February 04, 2009 by sharky
The premise behind a ‘no ratio’ or ‘ratio free’ tracker is to promote a higher level of voluntary seeding and an increased number of long-term seeds, without enforcing a mandatory minimum upload data requirement. Simply put, "no ratio" is just that: members are not obligated to seed to the golden rule of a 1:1 requirement; neither globally nor on a per-torrent basis. If all this sounds too good to be true, then what’s the catch? Won’t users just hit & run the torrents? Not if you want to keep the account, you won’t. The trackers listed below are no-ratio sites, along with the benefits and drawbacks to the ratio-free torrent system.
For those unfamiliar with ratio free trackers, this does not give users the right to treat torrents as they would for Mininova or other public trackers, and H&Rs aren’t tolerated. There are still tracker rules to abide by, and always a fixed duration of time in which you’ll need to seed the torrents, usually between 36 and 72 hours (although not contiguously).
Personally, I don’t mind the ratio system in which most private trackers employ. Take TorrentLeech, for example: Members only need to seed a torrent to a 0.6 ratio, and anything over 0.4 is still acceptable. I can load up a popular new movie torrent into my seedbox, and get to 2:1 quite easily within an hour. Then, I just HTTP or FTP the finished files back to my home PC and remove the torrent, without having to leave it there for 3 days - thus freeing up my seedbox for more torrents.
The Benefits of Ratio Free Trackers (To You):
As a user, a ratio-free system allows for the ability to stay in the good graces of your private tracker, in the event:
- • Perhaps your ISP moderately throttles BitTorrent/P2P traffic, either continuously or during certain specific hours of the day. These seed-hours will still count.
- • You can seed torrents on a home PC with a slow upload connection, without worrying about leaving it there for weeks to finally get to a 1:1 ratio.
- • For ISPs that have bandwidth caps, you’ll be using much more of your ‘monthly GB cap’ for downloading, instead of wasting precious UL bandwidth to match what you’ve snatched. Taking this a step further, you can even ‘cap’ your upload speed in the BT client.
- • Ratio-free trackers are fabulous for non-seedbox torrenting - just load ‘em up in your home uTorrent and seed ‘em for "x" amount of time. More likely than not, you’ll have a small amount of upload traffic on these torrents, as many of the other seeders have seedboxes which provide premium bandwidth to other (new) leechers.
- • If you have a seedbox, you’ll make the minimum seed time contiguously (for example, if the rule requires to seed for 48 hours, you’ll actually do it in 48 hours - in which you’ll be able to turn off your home computer and the torrent will continue to seed).
- • Ratio-free = permanent freeleech on everything! Great for large torrents and packs.
The Drawbacks to Ratio Free Trackers:
The flipside to the ‘no ratio’ torrent system include the following:
- • Economy Seedbox Woes: If you have minimal ‘active torrent’ limitations on a shared or preconfigured seedbox account (say, with a 5 or 6 torrent limit), you likely won’t be able to delete the torrent until the seeding time has been reached, regardless of how much data you’ve uploaded on the torrent. So you’re locked in.
- • No Torrent Pre-seeding: If you have a seedbox (or even if you don’t), you won’t be able to effectively pre-seed (cross-seed) newer 0day torrents to other trackers, since you’ll still need to seed it for a specific amount of time (and thus be unable to change the tracker URL & passkey over to a different tracker until the time limit has been met). With trackers on a ratio-system, I’m able to attain 1:1 very quickly, and then proceed to switch the torrent over to a different tracker - something of which would be taboo on a ratio free site.
- • Though not always the case, torrents found on ratio free trackers are often slower (due to smaller swarms, or for a high percentage of home seeders). This can be particularly accurate for older torrents with just 1 or 2 seeders.
- • Home PC: You may find you’ll have to leave your computer running (seeding) for longer periods of time. Many no-ratio trackers will enforce that the minimum seed-time per torrent has to be completed within a week’s time, or even less.
FtN
FtN is the original pioneer behind the notion of creating the no ratio system for its members. In the beginning, members were required to seed for 72 hours; this was then trimmed down to 48 hours; and later lowered to 36 hours. According to current FtN rules, there is now no minimum seed time whatsoever, making it the only tracker to work entirely on the honor-system, with no ratio or seed time. Because of the calibre of what FtN has to offer, it certainly works. Downloading rules: "Seed every torrent back to 1:1 ratio or at least try to. You are not forced to seed the torrent 1:1, but you’re expected to seed the torrent for as long as possible."
PtN
PtN has always been a no-ratio tracker, definitely one of its many selling points. The user statistics are worked out as total traffic (up and down are counted as one, which come to play in the User Classes). Members receive ‘gold’ (site currency) for seeding, which encourages longer torrent life and great DL speeds. Seeding rules: Members must seed each torrent for 72 hours (within a week).
bR
bR is a newcomer to the torrent scene, launching just 2 months ago. With a small user base, bR is limited to just 2,000 good members (and has nowhere near this, at last check). Being ratio-free, bR is also considered a ‘general’ tracker with categories for Appz, Movies (DVD/HD/XviD), Packs, TV and XXX.
Libble.com
Libble has recently switched over to Gazelle, and has even made the tracker ratio-free (well, sort of). Libble employs a unique but sophisticated "share rank" system, in which users need to keep their share rank over -20, or the banhammer comes down. Share rank points can be earned (seeding, snatches, uploading) and taken away (for H&Rs and bad ratio). Global DL/UL ratio is still counted and used in their share rank system, but it is not a main characteristic when calculating overall site participation.
