New Tracker now Online

[U2Lynne]

I just switched trackers for the site. This tracker will allow us to keep track of userstats. It's not a perfect system, but it will get us up and going for now until I can get a passkey type system worked out. For now, here's a FAQ about the new tracker:

I've been uploading/downloading for a while now and my stats aren't changing.
In order for the stats to update, you need to hit the Stop button on your client. Closing the bittorrent client without stopping the torrent first may cause the stats to not update, so please hit the Stop button before closing your bittorrent client.

Note: For BitTornado users, you must hit Cancel, not Pause, in order for the stats to update.

I don't see my name on the list of seeders/leechers.
If you aren't logged in, then only your IP address will be shown.

I see myself twice on the list of seeders/leechers.
Don't worry about this, it should go away within 30 minutes when the tracker updates itself.

My computer crashed and so my stats didn't update. What can I do about this?
Please send a PM to U2Lynne about this and she can update your stats.

What is a share ratio and where can I see mine?
A share ratio is the amount of data you've uploaded divided by the amount of data you've downloaded. Having a share ratio over 1.0 is a good thing since it means you've shared as much as you've downloaded.

Your share ratio is listed in three different places. It's in the upper right corner underneath your name. It's in your profile page. And, when you post, it shows up underneath your username.

[gsmyth79]

Do we need to redownload torent files and restart them?

[diggrd]

Can you make it optional to see them? Just like post counts they mean nothing to me and I'd prefer not to see them if possible. You are making me sorry that I made another generous donation recently. :mad:

[U2Lynne]

Yeah, I'll work on making it optional next. Right now, I've got a couple problems with it.

You don't need to redownload torrents. The old tracker is still up and running.

[hgrunwell]

Looking like a million bucks! :clap:

[Ted]

Looks great. Good job on it so far.

[willard]

I don't see my name on the list of seeders/leechers.
If you aren't logged in, then only your IP address will be shown.



Even if I'm logged in, my name doesn't show (which is okay by me :)). But in case the same thing happens to someone else who does want their name shown, it might be because you're behind a proxy/anonymizer for http.
I guess you have to be logged in with the same address as the bittorrent client.

Why the extra stats? I guess honor amongst thieves doesn't really work, eh :)
I'll bet shame and scorn doesn't either.

[U2Lynne]

We have the extra stats kinda as a side benifit to moving to the new tracker. I needed a tracker that used the mysql database. The first one doesn't, and as a result, I need to keep the attachments in the database intead of in the filesystem. Once we get all the torrents off the old tracker, I can move the attachments to the filesystem and then the site should run much smoother. Our database is 500MB and over 300MB of it are attachments.

[pyro]

is this the same tracker as over on digitalpanic?

[U2Lynne]

It's the same tracker that is over on bootcity.org . Hal, one of the Admins over there, has been helping me to integrate it here. He's been a big help today when I've seen a few problems.

[Pot Head]

Howdie.......just wanted to say this new tracker thing is a grate idea. Its gonna make this site better than it already is. One thing though is my stats havent started updating and Ive restarted everything a few times and still nothing. Just wondered what I might be able to do on my end to get it working.


Doug

[U2Lynne]

Doug, what BT client are you using?

[ry420an]

Great to see a tracker, I'm guessing people will stay onto torrents longer now which is a very good thing.

but, this seems like deja vu to everydayjones, that tracker sucked and had tons of bitching because of it, nobody ever got that you had to exit the torrent to get your stats updated. I hope this is better

[Pot Head]

oops..........bit tornado
sorry

[U2Lynne]

With Bit Tornado, you need to hit Cancel, not Pause to get the stats to update. That is according to one of my Mods. The other said that didn't work for him. So, I need to get version numbers from them to figure this out.

Yes, this is like EDJ because it is a similar code. However, I've got someone who has been running this code successfully for several months helping out - Hal at bootcity.org. We are both commited to getting this code to work and have successful bt sites.

[bolamix]

I like the ratio system, I think it gives people a push in the right direction, ie: share more :D I'm using BitComet 0.58, not sure how it'll work out... but I'm confident it will ;) Great job so far Lynne :clap:

[diggrd]

Lynne thanks for considering the optional option, also for making it clear that this was a side benefit to switching trackers and that the main goal was to straighten out the attachment issue by using the filesystem instead of the db.

