In response to some general questions from a torrent teammate, I wrote a few lines he thought I should share. What are the Rules and Obligations of Mepis Torrent Team members?
Currently the only "rules" we have are based on input from Warren and from LinuxTracker.org's Mark Angeli, plus a couple guidelines I've evolved from experience.
1] We co-ordinate uploading torrents here, or via email, so that we have one torrent swarm for a given ISO, not multiple swarms going for the same ISO. Please don't start a Mepis torrent without checking to be certain no one else is already doing it.
2] Make the title of the torrent upload brief and accurate, clearly designating the following distinctions:
a] Version Number of Mepis or antiX release
b] Final Release, Beta, or testing
c] 64-bit or 32-bit
d] Official ISO from Mepis LLC, or an Unofficial Community Edition
3] If we have a torrent list on LinuxTracker, we want to keep at least 2 seeds on it at all times, even if it isn't currently being downloaded by anyone. Dead torrents look sloppy and give the impression of a dead community. . .
4] This is a volunteer effort. Do only as much as you can do wholeheartedly. You are not obligated to seed every torrent we have listed. In fact, unless you have great bandwidth, that probably wouldn't be a good thing to try.
5] Ordinarily, your own common sense is a good rule. If you need to stop seeding something, that is not a problem, and you don't need to report that you're dropping out of a given swarm for a while. The exception: you are the only one seeding it, or if you drop out it will only leave one seed. In that case please email me, or even better, post to this forum and ask someone to pick up the slack.
During the course of July, I'd like to formalize a Mepis Torrent Team charter, and move things onto a more organized basis, with elected positions of Project Manager [my seat] and Assistant Project Manager for when the PM is unavailable, or whatever.
I'd also like to entertain the idea of proposals to amend the Rules as stated above, or to innovate ways of making us more efficient.
thanks,
SilverBear
