Guide for Starters at GayTorrent.ru
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Written by pickknic
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The Starter's Guide to GayTorrent.ruI will try to keep this guide short and concise, so it won't take too long for you to get an understanding of how GayTorrent.ru works. Note that this is a guide for people completely new to torrents - if you're already familiar with how torrents work, you'd probably do better reading the GayTorrent.ru FAQ and Rules, and the guides that have been submitted on the site forums.
1. BitTorrent in general.
BitTorrent is a way of downloading files. It's a Peer-to-Peer (or P2P) method of downloading, which means you're not downloading from a server or website on the internet - you're downloading from other people, just like you, who are sharing their files for you.
Here's how it works. You first download a small file from a website, called the "torrent" file (for example, it might be called "Better Gay Sex.torrent"). This small files contains all the information needed to download the full file (for example "Better Gay Sex.avi"). The most important bit of information the torrent file contains is the location (or URL) of the "tracker".
The tracker does pretty much what it's name says. It keeps track of everyone who is sharing (or "seeding") a particular file, and everyone who is trying to download (or "leech") it. The tracker then does a "matchmaking" service, hooking leechers up with seeders.
By now you've probably figured that SHARING is an important part of BitTorrent. If nobody shared their files, then nobody would be able to download anything. Many BitTorrent communities will make rules to ensure that everyone is doing their bit to share files. GayTorrent.ru has some rules - I mention some important ones later.
One way to keep tabs on how well you are contributing is to look at your "share ratio". This is basically the ratio of uploads-to-downloads. So a ratio of 1.0 means you've downloaded exactly as much as you've uploaded, 0.5 means you've been a bit greedy and downloaded more than you've shared, 3.0 means you've been very generous and shared 3 times as much as you've downloaded. So, the higher the ratio, the better.
2. What you need to get started.
All you need is a BitTorrent client. This is the program that will download your files for you (in small slices, from various people) as well as share the file for others to download from you.
There are many BitTorrent clients available - just search for "bittorrent client" on Google. But my personal favourite, and the one i STRONGLY suggest you use with GayTorrent.ru (I'll tell you why later) is uTorrent. Their homepage is www.utorrent.com
Once your BitTorrent client is installed, you should be able to download the ".torrent" files, and your web browser will automatically start up your BitTorrent client to handle it. Note: You may need to exit your web browser and re-start it.
3. GayTorrent.ru specifically.
This section will not go through ALL of GayTorrent.ru's rules, but it will go through the 3 most important things that you need to know. Really, though, you should read through all the rules listed on the website and make sure you understand them all.
FIRSTLY, I strongly recommend that you use uTorrent as your BitTorrent client (www.utorrent.com) - this is the client most (if not ALL) the GayTorrent.ru admins use and know well, so if you have any problems they'll be able to help you. If you use any other client, the best they can tell you is "This is how you fix your problem in uTorrent - hopefully your BitTorrent client will work similarly". If you've already started using a different client, and you want to change over to uTorrent, there are guides in the site forums about that - and you can do it without losing your half-downloaded files.
We have staff members that use BitComet {pdu4} and a couple that use MAC as an Operating system that will be able to help with those. See the MAC sticky in the support forum.
SECONDLY, as mentioned in section #1, GayTorrent.ru has its own set of rules you'll need to follow - if you don't, you'll get banned from GayTorrent.ru
But when we say "banned", we don't mean COMPLETELY banned. You can still log in and access the website, forums, helpdesk, etc. And you can even continue to upload/seed. The only activity you cannot do when you're banned is download. This way, even when you're banned you can still work towards improving your share ratio.
This important rule is about your ratio - it needs to stay above a minimum level, or else you'll get banned. This "minimum level" is usually 0.35, but it MIGHT HAVE CHANGED since I wrote this guide - make sure you look up the site Rules page to double-check.
Banned is the wrong word as noted above.
True bannings are only for very serious or repeated rule violations.
Now the thing is, though, that when you first start out your ratio will be 0.000 - which makes sense really. You can't share anything if you haven't downloaded anything, can you? So, you need to download something, then share it and wait for your ratio to get up to an acceptable level.
GayTorrent.ru understand this, and they give you 2 weeks to get your share ratio up to an acceptable level - again, that "2 weeks" MIGHT HAVE CHANGED since I wrote this guide - make sure you look up the site Rules page to double-check.
Handy Tip: download a file in high demand to begin with - many leechers, only a few seeders. This will ensure that when you share the file, it will be in high demand and your ratio will improve easily.
And THIRDLY, do not EVER upload the ".torrent" files you get from GayTorrent.ru to any other site on the internet - this is very important for YOU. The ".torrent" file includes an identifier (your "passkey") which the tracker uses to know who's trying to download a file. If you give your .torrent file to others, the tracker will think they are YOU and all their downloads will count against YOU - it's just pure disaster for your share ratio. (If you do this accidentally, you can change your passkey - see the FAQ, Help and Guides).
You can upload a file from here to another site, but you will need to make a new .torrent file for that site. Keep in mind, that you can not have more than 1 .torrent file for the same file {video, software, etc} or your BT client will mess up.
EDITS in blue by RAPHJD