[Powderfinger]

Lynne,

Does the new tracker have anything to do with the site loading so slow the last 24 hours?

Coincidence?

:hmm:

[U2Lynne]

Well, a lot of this server load *does* have to do with an increase in traffic. For instance, I think we normally get about 150 new registrations a day, today we have almost 600 and that is with server problems. For the last week, we've been getting around 2700-2800 unique visitors a day, today, the last time I looked it was at almost 4300 (again, a number that was made *with* all the server problems we've had today).

The new tracker *does* access the database, while the other did not. So, I can't rule out an increase in server activity because of the new tracker. However, things were fine here yesterday until we got those Live8 torrents. So, part of me thinks that Live8, and the increase of traffic it generated, has a very large part to play in the problems we are currently having.

And, that is why I'm just watching things right now and not quickly grabbing another Dual Xeon for the site. :D I'm hoping this will blow over (and I'm really not wanting to shell out the bucks for a bigger server).

[willard]

re: reducing the size of the db by moving the attachments to the filesystem

this is gotta help but even at half a gig, doesn't it all fit in memory anyway (assuming the server's got the "standard" min of 1 gig)? Or is the bottleneck the number of concurrent processes?

If you need a mysql test box, I've got it running here.

re: client update of stats.

using rtorrent (0.2.4) which can manually update to the tracker. neither manually updating nor using "cancel" nor using "pause" works. I'm sure a fix for rtorrent is not a high priority but just so you know. i'm upgrading to 0.2.6 within the next couple of days and if things change, i'll drop a note.

[Powderfinger]

Thanks Lynne...you rock!!

If Live 8 shit is clogging up the place...well... :cool:

[Pot Head]

Yeah I was wondering why things were bogged down, my stats havent moved yet either. Im using bit tornado-0.3.10, hopefully kinks get worked out. I dont know what to do on my end to fix it.

[bolamix]

I'm not sure whether's it's tracker-related, but the "New posts" link at the top of the start page has disappeared... kinda makes it harder to browse the site for me. I'm sure it'll be fixed in time ;)

Edit: my ratio hasn't budged either, and I've seeded the live8 pink floyd gig 3.5 times over. Just thought I'd mention it ^^ My BT client reported an error with mysql, FWIW.

[lostboy]

re: stats not showing

My stats haven't budged either. Using latest Azureus version 2.3.0.4 - closed client and reopened. Reopened a Dark New Day show last night, upped over 200 MB.

[hgrunwell]

lostboy,

You might be behing a proxy (transpartent to you) and the tracker is not picking up your proper ip address. Try loggin out and in the site a few times.

[toys]

On the recent Zeppelin torrent I seeded til I had a 5.0 or more share ratio, then hit "finish" and nothing happened to my stats. On the first Floyd Live8 video I sat there at 11.2% sharing with all the people hopping on til I had over a 12.0 share ratio before I gave up and hit pause then cancel. Nothing happened to my stats. Logged out of the site a couple of times and nothing happened to my stats. I think I'm just going to be at 0.0 forever.

Using Shadow's bit torrent 5.8.7 - old but it works just fine for me so I've never had a reason to use a different one.

[hgrunwell]

Shadow is a known faulty client along with:

• BitTorrent++
• Nova Torrent
• TorrentStorm

And in many cases the original BitTorrent client has been found to be faulty.

Try another client and see what happens. Lynne can credit you though for the time being. :)

[mjjareo]

re: stats not showing

My stats haven't budged either. Using latest Azureus version 2.3.0.4 - closed client and reopened. Reopened a Dark New Day show last night, upped over 200 MB.

I just restarted Azureus 2.3.0.4 and uploads were recorded correctly for a new torrent but not for older ones. The new tracker might only be recording stats for torrents created since it was installed. The last time I looked at torrents created before that they didn't show user ids only ips. Could that be what's happening.

[hgrunwell]

I just restarted Azureus 2.3.0.4 and uploads were recorded correctly for a new torrent but not for older ones. The new tracker might only be recording stats for torrents created since it was installed. The last time I looked at torrents created before that they didn't show user ids only ips. Could that be what's happening.

