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by bobleeswagger 1234 days ago
> Sort of waiting for some new iteration of what "popcorn time" was

No. Popcorn time was a massive free rider/tragedy of the commons problem and a new version of it will continue to erode the good parts of piracy culture that exist.

If you're too lazy to contribute effectively to these cultures, you should just keep paying for Netflix or IPTorrents.

1 comments

I wasn't trying to compare paid/free, just that there's a renewed opening for a beginner friendly pirate platform.

Yes, popcorn time failed, but I was referencing the thing where it had once made inroads with non-technical people in some part because of the ease and not just the "Free" part.

You missed my point entirely. Popcorn time was net negative for piracy. It led to the current state of things IMO; Netflix, Hulu, etc. may have had fewer ads, more features, and lower prices if Popcorn time had not led to so many non-technical people having ease of access.

Culture matters. Understand what maintains it. Protect it.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's like you're complaining about the eternal september except focused on people that didn't make any posts.

What contribution are people expected to make? Why does culture or level or tech aptitude matter if they're not interacting with anyone?

If this is just about seeding duration that can be adjusted.

It's like you've missed that the Popcorn time crowd was eternal September and you've never built up a significant ratio on any reputable private tracker. You don't just do that by "seeding longer."

> What contribution are people expected to make? Why does culture or level or tech aptitude matter if they're not interacting with anyone?

Again, if you don't understand how popcorn time was tragedy of the commons, I'm not going to sit here and lay it out for you. Fact of the matter is, piracy does not need to be made more accessible, and doing so would be a grave danger to the good parts of its culture.

99% of the time, if a file just loads up and plays in popcorn time, then you won't have to seed very long to get a perfectly good ratio. It would be nice to seed long-term, but a positive ratio is enough to not cause any harm.

I understand how tragedy of the commons works just fine. I just don't understand why culture matters if you're not talking to someone and they're not breaking anything. And they're not going to be on a private tracker.

It's true that I've never been on a reputable private tracker, but every time I've looked at one it had an obnoxious process to join that has nothing to do with my ability to seed lots of bits for a long time.

> obnoxious process

That process did its job of filtering you out quite well. Thanks for confirming my suspicion on the dot!

> Popcorn time was net negative for piracy. It led to the current state of things IMO; Netflix, Hulu, etc. may have had fewer ads, more features, and lower prices if Popcorn time had not led to so many non-technical people having ease of access.

That's damage to Netflix, Hulu, and etc. What was the damage to piracy?

What is the resource that Popcorn Time depleted?
Patience.
Tends to happen when you call people lazy, etc. They miss your point.