Duplicated Torrents

[alfa66]

Hi there. I'm dropping this line just to highlight that there are a whole bunch of duplicated torrents being uploaded lately. Any change to make the users take a good look before uploading movies that have already been indexed? Also, the constant upload of duplicated torrent makes the brand new FREELEECH option futile. What do you guys think? Cheers.

[Popper]

Thank you for bringing such discussion up.

… Any change to make the users take a good look before uploading movies that have already been indexed? ...

We have not much options here:

• Send a PM to remind to search (more thoroughly) before uploading

  • Disable uploads of a duplicate uploader going live immediately
  • Give a warning, increment warnings for repeated duplicate uploads

  However, uploaders are the members making this place interesting and how would you fell if getting punished for mistakes on uploading? Therefore currently these options are taken currently quite softly.

  … Also, the constant upload of duplicated torrent makes the brand new FREELEECH option futile. ...

  Members could make a quick duplicate search before downloading or making a torrent Freeleech. If found duplicate, report it. The faster a duplicate is identified, the less harm it will cause. We could make the original Freeleech.  To note that we let duplicate torrents started downloads finish, so Freeleech on them is working, just less members benefit from it.

  Please give your opinions, especially uploader views are welcome.

  –--
  Update: added PM option

[andy32]

It's true. There are a lot more dupicates around these days then before the approval process was modified/dropped
and I hope you reported the torrents you refer to.

The former approval process wasn't only a drag for uploaders (at least before gaining auto approval rights) it had to be a lot of work for administrators too. I realy think it's the right way to go. To trust uploaders first and only if they violate the rules to restrict their rights.

The vast majority of upladers just want to share their files and/or like to improve their ratio.
Of course you have the occasional hiccup of users who should improve their checks for duplicate torrents.
And then there are users who blatantly copy torrents, rename them and seed them again. I'm pretty sure GTRU keeps track of those cases.

But what is the worst case that could happen to you if you download what then turns out to be a duplicate.
The worst case is that you got your file, maybe a second time, maybe take longer to download then the original and are not able to reseed it or
if you are the original uploader you might miss out on a few seedpoints.

In conclusion - IMHO - there are far more upsides to the new process then downsides.

[Guest]

The most time consuming task on the site is checking for duplicates, which depends mostly on our volunteer moderators checking against indexed material.   We also ask that our membership identify and report any duplicates they may recognize using the report button at the bottom of each description page.

With the prior approval system, up to a third of submitted torrents were duplicates and taken care of prior to their posting to the torrent index.   Now, the membership sees part of all that activity.  Out of fairness to members who have already started a download prior to it being identified as a duplicate, we allow their downloading to complete before deleting the duplicate torrent.  Thus, it remains seen in the list for a day or so.

We do track members with a history of duplicate submissions and warn them accordingly to a graduated system of warnings and/or removal of various privileges.  Many duplicate submissions are unintentional or by new users who have not perfected their checking skills yet.  We attempt to take this into account when addressing them.   Warnings with short downloading restrictions are issued and meant to grab the attention of a member so they can improve their checking.

With over 40,000 active members, submitting 100-150 new torrents each day to our list of almost 60,000 torrents, there will always be duplicates to identify.   But as Andy32 pointed out, the benefits of immediate upload and subsequent duplicate identification has been favored by the membership in general.  Any assistance members can provide in helping to identify duplicates is always much appreciated and encouraged. We're hoping to incentivize duplicate identification in the future.

[underlvr]

@Uwe:

Please give your opinions, especially uploader views are welcome.

As a former uploader, I think that it is crap.  Those of us who worked hard to earn and keep our auto-approval status were just thrown under the bus.  My opinion is that this was done primarily to build traffic back to the site after being closed for so long and because not enough moderators returned to help out.

The one thing that made this tracker stand out from the rest, was the strict approval process.  It kept all of the junk out that clutters up other sites.  I mean why not make it a public tracker; no need to keep it private and exclusive because its not anymore.

[cannonmc]

Why are duplicates a problem? 

[Hier0nymous]

@cannonmc:

Why are duplicates a problem? 

It pisses off the person who uploaded the torrent in the first place - he might not bother again.
It pisses off people who have downloaded a torrent, are seeding it, and find no-one wants it because someone else has just uploaded the same torrent and they are all now leeching off that one.
It clutters up the boards with the same torrent.

