(Edit: I'm a GENIUS and misspelled the title. Oh well. You know what I meant.)
So, we all like One Piece, right? Well, I have a crazy idea. Why not try to get direct downloads of One Piece eps set up?
Crazy idea?
You tell me.
I know that Anime-Elite/ADC-Heaven have direct downloads, but people seem to prefer Gerusama, and some people haven't gotten that far and/or keep up with K-F for other reasons.
First of all, BitTorrent has never liked me, so it takes over a week to download a new episode. This is a torture no one deserves! Bleach fans, on the other hand (yeah, I'm talking to you), have places like bleachportal with wonderful direct downloads that take even my poor little connection mere minutes to download.
Why, oh why can there not be such a luxury for One Piece fans?
Well, why not?
Correct me if I'm wrong, for my server-savvy has not been exercised for… many years.
I have roughly 443 GB of bandwidth a month that I'm paying for and totally not using. The average OP episode, say, ranges from 200-250 MB. Let's play conservative and say I have 440 GB and an episode is 250 MB. According to my calculator (and using not powers of 10 but of 2 as the correct units), 430 GB = 450,560 MB. Taking that and dividing it by the average episode: 450,560 MB / 250KB = 1,802.24 so 1,800 downloads of an episode, give or take, a month. That's about 58 downloads a day. (That's a very conservative estimate, since most OP eps don't make it to 250MB, and many hover closer to 200 MB. Using that, 450,560 MB / 200 KB = 2,252.8, which is 72 downloads a day for a long month.)
In addition, my bandwidth allotment grows by 3 GB a week. Once again conservatively, that's 12 GB a month (more accurately, 152 GB a year) which means 48 more downloads each month - cumulative! So (this is all with the conservative version), that's 1,800 downloads the first month, 1,848 the next, 1,896 the next, etc. If I keep this up for as long as I have my domain (two years, and I foresee little other use for it that has any significant bandwidth associated), that gives me 312 GB extra , or another 1,270 downloads a month. (With the less conservative - 200 MB eps - numbers, that amounts to 1,590 downloads.)
If people were willing to donate $8 a month (TOTAL, not per person or anything), I can add 120 GB bandwidth, 240 GB for $16, etc. That means that if you reached the max bandwidth usage the first month (not counting all the extra buildup I just went through), then each of those 1,800 people would have had to donate $0.005 to keep the place running (which is absurd). Heck if 8 kind souls gave a dollar, then no worries ^_^
Sound reasonable for the sub-watching fandom? Keep in mind we're talking about just one episode so far, not many different ones, and that there will likely be a big rush at first that peters out a little while after each release.
So if I devote the vast majority of my bandwidth to keeping up direct downloads of OP eps, I'd say conservatively that at least 1,800 downloads a month is OK (that's about 58 per day). This leaves me plenty of safety room to play around with other stuff like my drawings and such. Also, there's always the bandwidth throttle, which should at least minimize the amount of fines I'm slapped with XD
So here's the plan:
I start slow and just put up a direct download only of the latest released episode by, say... Gerusama, because I get the impression that there's fewer people keeping up with them than with K-F, and I need a safe little sandbox to start out in. I keep the episode up at least until their next release. Judging by how things went up to that point, I may take down the earlier ep and only keep the very latest up. It all depends on how rabid people are.
This would, of course, have to be done with the full consent of the fansub group, whichever it is. I'd be happy to just have a link from their site point to my direct download, or I could keep a portal of my own with clearly marked credit given to whoever did the subbing.
Now, I know GS at least has an IRC channel where you apparently can also get their eps. I myself have never used IRC, though I have a very rough familiarity with it. I also love BTs for their flexibility, but abhor the slowness. For me, at least, this situation will soon be fixed with a brand spanking new Internet connection. However, I am sure there's many an OP fan out there who aren't into the IRC scene and could benefit from direct downloads.
I have no clue how IRC distro works. Gerusama has this to say on their recruitment page:
Recruiting irc distro members with max upload speed 300 kb/s or more. Plz check your upload speed before pm to any of the ops. Pm's will be ignored if u don't say your upload speed or u have upload speed below 300 kb/s. Ppl who have lower upload speed doesn't have to pm, just share. Right now, we need fast distro members in North America, Asia and Australia. Thanks in advance.
I have no idea how that particular process works, so I don't know if my services would be better used that way. FYI, I'm in North America, one of their requested locations. If you have any information that might help, let me know.
So basically, there it is. I would love your input.
A quick summary:
- I have about 443 GB of bandwidth available to me per month. At a very conservative estimate, that's at least 1,800 downloads of an OP episode a month. (A less paranoid estimate is actually closer to 2,250 downloads, but I'm trying to play conservative here.)
- The amount of bandwidth I have grows by 3 GB every week, so these stats will only get better with time.
- There is a throttle function that will keep me from overstepping my bounds too much.
- I would plan to keep at least the latest release from a subbing group up until the next ep comes out. Depending on how usage goes, eps may stay up longer than that, but it should at least help stem the tide.
- Gerusama has a request out for irc distros and I'm not sure if I can help. People who know more about IRCs, please let me know.
Other points:
- Yes, I know I could just seed BTs to warm my heart, but I can't seed BitTorrents myself right now. I will in a couple of weeks when I move and get my new Internet connection.
- If this does work out and people find it popular, I may put up a donations link, because then I would be able to get more bandwidth. Alternatively, if it goes reasonably and I have some spare cash lying around, I can take care of that myself as a Christmas present (or whatever) to the OP fan community, because it's awesome. To add 120 GB of bandwidth a month, it would only require $8 total in donations a month!
- My dearest ambition for this project (besides just getting the episodes to rabid, desperate fans like me): I would LOVE it if some awesome people used the direct download and then seeded the eps, so that those people for whom BT is a reasonable option can comfortably stick to that, leaving the way clear for those people for whom direct downloading is by far and away the best choice. If it appears that people are not using the downloads responsibly, or there's simply too much traffic, I might institute a password-protect so that a limited number of people who are good seeders can definitely get the eps quickly so that there's a nice, large seeding pool. I don't know, I've never tried this before!
So. Let me know what you think.
Also, an idea for a terribly uncelever domain name, since I get one free anyway: Will of DD? As in Will of D (Monkey D. Luffy et al) but Direct Downloads = DD? That would be something like
http://www.willofdd.com
easy enough to remember, right?
