I prefer public trackers and torrents just because I don’t like gatekeeping piracy. I want those bits to be distributed as far and wide as possible. So anything I get and/or seed will be public.
Even if there are bad peers that don’t give back (which there are many), plenty enough times it’s just people with shitty under served Internet connections. I’m fortunate enough to have a good enough connection where that doesn’t bother me.
I hate the whole meta of private trackers. When I’ve joined a few in the past the whole focus on needing to keep up your ratio has been a larger barrier to downloading than leechers ever were on public trackers.
You can’t seed because several users have seedboxes with perfect connections and already have a billion-to-one ratio. I ‘theoretically’ have access to all this content, but I’m downloading ‘80’s workout video volume 7’ in the hopes that I can actually seed it for someone to get enough ratio to actually download something I wanted to watch.
I was on what.cd back when that was still a thing, I poorly chose my first few downloads and then never had enough ratio to download anything else ever again until I was finally kicked for inactivity.
Instead of actually fostering a working seed economy, most seem to just replicate a capitalist dystopia where a handful of users hog all the seed slots, earning more ratio credits than they could ever use while everyone else desperately tries to scrape together enough ratio to get something of value.
So by chance I was in university and invited into what by my roommate. I literally bought more internet bandwidth from my uni to handle an early freeleech event where I got to mega game the system (By accident! I didn’t really know what I was doing. And good thing it was a private tracker because I was on a bare connection. I didn’t know what A VPN was at that time, much less how to hide my identity online).
I thought my ratio was totally unfair so I never really abused it, but that’s kinda the problem. Only by chance I had like a 500 ratio, whereas someone like you had no chance ever to catch up to the earlier established players. Even though I wasn’t a victim of the ratio, the concept of your story is just another reason why I dislike private trackers.
That said, the best thing about what.cd was just how well organized and categorized it was. Library of Alexandria style shit, now lost to us. Plus the forums with some real music-heads were great, too, and you could really expand your music horizons by talking with those people. I liked that it was NOT a Reddit-style forum, so when something new dropped everyone had a say. Upvotes didn’t influence that kind of conversation. At any rate, I stopped pirating music so much maybe beginning in 2013 or 2014, but every time I look now the uploads are either 320kbps (overkill bitrate, garbage ancient codec) or FLAC (nice for archiving, but not what I want). So I end up DLing FLACs and then converting them into 128kbps Opus. It works, but my music horizons aren’t broadened without that what community. I guess all I mean is I don’t miss the private nature of what, but I do miss the community.
I've been a newbie on a bunch of private trackers, and there's almost always some way to get ratio, you just need to figure out that site's method, and be patient in not-downloading-everything until you can afford it.
For example, like many sites, what.cd generally had freeleeches around the site birthday and the winter holidays: nothing you downloaded counted against you, and whatever you uploaded got added to your account. They also often had artist freeleeches when an artist died; if What was around today, the site would be going wild with Jimmy Buffett traffic. Other sites have bonus points, where you get points for seeding even if no one downloads from you; and then you turn in your points for upload credit. Still other places, you can cross-seed content to get past the newbie ratio restrictions, then move on from there.
It is incredibly frustrating to be new on a site that has a whole bunch of content that you want, but if you're patient or you figure out how the site does things, you can get a lot out of them.
So you both agree that the system fucking sucks. Fundamentally, the hoops you have to jump through to do anything are far worse than the annoyance of bad seeds on public torrents.
The counterpoint is that obscure torrents are better seeded on private trackers. If what you’re looking for is even mildly popular however, private trackers just suck.
Do you need a private tracker? IMO, most people don't. Most people are happy with what they have, or are happy with what they get from public trackers and other places. It's really only if you're finding yourself unhappy with public trackers - you're not comfortable with the lack of privacy, for example, or you're often looking content that you can't find - that I would suggest looking into private trackers.
Sounds like you're just not the intended target for private trackers, and that's fine.
Ya, I just want to get content. I don’t mind giving back to the community for it, but needing to figure out some sort of ‘system’ is too much. I’m not looking for a mini-game.
