:: Bittorrent: measuring self-worth made easy ::

Monday, April 04, 2005

Most of the Bittorrent tracking sites I've been using over the past months keep tabs on the pertinent activity of their users. The prime statistic used to gauge whether you're shouldering a fair portion of the burden is the vaunted "share ratio" - simply the amount of data you've uploaded divided by the amount you've downloaded. Keep this number high (preferably above 1.0) and you will avoid the ire of the trackers, who may suspend or even delete your account as a punitive resort. The broad idea is good - share and share alike - but the particular mechanics of it got me to a'ponderin.

Your download and upload numbers are measured the only way they can be, by tracking the amount of data transferred to and from your client. Everything you decide to retrieve counts as a download, and only what others decide to pull from you - not what you're making available, but what's actually pulled - counts as an upload. You could download a single mp3 of Isaac Hayes covering Tiny Tim, while sharing several gigabytes of rare video outtakes from Carrot Top: Live at the Apollo (too hott for TV), and if the demand for everyone's favorite prop-comedian/collect calling fetishist is nonexistent, your share ratio is zero*.

Something implicative happens here, when you try to quantify how well one plays with others. By selecting a criterion with which to measure it, you are forced to make more explicit assertions about its nature than when it remained a nebulous mental construct. The act of giving is defined solely as delivering data as opposed to making data available for delivery. Generosity isn't in the offer, but in the acceptance thereof. Or: we now have hard, unequivocal data proving it's not (just) the thought that counts.

Extrapolations:

1. The Bittorrent community is comprised of a bunch of pragmatic cynics interested in redefining the societal notion of what exactly constitutes a mutually beneficial exchange.
2. I'm waaaaaay over thinking this.

*Weirdly (and totally beside the point) however, if you uploaded without downloading I guess your ratio (x/0) would be "null set", "infinity", or however you choose to divide by zero. Congratulations, you're an altruist. With BT, as in life, this is theoretically possible, though I've never seen it.

Posted by morland @ 12:07 PM

:: Comments ::

How do you measure self-worth if your mom sends you cookies and does your taxes for you?

Posted by: Al on April 4, 2005 02:34 PM

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