FAQ

Site information

We intend to be the 1st stop for torrents for: The Essential Mix, The Breezeblock, Kiss FM, XFM, Worldwide, BTTB, One World, Blue Room, The Milk Run, Solid Steel, Annie On One and much more... Before you do anything here we suggest you have a look at the rules.

What is this BitTorrent all about anyway? How do I get the files?

The idea behind Bittorrent is the SHARING of files. As you download a file you will also upload the parts you already have to help others. Bittorrent only works because other users like you are also sharing the files so please be considerate and leave the files open in your bittorrent client for as long as you can. The site will keep track of your sharing ratio, the more you share the more music you have access to.

If you are new to BitTorrent then you will be advised to have a look at the very good guide to BitTorrent which explains how BitTorrent works and how to get started.

For a BitTorrent client we recommend using Azureus or uTorrent. Both clients keep track of all your torrents for you, making it easier to seed and maintain a decent ratio.

Where does the donated money go?

All donated money goes towards hosting the site.

How does the auto ban/warning system work?

Auto warnings

Every day we automatically issue warnings to any account who has downloaded 1.5gb and has a ratio of 0.3 or less. The account then has a warning flag issued recording the date and account statistics when the warning was issued. The following PM is send to the account by the system:

WARNING FROM ADMINS - READ OR BE BANNED... wrote:

 You are receiving this autowarning because you have a VERY poor ratio.
 This site is a community that requires all members to SHARE.
 Using bittorrent while you download you also upload.
 The easiest way to maintain your ratio is to stay seeding the file after you have 
 downloaded it until you have at least a ratio of 1.
 You now have 30 days to make a significant improvement on your ratio or you will be banned from the site.
 If your ratio gets worse you will be banned a lot sooner.
 Because you have to increase your ratio you should read idea's for how to do this here.
 If you have any questions AFTER READING THE FAQ and EXISTING help threads we have a 
 support forum you can ask for help in here.
 Good luck, we hope you are still with us in 30 days.

Auto bans

Every day we automatically ban any account which has been warned for over 30 days and whose ratio is still 0.3 or worse.

We also monitor the accounts currently flagged with a warning and will ban any one who is trying to download lots before the auto ban or whose ratio has gotten worse since the warning.

Other non-ratio related warnings can be issued by the admin team for abusive behaviour, persistent commercial uploads etc.

How does your RSS feed work?

Use the url : http://themixingbowl.org/rss.php?user=username&pass=password

Substitute your own username and password for the username and password above.

You can also restrict your feed to particular categories or genres of torrent by adding to the above url. Here are some examples:

Just category 9 (Breezeblock)

&cat=9

Categories 7, 10 and 18 (BTTB, Solid Steel and Annie Mac)

&cat=1|2|3

Genre 11 (Techno)

&gen=11

For torrents in category 7 or 10 AND genre 11 (Techno aired on BTTB or Solid Steel)

&cat=7|10&gen=11

For torrents in category 7 or 10 OR genre 11 (Techno or BTTB or Solid Steel)

&cat=7|10&gen=11&anor=or - torrents from (cat 1 or 2) OR (gen 3)

Or any combination of. To find out which categories use which numbers hover over the listings on the torrents page.

See also : How do I set up Azureus to auto download torrents?

How can I contact an admin?

Use this link to send a question to the admin team, this will be answered by any available admin.

If you message an admin you see online directly you may not get a response especially if your question is already covered in the FAQ.

User information

I registered an account but did not receive the confirmation e-mail!

You can use this form to delete the account so you can re-register. Note though that if you didn't receive the email the first time it will probably not succeed the second time either so you should really try another email address.

I've lost my user name or password! Can you send it to me?

Please use this form to have the login details mailed back to you.

Can you rename my account?

Possibly. Send a message to the admin team explaining why using this link.

Can you delete my (confirmed) account?

You can do it yourself by using this form.

So, what's MY ratio?

You can view your ratio by searching for your username in the Members page, clicking your name on your Profile page will also take you to your user details. Your ratio is displayed near the top of the page.

It's important to distinguish between your overall ratio and the individual ratio on each torrent you may be seeding or leeching. The overall ratio takes into account the total uploaded and downloaded from your account since you joined the site. The individual ratio just indicates the values for each torrent.

You may see two symbols instead of a number: "Inf.", which is just an abbreviation for Infinity, and means that you have downloaded 0 bytes while uploading a non-zero amount (ul/dl becomes infinity); "---", which should be read as "non-available", and shows up when you have both downloaded and uploaded 0 bytes (ul/dl = 0/0 which is an indeterminate amount).

Why is my IP displayed on my details page?

Only you and the site moderators can view your IP address and email. Regular users do not see that information.

