main problem I see here and know first hand is xper runs and contributes personal funds to keep MSFN running. Many of you have no idea how much it cost to keep this site up per month. A lot of you come up with great ideas but those ideas take money and time which I know xper would love to provide but help is always needed. Even if you don't have cash to provide you can take MSFN affiliate link for eMax Hosting and place it on your site this way any sale xper receives a kick back on a monthly reoccurring contract. Hell you could even sign up under his affiliate account this way you both make a little.

I'm not plugging my company. I started out many years ago as an admin of this site and have been good friends with xper for many many years. I'm only making suggestions and if ANYONE needs help especial xper for any ideas just let me know.

[sven]

the tracker idea isn't that hard to implement. i have my own person tracker. you just have to ptu teh right php files in. i still have the script, i hope lol. http://sventracker.ath.cx. its a privat tracker, php with mysql. i find it works great. if any of the admins want it, pm me. the only thing is that its only tracker, theres no torrent listing. but since its private, theres no need for a dynamic page.

[Zxian]

The main problem I see here and know first hand is xper runs and contributes personal funds to keep MSFN running. Many of you have no idea how much it cost to keep this site up per month. A lot of you come up with great ideas but those ideas take money and time which I know xper would love to provide but help is always needed. Even if you don't have cash to provide you can take MSFN affiliate link for eMax Hosting and place it on your site this way any sale xper receives a kick back on a monthly reoccurring contract. Hell you could even sign up under his affiliate account this way you both make a little.

I'm not plugging my company. I started out many years ago as an admin of this site and have been good friends with xper for many many years. I'm only making suggestions and if ANYONE needs help especial xper for any ideas just let me know.

Any leads on what this link is? I'll add it to my website.

[gamehead200]

I disagree with both ideas.

1. The IRC chatroom has been implemented before and not many people idled in the channel. Also, another chat feature was introduced a while back, yet no one used it. I bet everyone that first started idling there would leave within a month.

2. The torrent tracker... Just... No! How about if people stop seeding the MSFN downloads? There would be no way to download them (unless there was an alternative, which I doubt would happen).

Just my two cents.

[XPerties]

The main problem I see here and know first hand is xper runs and contributes personal funds to keep MSFN running. Many of you have no idea how much it cost to keep this site up per month. A lot of you come up with great ideas but those ideas take money and time which I know xper would love to provide but help is always needed. Even if you don't have cash to provide you can take MSFN affiliate link for eMax Hosting and place it on your site this way any sale xper receives a kick back on a monthly reoccurring contract. Hell you could even sign up under his affiliate account this way you both make a little.

I'm not plugging my company. I started out many years ago as an admin of this site and have been good friends with xper for many many years. I'm only making suggestions and if ANYONE needs help especial xper for any ideas just let me know.

Any leads on what this link is? I'll add it to my website.

xper link for MSFN is http://affiliates.emaxhosting.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=2

To sign up under xper as a second tier once you click the above link, place your mouse over the "Affiliates Tab" and click on eMax Affiliates Program" and sign up. That will auto place you on a second tier under xper.

Banners can be found here:

http://www.emaxhosting.com/Banners/

Make sure to always link the banner to http://affiliates.emaxhosting.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=2

[Zxian]

Thanks XPerties. Site updated. Have a look in my sig...

P.S. Look for a fairly big update in a little bit...

Just to get back on topic....

For the IRC channel, I don't think the original intention would be to have people who would idle in the chatroom all day. My guess would be that it would be more for help in areas where it's a bit like

ripken204 - "Try setting this to 1.5"

Randomn00b - "Nope that didn't work"

ripken204 - "Hmm... maybe 1.6?"

Randomn00b - "Yup... well sorta"

And so forth. Topics or settings where it's a guess and check situation (hardware for example) or where it might be helpful.

Re: torrents

I'd seed all the ones that I find useful... My computer's running 24/7.

I think that it would be useful as an alternative. In a topic, post a link to the torrent (blatantly obvious link) and the direct download (which you can find in an obsure corner of the post), and encourage users to download from the torrent if possible. It may not always be as fast as a direct download, but it'll take some load off the MSFN bandwidth. You could also set up the MSFN server to act as a seeder to ensure that one always exists.