Only new torrents are on the new tracker and can only be tracked.

[U2Lynne]

Hal is correct. We are currently running two trackers - the old one that doesn't keep track of stats and the new one which does. The torrents on the new tracker are listed on the bottom of the forums page. They also show up a bit differently in the thread.

I just switched databases for the site. I think things are running much better now. When things calm down a bit, I'll start a thread where people can list the shows they uploaded/download from and I'll fix the stats.

[BadLT]

ok.... I'm slightly retarded so I just want to make sure i understand.

Torrents from like... 2 days ago are not tracked with the new tracker and thus don't affect your (my) stats on this site, but if I grab a torrent posted today and beyond - the stats will be updated on this site?

I think I understand.

I'm using ABC - does that affect my stats on this new tracker at all... I didn't see anyone with ABC posting on this thread.

also - the stats on the Live8 PF DVD show me as having no d/l and u/l speed and the % completed is off a little bit... should I check again in like an hour?

[teamhood]

Lynne: question:

Often when I seed shows I will log onto my computer from home and seed then copy the files over to another computer at my parents house since they don't have any need for high speed... will the track be able to update my stats coming from 2 different IP address and computers?
Thank you
-Harry

[hgrunwell]

ok.... I'm slightly retarded so I just want to make sure i understand.

Torrents from like... 2 days ago are not tracked with the new tracker and thus don't affect your (my) stats on this site, but if I grab a torrent posted today and beyond - the stats will be updated on this site?

I think I understand.

I'm using ABC - does that affect my stats on this new tracker at all... I didn't see anyone with ABC posting on this thread.

also - the stats on the Live8 PF DVD show me as having no d/l and u/l speed and the % completed is off a little bit... should I check again in like an hour?

Try stop / starting your bt client to update your stats.

Also, any torrents submitted after yesterday I believe are tracked on the new tracker.

[hgrunwell]

Lynne: question:

Often when I seed shows I will log onto my computer from home and seed then copy the files over to another computer at my parents house since they don't have any need for high speed... will the track be able to update my stats coming from 2 different IP address and computers?
Thank you
-Harry

You are not able to use two different clients in this version of the tracker software but that is a planned feature I have no doubt Lynne is thinking about. In a case such as that you can either create two identities and ask that the stats be merged into one on occassion or just ask for a credit to the one account as needed. Hope that helps.

[BadLT]

yeah - i download/upload at work too... but only have one login... fact is... if i had more connections to play with I'd be using all of them.

[U2Lynne]

I think I'm going to hire Hal since he's doing such a good job answering all the questions. Of course, that might have something to do with this tracker being the same one he is using on his site, bootcity. ;)

Hal is correct in what he has said so far. Harry, I know you do that (and quite a few of you DVD authors do so), so just send me a PM with the info and I can correct it. Same thing with you, BadLT. We will be working to get this new tracker/stats things running smoothly.

[ChrisJ]

Shadow is a known faulty client along with:

• BitTorrent++
• Nova Torrent
• TorrentStorm

And in many cases the original BitTorrent client has been found to be faulty.

Try another client and see what happens. Lynne can credit you though for the time being. :)

For what it's worth, I use BitTornado 0.3.10. I have tried today to u/l on my TAB DVD torrent from last week, and didn't get any stats update, everything stayed at 0. But I joined the Floyd Live8 swarm for just a little bit and the stats updated as soon as I closed out the client and came back to the site. Seems to me that at least version 0.3.10 is working fine. While I'm sure it is different code, I have also u/l and d/l nearly 1/2 a TB at EZT/DIME without ever having issued with the stats.

So will the older torrents eventually begin to show up in our stats? I try to keep everything I seed on the HD plus try to help stranded swarms whenever I can...

Thanks for this big time undertaking, I think it can only improve an already excellent site. And special thanks to Hal who seems to be really helping out Lynne and the rest of the gang here. :clap:

ChrisJ

[hgrunwell]

BitTornado is also faulty, sorry. Dime uses what is called passkey which I know Lynne is working on which will fix all those issues. It's not perfect but I am sure she will not begin enforcing stats until a system like that is in place as long as you are not a total leeching whore. :lol:

Lynne, I hope I can help here during your transition to this new tracker. I have been using it for six months and know it pretty well. As I always say, each site serves a purpose and creates a community together. Without each other we are nothing and by helping is my way of showing this.