This is a reason why I’m not on any private tracker. When there are 200 seeds all with better connection than me, then my ratio isn’t going anywhere. It creates this weird dynamic where you’re sometimes wishing people would stop seeding stuff; and that is clearly counter-productive.
I exclaimed “YES!” and started clapping after reading your comment. Just hell yeah. Beyond the weird issues that come with the model of seeding to gain access, there is something fundamentally off about the idea of private trackers, and you nailed it. It is antithetical to the whole enterprise of sharing. This transactional shit serves as a price tag that only the privileged can afford
Many times that’s true, too. One of the saddest things in torrents is seeing two torrents with identical contents that were created separately, or one just recreated so someone can add their website to it or something, thereby dividing the pool of possible peers.
I think one of the most interesting ideas in BitTorrent v2 is that hash trees are formed per-file, not per-torrent. So two torrents with identical contents could, if I understand this right, basically be considered one and the same. It would be cool to see more wide adoption and promotion of BT v2 blog.libtorrent.org/2020/09/bittorrent-v2/
Termux yeah. I use it everyday. So here is a (long) list
Use ffmpeg to convert videos or even edit it(with current 6.x version, mediacoded hwaccel is availiable)
yt-dlp
Use vim and emacs, maybe code something
Integrate it with other plugin apps like Termux:API(lots of system apis), Termux:Boot, Termux:Float(floating terminal), Termux:Widget, even Termux:X11 For running gui apps
You can run gui apps with other X servers like XSDL
Compile and run programs that is not availiable for arm(Worst thing, but i still does it. Much hassle and error prone, but fine for smaller programs)
Use ssh to connect to other devices
Install x11-repo and thus install xfce and firefox desktop(for fun)
Install proot-distro and use distros like debian, arch, ubuntu, manjaro, void, fedora, etc. which is cli only by default but you can install any DE.(You can combine display server from XSDL)
Use git, clone a repo, make changes, use it or push commit, whatever you do with git
Use your normal standard linux commands to browse thru your filesystem and make changes
neofetch, cpufetch, rxfetch, htop, gotop, cmatrix and hollywood for lolz
tmux, byobu or gnu screen
Tar, gzip and all coreutils
cryptomining(DON’T do that)
Test your webpage locally (php -S localhost:port)
Ahem I wasted a lot of time making this list i think i have to go now lol
I actually am currently trying to ssh into my main pc and hopefully in the future into my server i started to setup today but i am struggling with the use of keys. Got any good tutorials you can recommend?
I don’t usually use manual keys but uses password to connect to ssh servers. Like ssh -p port user@ip and it promts to trust it then you have to enter your password. I have barely set up ssh servers but have connected ssh servers many times
Depends where you live. Areas with a smaller craft brew scene do end up with the “nothing but IPA” problem. But where I live in the PNW there’s simply so damn many that even with 50% of them being IPA’s, you still get a huge selection of other pilsners, stouts, amber ales, hefenweizens… its pretty nice.
The brand is not named after the famous St. Pauli neighbourhood in Hamburg, which is home to one of the world’s largest entertainment and red light districts. Rather, the name comes from the former St. Paul’s Friary [de] in Bremen, which was next to the original brewery established in 1857 by Lüder Rutenberg. There are currently three brands of beer brewed: St. Pauli Girl Lager, St. Pauli Girl Special Dark and St. Pauli Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage. The beer is only produced for export and is not sold in Germany.
An exaggeration but I do get your point. Bars should probably have maybe two IPAs (one hazy and one standard) and then a host of other beers styles. I’d love to come across more dark lagers personally but those are pretty rare even in places like Chuck’s Hop Shop
About 10 years ago it was probably closer to 80% IPAs. It was a big joke here that IPA stands for I Pretend (I’m not an) Alcoholic.
The only reason there is more on the market now is because we all stopped pretending the taste of motor oil with grapefruit gave us a better buzz.
