li99sh79, you win the prize. one newbie helping another!
thanks to all of you for your efforts, and trey at btetree.
i just needed to add the files instead of dragging them. i don't think you can just drag the whole thing over, instead you have to select all the individual ones. maybe i can give back by writing a coherent beginner's primer for flac (when and if i understand it better)
i think for now i'll give back to hipbase by posting a topic in the general hip discussion that i posted a few years ago and was very popular: gord's use of water imagery in the songs. it's been two albums i think since the post so it needs to be updated (not to mention solo albums, rants) thanks all!
oh and the concerts i got from btetree were the april 12th and 13th shows, forget where. not bad.

oh just one more thing...(i sound like columbo)

this should be a yes or no answer - if i want to upload the shows i just downloaded (so that the burden is spread out a little more and i'm not called a "leecher") can i just upload them as they are or do i have to go through all that stuff about checksum and other terms that are not in my dictionary?
if the answer is yes then i'll be a great help to the etree community. if the answer is no, then i'll never download again because there is absolutely no way i'll be able to learn all that computerese. the FAQ at btetree only tells you how to seed shows that are in a raw unedited form, which i'm sure i'll never possess. they don't think to tell you how to simply share the shows that are already there (share the burden of hosting them), unless that info is somewhere else on the site. for all i know my hip concerts are already available to people. i have no idea how this stuff works.

johno wrote:li99sh79, you win the prize. one newbie helping another!
thanks to all of you for your efforts, and trey at btetree.
i just needed to add the files instead of dragging them. i don't think you can just drag the whole thing over, instead you have to select all the individual ones.

I drag and drop them - every time, and it always works. I've got three Macs that I use regularly (iMac G5, MacMini Core Duo, MacBookPro) and never have any issue.

johno wrote:oh just one more thing...(i sound like columbo)

this should be a yes or no answer - if i want to upload the shows i just downloaded (so that the burden is spread out a little more and i'm not called a "leecher") can i just upload them as they are or do i have to go through all that stuff about checksum and other terms that are not in my dictionary?
if the answer is yes then i'll be a great help to the etree community. if the answer is no, then i'll never download again because there is absolutely no way i'll be able to learn all that computerese. the FAQ at btetree only tells you how to seed shows that are in a raw unedited form, which i'm sure i'll never possess. they don't think to tell you how to simply share the shows that are already there (share the burden of hosting them), unless that info is somewhere else on the site. for all i know my hip concerts are already available to people. i have no idea how this stuff works.

Here is the basic rundown...

1. Open your Bit Torrent program.
2. Download the .torrent file for the show that you want.
3. Open the .torrent file with your Bit Torrent program, choose the save location and start downloading.
4. When your download completes, DO NOT stop the process. Keep your Bit Torrent program running. This is how you share what you have just downloaded.

Most/all Bit Torrent programs show you a ratio of what you downloaded vs. what you uploaded on a specific torrent. If this number is less than 1.0 you are not doing your part. If it is greater than 1.0 you are giving more than you are taking.

Make sense?

johno wrote:oh just one more thing...(i sound like columbo)

this should be a yes or no answer - if i want to upload the shows i just downloaded (so that the burden is spread out a little more and i'm not called a "leecher") can i just upload them as they are or do i have to go through all that stuff about checksum and other terms that are not in my dictionary?
if the answer is yes then i'll be a great help to the etree community. if the answer is no, then i'll never download again because there is absolutely no way i'll be able to learn all that computerese. the FAQ at btetree only tells you how to seed shows that are in a raw unedited form, which i'm sure i'll never possess. they don't think to tell you how to simply share the shows that are already there (share the burden of hosting them), unless that info is somewhere else on the site. for all i know my hip concerts are already available to people. i have no idea how this stuff works.

When you finish downloading a show, you automatically go from leecher to seeder (because you now are a seed for the entire show). If you don't disconnect from the tracker, you will keep uploading as long as others are still downloading.

If you have turned off your bitTorrent program and want to share again later, as long as you still have the original files you downloaded, you should be able to re-open the torrent, and point your bitTorrent program to the files you downloaded, to resume seeding.

If you have deleted the original downloaded files or renamed them, you cannot go return as a seeder. Even if you decompressed them to .wav, then deleted the .flacs, you cannot recompress them to .flac and seed, because the files have been altered.

Whenever I download a show, I burn a copy of the files exactly as they came in, to my backup discs, then I can make mp3s (for myself) or burn audio cds after that. This way, if later on, somebody is looking for a seeder on a particular show, I can simply put the original files back onto my computer, and help seed.

Also, if you are thinking of uploading a show from one torrent site to another, just double check that somebody else hasn't already done it. If that's the case, you may be able to seed on the 2nd tracker as well, as long as the uploader hasn't changed the original files either.

Hope this helps.

chris, i think this is the problem i was having: i was trying to drag the 1 file representing the whole show instead of the individual songs (which i still was able to convert all at once using select all and add). i didn't even know there WERE individual songfiles until someone told me to add. people told me to drag "the file" which naturally meant to me the file that pops up in the bt window when it downloads. look, i speak the language with precision and when i say i lack a fundamental understanding of this, i ain't kidding!

as to whether i'm connected to the btorrent, no idea. i figure it's connected when i'm downloading, so i'll keep downloading! i wouldn't have the slightest idea how to disconnect from it, save deleting it or turning off my modem. maybe this last part is explained on the btetree site, and i'll go have a look. thanks

Chris.
Thank you for the info on the Switch porgram http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
I finished downloading that hip demo tape the other day in .flac format and figured I was fucked.
But you saved me with that above mentioned program.
It was so easy I figured I had to be doing something wrong, but alas it was just straight forward and worked like a charm.
Now im listening to "She didnt know" This tape has very good sound.
Thanks again.
Wesley