As an older torrent gen, I tried Debrid for the first time.

Yes. All the yes. I was shaky on it at first, because I really didn't want to dive out of my depth when it comes to piracy (which really only includes torrents). I thought it was going to be confusing, but it really is just "sign up, pay, and get your API key". And the price is right (using realDebrid).

However, I'm a little concerned. This makes it all so easy to stream and such, but what happens when everyone starts using it and torrents are no longer downloaded and properly seeded? Should I go out of my way to download something after I watch it and then seed for a few weeks? I still keep my VPN around, so that's totally an option. I'm using Stremio in conjunction with realDebrid.

I think I just want to know a bit more about how it works and how the P2P functions. I want to be able to give back, but I only seed a few torrents at a time. I just don't have the money for a large seeding server right now (which I may fix with a Pi5 at some point). Seeding is currently my only option/skill in helping piracy stay alive and the digital world stay free.

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[...] what happens when everyone starts using it and torrents are no longer downloaded and properly seeded?
It's already happening. More and more people stream torrents and don't seed back which kills public torrents. Imo Debrid is not as big of an issue as they don't necessarily tax the P2P network as much as someone only streaming torrents and automatically dumping them directly.
Additionally downloading torrents after you watched them does not make much sense as you'd tax the network without benefit (unless you seed to say a ratio of 2+).
If you currently have torrents there's nothing stopping you from continuing to seed them if you don't need the storage. Long term seeders are especially important for keeping torrents alive and you won't need to redownload content you've watched just to seed it.
As long as you seed to 1.0 ratio (e.g. 1GB up, 1GB down) per torrent you don't hurt the network. More means you compensate for someone not seeding.
- I try so hard. I leave things up for ages. It seems like once I’ve DLed something, no one else wants it.
  
  Do you have a static IP address? CG-NAT has done a really great job of hindering torrents, since my understanding is that at least one side of the connection needs to have an open port. So, if you don't, then only the few people who do are able to download from you, which can make it seem like no one wants your stuff.
  
  And that's fine!
  
  I leave things up for ages. It seems like once I’ve DLed something, no one else wants it.
  Can relate
- Ever since my early Demonoid days I've made sure to seed at least 2.0 ratio. I think when I left, I was at 2.6. Now I just make sure to seed a week minimum, and two if the torrent is hurting for seeders. I'll remember this. What I'll do is stream via realdebrid on my TV while I seed the same on my PC.
  Basically, I was downloading and seeding then using a USB to watch on TV, but my TV and Bluray player are super picky about the codec formatting. Realdebrid was my solution. When it comes to just watching by myself on PC, I still grab the torrents anyway.
I will continue to prefer a seedbox (rented or shared/dedicated vps).
At least I can use private trackers.
- I use private trackers exclusively for content I want to "own" or want in the highest possible quality. Stremio/RD is great though for my wife to be able to search new media and potentially stream in okay quality without fucking with sonarr. Or popular TV you're maybe not sold on but would try an episode. Or for old SD content, like tossing on a 90s show for a few episodes. To be honest, I live in a world of ad block and Stremio is sometimes the only way I even know something is out...
  Anyway, they complement each other well.
  
  For me, I am too much of a control freak in regards to ratio vs quality.
  If a family member requests it, I'll take a manual look.
  Only a few profiles were actually tuned (mainly only the anime profile) to be run unattended and automatically.
  
  This is kinda what we do. But in our case we use both because personal storage is not cheap in this country and thus our self-hosted storage is limited. All out favourites that we watch repeatedly stays on the home server but we use Stremio and Torbox (because no way we're going to use RD after theyb doxed customers) for one offs, shows were trying out, etc.
- I've never looked into private trackers, tbh, but I may keep an eye out and see what is possible. I'll stay in with the community and maybe something will pop up, but I'm pretty happy with public. I've known my way around torrent safety since '07. The only cease and desist I've ever gotten was because of my ex at the time.
  From what I understand, private trackers are something that sort of comes to you rather than asking for them. Back when Demonoid was by invite only (I haven't been there in a long time so I'm not sure how it is now), I made friends with the right people and got in early. I managed to stay in because I was a good seeder and well trusted.
  Oh wow, I missed a lot. I guess Deimos went missing? Then it looks like Demonoid got a sort of community fork, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore. Huh. I'm reading that the fork didn't focus on private trackers as much as just getting the old crowd back, it seems. Wild how things have changed.
  
