Quote:
Originally posted by SA_Dave
You should all realise that some people have few options, yet want to contribute to p2p communities without being penalised for it. DSL & cable are terms that cause confusion and wonder where I live! The only "broadband" options the public have are ISDN & satellite/dial-up combos (which charge exhorbitant fees PER MB!) and for most this is beyond their means. 'Preferential treatment' should be based more on ability than disability IMO 
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As Dave's example shows bandwidth or shared gigabytes are not the only factors that make a peer worthy to us.
The originality of the shared content is a similarly important dimension. Many of the ex and present 56ker I know have turned out to be excellent sources of rare or original material. They cannot compete with the speed of delivery but whatever they deliver at their own slow pace is very valuable. Then there is the dimension of
technical quality. In the more social p2p networks and sharing groups we soon learn to know the peers that consistently share only quality material. These people may never rip an original album and their sources may be obscure but their passion for quality guarantees that they share forward only stuff that is thoroughly checked, tagged, documented and complete.
Apart from the technical and content-related factors come also the various
human characterics of the peers that may completely overdrive all other issues. A person may have a line that is totally unsuitable for uploading so both quantity and quality of content are out of the picture. But the person may still be able to share his/her expertise, knowledge and contacts and thereby indirectly help us with better Internet connections to get some stuff that we enjoy.
- tg
