this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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The only people in the chat seem to be the most racist, homophobic, sexist scumbags. It's like walking into a 4chan convention.. is that you guys? Why is it as soon as anonymity is there, the fucking assholes come out?

If this is the general spirit of piracy, I don't know if I'm interested

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

i don't go into the chat rooms, but i get about one dm a week from some rando or another who's downloaded something from me thanking me for having whatever shit from 30 years ago they haven't heard in forever, it's honestly been a pretty positive experience overall for me.

like this lad last night

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I always thank folks for obscure shit, and then add them to my friends list, open up my whole media library to them, and put them on a priority download list in exchange.

I generally only share music because I have slow upload speeds but I make exceptions for people I am grabbing media from

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Did that a few times as well.
Hope it feels rewarding :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This tbh. The few messages I got were all thank you messages.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

why would you use soulseek for chat

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

My philosophy is that slsk is for the downloads, not the conversation.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Every unmoderated internet space is destined to look like that. Just use it for music sharing and you won't even know the chat is there.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Correct. Reason being:

  • bigoted user keeps getting banned everywhere he goes
  • needs somewhere to express his hateful opinions
  • unmoderated chatroom
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Lots of crossover between 4chan and the general piracy community. First place I actually heard about soulseek was on the 4chan music board. I don't really go there anymore. So yeah, its 4channers thinking they're in good company.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For the record, I have not noticed this as "piracy in general", no. Malware, dubious claims, dubious quality, dubious people, "extra information" that's undesirable? Sure, they all happen, that's part of the whole "get shit for free" deal. People are dipshits and I get how that's really annoying. But... aren't you in it for the free shit? Do you need to engage with the community much?

Racist, sexist, homophobic (etc. - god knows it's a long enough list) are generally "edgy" and therefore automatically hysterically funny to a bunch of people - teenagers and others who might be well represented in piracy for whatever reason. Hell, some of that shit is funny even if you ethically oppose it 100%.

You don't need to participate, agree or approve, just get what you came for and leave the edgelords to their edgelording.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

17:40:13 [weezzee] IM HAXOR 😎️ 17:44:36 [weezzee] NOW ITS TIME TO WATCH THE MASK ON REPEAT AND MEMORIZE ALL THE LINES SO I CAN BECOME MORE LIKE THE MASK IN MY DAY TO DAY LIFE

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I ethically oppose this

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That's honestly super fair. I haven't really participated in piracy since my teenage days, and back then i might have found it funny as well.

It probably really comes down to the fact that teenagers have no money.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Don't go in the chatrooms except for private ones is my rule for soulseek for exactly this reason.

If you ignore the chatrooms, you should still be able to use it effectively.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I don't even know why there's a chat room function in it. I never use it tbh

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah I would just stay clear of the chat. There's plenty of normal people on the network, it's just they don't use the chat either. I've met some cool folks through DM's though.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You've encountered Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Phenomenon - basically, if you take an average person and remove accountability for their actions, a significant subset of them will turn out to be total dickwads. Much like how lactic acid bacteria will render their environment acidic so that other bacteria cannot thrive, it takes a shockingly small percentage of total dickwads to render an environment so toxic to regular people that the only people who thrive there are other dickwads.

The fact is that the majority of the community isn't like that, but because we exist at the fringes due to the semilegitimate nature of piracy there often isn't a lot of effort to keeping the community decent. Just do what most of us do, download and move on.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why don't the majority talk over the dickwads if they outnumber them? Why does it only take a few to mess everything up?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because why would I waste my time shouting at dickwads in some filthy corner of the internet, when I can just go to a space where they're not welcome? It's definitely better overall to stand up and fight but the fight never ends and it's exhausting. I definitely understand anyone who just wouldn't bother.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's true. sigh It's just rather frustrating that it only takes a few to ruin things for so many...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's only ruined if you actually want to engage in the chat. Use it for what it's for, and come get your community on Lemmy. Beehaw.org in particular is a smaller, more heavily moderated instance that might be the kind of space you're looking for. I keep an account there and on lemm.ee specifically so I can choose how much "freedom" I'd like to be exposed to depending on how I feel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I was referring to the Nicotine+ chat being ruined. I'm already on Beehaw, though it's not really about piracy-related stuff. It's nice though.