Some torrent indexes allow people to post any old thing any number of times. I have seen the same torrent posted several times a day. Is that really what people want here?

Not me - I'm all for getting rid of the dupes.

[junior]

When you find a duplicate  use the Report button!

[Popper]

@underlvr:

… The one thing that made this tracker stand out from the rest, was the strict approval process.  It kept all of the junk out that clutters up other sites.  I mean why not make it a public tracker; no need to keep it private and exclusive because its not anymore. ...

The Rules, besides the liberated upload rules for collections, have not been changed! The only thing which changes, is that duplicate uploads get visibility. Still I think they are detected and filtered out quite well.

[off-topic]
@underlvr:

… As a former uploader, I think that it is crap.  Those of us who worked hard to earn and keep our auto-approval status were just thrown under the bus.  ...

I can understand that view and still wonder about ways to give regular good uploaders recognition.

@underlvr:

… My opinion is that this was done primarily to build traffic back to the site after being closed for so long and because not enough moderators returned to help out. ...

All but two Moderators did return as soon as the site was up again. We had more than ever new uploads per day when the approval process was dropped. Staff resources were not a decisive element. Now running behind duplicates does as much work than before (though I've the impression by giving responsibility to uploader, there are much less duplicates).

However we have a chronicle shortage of resources  :crazy2:

[/off-topic]

[cannonmc]

Not me - I'm all for getting rid of the dupes.

That's fine…in fact I pointed out a duplicate post on another site earlier today. It was a genuine mistake by the new seeder who couldn't find the original on the site. No problem, no-one hurt.

It pisses off the person who uploaded the torrent in the first place - he might not bother again.

But in an ideal world new seeders would thank the OP wherever they got it from. I would be surprised if someone downloaded from one site and merely reposted it to the same site (genuine mistakes excepted)

It pisses off people who have downloaded a torrent, are seeding it,

Ah, the old ratio problem.. That is perhaps for another thread.

I have no problem with deleting genuine duplicates but let's not have a war about it. We can all be nice in pointing out someone's mistake (which most duplicates are)

[Hier0nymous]

I didn't think we were having a war, I thought it was a discussion!

I doubt people are uploading duplicates on purpose, but that does not make it any less annoying. Most people, once they are told how to check, learn quickly. It is a good thing that people check first before they upload anything.

This site has one of the best torrent searches going, it is very easy to search to see if a torrent is already seeded. Everyone with auto-approval checks before they upload. Everyone with auto-approval takes care to avoid duplicates, but there was always the problem that people without auto-approval would post a torrent first, and because it had not yet been approved by staff, other people would not yet know it had already been posted. This could lead to arguments!

Auto-approval is very good for those people who have it (and I do), but for those who do not have that status, uploading could be very frustrating, and it could easily put people off even trying.

The problem with dupes here is that this site is a very big site, moderators cannot store in their heads what has been posted already, so they have to spend some time checking. It is only fair that members who notice things can help and report the odd torrent. For smaller trackers, this is not the same type of problem.

Perhaps people who correctly report a duplicate torrent could get some bonus points (I'm not saying this for me, I don't need any more). But then people would report any old torrent, and that could also waste staff time…

[trukr]

@Hier0nymous:

Perhaps people who correctly report a duplicate torrent could get some bonus points (I'm not saying this for me, I don't need any more). But then people would report any old torrent, and that could also waste staff time…

We've already had an internal discussion about that and would like to reward users in that way. It would take some programming from an Admin, and I don't when or if it will happen.
If a simple option can be written for Staff to add bonus points to user accounts in general, that would be great because it can be used in other ways as well.

Duplicates drive me insane, and I work quickly to remove or handle them before peers join or complete a significant portion of the torrent whenever possible.
What really pissed me off is when the original torrent is extremely easy to find and it's as if the uploader didn't bother to search at all.

Aside from the few upsides (and downside, late duplicate detection sometimes) to the system we're using, it's felt that it's better for the site's protection since we don't actively approve each torrent.

[smithdtn]

Here comes!  :cheesy2:

Help us finding duplicate torrents and get seedbonus points as reward
https://forum.gaytorrent.ru/index.php?topic=19196.msg88480#msg88480