Help! I cannot login!? (a.k.a. Login of Death)

This problem sometimes occurs with MSIE. Close all Internet Explorer windows and open Internet Options in the control panel. Click the Delete Cookies button. You should now be able to login.

Why is my port number reported as "---"? (And why should I care?)

The tracker has determined that you are firewalled or NATed and cannot accept incoming connections. This means that other peers in the swarm will be unable to connect to you, only you to them. Even worse, if two peers are both in this state they will not be able to connect at all. This will slow down your torrents so it's in your best interests to fix it.

Have a read of the How to become connectable page or lookup your router on portforward.com).

What are the different user classes?

User	The default class of new members.
User*	Has donated money to themixingbowl.org.
Uploader	Allowed to upload torrents. For information on how to become an Uploader please see the uploading section of the FAQ.
Other	Customised title. Only an Administrator can customize someones title.
Resident	User who has contributed to the site. To become a Resident you must meet BOTH the following criteria: Have to be registered on the site for more than 3 months Have a ratio of 1.0+ And at least ONE of the following criteria: Over 200 forum posts Uploaded over 20 individual torrents Uploaded over 100GB Have donated any amount
Moderator	Can edit and delete any uploaded torrents. Can also moderate usercomments and disable accounts.
Administrator	Can do just about anything.
SysOp	coptang (site owner).

Hey! I've seen a Resident with less than 100GB uploaded!

Members who make an outstanding contribution to The Mixing Bowl may be promoted to Resident before they meet all the normal criteria.

How do I add an avatar to my profile?

You can set your avatar from your Profile page.

You will need to find somewhere to host your avitar as we don not allow members to upload their avatar directly to The Mixing Bowl. Some places where you can host your avatar are Photobucket, Upload-It! or ImageShack.

Please make sure you avatar is safe for work and is less that 100 KB in size.

Can I become an admin?

No. I'm afraid getting to be an admin by asking is not possible on themixingbowl.

Uploading

Why can't I upload torrents?

Only specially authorized users (Uploaders) have permission to upload torrents.

What criteria must I meet before I can join the Uploader team?

Any member can become an uploader. In order to join the uploader group you must post in this thread to signify that you've read the rules about what kind of torrents are allowed (no commercial releases!).

Once you've done this an admin will add you to the uploaders group. This is a manual process so please allow a few days for this to happen. You will be sent a PM to confirm when your account has been upgraded.

General Uploaders Etiquette (Uploading Guidelines)

• There are over 2,000 members here with uploading privelidges. You are not more important than anyone else.
• There are over 15,000 torrents in the database. Your upload is not more important than any other.
• Don't immediately upload lots of torrents after becoming an uploader; you will probably cock things right up and create a mess. Take it easy and ask in the forums if you get stuck andf your answer isn't covered here.
• Only upload 2 torrents at a time. Wait until they are well seeded by a few other people before you move onto more.
• Name your torrent and folder to be uploaded according the the guidelines.

How to attract more downloaders to your torrents

• Name/Title your upload clearly & according to our guidelines.
• Provide a good description including your method of capture if you are uploading a radio show or live set.
• If you are uploading a cd learn how to rip with EAC and encode it correctly with the lame setting '-V 2 --vbr-new'.
• Include a Tracklist if at all possible (you can often find them by searching google).
• Use sensible names for the folder and files to be uploaded.
• If possible include a .cue sheet.
• Seed it until there are a few other seeders.

Common mistakes made by new uploaders

• SHOUTING IN YOUR TITLES.
• @@>>!!??# or other useless characters in your title (aka ebay idiot syndrome).
• Useless folder title (always include the artist name, mix title and date if it is a radio show or live dj set).
• Useless info in the title, e.g. (OMG GREAT MIX!)
• Including your username in the title, filename or main file tags (comment tag is ok)
• CDs ripped with mediaplayer/itunes or other non gapless compliant applications.
• Uploading a single mp3 instead of uploading inside a clearly named folder.
• Uploading a mix then not seeding for a day (wait to upload if you can't seed for some time).
• If you have 2 parts put them in a folder and upload as one, DO NOT upload 2 separate torrents
• Forgetting to include the site .nfo file.
• Incorrect choice of category or genre.

IMPORTANT:

• If you have made any of these mistakes and an admin notices it they will ban (remove) your torrent. If any other member thinks your torrent hasn't followed the uploading guidlines they can report it (which will bring it to the attention of the admin team). If you have already had uploads banned the admin may revoke your uploading privileges. It will be harder for you to regain your uploader status as you will have to demonstrate an understanding of the guidelines and a willingness to follow them.
• If you have made these mistakes on any of your uploads don't panic. You can edit your own torrent including any of the details, you can also delete your own torrent. You should only delete your torrent if it can't be edited for example when you didn't upload inside a folder or had a useless filename, in this case you will need to make the corrections and upload again. To edit or delete a torrent view the torrent details (not the forum topic) and click [Edit this torrent].
• If you see a torrent you feel isn't up to scratch you should report it using the link provided in the forum thread . You could tell the uploader in the thread if it is something easily fixable, like incorrect genre or category, but don't start any flaming with abusive comments!

