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The main thing that seems to be missing, in my experience, is moderation. If someone can manage to make a decentralized forum-like moderation list, then we wou

The main thing that seems to be missing, in my experience, is moderation. If someone can manage to make a decentralized forum-like moderation list, then we wouldn't have any use for centralized trackers anymore. I think it could probably be done by using public GPG keys as identities, then keeping changes in a torrent-distributed git repo where user-generated data is saved in GPG signed git commits. Then the only centralization left would be what branch/torrent people introduce to new users.

mdaniel 4y ago
> I think it could probably be done by using public GPG keys as identities, then keeping changes in a torrent-distributed git repo where user-generated data is saved in GPG signed git commits. Congratulations, you won some HN bingo squares by introducing both PKI and blockchain to the discussion :-D But, in all seriousness: moderation against what?
- soulofmischief 4y ago
  Yes, moderation is as simple as not downloading something you object to. As for identifying false metadata, that falls outside of moderation.
- thomastjeffery 4y ago
  Not against. For. For curation. For categorization and deduplication. And for trust. You can only express so much with titles and seed/leech counts. Trackers that were known to be the best - like What.CD and waffles.fm - were private and heavily moderated. You had to be invited, usually by passing a quick interview to prove you knew how to avoid common data management pitfalls like transcoding from a lossy codec. That made those trackers into carefully curated collections of high quality content. Even public trackers benefit from some moderation. Most people only want to be browsing porn intentionally, so having a category for it let's you browse for movies or whatever. It's all about sorting the noise into signal. It's also helpful to have some commentary on a torrent. Maybe the subtitles are forced. Maybe the software has a virus or includes adware, but ended up getting a critical mass of seeds/leeches anyway. Maybe there is some similar content worth talking about. Have you ever used a public decentralized platform that wasn't full of trolls? I haven't.
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 4y ago
>> then we wouldn't have any use for centralized trackers anymore. So we finally invented emule? Centralized servers that provide selection, moderation, quality control, information, imdb score etc, is exactly why bittorrent protocol won against all the decentralised protocols.
- thomastjeffery 4y ago
  I'm not familiar with emule, but as far as I can tell, its credit system is only based on seeding or uploading new content. That can be useful, but it isn't the moderation I was thinking of. See my reply to the sibling comment.
  - EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 4y ago
    I dont remember of any credit system in emule, people upload and share just out of generosity. I guess it also contributed to bittorrent success - uploaders probably get some share of tracker site ad revenue.

mdaniel 4y ago

> I think it could probably be done by using public GPG keys as identities, then keeping changes in a torrent-distributed git repo where user-generated data is saved in GPG signed git commits. Congratulations, you won some HN bingo squares by introducing both PKI and blockchain to the discussion :-D But, in all seriousness: moderation against what?

soulofmischief 4y ago
Yes, moderation is as simple as not downloading something you object to. As for identifying false metadata, that falls outside of moderation.
thomastjeffery 4y ago
Not against. For. For curation. For categorization and deduplication. And for trust. You can only express so much with titles and seed/leech counts. Trackers that were known to be the best - like What.CD and waffles.fm - were private and heavily moderated. You had to be invited, usually by passing a quick interview to prove you knew how to avoid common data management pitfalls like transcoding from a lossy codec. That made those trackers into carefully curated collections of high quality content. Even public trackers benefit from some moderation. Most people only want to be browsing porn intentionally, so having a category for it let's you browse for movies or whatever. It's all about sorting the noise into signal. It's also helpful to have some commentary on a torrent. Maybe the subtitles are forced. Maybe the software has a virus or includes adware, but ended up getting a critical mass of seeds/leeches anyway. Maybe there is some similar content worth talking about. Have you ever used a public decentralized platform that wasn't full of trolls? I haven't.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 4y ago

>> then we wouldn't have any use for centralized trackers anymore. So we finally invented emule? Centralized servers that provide selection, moderation, quality control, information, imdb score etc, is exactly why bittorrent protocol won against all the decentralised protocols.

thomastjeffery 4y ago
I'm not familiar with emule, but as far as I can tell, its credit system is only based on seeding or uploading new content. That can be useful, but it isn't the moderation I was thinking of. See my reply to the sibling comment.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 4y ago
  I dont remember of any credit system in emule, people upload and share just out of generosity. I guess it also contributed to bittorrent success - uploaders probably get some share of tracker site ad revenue.