I wish more HN posts about software releases were like OP, providing not just a who, but a what . OP: does this support version 2 of the spec?
No one uses v2.
Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
51–60 of 60 posts
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#52At this point torrent clients don't provide much if they don't have a really differentiating set of features: - torrents work if they are shared more than they are leeched, so it's just easier to have it run in the background. There's very little reason to not use the existing client/server models like transmission or tTorrent - indexing and search still relies too much on third parties. Integrate magnetico (passive…
Do you actually use torrents day to day? I have a strong suspicion that nowadays most people in developed economies who might be interested in TUIs use private trackers, as they're much safer and usually much better curated. However, that means that a) ratios are usually enforced, you have to keep seeding b) DHT and PEX are disabled and explicitly forbidden. Which in turn means the features you are describing are ant…
I do use torrents daily, and I don't use private trackers because I subscribe to the idea of shared content available to everyone if the cost is nil. There definitively is spam, but it's not kazaa- or emule-level of spams: it's easy to find correct content as soon as it's not too obscure. With a fast enough connection, you can have a >1 ratio in a matter of hours at most, so your visibility is not very long. YMMV, of course.
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#53At this point torrent clients don't provide much if they don't have a really differentiating set of features: - torrents work if they are shared more than they are leeched, so it's just easier to have it run in the background. There's very little reason to not use the existing client/server models like transmission or tTorrent - indexing and search still relies too much on third parties. Integrate magnetico (passive…
Here's your list - you have to use double newlines: - torrents work if they are shared more than they are leeched, so it's just easier to have it run in the background. There's very little reason to not use the existing client/server models like transmission or tTorrent - indexing and search still relies too much on third parties. Integrate magnetico (passive indexing), bep 33 (dht-based scraping) and bep 51 (dht-bas…
> I don't think decentralized indexing is a solvable problem. There's too much crap, and too little in the way of useful signal to tell it apart.
I've been using decentralized indexing for more than a year and I haven't needed to go back to ad- and malware-ridden search sites. I find the number of seeders a good enough indicator of quality, but of course that only works for popular content.
EDIT: thanks for formatting, I always forget this double linefeed rule
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#54How many people are using torrents for non-piracy reasons?
I occasionally use a torrent to simply move large files to a slow endpoint (essentially a 1:1 connection), so I don't have to keep the session alive for the whole file move. I know there are probably other, better, solutions for that, but it works for me.
magic-wormhole would be a better alternative
it's durable (as long as the process is still running it will keep sending on reconnection) and more private
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's your list - you have to use double newlines: - torrents work if they are shared more than they are leeched, so it's just easier to have it run in the background. There's very little reason to not use the existing client/server models like transmission or tTorrent - indexing and search still relies too much on third parties. Integrate magnetico (passive indexing), bep 33 (dht-based scraping) and bep 51 (dht-bas…
If you use private torrents, chances are you want the swarms you participate in to be private, unless you're happy to announce your IP to RIAA. I do agree though that the current model in which cross-seeding between private swarms is an afterthought and a pain is not perfect. Clients should handle that automatically without having to resort to hardlinks and separate folders and heuristics to find matching torrents an…
There actually are BEPs to manage cross swarms sharing, but I don't know of clients that do handle that. BEPv2 should make this easier though, because each file has their own hashes on top of the top-level hash.
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you actually use torrents day to day? I have a strong suspicion that nowadays most people in developed economies who might be interested in TUIs use private trackers, as they're much safer and usually much better curated. However, that means that a) ratios are usually enforced, you have to keep seeding b) DHT and PEX are disabled and explicitly forbidden. Which in turn means the features you are describing are ant…
I do use torrents daily, and I don't use private trackers because I subscribe to the idea of shared content available to everyone if the cost is nil. There definitively is spam, but it's not kazaa- or emule-level of spams: it's easy to find correct content as soon as it's not too obscure. With a fast enough connection, you can have a >1 ratio in a matter of hours at most, so your visibility is not very long. YMMV, of…
I don't think seeding for hours is conductive to long term retention. For context, in private tracker land it's normal to seed an obscure arthouse movie for years, being an only seeder and getting it downloaded maybe five times. Which reminds me that the cost is not really nil, as you have to pay those electricity bills and depreciation to keep it available. Curation is not free either.
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#57How many people are using torrents for non-piracy reasons?
Yeah it makes me a bit sad.. torrents are technically really cool, and the casual anarchist in me likes how they remove the need for expensive infra/bandwidth to serve huge data. Yet the overwhelming use by far is just to pirate vids.
Shouldn't the casual anarchist in you rejoice at people hitting back on predatory, monopolistic, customer-hostile business practices of Big Movie though?
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do use torrents daily, and I don't use private trackers because I subscribe to the idea of shared content available to everyone if the cost is nil. There definitively is spam, but it's not kazaa- or emule-level of spams: it's easy to find correct content as soon as it's not too obscure. With a fast enough connection, you can have a >1 ratio in a matter of hours at most, so your visibility is not very long. YMMV, of…
I don't think seeding for hours is conductive to long term retention. For context, in private tracker land it's normal to seed an obscure arthouse movie for years, being an only seeder and getting it downloaded maybe five times. Which reminds me that the cost is not really nil, as you have to pay those electricity bills and depreciation to keep it available. Curation is not free either.
I have lost hope that public torrents can serve as a good availability system. The issues are not technical but "societal", ie what rules do we collectively follow, to make content available. Private trackers are perfect for this specifically because they have a way to nudge people into re-sharing poorly seeded torrents. Bittorrent helps do that, but any technology can.
> being an only seeder and getting it downloaded maybe five times
I haven't seen/conducted a thorough study, but I believe that a ratio of 5 helps content be alive for a longer duration, even if imperfect, taking into account 1 or 2 or those 5 that will disconnect and stop sharing. Everyone should target this ratio. That's why I'm ok seeding for hours as long as I hit that number, but for more obscure content I might be seeding it forever
> Which reminds me that the cost is not really nil
True, nothing is really ever nil. What I meant to say is that the cost of distribution is nothing compared to the cost of production.
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#59Looks interesting, why does it require a special font? Suggest you remove the examples of downloading copyrighted content and the yify website from your readme.
The font isn't strictly required – Mabel functions just fine without it, you will just have one or two characters that don't render properly. I suppose we could make Nerd Fonts opt-in via the config, but I don't think it's that unusual an ask. See: https://starship.rs The images in the README have been updated.
Then it isn't a prerequisite.
Re: Show HN: Mabel – a fancy BitTorrent client for the terminal
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like there's a few glyphs being used in this application (things like folder icons, etc) that normal fonts aren't going to provide.
Ah - I'm not asking what it's for, I'm asking why isn't it optional. First time I've seen TUI software require installing a font.
it's not technically required to function properly, just listed as a prerequisite since several glyphs require a nerd font :) you can go ahead and think of it as optional if you'd like.