Seeder with large seeding list.

[Popper]

@mgr:

…

• as much as I like guides with pictures: those guides (for example creating a torrent) are rather problematic: I can't create such a pictured guide for Vuze because I use uTorrent myself (and installed Azureus (now Vuze) only once because I had to reformat my hard drive to remove all remnants of  Azureus after un-installing the software ) - and another question has to be answered too: for which clients have we to write such guides?

…

IMHO: for 3 clients:

• µTorrent/BitTorrent on PC

• Vuze/Azureus on PC, Mac, GNU/Linux

• Transmission on Mac, GNU/Linux with Gnome GUI

According to a statistic (on a random trorrent with many peers) I've made some time ago, it should cover more than 90% of the users.

[MrMazda]

Just a few discussion starting points…

@mgr:

I see some problems in "10 Commandments of GayTorrent.ru"

• the different parts (accounts, forum, torrents …) are mixed together.

You are correct, but I think that if the guides are fully in depth and integrated enough, the guides should make the process reletively seamless. It would really all depend on the nature of how these guides are put together. Perhaps establishing a guideline on the nature in which the guides need to be constructed would be beneficial to addressing this potential problem.

@mgr:

• If someone is able (and, more important: willing) to create a structured plan how this page (and the linked follow-up pages) have to be structured: I'm open for discussions but I need active help beside my daily work load on the site to manage such an ambitious task.

I am willing to volunteer for such a project upon completion of my current to do list. I believe I may have some ideas that could be applied to the subject at hand, bringing it from a subject to reality.

@mgr:

• as much as I like guides with pictures: those guides (for example creating a torrent) are rather problematic: I can't create such a pictured guide for Vuze because I use uTorrent myself (and installed Azureus (now Vuze) only once because I had to reformat my hard drive to remove all remnants of  Azureus after un-installing the software ) - and another question has to be answered too: for which clients have we to write such guides?

I have a solution that I use, and perhaps I could upload to the tracker for just this very thing. Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 will enable you to create a "Virtual PC" within your current PC. If I (or whoever is creating such a guide, providing the availability of the hardware) were to create a virtual PC file, I could use it for the purpose of creating these tutorials, knowing that in order to remove remnant of the programs, I can simply just delete the Virtual PC file, and replace it with the image of the fresh to go version. This solution may also be useful in other applications, aside from just the creation of such tutorials. As for the question pertaining to the clients supported, statistics may be able to offer a good idea on where the best place to start may be. For example: If the statistics show that Torrent Clients X, Y, and Z seem to be the most commonly used, it would be logical to say those clients may be the best place to start. If other clients become in demand, or are requested, perhaps at that time using the magic of Virtual PC (or through other means), staff and users alike could submit the guides when there is a request placed for them as well.

@mgr:

• The number of users who have a look at our offered help files is more than discouraging! (Take as an example the pictured guide how to search for duplicate torrents before uploading only 39 out of currently 268 members with auto approval privilege really read that guide  :cry2: )

While you are quite correct on the statistics of the matter, I believe there is more to that statistic than it just the statistic itself. After a brief scan of the number of users on the site with active contribution vs the number of users that visit the forum, it would appear that a portion of this could be caused by the users simply not opening the forum period. While the reasons for users not entering the forum vary from technical problems (such as PEBKAC) to users just not being interested in forums, there is another observation that I've made, which perhaps could be useful if implemented as part of the process of creating such guides. Research conducted by the Microsoft customer experience improvement program suggests that most users are more inclined to read content such as guides, help files, tutorials, etc. when they are more easily accessible. Based on this observation, it seems it would be logical and more effective implement such a system where for example the FAQ section contained reference to these guides, and the option(s) for the guides/tutorials were somehow made easily available directly from the upload page. From my personal experience, the "easy" integration so to speak has always proven to be quite effective.

[blackdid]

Hi Mgr  
I would like to discuss a couple of points :

@mgr:

As much as I like guides with pictures: those guides (for example creating a torrent) are rather problematic: I can't create such a pictured guide for Vuze because I use uTorrent myself (and installed Azureus (now Vuze) only once because I had to reformat my hard drive to remove all remnants of  Azureus after un-installing the software ) - and another question has to be answered too: for which clients have we to write such guides?

Maybe I will sound too radical with what follows, but GT being now the best gay torrent side in the world, all his users are glad to be members of the site and will do all they can to stay here, so if a LITTLE effort is asked to a few members (explanations later), they should contribute…or find another gay torrent site as great as GT (believe me, they won't find it and they'll all do the effort)

So if Tom and you created a tool (QTM 1.3) that works perfectly with uTorrent, all users on PC under Windows (and you have this info for each user, their OS) must run the couple uTorrent/QTM, avoiding the daily same questions./answers ("why my torrent didn't seed ?" => "don't forget you have to re-download the torrent !" etc…)

And if a torrent you receive isn't created with QTM, well you could simply decline it and ask the user to install QTM / utorrent, because QTM seems to work only with utorrent, if i read Tom here : "uTorrent is the only supported client at the moment - more clients will be added soon" :
http://forum.gaytorrent.ru/index.php?topic=2643.0

Now I see Uwe and MrMazda just answered while I am typing this, and of course, there's a problem with other OS / machines

• Utorrent website shows they have "versions for Mac and Linux", so utorrent should be the only client that all users should use in GT, whatever is their OS/ machine, especially all of you, Admins and Mods are specialized in uTorrent : that would simplify a lot your daily job concerning the client questions.

