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The Ten Commandments for New Members
First, welcome to BitMeTV.org! You have been invited to become a member of a premier Internet community, and now have access to one of the largest collections of both current and hard-to-find content anywhere. But be aware: this is definitely a community where membership is a privilege, not a right, and if you take a couple of wrong turns, you may well find yourself on a path to having your account disabled. And while it may sound harsh, it is still true: at BitMeTV, there are no second chances. Once you're out, you're out!
Over and over, new users here hit the same brick walls, misconstrue the same misunderstandings, head down the same blind alleys, and generally get into one of just a few kinds of trouble very quickly. It's easy to be driven insane by the crazy fast download speeds of the massively seeded torrents here! But this very feature of BitMeTV demands more strategic thinking than sites with fewer seeds, and the speeds can get you in trouble fast ... as in hours, not days.
The information to save you from these approaches is definitely here - in the FAQs and the Rules (which, by the way, you DID specifically agree to and state that you had read as part of the registration process). Still, there is a LOT of information there, and a first read often will leave you unsure of which are the subtle points, and which are the really critical points. Also, the forums are chock full of questions, techniques, tutorials, and scads of great information - but the forums are also a confusing and constantly evolving place, and new users can just be overwhelmed.
So, here, I've come up with the TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR NEW USERS; these are things that, had I known them when I started, would have saved me a few blind alleys and brick walls myself. I hope they help you avoid some of the "classic" mistakes, too.
If you're a "bottom line" kind of person, here's the list straight up; in the second section, I'll discuss each of these in more detail, along with helpful links and pointers to more detailed information.
The Commandments
I: Thou Shalt Not Download Large Torrents
II: Thou Shalt Beware of Season/Series Packs
III: Thou Shalt Understand Your Ratio
IV: Thou Shalt Read the FAQs and the Rules
V: Thou Shalt Search The Forums
VI: Thou Shalt Know And Love Your Client (and disable DHT)
VII: Thou Shalt Beware of Hot Torrents
VIII: Thou Shalt Beware (But Not Fear) The Warning
IX: Thou Shalt Know When To Use IRC
X: Thou Shalt Respect The Staff
I: Thou Shalt Not Download Large Torrents
Boy, if there is one rule that can save you from trouble, this is it. If there was just one commandment, this would be it. The reasons are many. First, so long as you have less than 2GB total downloaded, the ratio requirements simply do not apply. This buffer can be used to your great advantage, as long as you don't blow it by going crazy with your downloads. The average high-quality version of a single 30-minute show is about 175MB; a one-hour show goes for about 350MB. You can get a feel for what works around here, as well as making sure your client is happy and connectable, while downloading 3 or 4 of these smaller torrents, all without worrying one bit about your ratio. But all it takes is ONE season pack, and suddenly you have 4GB downloaded, a 0.1 ratio, and a clock running to get your ratio up or face warnings, muppetization, and banning. Once you go over 2GB total download, you are announcing that you are ready to play outside of the sandbox, so don't do it just because you couldn't resist grabbing the entire Love Boat series. Be patient, and all that is at BitMeTV will be yours. Be impatient, and you'll wind up a muppet -- or worse.
Corollary to Commandment 1 wrote:
Beware the 2GB barrier! Read the above section carefully - as long as you're below 2GB, you are free from ratio worries. Use this to your advantage, and don't give up that protection lightly.
II: Thou Shalt Beware of Season/Series Packs
I know, you actually do love The Love Boat. Or Knightrider. Or X-Files. Or any of the THOUSANDS of other torrents here, many of which are huge. And you see ALL THOSE LEECHES - of course it's safe and you'll get lots of upload, right? WRONG! In fact, this is such a huge mistake, made so often, it is nearly as important as Commandment 1! You see, one of the techniques a lot of people use to build credit here is to just download part of a large torrent (as little as one show at a time). The problem is, these “partial” seeders appear as leeches, but they're not actually leeching anything. In general, if you see any torrent that's more than a day or two old with double-digit leeches, it's almost certainly this "partial seeding" that is happening. Don't get sucked into this trap: you'll download too much data, too soon (again, see Commandment #1), and you won't be able to seed back hardly anything. So, just stay away from these until you're more comfortable with the site, and have some ratio built up. When you're ready to tackle these, get informed and start cautiously:
III: Thou Shalt Understand Your Ratio
That little number in the upper left-hand corner as you browse BitMeTV is your ratio. It is the only one that counts. Watch it. Live it. Love it. The ratios you see anywhere else - in your client, in your list of active torrents in your profile, anywhere - don't mean squat to your status. Every time you stop and start a torrent, things get reset in various places. Your client may count things differently. Or you may be seeding outside of BitMeTV (you DID turn off DHT in your client, right? See Commandment VI!). Don't just let your client run along unsupervised - you need to log on to the BitMeTV website regularly to monitor your ratio, and never is this more critical than when you're a new user. For more info, see:
IV: Thou Shalt Read the FAQs and the Rules
OK, so you already agreed that you had read them when you signed up. When you show up in the forums asking questions that are covered once, twice, THRICE in the FAQs, it annoys the hell out of the staff, and they'll slap you with a ruler and point you right back at the FAQs and/or the Rules. If you want to be part of the community, you need to realize it will take some effort on your part, and reading the FAQs more than once - that is, REALLY reading them - will go a long, long way to making your life here fun and easy. The buttons are right there, at the top of every screen. You don't have to memorize them, but for heaven's sake, at least get an idea of what is covered, so when the issues comes up later, you'll have an idea of where to start. Remember, you can also use your browser to search the FAQs, too! So, go do it now, just for fun. Skim them if you want, but just take a quick look. I'll wait for you:
Rules: BitMeTV Rules
V: Thou Shalt Search The Forums
I know, you think you're special. I'm sure your significant other thinks so. But you know, when you're a new user at BitMeTV, nothing you run into, nothing you do, nothing you try out, isn't something that hundreds, or even thousands of folks haven't already done before. And asked about in the Forums. They are a tremendous resource, so look through them. Search on interesting keywords. Try more than once, because it's a bit of an art form. Or just take a look at current threads and read through some, even ones with odd sounding titles (some of the best threads have the strangest titles!). If suddenly something is acting differently, you can bet dollars-to-donuts that people have already asked about it in the Forums, and when you are post #13 in two days asking "What happened to the Requests section?" or "Why can't I see if I'm connectable any more?", you will (again) annoy the hell out of the staff, who will slap you and say "SEARCH THE FORUMS!" So, save yourself AND the staff some time, and use the "Search" feature - it's in the link right down at the bottom of every forum screen.
