Magnetico: A Personal Torrent Search Engine That Can’t Be Shut Down

[ID10TError]

He actually got back to me apparently they are still working on it, here is a copy of the reply.

Hello Matthew,

I cannot even apologies after not replying for almost a year (just
discovered your e-mail at the bottom of my hefty mailbox).

Seeders/peers counters will be added, and many other features are also
in progress. We are switching to the Go programming language from
Python for numerous reasons, and I hope that would also solve some of
the problems we had in the past.

Apologies,
Bora

[joew771]

The main problem with this is that there can be verification of where a torrent came from. It's evil.

That is the beauty of TPB is that it only has torrents and there is no real way to tell where it originated. This claims to make it harder to track someone, but in fact it does the opposite. Any user can be a storage unit for torrents and that's terrible. It opens doors for movie/music companies to sue torrent hosts even more than they do now.

[Mr.Masami]

The only way I see it is having the whole site on P2P network along with working comments and possibility to moderate.
I've seen solutions like this and even recommended it to KAT staff before they were taken down.

There was a discussion about it but don't remember why they didn't want it, I could guess it was one of the below reasons:

1. No trust in third party software
2. Not compatible with major ad platforms
3. Requirement to use additional software / not available directly through web browser

Search engines like the one proposed in this thread are nothing new, they were integrated into some torrent clients as well - even with star system / comments and live chat.
Still it's crap because of no possibility to moderate, comments and points can be faked so it's pointless - as Sid said there are no reliable source of this rep system.

Colliding this two worlds would be the best option, having site like TPB only as comment site on torrents hash - it would be hard to make a law that would make it illegal to comment on some numbers...
Uploaders could just put description and hash of the torrent on the site, so we could still find and download from our favorite trusted uploaders / check comments on it but the site would not serve any link to the downloadable content.

If the devs would add trusted site source of rep communication to their search engine we could even have automated removal from search index torrents that have bad rep on TPB.
But this would also make TPB not fully free from piracy, but I don't see anything bad in that some software is reading points from some arbitrary website..

So even magnet links could be abandoned and the TPB would be virtually unsinkable (not that it isn't ).
That is until some $mart gov heads would find a way to accuse TPB of helping to deliver pirated goods.

I have probably missed many important things here about pros and cons, this was just quick thought I had, feel free to bash me.

[dueda]

Well that's just what I was talking about on the other thread, make TPB more like a social network, offer services, make revenue and prepare the next wave...

If TPB becomes a better review tool for a new decentralized sharing system, it may be like Bitcoin. Maybe torrents never die, the system can balance and even protect less popular torrents, scattering duplicate pieces. It is scary that users won't have total control of their storage space, but it is like the garbage bin, a part of our disks in use for a good cause.

Why money? To pay for R&D and, most important, to replace a successful thing like torrenting with a new one demands a big blast off!

---

The main problem with this is that there can be verification of where a torrent came from. It's evil.

That is the beauty of TPB is that it only has torrents and there is no real way to tell where it originated. This claims to make it harder to track someone, but in fact it does the opposite. Any user can be a storage unit for torrents and that's terrible. It opens doors for movie/music companies to sue torrent hosts even more than they do now.

Can be? If so, can't they do it right now?  My answer is "yes, but it's too costly unless to give sharers a decisive blow".  I believe it's a matter of technical challenge.

Also, what if anyone can store torrents? That already happens, I'm using it now (like most users of this forum), maybe the suits are scared of sueing masses. For now. Laws and technology change, as people's habits.

[Mr.Masami]

Yes, blockchain technology opens many new possibilities yet to be explored by the pirate world.

[dueda]

The only way I see it is having the whole site on P2P network along with working comments and possibility to moderate...
Colliding this two worlds would be the best option, having site like TPB only as comment site on torrents hash...

If the devs would add trusted site source of rep communication to their search engine we could even have automated removal from search index torrents that have bad rep on TPB.
But this would also make TPB not fully free from piracy...

That is until some $mart gov heads would find a way to accuse TPB of helping to deliver pirated goods.

A man of my own heart, I totally agree! Best of both worlds, until a game changer comes. Well, that's what life is.

To some extent, it already happens in "the scene". And there came Nuke Wars. As social networks taught us, humans will be humans. Can't avoid it without some next-gen AI of tremendous monitoring and analysis capability overseeing all the communications - but that's Cyberdine's wet dream. I believe such thing would be deemed too costly for the benefits even for the nastiest suit guys, so we should be safe.

TPB is not fully free from piracy, as it's name implies. It is delivery company that don't take any reasonable means to detect illegal stuff in their parcels. I'm no lawyer but facilitating the transport of illegal stuff (digital or not) is cause for court everywhere, just a matter of a judge saying TPB doesn't care for the contents as soon as the major authority (Senate, for one) gives green light.

---

A big part of the reason that torrenting supplanted earlier p2p protocols is that torrents can be described and commented on on sites such as TPB, and that fakes and infected torrents are continually weeded out of sites such as TPB.

The killer problem this and other such decentralised searches/torrent caches suffer from is that the results are without description or comments and they're not moderated.

I think it can't be done until someone does it, like Bitcoin, self-driving cars and water-proof matches. It is a huge project, will add overhead on traffic, storage and processing, but real questions with any technical challenge are: Is it worth? Will it work on the real world? For how long?

I remember ratings, comments and even a chat system was available in old uTorrent client; it is yet in qBitTorrent (minus the chat). Instead of dropping it, the crew could've just improved it, but the needed computing power and the knowlege/tools that came with social networks and mobiles weren't available then.

So we are getting old, world is changing fast and the future of file sharing should be made now, from the near past guys for the next ***** in line, as always.

[techtac]

Places like TPB should never be omitted. TPB is trusted and valued by millions of peers. The most valuable part would be the community discussions/comments. It helps discover proper torrents rather than getting cheated like in the good old days. But it never hurts to have backup. This is good work. I also like to point out that you can use the full TPB dump with OfflineBay in a situation like that.

[dueda]

I also like to point out that you can use the full TPB dump with OfflineBay in a situation like that.

Current state won't be a total game changer, but something more "SidelineBay" may do; but a huge next step...
It should be kinda proxy-client and peer service at once, if such a thing is possible.
Then comes the question, how would/could it live along TPB itself?

[techtac]

I also like to point out that you can use the full TPB dump with OfflineBay in a situation like that.

Current state won't be a total game changer, but something more "SidelineBay" may do; but a huge next step...
It should be kinda proxy-client and peer service at once, if such a thing is possible.
Then comes the question, how would/could it live along TPB itself?

Exactly. Already on the next steps and it's going to be good. 1.0.2 was just a quick release. A lot of drawbacks. Planning on discontinuing the version 1 instead of releasing 1.x.x. Thread's gonna update. Also the support is really appreciated. 

[dueda]

Exactly. Already on the next steps and it's going to be good. 1.0.2 was just a quick release. A lot of drawbacks. Planning on discontinuing the version 1 instead of releasing 1.x.x. Thread's gonna update. Also the support is really appreciated. 

I'm just a user, but guess some may also like to know there're people trying different things.
Future is always uncertain and, who knows, you may have just started the next big thing?
Stay safe

PS: I rather have Python or other language if not a standalone exe. I just don't like Java myself.