• QTM works under Windows, but I'm not sure there is a Mac version or not : until there is one, Mac users will of course have to upload manually (they can't use QTM)

My point is : though it seems "shocking" to force all users to install the same client (utorrent) and use QTM, I find myself "shocking" that a program like QTM isn't used by 100% of your users (if their machine/OS allow it) because it's so simple, reliable, and it's coupled with utorrent : so if you want to simplify the Admins / Mods daily job, use only 1 client (utorrent) associated to your internal program 'QTM)

Dont forget this : you're no more a starting web site who needs to attract more and more users, you became the 1st gay torrent site and it's not too much asking to your users to all use the same client (especially when 75% of them are already using it), this will decrease the number of daily questions you receive (helpdesk) concerning client problems. Of course, you couldn't have had the same approach a few years ago, when you started the site (or if you were no more a free site)

Just a word concerning the number of utorrent users already existing in the site : in the attached pic, you'll see 75% of users under utorrent (this pic wasn't created at all for this purpose a couple of days ago…hey my name is yellowed in the pic, isn't it great ?)

@mgr:

The number of users who have a look at our offered help files is more than discouraging! (Take as an example the pictured guide how to search for duplicate torrents before uploading only 39 out of currently 268 members with auto approval privilege really read that guide  :cry2: )

Well maybe if this commandment ("3. Thou shou not upload duplicate files") was written on the main page we're talking about, it would be have been read much more often than 39 times  

I never find this page easy ("how to search for duplicate torrents before uploading") but I won't enter in this discussion now. What suprises me are those "dead torrents" we have to search in.

Imho a dead torrent is a dead torrent, it's buried and that's all, it should stay in its grave, not be accessible to anyone, wouldn't it have been much easier for everybody in the site ?

You search for an active torrent and you don't find it ?
So upload it !

Why this complication of entering into dead torrents, waiting xx days, writing here and there, giving more and more work to Mods to control this situation when PM them concerning a dead torrent ?
It's dead ? Bye bye then and let the user upload a new torrent.

Well I hope I'm not too "rude" but now you know it's just my warm way of writing, I just would like to understand why you didn't bury the dead torrents, so it would have been easier for users to search into active torrents only, and it would give less work to the staff, ignoring totally this dead torrent (false) problem.

In fact, it's same in our daily lives : when we're used to do something for years, then comes a newbie (like me, though i'm here for 3 months already, i'm still a newbie) who asks : "why are you doing it that way ? Wouldn't be easier for all of us to do it in a simpler way" ?

As usual, I just wrote a book  
Big Hugs  

[MrMazda]

@blackdid:

Why this complication of entering into dead torrents, waiting xx days, writing here and there, giving more and more work to Mods to control this situation when PM them concerning a dead torrent ?
It's dead ? Bye bye then and let the user upload a new torrent.

Although your idea is valid in theory, there does lie one problem with that. Sometimes when a torrent "dies", a user who has downloaded that torrent will re-seed it. If the proposed policy were put into effect, it would inevitably create problems with duplicate torrents. I do see where you're coming from with the including dead, and a suggested revision to that guide is on my to-do list (as of now) to make it easier to understand.

[thangcuoi]

@leatherbear:

:rotfl: Excellent list indeed :jaj:

BTW: I did edit this list some what

Thanks.   I am very happy with the discussion it has started.

My initial thought about the new guides/FAQs is to go with a wiki. The few active members don't have to do everything. Everyone can have as little or as much input as they like. The main problem with this is how much more work will it be required of the site coder to integrate the wiki into the current site.

The more workable that require less effort for the coder is something like this.

Rules page (and new member welcome page) will feature a welcome message with the 10 Commandments and a short 3-5 line of friendly explanation about why the rules exist, to help the website run smoothly and build a community etc… Final line should say: for more details and explanation of the rules, please check out our Guides and FAQs section.

GUIDES.  Move the guides out of the forum and give each guide its own page, all linked together by a master table of content on the guide main page.  At the bottom of each guide is a link to a forum post in the forum where people can post question and answers.

FAQs.  The current FAQs seem to be very comprehensive and adequate.  Just need some layout cleanup. Either have one page per section (Site Information, User Information etc..) or use scripts to only display one section/question at a time.

FORUMS. Clean up the forum by having less sticky topics. Many of the current stickies in the GT.ru Discussion and Guides forum fit more into the guide section.  Only current and most important topic should be sticky. For example New Ratio requirements is now old news, where as First Time uploader program is alway relevant for new member.

That's all for now.