  To get in you could in theory join communities like r/openSignups and other similar communities.
  The tracker TL will probably open signups soon during Easter.
When enough people realize that it's that easy and it gets sufficiently widespread it'll eventually become a target.
Either they'll shut it down or laws will become restrictive enough to make using it illegal. It'll be the '90s and early 00's again they'll be dragging students and housewives into court.
There will always be enough people out there who refuse to put their payment identity online that torrents aren't going anywhere.
Hell, even torrents couldn't kill news groups.
- Even late 00's. I started young enough to know that old song and dance. Disgusting behavior, imo. The underpaid suddenly have their lives ruined, jail time, and millions in debt just because they sought a way to save a little money. Family lives ruined for what would be considered pocket money for big corp. The people that sell pirated content, sure, but they've destroyed people that were just using it.
  Which is why I'll never stop being a pirate. They've made examples of us for years by slaughtering the already destitute. Now the masks are coming off and their outstretched hands for your money, money that the common people don't have in a repression, isn't even subtle anymore. Those that never even looked to piracy are now seeing why its been done for years as subscriptions and buying content become more and more greedy.
  Its a double edged sword, really. We need more people to realize and see the greed that's rolling off these companies. That will, in turn, get a lot of piracy tools outlawed and we'll have to get really sneaky and fly under the radar for a bit (much like the '90s and '00s). Imo, its a necessary evil. I'm just upset because I know we'll lose more good people. And trust will be at a low soon. I remember the rumor that YIFY sold out because every tracker for YIFY rips was suddenly infested with feds and being watched closely.
re OT question: I remember trying out Azureus a bit back in the day, and with its "legit content distribution" section getting to watch this video:
YouTube - Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
But I didn't stick with it, mainly used µTorrent and eMule.
- lol! Wow, I forgot about this song. I didn't either. I used it for a while, but I remember something going down with it that caused some anger among users and I went back to uTorrent.
  I left the torrent scene for a bit and came back around 2016 using Tixati on Windows. Now I'm on Linux running qbit and that's probably where I stay.
  
  Yeah, I too remember there was some anger but not the reason for it. Licensing issues, maybe? Anyway, with the kerfuffle, bloat, and Java requirement, it didn't have enough to keep me from µTorrent.
  Also been using qBittorrent for the last few years, on Windows and the last two years on Linux. With search plugins for key sites, so I can avoid the popups that even uBlock Origin can't prevent.
  (Due to an unpatched security vulnerability in the repo version of qB, currently using AppImages of latest versions of both qB and qB-enhanced. Only difference I personally notice is that qB-enhanced follows my system theme, dark.)
- Memory unlocked. Thanks.
  
  You're welcome :)
I'm curious -- I've looked at this a little in the past, but paused once the payment requirement showed up. Doesn't feel like it really matters at all about using a VPN or otherwise to try and hide my identity, if there's a charge on a credit card that proves I use a torrenting service... ? How are people sorting that out, or are we all just pretending you can't get tracked through a payment?
- Honestly I just use my card. They can track my payments, but there's still nothing outlawing payment (yet) for services and they can't prove you're using those services for illegal purposes. However, realdebrid offers payments through crypto, not sure about the other debrid services.
  Its so much faster to stream using debrid than over torrent, and as another mentioned here it taxes the network less. I'm 50/50 on it, because I'd much rather promote seeding what you take, but Stremio with the Torrentio addon setup for debrid is the fastest method with the most coherent UI I've used to date, and it lets you continue from where you left off, a lot like most streaming services.
I remember azure client (the blue frog one if I'm remembering). It allowed for streaming video files as the torrent was downloading it.
- Yeah, I remember the streaming ability. I never used it for that, I liked it because it was more focused on ratios. Then they started enforcing ratios which you could skip by paying. Basically your download rates would be cut unless your ratio was good. My ratio was always high, but I couldn't really stand how they started muscling people.
  I think they tried backpedaling, but most of the scene had already moved back to uTorrent. That's probably why they changed the name to Vuze. This was all a long time ago though and I'm at the age where I'm finally starting to lose some memory of my younger days. They say it's downhill from 50, but really its downhill from 30.
Not everyone will start using it just because the price is right, it is a subscription. Also, not everyone wants to stream and forget. There will likely always be seeders of public torrents available especially for popular or mainstream content. You can always revive a dead torrent if you have access to private trackers, usenet, ddl filehosters (debrid supported)
- I'd like to do this, to be honest. There are a lot of good torrents from previous generations that are dead and with the newest upsurge of piracy I'd like to see them get a little more limelight again. It seems I have a lot of research and catching up to do in this community.
You may want to look into other Debrid services as RD has said their going to start removing material (unless something changed since a month or two ago when they announced that, I switched off and stopped paying attention)
- Damn, I hate when I find these things out too late, lol. Ah well, hopefully I can squeeze out these 3 months without incident and move to another service. Between AirVPN and RD I seem to be picking the providers that are standing on glass stilts.

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