A Beginners Guide to Trading

A Beginners Guide to Trading.

I. General Trading Etiquette - The trading world runs on people who tape, produce, and spread shows. It is very important to respect people within the community, and especially their wishes when it comes to their shows. 90% of tapers do not wish to have their shows converted to and traded in MP3 format. Some people see this stance as being stubborn or elitist, but when you spend hundreds of dollars on a rig to tape, and go through the trouble of sneaking that rig in, and go through the trouble of taping the show, and then make it available to everyone, it is not unreasonable to ask that people who trade the show, trade it in it's best possible form. Also, it's important to respect peoples wishes concerning their shows, because if they see that their wishes are not being followed, they will be less inclined to share their recordings in the future.

II. Trading Guidelines
A. How to burn discs (CD) - When trading live audio shows to CD, it is absolutely crucial to burn disc at once (DAO). As compared to track at once (TAO) this does not leave a two second gap between shows. Anyone who gets a TAO disc is in the right to ask for a DAO replacement, or another show in its place. Also, to prevent burn errors two important guidelines must be followed. One, burn at a slow speed. The slower you burn, the less chance of an error. Don't burn directly from SHN/FLAC/APE to CD. This will greatly increase your chances of a burn error.
B. How to burn discs (DVD) - Once again, burn slowly. Also, verify the burn.
C. Type of media used - You should never use Maxell or Memorex. These are the least two reliable brands of media. Although Taiyo Yuden, Fuji and Sony are preferred, most traders will accept others as well.
D. Sending via mail - NEVER send jewel cases in the mail. They increase package weight, and are prone to breaking. Either send in single paper CD sleeves, or the plastic double CD sleeves.

III. Generally accepted methods of trading.
A. Mail trading - Most basic and widely done method of trading. Two people arrange a trade via email, or private message for usually an equal number of discs, or less often an equal number of shows. The person who initiated the trade sends out their package first to the other person. Once that person gets in the package, and verifies its contents, he will send his package out to the other person. On either end it is proper to replace bad burns, incorrect shows sent, or other errors as quickly as possible. For people who have traded before without problem, in future trades they will usually send at the same time.
B. Blanks and Postage (B+P) - Most traders will to either B+P's, or 2:1's to help beginning traders out. A B+P is done by sending discs with a return mailer and postage. A great guide can be found here, http://www.mcnichol.com/bnp/.
C. 2:1 - This is like a B+P, but instead of providing a return package and postage, you just send 2 discs for every 1 you want back. The other person keeps those discs to cover the cost of shipping back. Some traders do 2:1 B+P, which means you would have to provide both 2 discs for every 1, and return postage.
D. Vines - Basically a vine starter offers up shows. People then sign up in order for the vine. Often the vine starter will have multiple sections to the vine, such as USA/Canada, and ROW. First person to sign up will email/PM vine starter their address. Everyone else sends their address to the person above them. The vine starter then sends out to the first person on the list. That person simply copies the disc and then sends on to the next person.
D. Torrents - Torrents are run on sites like www.dimeadozen.org (DIME) for single shows at a time. You will need a torrent client like uTorrent. What is important with torrenting is upload ratio. This is the amount you upload compared to the amount you download. The longer you seed, and the faster your upload, the better your ratio will be, and it is good to try for a 1:1 ratio on all torrents, and certainly overall.
1. Getting a DIME account - Dime has currently reached it's member limit. However it prunes inactive users every 10 minutes, so if you try to re-submit your application every few minutes, you will eventually get an account. This can take hours, so it's advised you be doing something else to pass the time.
E. DC++ - A DC++ hub is different from torrents in many different ways, and different hubs often have very different rules, however they are all similar in a few ways. First in a hub, single shows are not being shared at a time. All of a persons shows gotten from DC++ are to be shared, available to everyone. And unlike torrents, which are a big orgy of sorts, a hub in DC (Direct Connect) is much more community oriented. Instead of ratio, hard drive disc space is most valued. You can download whatever DT show you want, all that is asked is that you share it back, and have that show available for everyone else. Also with DC++ it's preferred you leave on your PC/DC++ as much as possible. If someone from here is interested in joining the Dream Theater Lossless DC++ hub, PM me, if I think you could be a good addition there, we can work from there.

IV. Useful links/downloads
Blank and Postage guide - http://www.mcnichol.com/bnp/

DC++ FAQ (works for many BCDC++ questions as well) - http://www.dslreports.com/faq/dc

BCDC++ Download - http://www.nickeh.com/software/BCDCPlusPlus-0.698a.7z
Client used to access hubs, including the Dream Theater Lossless hub.

uTorrent Download - http://www.nickeh.com/software/utorrent.exe
Torrent client that will allow you to run torrent files.

Port Forwarding Help - http://www.portforward.com/help/pfprogression.htm
Site provides info on how to forward ports from your router to things such as torrent clients and DC++ clients.

DBPowerAmp Download w/ SHN, FLAC, and APE codecs - http://www.nickeh.com/software/dbpoweramp.rar
Program will allow you to convert from SHN, FLAC, and APE to WAV and vise versa.

Winamp Download w/ SHN, FLAC, and APE plug-ins - http://www.nickeh.com/software/winamppackage.rar
Program will allow you to listen to SHN, FLAC, APE, and WAV files on your computer.

WinRar Download - http://www.nickeh.com/software/wrar351.exe
Program allows you to run .rar and .zip files.

Torrent Sites
www.dimeadozen.org
www.bootcity.org
www.jamtothis.com
www.thetradersden.org

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FAQ

This section will be used to answer questions posed in this thread.

FAQ: What is port forwarding?

A full description can be found here- http://www.portforward.com/help/pfprogression.htm