DreamZonePT.com
Just launched, DreamZonePT is apparently a ratio free tracker, but their rules & FAQ do not outline this whatsoever. Moreover, the user-specific ratio system that should have been removed still exists. The only clue that DZPT is no-ratio is, "please do your best to seed everything to at least 1.1." UPDATE: To confirm, not a ratio-free tracker; however, everything on the site is currently freeleech.
TVTorrents.com
While TVTorrents.com expects users to attain and keep a global ratio of 1.0, there’s no specific ratio requirements on a per-torrent basis. Thus, if you have an account credit of 100 GB (GCreds), it would seem that you’ll be safe to H&R everything and anything (up to 100 GB of DL), as long as you don’t go into minus credits globally. There’s no mention of hit & runs in the rules or FAQ. Happy H&R’ing! …but first buffer that account.
GFT
Not only does GFT offer the benefits of a no ratio tracker, it also has some of the best pretimes in all of BitTorrent. They just have but one basic rule which says, "Remember, GFT has no ratio! Grab what you like and seed for 48 hours!"
Demonoid
Demonoid is often overlooked as a no ratio tracker, but it truly is. Here’s what we found in the FAQ about low ratios:
Q: My ratio is getting too low, am I going to be banned?
A: The ratio system is purely statistical and somewhat innacurate for the ones with shared or dynamic ips. Besides what other users may think of you for not sharing, there is no punishment for having a low ratio.
Filesharefreak Says: The only way you can get banned from Demonoid is to never log in again, and the account will be automatically pruned due to inactivity. Hit ‘n run all you want on both the internal and external torrents: we don’t care; and apparently they don’t either.
FTM
FTM/ETN is a small music tracker, with a tight group of trance & electronic music lovers sharing some obscure (and mainstream) stuff. FTM is ratio free, of course!
CoExist
CoExist (or CE) another newer ratio-free music tracker - currently running on Gazelle (but this should change soon with CoExist v2). As with all "no ratio" trackers, everything is freeleech! Currently, CE offers a seedbonus system, called "Music Notes" - although since CE has always been considered ‘in beta’, there’s no word how/if the team will switch this to the new TBDev code.
SceneRtorrents.com
As FSF previously reported on January 9th 2009, SceneRtorrents had a paltry 11 torrents. In just four short weeks, sRt has boosted their count to 990 active torrents - quite the astonishig improvement. Pretimes aren’t the best, but not horrible either. Being ratio-free is gonna help you, since there are very few leechers on the torrents, due to sRt being a very new tracker. Seeding rules: "Everything on this site is FREE to download, all we ask is that you seed back for 48 hours minimum. We ask that you seed back each torrent for a minimum of 8 hours after the torrent has completed, then continue seeding until you reach the 48 hour limit".
iTS
Not much we can tell you about iTS (if you’re a member of TR, read a review of iTS here). Ratio free with an amazing community, only the best of the best get in. ‘Nuff said. Seeding rules: 72 hours per torrent.
iFi
Normally when a tracker has more users than torrents, it creates a boatload of leechers for new additions. But if the tracker has a limit of only 600 members, well that spells trouble… fortunately iFi is also ratio free. One member of TPS said, "I’m a member here but I barely use it. There’s not too much content. :S". However, there may a spinoff site…
PreToMe
PreToMe is ratio free, but conditionally. You’ll need to seed each torrent for 60 hours or to a 0.75 ratio (whichever comes first), which is on-par with other ‘no ratio’ trackers. However, PTM’s current rules require for continuous seeding for a minimum of six hours straight on a new torrent (or 0.75 ratio) - if not, a H&R will be recorded on the account. So, if you’re torrenting from home (uTorrent, Vuze, Transmission) and download a new torrent, you’ll get a Hit&Run if you turn off your computer before 6 hours (continuous time) has elapsed (IF you haven’t reached 0.75 on it). However, the H&R will disappear as soon as the required conditions are met. Fortunately, PreToMe gives users an entire month to get to the "60 hours or 0.75" threshold (per torrent). You may wake up to see H&Rs on your account, and watch them disappear the next time you login. Sounds confusing? Indeed it is. Just check out the addled user feedback in PreToMe’s Forums > Support thread.
SeedIt.org
Seedit.org is a Swedish/English site with roots all the way back to 2005. An anonymous source says, "Apparently they never got enough members back then, so it died and was forgotten. In the beginning of the last summer some people took on the old project, and the site is alive once again".
Seedit has been revamped, and current rules stipulate, "Hit ‘n’ run is not allowed, even though we dont use the traditional ratio system, you have to seed everything you download properly. At least 36 hours or 1:1 ratio within a week."
FatalTracker
To quote, "Fataltracker is an older site, small, but very community orientated. Just ask you seed for at least 72 hours! Under new ownership for the last little while so re-building FT to what it once was! We have been online in some way shape or form for getting close to 7yrs! What we offer: The regular scene torrents, and some older harder to find stuff, as well as some stuff you will not find anywhere…" — Anyways, we couldn’t sign up, so it must be uber-l33t.
Why the f*ck is FT in this list?! In case someone says, "Hey, FSF you missed FatalTracker!".
iPWN (deceased)
Worth mentioning is iPWN, (or filescene.ro) - an innovative music tracker that attempted to excel with a no-ratio system for music lovers. The design was impeccable, very pleasing to the eye - but they just couldn’t get enough torrents or members. Either that, or constant "donation" nagging killed it. Word on the street is: don’t use the ".ro" domain if you want a tracker to be successful.
Public Trackers: ThePirateBay, Mininova, IsoHunt:
The seeding and ratio rules on public trackers are simple: nonexistent. Go nuts, freak!
— Certainly there are more "no ratio" trackers than what’s listed above. Feel free to add ‘em in a comment below, and I’ll update the post!
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