2 years of uploader activity deleted by inadequate moderation
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Since few years, I did notice that porn uses too much space on my disk. As I did subscribe to OnlyFans and could use my programming skills to circumvent DRM, I thought a good idea was to not only download for me that content but also share with the gay community on a torrent site. Why? Because internet remembers! Enter: gaytor.rent moderation!
Yesterday one of my recent torrents did disappear, so I asked for help and went to the forum. I was told it is because the padding files. What are those padding files? I have seen them in qBittorrent client, which I routinely use for few years. But moderator did complain they are and they increase the torrent size. So I asked Google: Why in qBittorrent I produce hybrid torrents and user using other client sometimes sees padding files and sometimes not? Explain are padding files increasing torrent size or not?
This the answer:
You are producing hybrid torrents in qBittorrent because the "Optimize alignment" option is enabled in the Torrent Creator, often combined with selecting both V1 and V2 formats. Hybrid torrents create ".pad" files to ensure each file starts at the beginning of a new piece, enhancing compatibility with modern v2 clients while maintaining a v1 swarm for older ones.-
Why Padding Files Appear and Disappear
Padding files are essentially tiny, invisible, or ignored files placed between real data files to ensure they align properly with piece boundaries.
Why you see them: When you, or others, use a client that supports "padding file" metadata (like modern qBittorrent, libtorrent-based clients, or updated uTorrent), the client reads the metadata and hides these files from the file list, as they are meant to be invisible.
Why they disappear: The client understands they are just empty space for alignment.
Why some users see them: Users running very old clients or clients that do not strictly adhere to BitTorrent Enhancement Proposals (BEP 47 - Padding Files) will see these files as if they are part of the actual content. -
Do Padding Files Increase Torrent Size?
Yes, technically padding files increase the total size of the torrent on disk, but not in the way you might think.
Actual Data vs. Disk Space: Padding files add empty data (null bytes) to the end of files to fill up the remaining space in a "piece" (e.g., if a file ends in the middle of a 2MB piece, 1MB of padding is added).
Small Impact: For most torrents, this is negligible.
High Impact Scenarios: If you are sharing a folder with thousands of tiny files, and each one is padded to meet a large piece size (e.g., 4MB or 8MB), the total size of the torrent on disk can become significantly larger than the actual files
I did ask Copilot too:
Why do some users see padding files and others don’t?
This happens because padding files are part of the metadata of a V2 or Hybrid torrent, but different clients display them differently.
️ 1. qBittorrent always shows padding files in the file tree
qBittorrent exposes the internal structure of the torrent, so it shows:_____padding_file_0
_____padding_file_1
etc.
Even though they are:
not downloaded,
not stored on disk,
not part of the real data.
️ 2. Some clients hide padding files automatically
Clients like Transmission, Deluge, BiglyBT, and some older clients:hide padding files,
merge them into the internal structure,
or show them only in advanced mode.
So the same torrent may look different depending on the client.
️ 3. Some clients don’t support V2 fully
If a client only supports V1:It ignores the V2 part of the hybrid torrent.
Padding files exist only in the V2 structure.
Therefore, V1‑only clients never show padding files.
This is the most common reason for the inconsistency you’re seeing.
Do padding files increase the torrent size?
️ They increase the metadata size
Padding files appear in the .torrent file’s metadata.
This makes the .torrent file slightly larger.Usually:
+1–50 KB for small torrents
+100–500 KB for large multi‑file torrents
They do NOT increase the downloaded data size
Padding files are:automatically marked “Do Not Download”
not transferred over the network
not stored on disk
not part of the payload
So the actual data downloaded = unchanged.
They do NOT increase the size of the final files
Your real files remain exactly the same size.So, because I have used DEFAULT option of qBittorrent my few years of work are gone now.
Why this is inadequate?
