I know that private trackers require users to maintain a good seed ratio. How exactly does that work out mathematically? If a bunch of users have seed ratios above 1, does that mean that there are some users who will forever be below 1, and thus end up getting kicked out, thus resulting in the private tracker just… shrinking over time?
Tell that to TheGeeks. If you aren’t actively uploading - not just sitting there sharing, but actively sending data to anyone else - you’ll eventually be warned, then banned.
Back when I was trying to use their site, they had only one system: strict 1 ratio on a time limit. If you couldn’t maintain a 1+ ratio, and achieve it within a very limited amount of time, it didn’t matter what you grabbed or how long you shared back out, you got banned. At the time they had no other way to get ratio other than sharing back out - no freeleech, nothing. Which meant if you were wanting any content more than 2-3 HOURS old, you were looking at a ratio shortfall because there was no way to make up that ratio you were losing by downloading that content. There were simply too few peers after you to overcome the masses of seeders ahead of you satisfying peers.
It was absolutely brutal, which is why I now refuse to deal with any sites with that rule (1+ ratio with time limit) even if they have other ways (freeleech, etc.) to mitigate it. Like, f**k those sites. I’ve been seeding some torrents for close to 15 years, I have no problem letting shit remain resident in my client. So sites like MyAnonamouse it’s going to have to remain.
TheGeeks are asshats. I had a similar situation and got banned. They are one of the only ones I have had this happen with, but you are not alone. I have heard many others complain too.
Well…yeah. The point of seeding forever is that you are uploading. Though I am not familiar with TheGeeks specifically, I imagine that rule is in place to keep people from setting a low bandwidth limit on their client and exploiting bonus points for free downloads.
Regardless, you are talking about a sample size of one. Most reputable private trackers have a required ratio that increases with the amount of data you’ve downloaded, eventually hitting 1/1 when you have downloaded enough content to be expected to be a good seeder.