Intro
Soulseek makes it WAY easier to share files with everyone than Torrenting.
You need an account anyways, so all you need is a VPN that allows you to forward ports, or (if you are a country that doesnt care) open them in your router.
Yes that is a barrier and yes there are many privacy friendly VPNs out there that don’t allow port forwarding (mostly not because of filesharing, but because people hosted CSAM and other horrible shit). But still there are very cheap VPNs out there that offer port forwarding (hint: some of which might currently offer big discounts because of their anniversary).
So assume that someone who wants to download from other people is unmotivated, lazy and does not want to spend money. Yes it is a barrier, but come on, it is not big.
Side note: legal issues
Many countries like Poland dont care about downloads and only ban uploads of countries.
This can mean that people there don’t even care about using a VPN and simply never share.
Reminder: not sharing is still the default on most filesharing networks!
So by blocking leeching-only users, you will block those.
Copyright companies
It is generally also not a legal problem for copyright companies to download “their” media from filesharing sites.
So by allowing users who do not share to download things, expect that you will get downloads by them. I have had weird users that downloaded every first file of every one of my albums for example.
You will block those, unless they share their “own” content (which would be ironic) or random other content (which would be very illegal).
Block leechers
There is a family of extensions that do this, forked from each other.
I use this one that is simple, kinda up-to-date but has no weird things.
The +proveit variant also adds a sort of captcha system, which resulted in everyone getting banned for me.
Sadly common for all of them is that the in-app documentation is kind of nonexistent, so you need to guess a bit what each option does.
I will refer to the former extension from now on.
You can set a message to write to people who were blocked, and choose to block “suspicious sharing patterns” whatever that is.
You can also set a minimum of files and folders shared. I would say setting 10 files and no folder limit would be a friendly preset.
Missing…
There are a bunch of slsk_xxxxxxxxx users downloading singular files from me and never sharing back.
Those might be using some braindead automated streaming software (hence the automated username and single files).
They appear to share files, but none of them are “enabled”. I dont know what that means, but I will try to block all of them.
Anyone know how to auto-block users based on username? This might require a fork of the extension.
Idgaf about leeches.
The point of that kind of thing is open access to the media. It’s not some kind of non monetary business. I’m not injured or out of anything if someone can’t port forward and needs to just get stuff. I can’t always share from every device, and me grabbing files than is no worse than when I can.
The only time leechers matter is if it’s slowing down your connection.
Yes you can do that and I also see the benefits of sharing with everyone.
But the downsides are not only those. You will feed AI scrapers like Meta’s torrent servers that have configured to never upload etc.
Most people upload for everyone, so you can do what you want and know you are not the only one XD
you’re forgetting the barrier to figure out how to get your vpn to allow port forwarding. it’s not that i don’t wanna share, it’s that after this many years i still haven’t figured out how. who’s gonna teach me?
You don’t need port forwarding for sharing. If you do not have port forwarding you will only be able to download from people with port forwarded. And only them can download from you. It’s better that that not share at all. So just share what you have the way you can.
Do they not have a guide for that? In that case you are probably not using a good one.
Generally it is very simple. Configure open ports on their website or maybe in a custom client. Then configure the same ports in your software, done.
they do not have a guide that works for me. can you please give more details, and screenshots on what i should click, what i should type, and when? I also need possible fixes for errors I may run into. I need this for Linux Mint, Debian, and CachyOS.
Your distro doesnt matter. The VPN provider matters and you should ask their support to tell you how to do that. Or switch to another one
like
AirVPN
The only people I’m blocking on soulseek are those ghouls that lock all their files away and then have lists of things for people to buy for them in exchange or straight up ask for bandcamp vouchers.
Fuck all those guys. That goes against the spirit if the whole thing.
All my files are open and available to everyone possible, just don’t be a cunt and try and charge people for stuff!
Leechers only matter if you’re capped-read, bandwidth, whatever. You can throttle that. Its fine. I turn off my torrents when I need my full bandwidth for things. Why be a dick about leechers?
How often are people getting into trouble for sharing on soulseek, I wonder?
I share a small subset of my media that I consider less legally risky. It isn’t copyright free, but not exactly mainstream either. So I don’t look like a total leech.
Why dont you share everything worth sharing?
Your account is pseudonymous after all, with no PII attached apart from your IP and client maybe
An IP is enough to bring suit against the ISP subscriber related to the IP address, even if courts have held it is not proof of culpability. Most people can’t afford a lawsuit.
True, and in my experience, you usually are notified by the ISP to stop sharing the file and that further notices may result in them ceasing to provide service to you. Even if you aren’t hit directly with a lawsuit losing access to the only broadband provider in one’s area is still a major problem. I’d hate to have to switch to something like Starlink.
Because I am skittish about illegally sharing material I do not have a legal right to redistribute, hence my question about people getting in trouble. I live in the United States.
I should set up my slskd instance to run through a VPN with port forwarding (I already have a subscription) and share everything, I’ve been lazy. I will say, though, plenty of people download from me regardless. I don’t know why you would download OCRemix music from me instead of the official site, but hey, as long as someone finds it useful I guess.