- Each OnlyFans subscription costs from 10 to 20 USD, on average it is 15 USD, thus I have paid for 60 deleted torrents 900$ + 21% VAT. This the money I lost, because for older files I have probably no backup. This also is the value, which the community of this torrent site did loose
- Most of these files were DRM protected, I had to programme a script for each site to decypher and download the content, thus a lot of my time and devotion went for nothing
- Neither the guide for an uploader, not other manuals on the site do mention any problem with padding files, so how should I know desires of moderators?
Moderators never have contacted me to solve the issue if it was present, they just deleted perfectly working torrents without giving any chance to download the content and reupload it in a reasonable time frame.
I wonder if people who moderate have ever been subscribed to OF, have they ever downloaded and shared paid content with community. Most importantly I wonder if uploaders are any respected here.
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It's interesting because padding files aren't mentioned in the rules that I see, and they're helpful as a downloader (so you don't grab big files you don't want to download).
But I don't understand how you lost any work.
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@justatest90-0 He's just being an over the top drama queen because he didn't like a decision that was made. What he doesn't mention is that these torrents haven't actually been deleted, but rather, moved to a category that isn't visible to regular users. He also doesn't say anything about the fact that I have informed him twice now that there is now staff discussion about this topic, and the policy is being revisited. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's just seeking attention and sympathy because something didn't go his way.
The only difference between martyrdom and suicide is press coverage! -
@MrMazda Glad to see the 'banned' tag by their name, then. I've uploaded quite a few file - some quite niche, unique, and in-demand.
I hardly think that makes me special - the torrents here are FULL of such people.
That said, padding files are very useful, but I know that discussion is happening elsewhere on the forum.
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Not to interfere with other discussions, but qBitTorrent 2.x will still show padding files... but qBitTorrent 3.x will essentially hide them.
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I am not an ovettop queen drama or whatever.
I am a pro-active guy. These torrents were silently sitting here for MONTHS.
a. who knows how much hybrid torrents u still have here unbanned
b. I gave u a list of my torrents and u banned themA wise moderation from your side was to pm me and ask to download them to reupload them for your liking. Saying: "Dude there are probs with these torrents, reupload them, please." Though word please is not in your dictionary.
Instead of that you wiped out them and begun a "discussion". Which prolly will lead nowhere.
In the end what you got? Minus 66 torrents with sizes up to 100 GB from the community. Me moving to other gay torrent site, where I did already receive a recognition by moderatorts for uploading 30+ rare torrents.
Yes you did your job briliantly, you did solve a "problem" well and you did not harm the community of this formerly russian gay torrent site. And yeah I am a drama queen, for sure
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The newest one will hide them
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@dargard-0 said in 2 years of uploader activity deleted by inadequate moderation:
Yes you did your job briliantly, you did solve a "problem" well and you did not harm the community of this formerly russian gay torrent site. And yeah I am a drama queen, for sure
Not that I have a dog in this fight, but I want to be clear - as a 20 year member of this site (as-of this year! - Y'all even REMEMBER 2016?), the original site being gaytorrent.ru was NOT because it was housed in Russia - rather because registering a site with "gay" in the name wasn't allowed by many TLDs (Top-Level-Domains), and the .ru was not only accepting, but also CHEAP!
YOU pay the overhead costs for a site this size - esp with security needed (DOS and DDOS attacks against a GAY site? never!).
If improvements to the site are something you want, consider making a (or better, more than 1) contribution! This site may be free to you, but it's not free to run it!
Also, even tho they make mistakes, and overreact, and under-react, and otherwise breathe - as-if they were human - I'm very grateful to the staff that runs this site! They are both overpaid and underpaid: they volunteer (or so I'm told)! Without them, this place would be a useless morass of unformatted & unrecognisable data!
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@dargard-0 Pro-Active? That's laughable.
You literally pitched a hissy fit and started launching personal attacks against me, which earned you a temporary forum ban. Then, you went on to create this post over something that isn't even finalized. You call this being pro-active? That's cute...
By your same logic, you could have simply stated your objections in a civilized and respectful manner, but instead, you chose to lash out, attack me, and try to stir up drama. Sorry, but I gotta call a spade a spade here.
