I've regularly visited this site for many years now, since the times when the site owners were good enough to offer MANY, MANY unofficial bootlegs for anyone's listening pleasure. A service if I remember correctly had to be withdrawn due to the huge cost burden of running such a huge task. (... and quite acceptable really).
Then after a long while of quiet time, with only the occasional sought after download being offered by some kind sod, the first bit-torrent offerings appeared. A kind gesture originally, until the obvious greed of the leech-but-not-share downloader common to this site (and to be honest a consistent problem to any bittorent site).
It then appeared that these large bittorrent files allowed an easy passage into the queen hub, with many users now having the required and IDENTICAL minimum to enter, a factor that shocked me, being a fan who spent every last penny trying to buy enough bootlegs and unofficial material to be allowed access to this priveleged Hub. I'm not saying that I wasted money buying these bootlegs and that I was hard done buy, I still enjoy collecting/trading bootlegs today, but I did spend far more time than needed to build up a collection of a size which I thought justified access to the Hub.
Then came a flood of new users, which was probably needed at the time, to this site. Unfortunately it also began an increase in greedy requests for official/unnoffical Queen material, and people either stupidly offering or offering links to official material.
Then, the worst I've seen yet, some fool offers to sell bootleg concerts, among which they offer official material as a bonus. This is bang out of order. How easy would it be for many of us to make copies of bootleg concerts (audio/video) and sell them for profit! Its just not acceptable. Go and chance your arm on ebay, but dont use a renowned fan site for your greedy transactions. You probably downloaded the material from one of the many p2p sites anyway. Greedy Bas***ds. Get a fu***ng real job.
My point is a little hazy now I think, but I would just like to see less bickering and more common sense. Too many users are clearly offering material that they shouldnt, and then shooting down any poor sod e.g John Stuart for arguing against it. Try trading fairly. Its a good hobby to pursue.
You raise several good points, including a couple that makes it hard for some QZers to justify continued sharing. It's no coincidence that as the leeching and begging has increased over the last few weeks, the amount of new torrents available has decreased.
Having said that, let me address one issue in your post:
Phoenix501 wrote:
It then appeared that these large bittorrent files allowed an easy passage into the queen hub, with many users now having the required and IDENTICAL minimum to enter, a factor that shocked me, being a fan who spent every last penny trying to buy enough bootlegs and unofficial material to be allowed access to this priveleged Hub. I'm not saying that I wasted money buying these bootlegs and that I was hard done buy, I still enjoy collecting/trading bootlegs today, but I did spend far more time than needed to build up a collection of a size which I thought justified access to the Hub.
Before the torrents, we told prospective Hubbies to find 2GB worth on Kazaa or a similar p2p. As a result, we got many users who only had the same tired remixes, edits, b-sides, or other type songs to share. With the torrents at least, we get users who are sharing large files that not everyone has access to. I agree that it is easy for these users to get into the hub, but the goal is to freely share (and not leech, you rat bastards) bootlegs and, thus, undercutting a market that thrives on ignorance.
And even though it is easy to gain entry into the hub, remember that there are many shows not available in Flac, or in some cases, mp3. Trading is still the only way to get some material, something that new users don't quite understand yet.
A couple of points from me:
1. I easily have over 10 GB of unofficial material to share, but my PC is quite old and my hard disk is under 6 GB. So until I buy a brand new PC [which will probably happen after the tour], I'm staying clear from the HUB.
2. Not only is my PC obsolete, but so is my Internet connection. It's not dial-up [thank God for small favours], but it's certainly not good enough for me to download FLAC files. Which is why I'm sticking to good old-fashioned mp3's.
My 2 cents. Who's got my change?
V.
the_hero wrote:
Let me point out that you need VERY rare material these days to get VERY rare material back from traders... how do you get the very rare material in the first place to trade with
I understand your point fully. The answer is simply hard work and effort. Not every trader has the same stuff, and that's something you have to figure out and work for. The problem with torrents and the hub is that many users feel entitled to this material and get angry when someone suggests that they try to trade for it.
Agneepath! wrote: Trading isn't simply about recieving rare material. Part of the fun comes from making friendships with other Queen fans.
Excellent point. One of my complaints about torrents is the sheer number of people who download without acknowledging or saying thanks. For every 100 downloaders, you're lucky if 10 leave a message.
wstüssyb wrote: How much you selling your Duck for Zeni?
I've got a couple interested buyers, Stussy, but we can work something out. I can assure you my stock is all high-quality.
Agneepath! wrote: Trading isn't simply about recieving rare material. Part of the fun comes from making friendships with other Queen fans.
Excellent point. One of my complaints about torrents is the sheer number of people who download without acknowledging or saying thanks. For every 100 downloaders, you're lucky if 10 leave a message.
I agree on both points. It's always nice to meet people with similiar musical tastes. Believe me in high school when Hot Space came out I didn't have too many fellow Queen fans.
And if anybody doesn't have time to drop a simple thanks, they should not be allowed to download the show. Simple as that.
Worse than not saying thanks are those that shut off their computer after downloading. Amazing how some cannot share what has been cheerfully donated to them.
I have a suggestion that might help with some of the "official" releases that are posted here. People will share them and I'm sure we're all guilty in some form or other of downloading at least one of them. If someone asks for any official material and you feel you must share this, then encode your mp3s to the lowest possible quality: MONO, 32kbs. Therefore, those Queenzoners who claim they want to hear the music before they buy it can hear it but don't have a copy of the songs worth keeping. I agree with there being a lot of greed here, but I can't blame some people for being greedy when we have posts asking "What would you like next?" (No offence, hero, I've d/l'd some stuff you've posted, myself). I prefer to share my Queen collection on Soulseek because I can get some decent 1-on-1 conversation with other fans. I've never joined the hub because I don't think I have anything to offer the hub that probably isn't already there. I do, however, have concert videos that I haven't seen posted here in BitTorrent but I've been reluctant to post some because I don't want to accidentally post "officially" released material if, in fact, it is official. If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll post my list and then others here can tell me what can be posted and what can't be posted.