[ChrisJ]

BitTornado is also faulty, sorry.

OK...but how is it faulty? Like I said in my previous post, it works fine on the Pink Floyd Live8 torrent, updating my stats just as it should have. But when I tried the TAB that I posted to the site last week, I saw no change.

I would think that this is because the TAB is on the old tracker, and the Floyd is on the new one, right? Seems to me that a 'faulty' client wouldn't work at all...

[U2Lynne]

So will the older torrents eventually begin to show up in our stats? I try to keep everything I seed on the HD plus try to help stranded swarms whenever I can...

Thanks for this big time undertaking, I think it can only improve an already excellent site. And special thanks to Hal who seems to be really helping out Lynne and the rest of the gang here. :clap:

ChrisJ
Hey Chris,

We are just going to let the older torrents die. We'll clear them off the tracker (put them in Inactive) a bit faster than normal, and then if someone wants a reseed, it can go on the new tracker (with stats). I actually talked to both Hal (who uses this tracker on his site) and bowman (my server guy) about what it would take to convert all the other torrents to new torrents on the new tracker and it just seemed like a lot of effort.

I want to emphasize that at this point (and really, not even in the near or distant future), TTD has no intention of enforcing a share ratio. We needed a new tracker so we can put the attachments into the file system (and as soon as we get all the torrents off the old tracker I will do that) and this one also had a vbulletin interface that would allow people to see their share ratios (something people have been asking about). In the near future, I plan on making it an option on whether you want to see people's share ratios, just as it is an option on whether you want to see people's post counts. Some people care about that stuff, some people could care less. But, I will be working to make this new tracker work for the site, and Hal and I have been talking to each other about the little things we can do to improve this code.

And, I'll give thanks to Hal again for always being there for me (and my HELP!!!!!s) and always offering to help out right away. Oh, and for listening to my bitching about servers. hehe :D

[oldfan]

It's the same tracker that is over on bootcity.org . Hal, one of the Admins over there, has been helping me to integrate it here. He's been a big help today when I've seen a few problems.

Its the same as Metfuk's tracker ;)

[hgrunwell]

Its the same as Metfuk's tracker ;)

Yup, the only difference is the backend was overhauled from the original to work properly and alot of bugs on the frontend Lynne has fixed. I know that you have fixed many too as you have been chasing sqrt like all of of us for v2!

:lol:

[oldfan]

Yup, the only difference is the backend was overhauled from the original to work properly and alot of bugs on the frontend Lynne has fixed. I know that you have fixed many too as you have been chasing sqrt like all of of us for v2!

:lol:

nice, what bugs were they?
Yes, I cannot wait to see what sqrtboy has come up with this time :D

[ChrisJ]

Hey Chris,

We are just going to let the older torrents die. We'll clear them off the tracker (put them in Inactive) a bit faster than normal, and then if someone wants a reseed, it can go on the new tracker (with stats). I actually talked to both Hal (who uses this tracker on his site) and bowman (my server guy) about what it would take to convert all the other torrents to new torrents on the new tracker and it just seemed like a lot of effort.



Thaks Lynne, just what I needed to know. Not a problem for me at all.

Hopefully whatever the communication problem between the new tracker and BitTornado can be figured out sometime. I currently use 6 different BT trackers, and Tornado is the only client that works with all of them. It must have something to so with the way Tornado announces its stats to this tracker. I was connected most of the night to the Floyd Live8 swarm and this AM there was no change, but as soon as I hit the 'manual announce' button, there had been an update to my stats when I came back to the site. (Don't know if that helps any, it has probably already been discussed.) I just don't think it is fair to say that the Bit Tornado client is faulty, when it works on several other trackers.

Thanks again to you and Hal and bowman, and anyone else involved. This kind of volunteer dedication is a rarity and is a wonderful thing to be a part of. Y'all deserve a lot more! :cheers:

ChrisJ

[Five]

Shadow is a known faulty client along with:

• BitTorrent++
• Nova Torrent
• TorrentStorm

And in many cases the original BitTorrent client has been found to be faulty.

