DimeFAQ:DIME Ratio Primer

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BitTorrent is not about downloading; it's about sharing. The only way anybody receives is if someone else gives: for every download there must be an equal and opposite upload. How well you share is measured by your ratio: that's the amount you've given divided by the amount you've taken (according to the reports that DIME receives from our client). To do your fair part, you should give at least as much as you get; that is, your account's overall share ratio should be 1.0 or higher. DIME requires only 1/4 of that, or .25. (You can see the ratio rules in DIME's FAQ and the illustration of enforcement calculation for the specifics.)

But if you start using BitTorrent without knowing that, you'll leave torrents as soon as your own download completes, and your ratio will be too low. Once your total download reaches 5.0 GB, you'll be unable to join a torrent to start or resume a download unless you raise your ratio to .25 or higher. Until then, you can join a torrent only if you come into it as a seeder with a complete copy.

Almost all of us have asymmetric connections, and we can download a lot faster than we can upload. So to reach a 1.0 ratio for any given torrent, you have to stay on it for a long time after your own download completes, come back to it later, or do both, and seed to the people downloading it after you. If it is an old torrent and you're one of the last people on it, you may never reach 1.0 or even .25 on that particular torrent, so you have to make up for that by doing even better on other torrents.

In order to stay as a seeder on a torrent where you've completed the download, or to return to it as a seeder, you must have a full, unchanged copy of its files. So

• Keep a copy of the files from a torrent as files; if you burn a CD-Audio disc, for example, also keep the FLAC or SHN files for a while. If you delete your download of the source files, you can't go back as a seeder.

• If you want to alter a file in a torrent, make another copy of it under another name (extra files in the directory are no harm), and make your changes in the new copy that has a name not listed in the torrent. If you alter your download of the source files, even to improve them, you can't go back as a seeder.

Some other recommendations:

• Do not bite off more than you can chew! You see, every time you start a new download, you have to get some of it before you can share any of it, and we all download faster than we upload, so your ratio will dip. If you first arrive on DIME and immediately jump into several huge DVD downloads, and then you disconnect for any reason when you're part way through [even involuntarily: your system crashes, or your ISP disconnects, or your power goes out], and you've downloaded more than 5 GB without completing any of them, you'll be unable to re-enter any of them and complete any of the downloads. When you're new, start with smaller torrents so that you can have something complete that you can seed if you go into share ratio violation, and try to start with newer torrents, which will have more opportunities for sharing still to come. Then, after you've built up enough cushion in your ratio, you can go for those larger torrents.

  To be extremely conservative, visit your Account Details page [click your username in bright white at the upper right of any DIME page while you're logged in, or hover over Account, then over My Account and click "My details"]. There you'll see three or four important figures: your total upload so far; your total download so far; the size of your enforcement cycle (visible only to you and to the moderators); and if your ratio is below the required minimum, your next test point. To figure out how much more downloading you can be sure of doing, even under the worst possible circumstances (that you don't get to do any uploading while you're downloading and your download is interrupted just when it is about to complete),

  • If your ratio is at or above the minimum, divide your total upload so far by the required ratio (which currently is .25, so multiply your total account upload by 4), round it up to a multiple of your cycle size, and subtract your total download so far.
  • If your ratio is below the minimum, subtract your total download so far from the figure for your next test point.
• Learn how to enter a torrent with files you have. It is a basic BitTorrent skill that every user needs to know. The advice in Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide applies equally to three situations:

1. resuming a partial download without starting over,
2. returning as a seeder to a torrent that you have already downloaded,
3. seeding a torrent of your own.

• Try to join torrents when they're new. The sooner in a torrent's life that you get onto it, the more opportunity you'll have to upload to others on it.
• Share more when you can. There will be torrents where you won't have a chance to do much uploading, so you have to make up for it on other torrents. When you get an opportunity to do extra sharing, use it!

If you do get into share ratio violation, here are some things you can do:

• Return to torrents where you have a complete copy, and seed to those who are downloading now. That's why it is very important to keep your original downloads and not to delete or alter them.
• If you are downloading any torrents now, stay in them and seed after you've completed the downloads, as all users should whenever they download. Don't suck-and-duck.
• If your account is authorized to add torrents to the tracker (as most are after thirty days’ membership), you can post a torrent of your own: something from your collection, something you downloaded elsewhere, or even something you downloaded through DIME but which is no longer on the tracker (and not on the dead list either). But it has to comply with DIME's policies for torrents permitted on the tracker, and it must not violate DIME's prohibited artists list nor DIME's prohibited venues and events list, and it must not be on the tracker already (dead torrents count, so when you search DIME for it, remember to include dead torrents in your search).

There is one more alternative, though we hesitate to suggest it in these circumstances. Donors get larger enforcement cycles.

DIME is not a pay system and we do not intend it to operate that way. We appreciate donations, but still, we'd rather users contribute because they choose to help defray DIME's expenses and not because they feel squeezed. The larger enforcement cycle is intended as a bonus for donating, not as an inducement.

If you donate, you still need a ratio of .25 or higher to continue downloading past a cycle boundary, but with a larger cycle size you reach a boundary less often. So you can postpone the test by donating. However, it's only a postponement, and if you don't use the opportunity to change your ways and improve your ratio by the time you reach your new cycle boundary, you'll just end up with the same problem on a larger scale.