ETA when only one seed is uploading

[BasilBrush]

Proposal for a third use for the ETA value.

I know that ETA already has two uses:

1) Approx time that download takes to complete.

2) Once a download has completed it shows the upload time until say 150%

What I'm proposing is a third use.

When a person has 100% of the file and is the only seeder I think it would be a good idea to show the ETA of when the peer with the highest percentage will reach 100% and become a seeder. Obviously at this point they'll be two seeders so the ETA goes blank.

The reason for this is that I'm trying to seed multiple torrents. It would be nice to know approximately when I can switch to the next torrent. I usually wait for about 10 seeders before switching normally.

I can already see a problem. When the highest peer takes over the seeding and assuming I switch torrents he becomes the only seed which means does he display the 150% ETA or the ETA of the next highest peer. If there's a choice of ETA then display the highest value I would say.

Just a suggestion.

[DreadWingKnight]

In a significant number of cases, that metric is NOT a good one, as the person who is that close will likely leave almost immediately after completing.

People don't know to not leave a torrent unless they're sure it's self-sustaining.

[Ultima]

Beyond that, it'll be even less reliable an ETA, and you would see it jumping everywhere -- much moreso than it currently does. Availability is the only thing that's important, not when the next peer is gonna become a seed.

[BasilBrush]

I know it's a tricky one - it's a bit like estimating the length of a piece of string. Perhaps the average (or worst case) ETA of the 10 highest peers - at the moment I've approximately 30 peers all within 5% of each other approaching completion with another 150 connected to the torrent. They'll almost all become seeds within a couple of minutes of each other. Perhaps half these seeders will disappear on completion - who knows - it's difficult predicting human behaviour.

[DreadWingKnight]

Perhaps half these seeders will disappear on completion

It's more likely that ALL of them will disappear.

Honestly, this is a poorly thought out idea when you realise the mindset of downloaders.

Feed the low-end peers instead.

[BasilBrush]

They've been pretty good so far. Maybe they're keen on the subject material. Over the last couple of torrents around 100 seeders per torrent have stuck about, seeding the stragglers. uTorrent decides which peers to feed - the only control I have is to increase the "Number of upload slots per torrent" to spread the data around. I usually start with 10 or 12 and lower this to 4 or 5 near the end as the peers with the higher upload filter towards the front.