Nonono

Story: Open Source File Sharing with TorrentsTotal Replies: 4
Author Content
incinerator

Apr 28, 2005
4:17 AM EDT
Ok, the site is indeed a nice idea, just about the 37th website for the same purpose but they indeed seem to have many torrents available.

However, except for actually downloading a torrent I can't do ANYTHING on that website without having an account. This sorts of beats the concept, doesn't it?

- Looking up the details for a torrent => account required - Looking up the "info" for a torrent => account required - Looking up all the rest on that site except downloading a torrent => account required The best one is the this one though - Looking up the FAQ => account required .... WOOT?!? Maybe the trackers are locked, too. Can you even download from these trackers if you haven't got an account?

Oh, and you can create an account, but there is no "Terms & Conditions" information to be found anywhere. I guess the T&Cs are in the FAQ, but I cannot read that as I don't have an account *plonk*

Will they sell my personal data to the Unitarian Jihad for recruiting cake bakers? Will they charge me 10000$ U.S. per day once I have an account? Where's my data stored, who else has access to it etc. etc.

All these questions and no answer, badbadbad. Worse, and there are 500+ people already who are totally careless about their money and privacy and signed up anyway.

And no, I don't think we should have 37 different sites for one purpose, that will mean 37 trackers for one iso with seed availability below zero, lol. I think I'll just continue downloading isos via http then. that's much quicker anyways. Why do people continue setting up web pages like this one? Are linuxiso.org and tlm-project.org not good enough? Do we really need to confuse Linux-beginners by decentralising even more information?
mcangeli

Apr 28, 2005
8:37 PM EDT
incinerator, Thanks for the input. Its exactly what I was looking for!

I took some of your comments and I made some changes. The reason for memberships is that it provides us a way to track downloads, seeders and leechers, however, You can now view the torrent details, the faq, rules, links with out registering, and the tracker is not locked, you do not need to be registered to download or use the torrents.

Registration is free, it will remain free so long as I own/run the site. Personal data is that, and will remain that, it will not be sold or given away to a third party. The only reason for collecting emails is for notifications of new torrents, and for an occasional newsletter that will be few and far between.

As far as money, the only place money is even mentioned is the donation link. It does say rather plainly on the index page "LinuxTracker is a FREE linux download resource, if you appreciate what We're doing, please DONATE by clicking the button on the left. This will help us pay our hosting bills." We'd like to get a dedicated server so we can host more files and even post some of the iso's on our own server. Wouldn't that be nice??

I created linuxtracker because I wasn't happy with the resources available for downloading. Yea, you can stick with http and ftp, however often times they're slow and the mirrors are outdated. The only other pure Linux Torrent site I know of is tlm-project.

I'm not handing out information, I'm distributing linux. I didn't start another linux review site... I already tried my hand at that, and I got tired of the myriad's of sites that were doing the same thing. You either think the service linuxtracker.org is providing is useful or you don't.

In any case, thank you again for the input, as you can see, I've already made some changes based on it. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Mark
incinerator

May 03, 2005
10:28 AM EDT
I have visited that web page a second time now. Most of the issues I had with it are indeed gone. There is only two things I'd like to see changed now:

1.) I would still recommend that you'd make people who sign up agree to certain Terms & Conditions. This may seem unnecessary but will give you the legal backing to enforce these rules and delete accounts in case there is trouble (i.e. people violating Terms & Conditions). Otherwise, deleting accounts my get YOU into trouble. You have enough "Rules" and "FAQ" pages together now to be able to compile them into a nice text that people have to agree to before they actually sign up. Please do so.

2.) Parts of the disclaimer are discriminating and utterly ridiculous. For instance, you state that people "affiliated with any government, .... CANNOT download".

Well, of course they can. What you probably mean is that they must not or shall not.

Secondly, this term is discriminating and way to generic. Simply because someone does work at the B.S.A. or the government should surely not be cause enough to shut them out. First, there may well be people working for the B.S.A. wanting to download, share and use free software in their spare time. I don't see what's wrong with that and you should not forbid them to do so.

Secondly, the term "affiliated with any government" is way to generic and thereby discriminating. I am employed by the German government, for instance. According to you disclaimer I am not allowed to use the services provided on your website, WTF?!?

I can understand that you only want to host strictly legal torrents. That is a good idea. Shutting out B.S.A./RIAA/MPAA moles that may liberally add illegal torrents to your site may be a good idea too, albeit legally dangerous. But why don't you just forbid every user to add "illegal" torrents, then? That should be more than enough, provided you actually provide and enforce proper Terms & Conditions. The current disclaimer is simply not acceptable.
helios

May 03, 2005
2:34 PM EDT
post got crossed up...pardon the error

helios

mcangeli

May 20, 2005
11:08 PM EDT
Yea, I had put that disclaimer up at the bottom to CMA (cover my ass). I need to make it more specific to LInux and to prevent the uploading of any MEDIA files... but thanks for the other input!

Mark

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