Try another client and see what happens. Lynne can credit you though for the time being. :)
ahh, so torrentstorm is the reason that all my stats (except DIME) are haywire. thanks for the info.

[ahab]

I just uploaded nearly 5GB (4.96GB, to be exact) of the first (from analog) Pink Floyd Live 8 DVD using the official 4.1.2 client, with no change in my ratio either. I've never had any problems using the official client on any other BT tracker (and I've used a lot of them). I hope those of us who are sharing can get credit...my question is, how will you know if the site isn't keeping track? I took a screenshot before stopping the torrent--is that what I should be doing?

[Five]

well don't worry too much about the stats right now. we'll try to make things work better from our end as much as possible. about all we can do about your client not working is ban all "faulty clients" like at bootcity but I don't really want to do that since I use a client that would get banned. we can't really just go adjusting all the statistics manually because anyone can step forward and say "I uploaded xGB last night and it didn't register." Screenshots are also easily faked. I'm not saying it's not true for you, of course. perhaps try another client, hopefully we can get those stats moving soon.

[ahab]

OK, I won't worry about it. I think I'll be sticking with the official client, however, because the only other good one I've found on the Mac is Azureus, and it's a huge CPU hog.

[U2Lynne]

I'm on a Mac and use the official client and so far, if I just hit the stop button, my stats are updating.

Also, I think on Sunday when our server was getting overloaded (understatement of the day :)), I don't think the site was doing a good job updating since there were so many mysql errors.

[ahab]

I've tried stopping and restarting a torrent, quitted BT and restarting the app, logging out of the site and logging back in...so far, nothing has worked.

[U2Lynne]

What client were you using when you got the current stats you have under your name?

[ahab]

As far as I know, the official BT client. I've used Azureus a few times, but not in quite a while...and these stats must be from the last week or so (needless to say, I've downloaded and uploaded a bit more than the stats show for me :)).

[hgrunwell]

If you are a windows user and using the official client I highly recommend using another client as it is outdated and other 3rd party clients support the advanced features in this tracker that it does not. :lol:

[hgrunwell]

nice, what bugs were they?
Yes, I cannot wait to see what sqrtboy has come up with this time :D

Too many to name them all but here is a good start:

1. Swarm issues and general disfunction with the scrape mechanism.
2. Faulty announce mechanism that drops stats repeatedly no matter what.
3. Backen Tracker controls were broken.
4. Cleanup was non existent.
5. Stats did not display properly in vbulletin.
6. Apostrophes in torrent names crashed the tracker.
7. Deleting torrents vie the remove attachment button didnt work.
8. Numerous showthread bugs.

That is just the small end of it. There are more I just can't think of right now.

VBTT from early previews is very graphical consisting of many charts, etc. Cool stuff but the release time is what is killing it.

Hal

[jcrab66]

nice to hear that a client I have been using since it came out is messed up :rolleyes: Who cares about the stats anyways, unless they were there in the beginning than they really mean nothing. Go ahead and set my ratio to about 100 to 1 because thats close to where it should be, adding stats at this point is well, pointless, especially since some us pretty much do nothing but seed masters here and rarely download.......

[U2Lynne]

jcrab, I think I wrote earlier in the thread about my main reason for switching trackers. The stats here are just something that comes with the tracker we are now using. I'm not banning anyone for low ratios. I know people add to the community in many different ways, not just seeding a whole lot.

[ahab]

If you are a windows user and using the official client I highly recommend using another client as it is outdated and other 3rd party clients support the advanced features in this tracker that it does not. :lol:

Mac user...always have been, always will be :)

[hgrunwell]

Mac user...always have been, always will be :)

I have been slowly moving to the dark side of Mac. I use Macs at work all day but a pc when I get home. The mac has some cool features. :)

[ahab]

And now, for no particular reason I can tell, my stats are updating every time I stop I torrent.

[jcrab66]

hitting "stop" worked fine for updating on this torrentstorm client i use.....

