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Let's assume that I finished to download a torrent, and now I want to seed the file, until I reach some share-ratio threshold (let say 1.0 or 1.5).

What is the better strategy to be "socially fair" and also in order to keep the torrent swarm alive? Is it better to upload at a faster speed, and therefore decreasing the time you spend in the swarm, or to upload at a slower speed, but therefore increasing the time you spend in the swarm?

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  • define "socially fair"
    – Moab
    Sep 30, 2015 at 12:50
  • @Moab you're right, the concept of "socially fair" may be subjective, so I would say, for the torrent-community, what is seen to be more fair? Upload at a great speed but only for a short time (i.e. to less people), or upload at an insignificant speed but for a long time and therefore to more people, helping the swarm to be alive for longer?
    – WoDoSc
    Sep 30, 2015 at 12:55
  • It still all boils down to how much data you seed as a whole, if the swarm is healthy then it may not matter which you choose, the only time this may be of concern is if there are very few seeders or you are the only one seeding. As long as you give back more than you take you are being fair.
    – Moab
    Sep 30, 2015 at 13:15

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Torrenting takes in mind that everyone in the swarm is seeding at least 1:1 ratio or more.

Keeping that in mind, the best way is to seed as fast as you can without you having any problems with it until you reach your ratio.

Reasoning behind this

If the swarm is not healthy, there are only few people and thus upload is not quick anymay. They'll download what they need and you don't reach your share ratio.

Now, when the swarm is healthy, a fast upload means more seeders arrive quickly and thus people get the files quicker. If there are a lot of seeders in the swarm, and you aim at a slower but longer upload, it may actually happen that at a certain point everyone got the file and you're not ever reaching that ratio. There's no fairness in choosing to do a slow upload while you can do a fast one too. Doing a fast one means someone else is seeding quicker, so the whole swarm gets the file sooner and the swarm gets healthier. Besides, you'll be done quicker.

So my recommendation is: seed as fast as you can without it harming your own internet activities. You can still have a fast upload yet limit the amount of connections.

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  • your arguments are valid, but you always assume that when a peer complete the download, it stays on the swarm as a seeder. But what if they leave the swarm after finish the download? I always think also when I'm downloading a torrent: if I upload faster, then there are more peers that allow me to download faster, but I also increase the probability that other peers finish sooner than me and leave the swarm, leaving me in a swarm with not enough peers/seeds
    – WoDoSc
    Oct 1, 2015 at 7:58
  • To my knowledge the amount of people who do not wait for the 1:1 ratio is slim. You should not be concerned about this.
    – LPChip
    Oct 1, 2015 at 10:42

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