[mdshrk1]

Copied from the FAQ:

The BitTorrent community relies on everyone active on a torrent to share while they are downloading. This eliminates the need for large files to be hosted on central servers and instead shifts the burden of uploading to many peers from one central server the combined bandwidth of everyone connected. If you download more than you upload, this ideology of sharing is undermined, and the community cannot function properly.
For this reason, we request that everyone who is active in a seed remains connected after completing until they have uploaded at least what they've downloaded; this shows up in some clients as the "share ratio" which should be more than 1 before disconnecting from the seed.

We are sympathetic to the plight of capped upstreams that many people have, but even under the harshest of caps (128 Kbps) all users must maintain at least a 0.5 share ratio. For those lucky ones amongst us with higher upsream caps (384 Kbps or higher) please try maintain a share ratio of 1.5 or higher. Remember, in order for a BitTorrent community to flourish, everyone must make the most of their resources. Otherwise, leechers will leave, seeders will stop seeding, and our site will fail. Sharing is good, it helps keep our site strong, and it guarantees that we will be able to continue serving the trading community.


How can I increase my ratio?
Many users have said that they finish a download and then there is no one else who wants the show, so they are unable to reach a ratio of 1:1 on a show. Other users have complained about not being able to upload as fast as they can download and so they don't understand how they can possible reach a 1:1 ratio at all. So, here are a few things that people can do:

make sure you have your ports forwarded through your router or modem and through your PC firewall and any virus detection software. To find out how to forward your ports, go to PortForward.com
get on a new torrent right away, don't get onto an old torrent
make sure you have your upload rate set to 80% or it's maximum so you are uploading a lot but still are able to download
only get on one or two torrents at a time and stay on each of them until you reach 1:1 and then go onto a new torrent
watch the list of Torrents Needing Seeds and help someone out who is stranded.
Also, please note that many people have a capped upload from their ISP and the way they reach a 1:1 ratio is to seed the show for a couple of days after they have finished downloading.