I'm not sure how much I'd even use Nicotine+, it doesn't have a lot of what I'm looking for. Just music. I tend to look for retro game stuff. I have all the No-Intro sets for older systems so I don't need stuff that's in those (except the private entries). It's hard to find stuff that isn't just in any No-Intro, GoodTools, or TOSEC set, unfortunately. I might use it to share stuff. Maybe eMule as well? I don't know. shrug

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Fear of association maybe?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's the internet. Youre going to run into people you don't like online. If you want to live in a coca cola commercial I hear there's a whole strip mall of multi billion dollar corporate websites you can use, stick to those.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Frankly I've grown tired of that attitude towards online things, that toxic and hateful behavior should just be something thats expected on the internet. Granted, I've done my time in places like 4chan and am completely able to tune it out. I shouldn't have to bathe myself in that toxic environment just to be able to participate in an online space though. This blase attitude from the neutral online that "its the internet, what did you expect" is precisely what allows fascist and xenophobic communities to grow and thrive unchallenged. I'm just tired of the bullshit. So tired.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

You have a choice of where you go and what you do, if you dislike something then don't go there. I never used 4chan or similar and ignoring it is easy for me you just have to stop caring so much

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't like communists, or leftists in general. I find that theyre hateful, snarky, they enjoy watching people suffer, they dehumanize their political opponents, theyre disingenuous most of the time, they want to control your thoughts and how you fuck your wife and most of them are incognito racist. But I'm on the internet. I'm here, on Lemmy. Why? Because I want to see this project succeed. I don't want to go on Instagram and Facebook, I don't want some sterile environment where all anyone talks about is the weather and the new flavor of Ben and Jerry's.

If you don't want to hang out in spaces where people you don't like hang out, don't. If it gives you nothing of value feel free. But the internet is public, so it mirrors the world. These are our friends, family members, neighbors, the people we used to talk to at the sandwich joint before everyone had headphones in all the time. I don't want to experience the world through a fucking condom.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey man, I don't want to see the internet become sanitized either. I just don't think hate should get dismissed as "the internet being the internet". Also, I hope you don't assume I'm a communist or something, tankies are just Nazis with a red coat of paint.

Speaking of nazis, my mistake in assuming you were relatively neutral.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hahahahaha have fun digging in my butthole.

I said I don't like leftists, I don't know where you got the idea that I was neutral. But I don't like Nazis either (real Nazis, not what leftists call Nazis which is everyone and everything), that meme makes a scary point to me, reactionaries breed reactionaries kind of thing. One day one of them is going to be arguing with me on the internet and go digging in my butthole, find this dialogue and screenshot it like it's some kind of win.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I recently used Soulseek for the first time and it's been great but those chat rooms are shit. Honestly though I'm not using it for chat so after I checked it out and made the same discovery you did, I decided there was nothing to gain there anyway.

Piracy in general is a pretty mixed bag but I don't think those chatrooms represent the community at large. Usually the worst thing people in this community do is just refuse to be helpful. And there are a lot of very generous people who keep this whole thing going.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If this is the general spirit of piracy, I don't know if I'm interested

I don't use soulseek but no, I certainly wouldn't describe that attitude as the general spirit of piracy. I'm mostly familiar with the private torrent trackers. While I've certainly come across fascists (EMPRESS is a good example, they're pretty explicitly transphobic and include a bunch of slurs in their nfo's), I generally come across plenty of libs and even some anarchists and communists. And based on events and how the private trackers are moderated, the staff, at least on the sites I use, they seem pretty alright. For example, I know of at least a couple trackers that ran events for pride month.

And from hanging out in leftist spaces, they seem especially cool with piracy. They're anticapitalist after all, so it shouldn't be a surprise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Was recently in Blutopias Chatroom and genuinely had fun chatting there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have met many decent people in Aither chat, but have also seen a few edgelords, although that is a much rarer sighting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Didn't participate in Aither thus far. But let's be honest: Even in the best chat there will probably some edgelord. Either in hiding, plain sight or just flat out being one. It might as well be me unvoluntarily.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

My problem with Soulseek is that it only really has music. That's it. I'm more interested in stuff for retro game systems. Not just the stuff that's listed in No-Intro or some GoodSet, you can find those anywhere. I'm trying to find a site that has stuff that isn't just the same sets you see everywhere. But I can't find one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

it’s pretty widely known that its a toxic hellscape there, i’ve typically had great interactions with users in dm’s but the chatrooms have become overrun with toxicity and fascists over the past decade, it’s absolutely not representative of the online music community which is largely left leaning, even on p2p and piracy platforms

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i tried it for 10 minutes and nobody ever replied to me

also, anonymity? Isn't direct ip address connection, so easily traceable?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I guess there are also usernames...

Anonymity not needed i guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have a somewhat large share on Soulseek. It's fun to occasionally go through the chat rooms and ban all the blatant racists and homophobes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Welcome to chatrooms, they were always like this its just a lost phenomenon to most people especially those that didn't grow up with them. Ignore and move on is pretty standard practice, I'm on slskd and I've only gotten DMs not sure if it even has the chat enabled by default

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Nobody with sense uses the main Nicotine room.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Touch grass.