Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?

blittle

An example right now is https://www.gaytor.rent/details.php?id=dfcbd18db1f251c6c91a397988232f5a84e668887fb786ec but I'm curious about the general idea, not just this one torrent.

The site shows 1 seeder and 32 leechers. I downloaded the .torrent to try to help seed it, but the swarm contains only leechers, and we're all at 0.00%. It seems like someone is reporting to the tracker that they're seeding, but not actually participating.

I see this happen on other sites sometimes too, so I don't think this is a site-specific issue. I'm just curious how things work. Will something eventually get marked as not having any seeders if they don't start responding, or is it just tied to what their torrent client reports?

ianfontinell 0

@blittle if the tracker reports a seeder it means they are in the swarm, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are available to seed.

depending on that one seeder's specific settings, his client might prioritize other torrents and actively prevent him from uploading pieces for a particular torrent.

it might take several hours or even days for them to start seeding a torrent if they are the only seeder and their client have very strict seeding rules.

tnar

@blittle
Hopefully someone with more technical knowledge than me will chime in and fix what I get wrong here.

improperly configured VPNs and firewalls that are not actually accepting incoming requests
seedboxes that are hung and not responding.\
countries where it's not possible to seed fully, like India (this is a version of 1, but out of the user's control).

Because of the situation you've observed, it makes sense to honor reseed requests and help reseed even if the torrent is showing a small number of seeds. I do this when I can, though I don't really need the upload credit, to try to keep torrents alive.

john32123666

@blittle OK I did try to download and was connected and now disrtibutinng @ 1mbps happy now ...

blittle

@john32123666 said in Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?:

@blittle OK I did try to download and was connected and now disrtibutinng @ 1mbps happy now ...

Thanks! Now it's got tons of seeds.

So I think I understand it -- "1 seeder" means someone out there in the swarm has it and is talking to the tracker, but doesn't guarantee that they're actively sharing it with others right at the moment.