Prevent uploading to users who aren't sharing

This is a topic that's almost as old as Soulseek itself. The usual problem with this approach is that it would be very easy to get around the mechanism by sharing garbage files. People have been saying private sharing would be the end of Soulseek for almost a decade now. I'm not knocking the reasons one might have to care about this sort of thing. Give and take are an important part of fostering relationships on Soulseek, and personal relationships are what sets Soulseek apart from other file-sharing services. There's actually room in the new client to implement a sort of automatic ban-on-no-files-shared feature, but if it became commonplace it would be very easily defeated. You can always just share a few things publicly to reflect your general taste, and keep the majority of your share for users you've verified and are interested in sharing with.

Categorically against, besides that I share 2TB music for all and without restriction of speed. At all the reasons not to rummage, and also sometimes it is necessary to come from another's computer where certainly there is no music, not banned for it.
People which are much less useful share only for statistics, but load from them can only selected gods.

I agree with automatically ban user don't share. If they share crap, we ban manually.

all i'd really like to see in the way of this is a number displayed in parentheses (0) next to the user so that it's easier to manage. i understand that some folks are sharing garbage files, but if i could see all the 0's right away that would be sweet...

Given that simply preventing people from downloading if they aren't sharing anything is a good way of getting them to share rubbish instead, probably it's better not to ban them immediately. However, I think there should be two messages; the first to the person not sharing anything and the second to the person from whom he's trying to leech.

what if you could set a personal quota for what constituted constructive sharing to you? For instance: despite the relative ease to circumnavigate a restriction on downloading without sharing a single file, by sharing a single file, I am comfortable with such a restriction because I believe many non-sharers dont share because they are uninterested in setting up a directory. The bare requirement to share a single file necessitates setting up a directory. I feel most people, when forced to set up a directory, will set-up a meaningful one.

However- If users had the ability to set limits on how many files they can require another user to share in order to download from them, the system is suddenly less easy to gain. I would probably set my limit at about 1000 files. It is more difficult to share 1000 trash files than it is to make your download folder searchable.

I really think an automatic unsharing system would encourage many more people to set up their shares and for userlist only people to open up their files. The minimum amount of files could be set to avoid the people who share only their garbage Qt files or Samples folder. If you can't share more than 10 files, then you really shouldn't be able to search and download anything. I'm also tired of the drive-by userlist only people who receive the empty share warnings, ignore them, continue to download the files and then run. There's nothing to stop them.

The empty share warnings were a good idea, but in reality they really aren't that effective. Maybe 10% of the people who receive them will ever share anything. I usually give people 2 warnings or a few weeks before they are unshared.

The empty share warnings could still be sent to those who are automatically unshared. Maybe that would give them extra incentive to add some folders.

Hello, Community!
Can I just say - I am a kind person, a musician - & sensitive to this precious, vital resource, but why did one user ban me... from downloading a song the other day!?
Our music should be shared with anyone (-why not?) on it, & Soulseek should be as democratic as possible. but I agree, if people could be responsible to clear out any crap, as far as they know, in their sharing file/s... e.g. half-songs; and tracks with those horrible sound bubbles, that are like squeaks, but esp. the first sort!
My problem is -there's no way I can find to share my other music file! (I am only sharing one file at the moment while this other, growing one is going to waste for others!)Can anyone tell me how to add another file to share!?
I've asked S/seek (-twice!), but they haven't got back to me!
Enjoy autumn, music travellers!

First, I know this is a very, very old thread. Second, I've been sharing on Soulseek forever. Here is my take: It's called sharing, not trading. We should not expect any sort of "payment" for sharing, even if that "payment" is simply someone else offering files to share. If you demand payment, let that payment be the good feeling you deserve to get from sharing with everyone.

Next point, we all had to start somewhere. Like it or not, there was a day when you and me had exactly zero digital music files. Even though we had none, someone else let us "share" their files.

Some of us have lots of files, lots of bandwidth, lots of computing power, and so on. Lets volunteer those extra resources to help the entire music community. In particular, since we are never losing anything, we are only letting others take a copy of "our" files, which of course are rarely or never actually "ours" to begin with.

I speak from the point of view of a long time slsk user that freely shares, my full bandwidth (unless the roommates are watching netflix :). I did check the box that sends the "youre not sharing..." message, and I found that many new users are simply unaware of how to go about sharing. But I still let them download from me.

Music should be free for all to hear, and Soulseek is the answer. When we teach our children to share, are they instructed to only offer their toy to another child who can give them a toy in return?

Finally, the RIAA has viciously and evilly attacked people, even children, with brutally oppressive law suits for uploading a few songs. I just can't blame anyone for fearing the attention of their legal departments.

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I think most new users will try and download something to test out soulseek before sharing any files. If they were to get instantly banned when ever they try and download something they will probably just uninstall soulseek. New users need to be encouraged so the population can grow. The auto warning message has been quite successful for me with many new users messaging me to say sorry and ask for help setting up a shared folder.

Users should be encouraged to share music rather than simply banned.

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Well, how about a feature you can set a special upload speed to users who dont share anything. The program checks if someone shares, if he/she does upload speed (500kbs) if he/she doesnt upload speed (25kbs)??