Comments on: New p2pnet Top Ten downloads

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:44:51 +0000

obvious that the ‘people’ that download this crap don’t have a clue what they are doing. Much like the Nielson ratings, they are being tracked and swallowed.
Best the record companies go after their sorry asses… The dimwits that think they are sitting pretty….dimwits that think they are breaking all of societies rules…dimwits that pull their pants down and show their underwear!
Call me old fashioned, but rap is absolute crapola that will not live through this decade.
It’s a stage that kids will go through, be them white, black, or purple.
When I was young, punk was in. I dyed my hair and wore a trenchcoat.
Mum didn’t like it….but I was creating an identity. I wasn’t trying to tick off my parents.
Rap is the next generation of rebellion. Unfortunately those that listen to that crap have no idea what the are rebbelling against!
A bunch of stupid, naive whiteguys that think it’s ultracool to be black.
Give us all a break!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:39:12 +0000

Yuk, wouldn’t want to waste my hard drive space.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 14:35:34 +0000

Hate to say it, but the last post was right on the money.
Ain’t nobody knowing what I’m downloading….end of story.
Maybe the yo-yo’s that download rap crap are proud of it, and want the world to know.
But it’s not a true idea of what is really being downloaded.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 14:33:40 +0000

I would not buy or download any of these titles.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:54:25 +0000

It says that Nelly was downloaded 5,954,537 times. That’s a very precise figure. It was not rounded to 5.9 or 6 million. What P2P networks did this include anyway? How is it possible to get such a precise figure from such a nebulous, randomized network such as Fasttrack – a network which does not even connect each user to every other peer?

Since downloads on a P2P network take place between multitudes of anonymous peers, how can any system determine the number of downloads taking place without undertaking the impossible task of monitoring every single one of the millions of peers?

Does BigChampagne set up a few supernodes and monitor them for file requests, then extrapolate the results to estimate the total network requests? Is this assuming that the number of requests equals the number of completed downloads? (That would be a rather speculative assumption.) As any P2P user knows, the larger the file, the greater the probability of the transfer getting cancelled, and having to be re-requested afterward to complete it. So this method would tend to give 6 minute songs a higher rating than 3 minute songs due to the increased cancellations.

If using statistical analysis, the methodology could be considered a success if it would get an accuracy of plus or minus 5% or 10% of real-world numbers on a given, open network. But the posted figures suggest an incredible .00001% accuracy.

Although I think that the relative popularity of the members of the ‘top ten’ list is probably precise enough to create a ranking order, I also think that there is really no accurate way to determine the actual number of downloads on any given P2P network.

Also, the file transfer methods in which downloads are more difficult to monitor – such as IRC, Newsgroups, email, Instant messages, and private servers – these generate a substantial number of shared files. So the actual numbers are anyone’s guess.