What's with the trash?

[foomonger]

Why can certain members post to topics in the trash, and yet the original poster cannot?

For example, I requested a feature:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=362254

And someone replied with a completely irrelevant reply (I'm NOT talking about sequential downloading, at all), and yet, I cannot reply there, or point out how much gibberish their answer is.

Why not?

-fm

[Ultima]

Yes, you are talking about sequential downloading. It has been rejected before. And thelittlefire posted before it got sent to the trash.

[foomonger]

If nothing is being skipped, it's not sequential downloading; it's prioritized downloading. That's what the priority system is for, isn't it?

If not, then why does the priority system exist?

-fm

ps. in another recent thread of mine that got trashed, there were definitely posts made after it was trashed, so my original question remains.

[Ultima]

Of course moderators and staff can post in trashed/locked threads.

The priority system is for making quick changes, not for a full-fledged, automated way to screw up the swarm's piece distribution. If a user wants to go through the pains of changing the priority manually, fine, but µTorrent isn't going to destroy the swarm automatically for users.

[Switeck]

I also take a dim view to any changes made to uTorrent that will reduce torrent swarm efficiency.

4th link in my signature points out just how much I hate sequential downloading too, as I've seen multiple torrents severely affected by it...despite there being only a handful of clients that do it!

[foomonger]

If *everyone* used prioritized downloading, it would help the swarm, particularly for new clients entering the swarm, looking to get the episodes in order, as humans do. Or just the first episode, to see if they want the rest, or not.

Prioritized downloading and sequential downloading are not the same thing. Anyway, the problem is not prioritized downloading, the problem is hit-and-runners leaving the swarm as soon as they have the final pieces.

I am currently in two swarms, both episodic content, and I can assure you, looking at the availability graphs, the MAJORITY of users are prioritizing their downloads. They have also been consistently maxing out my download capacity (2Mb); so everything is surely good and healthy.

-fm

[DreadWingKnight]

The bittorrent protocol is not intended for sequential downloading.

[Ultima]

Anyway, the problem is not prioritized downloading, the problem is hit-and-runners leaving the swarm as soon as they have the final pieces.

So you acknowledge this, and yet, you don't acknowledge the danger in what you're requesting? By "prioritizing" the first pieces, guess which pieces become the rarest and the last to be downloaded? Guess what happens when those hit-and-run leechers get those last pieces and leave the swarm? Got that right -- the last pieces remain rare.

So what are the non-hit-and-run seeders supposed to do then? Are they supposed to stay around just for users who ignorantly screw around with the the piece distribution automatically? No, that'd be against what the protocol was originally designed for: minimizing seeder bandwidth usage in getting the full copy of the data out to the swarm.