Even now, most breweries will only seem to offer 4 varieties of IPAs, a pilsner/lager and a stout. Maybe an Amber but I feel the Mac & Jack’s copycat scene has mostly died out now.
Very true. I thought I hated craft beer because I lived in a small town in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, Minnesota. I moved to Minneapolis, and it’s craft beer galore. My personal favorite brewery is Fair State
True. It does seem like it is more than 50% sometimes. Unforthcoming my taste buds are pretty burnt out from too many IPAs at this point. I used to love a wide range of beers but now basically stick to a hoppy-nonhoppy scale. I used to love Belgians and ambers and porters and all sorts of beers that were on the maltier side. Not really my jam anymore.
My comment isn’t disagreeing with you. Only adding my two cents.
I live in an city that is on the top 10 list for breweries per capita in the world. And it’s all IPAs. Maybe 20% is not. And yeah it’s nice that I have 20 beers to chose from that aren’t ipas when I go to a place with 100 taps. I just hate having to sort though it all.
There should be an IPA menu, and a non ipa menu.
Also: IPAs have a lot of sugar content, and combined with alcohol sugar gives me a shitty buzz and a headache. I don’t know how people can drink more than one.
My IPAs and my pilsners finish at the same final gravity. IPAs do not universally have a lot of sugar. It’s the same as any other beer of similar alcohol content/starting gravity. If I got rid of the hops, I’d just have a strong English ale.
I believe you. You obviously know more. But it just seems so clear when I drink something crisp and light that I’m not getting that sugar high and headache I associate with strawberry daiquiris. But I get it from IPAs.
All of the above. Phone call, sms photo video. Everything. You can also just install corresponding apps from the playstore or any other store. It’s basically stock android but with more granular control over permissions, and with sandboxed google services
Don’t use fast food apps, their only and sole purpose is to collect your data.
The McD app doesn’t run on Graphene because it can’t get info to sell off so it can fund the discounts you get from using the app.
That’s the economics of it. Your data gets sold at 100% value, you get discounts worth 60% of that value, they pocket the difference.
On another note, be careful of any loyalty program these days, even if it’s not digital. They use it to track exactly what you buy and at which location, e.g. grocery stores, and give you discounts in exchange. Sometimes it’s just for inventory and stock management, but some less scrupulous companies will sell off your consumer data for an extra buck, especially if you tied a name or address to your loyalty program membership.
Then there is the story of the guy who went several years on a grocery store loyalty card. One day he slipped and fell from a spill on the floor. When he spoke up about his injuries the store’s lawyer said “We see in your loyalty record you buy a lot of alcohol, were you drunk that day?” Just a story I read- might not be true, but it could be.
That’s pretty much where I’m at too, and I find it easier to get to the file(s) I want to send through the cli. No judgement to anyone who prefers the gui though!
I don’t understand why is it popular to shit on Bethesda games? Just don’t play it if you don’t like it. At least it has no microtransacrions or Battle Pass nonsense.
That isnt clear either. I wonder if some people are just routinely negative about major releases? I usually don’t have wide expectations and get into games for niche reasons, for settlement and ship building in this case. I’m not really invested in what the more negative gamers have to say because it doesn’t have much to do with why I want to play the game. Also I feel like too many are just outrage poisoned so their opinion is just guaranteed to be ridiculous.
There are so many ways to inform yourself beforhand. You can also try it out on Gamepass. If you buy an 70 bucks game blindly its kinda your own fault.
Ah yes, because it’s the customer’s fault that Bethesda released a barebones game again.
Listen. The game pass isn’t a replacement for demos. It still costs money, so for people who can only buy a limited number of games per year, that’s a no-go. It’s one of the more expensive subscription services as well. The point of demos is to be a free but limited experience of the game so people can decide whether the game is worth throwing money at without getting a subscription for hundreds of games they don’t care about or already own. Nothing against the game pass mind you, it’s great for lots of people, but it ain’t a demo.