VI: Thou Shalt Know And Love Your Client (and disable DHT)
There are banned clients - use these, and you'll get warned and/or banned. There are unsupported clients - use these at your own risk. And there are approved clients. As this is a private tracker, you will save yourself tons of time and hassles if you just use an approved client. Check the version carefully, especially on clients with fast-moving versions or lots of beta releases. The staff here is very particular, but when they give a client a blessing you can count on it working effectively and reliably. Also, note that if your client supports DHT (a distributed system to work around trackers), you need to disable it. First, using it may get you warned/banned, but most important is that if you have it running, non-BitMeTV clients will be able to get upload from you - but you will not get credit for it in your ratio! Worse, if you use some clients (e.g., Azureus), others can download your torrent files and get your passkey, which is a bad thing. Want to know more about passkeys? Hey, Search the FAQ and Search the Forum, as this is one of those important (but more subtle) areas you will eventually need to understand. In the meantime, here's some links to help you out.
VII: Thou Shalt Beware of Hot Torrents
"Zero-Day" releases are the hottest things going - lots of downloaders, lots of uploaders. They CAN be a great way to build ratio. But you need to be careful...after only a few hours (in some cases) they can go stale and not allow much upload. They can also get "nuked" (deleted) for some problem or another, and then all your download is for naught. So, tread carefully. One thing you might do is check the number of hours it's been out - if it's 0, 1 or maybe 2 or 3 hours old, you're probably good to go and still get lots of upload out of it. Another thing to do is to use the torrents browse feature to look at the shows historically, and see about how many times they get snatched, and compare that to the current count of snatches and how many leeches are busy downloading it. If the historical number of snatches is much higher than the current snatches (plus leeches) the odds are in your favor. Be patient (remember Commandment 1), and don't gamble too much, too soon. You need to get a feeling for how your particular connection and setup seeds back these popular torrents, and that only comes from cautious experience!
Corollary to Commandment 7 wrote:
Beware the RSS Feed! RSS Feeds can be tricky, and you can wind up downloading unexpected torrents. Also, "hot" torrents can be risky in and of themselves, as you've read above. So, don't jump into RSS lightly or without some ratio buffer to "learn" with.
VIII: Thou Shalt Beware (But Not Fear) The Warning
I know, that sounds contradictory, but it's true. You should beware the warning:
Rules: Warnings - These are not good things to have.
But in the end, a warning is just that, a warning...you haven't been banned, but have been alerted to something that really needs your attention, either now (low ratio warning, etc.) or in the future (don't spam the forums, etc.). Warnings expire, though a history of many warnings can get you banned. But they are not the end of the world. Read this to understand more, and what to do (and NOT to do) if you get warned:
IX: Thou Shalt Know When To Use IRC
The staff manning the IRC help channel (irc.bitmetv.org #bitmetv.help) are there waiting to help and assist you. If you can't access the site, or if you fear your passkey has been compromised, or you're aware of cheating or suspect behavior, go there and ask the staff for advice/assistance. It is a public channel, so don't blurt out private info, but it's a great starting place. Here's some info on the accepted etiquette:
X: Thou Shalt Respect The Staff
You know how in shows where there's an actor that's really important to the show, but isn't quite there with the "star" for top billing? You know how they put them last in the credits, like "Joe Smith as Doctor Mysterious"? That's what I'm doing here. While I still think the First Commandment belongs first, please take the fact this commandment is last as a clear sign that it's darned important: don't disrespect the staff. They are volunteers, not paid folks. They do this out of respect for the community, putting in many hours checking the forums, fixing problems, checking torrent issues, manning the IRC, and generally making this just an extremely well-run and valuable community. Treat them accordingly. Don't send them PM's (personal messages), don't argue, don't complain. Take time to understand and research an issue, and then put some thought and care into an appropriate message. People have been warned for being rude. People have been just plain banned for causing problems. And with all the folks waiting to get into BitMeTV, there are no second chances, so again, please treat the staff with respect, and you'll receive the same in return.
Epilogue
Certainly, not everything you need to know is here. It's out there, in the FAQ's, in the Rules, and in the Forums. But if you've made it this far, and you follow these guidelines while you're new, you will have a most excellent chance of getting into the swing of things here smoothly, with few or no problems, and become one of the almost 25,000 happy users of one of the best private trackers for television available!
I'm equally sure that many members who have read this will have their own thoughts on important commandments, and I welcome and encourage them to add their thoughts to this thread! Mine is but one perspective, and the great thing about this community is that they will share their collective knowledge with you on most any issue, if you invest some effort in learning on your own, and then but ask with politeness and respect.
thanks
