Peer Pressure

I have been a staunch fan of The Pirate Bay. There are many reasons for that. One of the main ones is that it is free - in every sense of the word. I am free to do as I please with the torrents. There is no fear of being kicked out of any community if my ratio doesn't work out right.

As is evident, I used to remove all my torrents immediately once the download completed. Like a friend of mine put it, I had a chronic case of "Hit-and-Run". In the new web structure, one has to add content to the web since "you are the source". It just struck me, that if I don't add content, at least I shouldn't just Leech off others.

Many torrent sites have rules which make it mandatory for you to maintain a ratio of at least .3 to qualify you for membership. Of course it makes sure that all torrents are properly seeded, but at the same time it adds what I call "peer pressure". Thats the pressure to maintain your ratio above the cut-off, and its especially bad when you are competing against super-seeders. Your download speeds are way high but the uploads aren't in much demand as people would prefer the faster seeds, leaving you with a dirty Ratio.

Piratebay (et al), on the other hand, are more gracious. So,as a service to pirates and to other fellow peers (cyborgs etc are welcome), I hereby pledge to seed a majority of my torrents to a ratio of 2!