[Alanoll]

My guess would be that it would be more for help

I believe you're missing the point of what gamehead200 had said. For any chatroom to truly help in that manner, you'll need people to idle in it, and BE THERE when someone needs help. Chat can still continue as normal, but people would need to be there to talk almost all the time.

MSFN to my knowledge has tried this two times in the past.

1. The first attempt was a full fledged IRC channel. Failed because of lack of users.

2. The second attempt was proposed by MSNWar and used a conference program. I think i saw at MOST 6 people ever in the channel, and myself and MSNWar being the only near constant people staying in the channel. That being said, when some came in to ask a question, most times they wouldn't get an answer because we were AFK. This soon died after it was concieved.

I predict on past experience this experiment will burn and die the same death as the others. People will come in at first, loose interest and leave. Or they'll come for help, get it, and never come back...again the channel dies.

[sven]

well, on the note of the torrents not having seeders, i have my azureus set to seed always if there is less then 4 users, and to back off if i have more then 1.00 and more then 4. but i jump in as soon as there is 4. its a server 24/7. all we need is a couple or servers like that to jump in when the file is low, and everything is fine.

also, some times they dont even die. i have a french cd, its been up for 4 months, no one outside of quebec knows of this band, but its always got around 4 seeders, even when my server went down for a day (stupid zone alarm....)

[gamehead200]

well, on the note of the torrents not having seeders, i have my azureus set to seed always if there is less then 4 users, and to back off if i have more then 1.00 and more then 4. but i jump in as soon as there is 4. its a server 24/7. all we need is a couple or servers like that to jump in when the file is low, and everything is fine.

also, some times they dont even die. i have a french cd, its been up for 4 months, no one outside of quebec knows of this band, but its always got around 4 seeders, even when my server went down for a day (stupid zone alarm....)

But Azureus takes up many system resources (because of Java), leaving the system incapable (or almost) of processing anything else. Once uTorrent comes out, hopefully it will solve all these problems...

[prathapml]

My guess would be that it would be more for help

I believe you're missing the point of what gamehead200 had said.

You're missing the point actually.

As Zxian said, its for those situations like he illustrated. NOBODY needs to be stuck in there all day. Someone posts on the forum having a trial-and-error kinda problem, and someone decides that he knows to solve it & has the time to chat currently, replies to him on the forum, asking him to spontaneously come to the chatroom. As simple as that.

Or, groups of people (or members who got to know each other over the forum) from corners of the globe & possibly not running the same messenger service, can decide to meet at a pre-determined time, in the chatroom. Etc etc...

[Zxian]

As Zxian said, its for those situations like he illustrated. NOBODY needs to be stuck in there all day. Someone posts on the forum having a trial-and-error kinda problem, and someone decides that he knows to solve it & has the time to chat currently, replies to him on the forum, asking him to spontaneously come to the chatroom. As simple as that.

Or, groups of people (or members who got to know each other over the forum) from corners of the globe & possibly not running the same messenger service, can decide to meet at a pre-determined time, in the chatroom. Etc etc...

I never really thought of the IRC channel of being an "I'm bored, let's chat" room. The first thing that came to mind is exactly what prathapml said.

[-I-]

(1)i think the IRC room is a great idea.

(2) as for the tracker i dont really see much point to it. most of the members who release large files, eg update packs, own programs, and other such things have there own web servers to host from. Theres plenty of free file sharing hosts such as megaupload, rapidshare, ihud who they can put files on. plus msfn lets u host upto 4mb or there about of stuff anyway.

1: So what you are saying is this, - id love to chat with the people who do this kind of BRILIANT work,

2: But I shure as hell aint going to put in my share.

I realy think of it like this...

Im still a student, and money isn't something i can spend lightly,

Usualy i even get to live the last week of the month without even as mutch as 2cents left in my pocket.

> But i DO have my internet conection with a 10GB up/download limit. most of the time though, i only use about 5 or 6 Gigs a month - (that would leave me 4 unspend Gigabytes of lost data). counting at about 5 USdollars per gig would mean Im troughing $20 worth of bandwidth out in the trash.

now lets ask any-one of msfn / ryanvm / or the hotstream project, how usefull it would be if just 100 other MSFN-users like me would do the same. actualy we would donate to them, nearly Half a TeraByte of extra download, (without it actualy costing us anyting (or perhaps a few cents extra to the energie bill).

I realy think it isn't just a good idea but should be concidered our DUTY .....

But than again, most of the poeple are just TO lame to see this