[katnapz]

I think I'm confused, or confusing myself by my reading of the seeded torrents and FAQ for this site.

Rule 10 concerns the inclusion of shntool md5's, and that's cool with me...I just spent the last couple figuring out how to get the thing setup and running (thanks RainDawg for your steps and your additional comments in a different posting in here).

Now, when shntool creates the txt file, it defaults to a specific name format each time (meaning it puts the word "shntool" in the txt file name), but when I'm looking at some of the seeded torrents here on TTD, I'm seeing what appears to be wholefile md5's included.
Are people creating the shntool txt files and then changing the names to a ".md5" extension?
What is considered the proper naming format for shntool files then?

Two examples of uploads I'm looking at are the "Santana 1988-04-18 Sunrise, FL (SHN)" (the uploader mentions using mkwact and I don't see any other md5s posted as txt files) and "Flotsam and Jetsam 1980s Flots Till Death Los Angeles CA (SHN)." I haven't downloaded either of these torrents btw.

I'm not picking on these two posts, they just happen to have good info uploaded, and the second one is noted as coming from STG, and I don't remember hearing about shntool there often (don't see a "shntool.txt" either).

Are these folks not following rule 10, or am I reading the rule wrong and posting with the wholefile md5s (if original) acceptable as a substitute?

There was also a torrent upload where RainDawg specifically thanked the poster for including the shntool file (don't remember which one now), and in the info file posted you can see the "shntool" name in those files. So that also makes me wonder about those other posts if RD is taking the time to thank someone on that point in one thread.

I'm itching to start putting some stuff up, but want to make sure I'm doing things right....don't want to waste anyone's download quotas with a bad torrent.

One final question as I can't figure this out either. Under the FLAC fingerprints FAQ, it says, "FLAC's use of the fingerprint allows users much more versatility while still maintaining the same core functionality : verifiying that the audio in your files has not altered since it was seeded. Of course, a user may still use wholefile md5 checks on .flac files if they see fit, but this is a practice performed out of ignorance rather than functionality. Using FLAC's fingerprinting is much more useful than wholefile md5 checking, and should be used 100% of the time."

I understand not using wholefile md5s for FLACs, but should we be including shntool md5 checks with FLAC uploads?
....something, something, something about you folks wanting to create a database of the checks for torrents uploaded? but I don't remember where that part is in the FAQ, and my head hurts from thinking too much at this point.

Alright...let 'er rip folks...and thanks for the guidance and patience