[ChrisJ]

I just switched to ABC 3.0.1 earlier today, and have had good luck so far. Lots of features, adjustable columns of info, a queue, etc. And stats are updating on the tracker perfectly. Since this version of ABC is based on Bit Tornado 0.3.12, I wonder if the fix was made in Tornado, or by the ABC 'upgrades'?

Also saw on the Tornado site that this would prolly be the last 0.3.x. release, as he is sick of python...

I think I like ABC. It takes a little setup to get the info columns that you want in your display, and the window is larger than Tornado. The ability to keep a queue is a very nice feature now that I am starting to seed more.

And it has worked perfectly on all the BT trackers I use, so I guess I'll stop my bitching about why Tornado is faulty on this tracker ;)

Thanks again everyone, looks like things are smoothing out...
...... N I C E ......

[psubliminal]

I think my stats updated, and I'm using BitTornado 0.2.0 for this site.

Also, I noticed when I hit details to see who's on a torrent, there are a few IP addresses with no corresponding usernames. Who are these people>?

[jcrab66]

Also, I noticed when I hit details to see who's on a torrent, there are a few IP addresses with no corresponding usernames. Who are these people>?

i know that if i start seeding a torrent logged on at home then go to work and check the site and log on then on the torrent it will no longer show my username as being the seeder, it will only show my home ip address...

[Ted]

Also, I noticed when I hit details to see who's on a torrent, there are a few IP addresses with no corresponding usernames. Who are these people>?Those are probably guests, but I could be wrong. I'm still trying to figure out what a torrent is :hmm: :p

[Five]

Also, I noticed when I hit details to see who's on a torrent, there are a few IP addresses with no corresponding usernames. Who are these people>?
those are ppl who are connected but not logged in right now. please be sure to log in before starting/stopping a torrent to get stats working.

[rhundley]

Also, I noticed when I hit details to see who's on a torrent, there are a few IP addresses with no corresponding usernames. Who are these people>?

yeah my ip shows up but not my username, nor have my stats budged. i'm guessing it's b/c im using bittornado? p.s i have logged in/out several times as well as start/stop the torrents ive been on.

[U2Lynne]

rhundley, do you have a dynamic IP addy or do you log in from different places? The IP address that is currently stored in the database for your name is different than the one you were at when you posted the above message. So, that is probably why your name doesn't show up.

As for your stats, only shows on the new tracker will affect your stats. If you were on a new show, hit the Contact Us link on the bottom of this page and submit the thread link and what you think your stats should be for it and we can change the stats for you.

[rhundley]

i log in from campus every once in a while, but the message from earlier today was from home. i do all my uploads/downloads from here, so maybe i registered on campus and thats why it's not matched up. is there a way i can fix it? thanks for the help btw

[U2Lynne]

rhundley, I manually changed it to the IP you used to post your last two messages.

[rhundley]

hmm, still not working... i logged out/back in and restarted this torrent (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9251&page=1&pp=15) and I show up as 68.48.209 w/no name. it's all good though, everything else works fine so i guess it doesnt really matter that much. thanks again

[Ted]

68.48.209.xxx is Comcast

The IP we have that you used for your last post is an AOL proxy. If you're using AOL at all, you'll likely see inconsistencies in IPs.

[willard]

So how definite are you folks about implementing a passkey system (i'm guessing it's like dime)? I'm not too concerned with stats and lazy enough to want to skip the (two :) ) steps currently needed to get my stats to update properly. If you won't be implementing a passkey system in the near future and feel that it's in the site's best interest to have accurate stats, can you make this clear?

thx.

ps. my famous last words: "My stats are always good. Trust me!" :)

[U2Lynne]

I'm very interested in implementing a passkey system. However, I'm the only one on the site doing any site programming and I have other stuff going on in my life. So, it's a matter of when I find the time to do it. I have some code from a couple of other trackers that use passkeys, but I have yet to find the time to sit back and actually 'read' it to find out what's going on.

However, even if we have a passkey system in effect, I just don't see us going to any kind of share ratio enforcement. People don't only share by keeping their windows open. I wrote something on the home page about all the other ways people share on this site. It isn't all about share ratios here since we aren't just a torrent site like DIME is (nothing against DIME at all).