Besides, this isn’t just about Starfield. There seem to be more games coming out unfinished than otherwise, and both that trend and the absence of demos seem to have come with SaaS games becoming the norm. Remember when no man’s sky came out? Or cyberpunk 2077? Or fallout 76? Beinging back demos won’t completely prevent cases like that, but it sure would help
You say more games are coming out unfinished and then you buy a 70 bucks game on release from Bethesda without informing yourself beforehand? Yes this is your own mistake.
There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
I swear lemmy users are worse than redditors. Y’all are embarrassing the fucking fediverse you demented parrots. I’m honestly considering going back to the terrible reddit app, at least people there know how to read.
I pirate games. It’s the only way to inform yourself, but it’s widely illegal. Games reviewers are hesitant to publish critical reviews, because that means risking not getting review copies. Community reviews are constantly review bombed for any controversial game, to the point where you can’t look up whether bg3 is good without having to scroll through a deluge of rants about how they’re shoving gay propaganda down people’s throats or whatever.
Starfield got 88 on metacritic. It really does not deserve those numbers. But major bethesda releases are major news, so as a reviewer you do need to appease them. But as a customer, how are you supposed to inform yourself when Bethesda has every major outlet by the balls? I shouldn’t need to care, because as i said, i pirate before i buy, but many people just can’t safely do that. If game publishers would just release goddamn demos, they would provide an actual way for customers to inform themselves early on (when sales are the most important), and hell, maybe people would pirate less shit too. But that would mean having to release games that at least work, so of course the industry don’t want that. And corporate rimmers like you don’t help the situation
Starfield doesn’t feel unfinished or barebones at all to me. There’s a ton of great quest content, the art is top notch, and I haven’t seen a single bug in 30 hours.
Well steam is really pushing devs to use demos again, given it’s mostly indie at this moment but slowly more and more demos start showing up, which is nice. One can hope AAA will do this to but I highly doubt they will
Bethesda games tend to have awful writing, released with an unacceptable amount of bugs, and not having micro transactions and a battle pass shouldn’t be praised, it must be the standard.
I had Vasco become a part of the door to the cockpit. I couldn’t enter. I had to leave the ship and hit the specific ‘to cockpit’ button for a few hours because reloading didn’t save him from his torment. Only bug I’ve had but was weird lol.
Vasco quite frequently blocks the door everywhere for me, but at least I have been able to push my way through so far. He’s like my Golden Retriever in that respect so I am used to it from real life.
Real sad that Vasco isnt a full companion. Had so much potential there, instead, all he is is a glorified tutorial escort for the start of the game, and graduates to annoying barricade for the rest of it.
So it should be praised as it currently isn’t the standard in the gaming industry. But hey, let’s shit on it so we can totally tell the industry that this is the wrong path and micro transactions are the way to go!
It is the standard, idiot fucking gamergoblins dumping their wallets out saying “GIVE ME ADVANTAGES” are the assholes thats are trying to change the standard.
When will you learn the only thing that gets results is buying or not buying them? Fucks sake. It’s capitalism, if you buy shitty product more shitty product gets made.
I don’t understand why it’s so popular NOT to shit on them. Remember when Andromeda came out with many of the same issues, and people fucking REAMED it (rightly)? Now Bethesda is finally getting SOME criticism for their shitty business and game development practices and we have lots of people out here suckling at their teat defending them for some reason. “Leave them alone, it’s just a Bethesda game, why do people love to hate them, wahhhh.”
As if Bethesda isn’t one of the most beloved companies of all time, and most everyone started from a place of WANTING to love this game. But they’ve been making shitty decisions for years, hiding behind the nostalgia of their past titles, and they are overdue some criticism. It doesn’t mean everyone hates them.
I dont know why pepole shited so much on Andromeda.it was fairly ok title and i personaly was looking forward to next part( which sadly probably wont happen ). Certainly gameplay fitted andromeda more than inquisition. Alghtough from what i have seen i definietly wouldnt be so amazed as some journalist seem to be but Its a ok title. Not a BG3 for certain. Alghtough i admittedly never really liked bethesda style games.i even prefered dragon age 2 rather than skyrim. Bethesda games are too diluted for my tastes.
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