How should I title my torrent? [torrent naming guidelines]

Properly naming your torrent is VERY important. It makes the forum and torrent list much easier to view when there is a uniform list of names.

Most importantly it makes it MUCH easier for the admin team to pull out data. For example we will have YYYY - MM - DD drop down selections and separate artist/title fields on the upload page at some stage. If all the torrents were named as below we could automatically pull the information from the titles.

So whilst naming of your files and folders is to some degree down to personal preference we are going to enforce the torrent naming guidelines.

The date must always be in the form YYYY-MM-DD eg 2005-11-21 being the 21st of November 2005. Any other method can lead to confusion with the month and day.

Use a shortened version of the radio name where possible so that the titles fit the forum view. For Example: EM = Essential Mix BB = Breezeblock AOO = Annie On One ES = Essential Selection BR = Blue Room AM = Annie Mac BTTB = Back To The Basics KISS = Kiss 100 JP = John Peel / Peel Sessions OW = One World SS = Solid Steel TR = The Residency

Radio Shows must be named %date%-%month%-%day% - %show title% - %artist%[ - %title][, %comment%] For example:

2006-03-11 - EM - Pete Tong and Col Hamilton, Live at Lush Northern Ireland

Live sets must be named %artist% - %title% - %date%-%month%-%day% For example:

Sander Kleinenberg - Live at Villa, Lima, Peru - 2006-02-22

Studio/Promo, Video and misc. Mixes must be named %artist% - %title% For example:

Kutski - Back To The Oldskool

Readers mixes must be named %artist% - %title% (use your username as artist if you want people to remember what it was after downloading). For example:

Wicked Lizard - Keep Prepared fo the Breaks Part II

For a megapack we either want the artist or radio show name followed by a usefull title. For example:

Essential Mix - 2004 The Complete Year
Solid Steel 1999
DJ Yoda - Mixtape Collection 

Why have I been demoted back to a user from uploader status?

There are a number of reasons you might have been demoted to user from uploader or resident. These include (but are not limited to):

• Uploading commercial releases
• Uploading stream rips
• Persistently uploading poorly classified torrents
• Uploads not following the naming guidelines

What will happen if I ignore any of the uploading guidelines?

The upload will be deleted, and if you do it persistently you will be demoted. If you persistently upload commercial releases or argue with an admin you will probably be banned as well.

Can I upload the new blahblahblah music video?

No, music video's are treated the same as single songs and are not allowed. vj mixes, mashups etc are normally ok, if you are in any doubt at all ask before uploading.

Can I upload a stream rip?

See the Internet Radios page for rules about uploading internet radio streams.

Can I upload your torrents to other trackers and/or share them with my friends?

No. Each torrent you download from here contains a unique ID linking it to your account. If other people try to download using the same torrent they will mess up your stats, which could result in you getting banned.

However, the files you download from us are yours to do as you please. You can always create another torrent, pointing to some other tracker, and upload it to the site of your choice. We only ask that you include themixingbowl.org .nfo file to spread the word.

How do I create a torrent?

Firstly you will need a bit torrent client there are many to choose from but one which is used most by people on this website is Azureus, and this tutorial will be written using this program.

1. Right now to create a torrent firstly sort the files you wish to share and place them in to a new folder appropriately named for example Show - Artist - Date. Include in this directory as much information as possible in a text file, for example the tracklist of the mix. Also include themixingbowl nfo file which can be found here, this helps other people find where they got the file from so that we can get more members.
2. Now open Azureus and go to file --> Create a torrent, this will open this window and fill in the information as shown:

   Announce URL = http://themixingbowl.org/announce.php this is also known as the tracker on other programs. Place in the comment www.themixingbowl.org

3. The next step asks to point to the directory where you have placed all your files.
4. This step asks for the name of the torrent to be created just leave it the same as the folder you have created. It also asks for piece size just leave this as auto. Pressing finish creates the torrent.
5. Next you need to go to the upload page. You may need to ask to become an uploader, you can do this here.
6. Go to the site and log in and go to upload a torrent following the instructions and place as much information in the description and also select a type, genre and forum to put the file in.
7. Then you need to find the torrent file you just uploaded on the site and download the file for seeding.
8. It is advisable to replace the torrent file you originally created (i.e. the one you just uploaded) with the new one that you have just downloaded.
9. Open the newly downloaded torrent file in Azureus (or simply double-click it) and then browse (using Azureus) to the location of the folder that you created the torrent from.
10. Sit back, watch everyone uploading from you and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.