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Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. | Soulseek is a file-sharing (also called Peer to Peer or 'P2P') application and network used mostly to exchange music, although users are able to share a variety of files. It was created by Nir Arbel, a former Napster programmer. Like Napster, it relies on a central server located in Germany. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...
Image File history File links Slskicon. ...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1024x744, 60 KB)Screenshot of software program Soulseek version 156c This is a screenshot of copyrighted computer software, and the copyright for it is most likely held by the author(s) or the company that created the software. ...
In software engineering, software maintenance is the process of enhancing and optimizing deployed software (software release), as well as remedying defects. ...
A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ...
A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ...
// An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ...
Windows redirects here. ...
File sharing is the activity of making files available to other users for download over the Internet, but also over smaller networks. ...
A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ...
It has been suggested that closed source be merged into this article or section. ...
The term Freeware refers to gratis proprietary software with closed source. ...
A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML...
See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing is the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks. ...
A peer-to-peer based network. ...
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...
For the scientific and engineering discipline studying computer networks, see Computer networking. ...
Napster was a file sharing service that paved the way for decentralized P2P file-sharing programs such as Kazaa, Limewire, iMesh, Morpheus, and BearShare, which are now used for many of the same reasons and can download music, pictures, and other files. ...
In information technology, a server is an application or device that performs services for connected clients as part of a client-server architecture. ...
Userbase
The original Soulseek userbase was composed mostly of members of the IDM Mailing List, and most of the music first found on Soulseek was underground electronic music or music created by the users themselves. To this day, Soulseek remains a source for Avantgarde and underground independent music. Some artists without a label or who depend on word of mouth for the spread of their music use file sharing programs such as Soulseek to distribute their work. Intelligent dance music (commonly IDM) is a genre of electronic music derived from dance music of the 1980s and early 1990s which puts an emphasis on novel processing and sequencing. ...
For other uses, see Electronic music (disambiguation). ...
A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a military practice of deploying an Advanced Guard, a small troop of highly-skilled soldiers which would explore terrain ahead of a large advancing army and plot the course the army would follow. ...
An independent record label is variously described as a record label operating without the funding (or outside the organizations) of the major record labels, and/or a label that subscribes to indie philosophies such as DIY and anti-corporate art. ...
The user population has grown rapidly since its beginnings. In 2004, it was estimated that there were 1 million registered users. The Soulseek server went through a period of regularly crashing due to CPU overload, however a new server was set up in summer of 2004 and those problems would appear to remain largely a thing of the past. A second 'test' version of the server was also set up and can be connected to using a 'test' version of the client. “CPU†redirects here. ...
Content Soulseek has a diverse mix of music, including underground and independent artists and unreleased music such as demos and live tracks.
Soulseek Records Many of the original Soulseek users are also music producers, and Soulseek Records (also known as SLSK Records) was formed in 2002. This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...
Key Features
Central Server Soulseek depends on a pair of central servers (one supporting the original client, the other supporting a test/development client) for its operation. While these central servers are key to co-ordinating searches and hosting chatrooms, they do not actually play a part in the transfer of files between users which takes place directly between the users concerned. (See Single Source Downloads below). In information technology, a server is an application or device that performs services for connected clients as part of a client-server architecture. ...
Searching Users can search for items, the results returned being a list of files whose names match the search term used. Searches may be explicit or may use wildcards/patterns or terms to be excluded. For example, searching for blue suede -shoes will return a list of files whose names containing the strings blue and suede, but files containing the string shoes in their names will be excluded. The list of search results returned shows various details such as the full name of the file, the size of the file, the user who is hosting the file together with that users' average file transfer rate and in the case of mp3 files, brief details about the file itself such as bitrate, track length etc. The resulting search list may then be sorted in a variety of ways and individual files (or folders) chosen for download.
Single Source (One to One) Downloads Soulseek does not support multi-source downloading or "swarming" like other post-Napster clients, and must fetch a requested file from a single source. Swarming allows a requested file to be sourced from a number of users who have that file, thus pieces of the file may be downloaded concurrently from a number of sources typically giving improved performance. Soulseek has often been criticised for not offering multi-source downloads, however there is no indication from the software authors that this feature will be available in the future. DORIAN OKEREKE IKENNA! Come and take your meat! Dorians real name is Ikenna, so dont be fooled. ...
This direct one to one nature of file transfers in Soulseek is often a subject of criticism (for example in the user support forums) from users more used to the speed and resilience of multi-source downloads. Such single-source downloads are obviously more subject to the vagaries of the internet where the performance and reliablity a connection between two points can be impacted by any number of factors.
Chat/Community Soulseek hosts user-created chat rooms, of which most are dedicated to musical styles or geographical regions, and it is this that gives the system more of a community feel. Individual 'chat sessions' are also possible directly between two users, and the software features an 'ignore' facility should a user not wish to receive messages from another. The Soulseek client also allows the user to create what is essentially a 'buddy list'. Users on this buddy list can then be given preferential treatment, like being able to jump the queue ahead of 'non-buddies' when requesting files for download. The client also contains a ban feature whereby selected users may be banned from requesting files. This is in response to users who might be leeching files (ie. taking files from others without sharing any files themselves) or who might be causing a nuisance for other reasons. Banning can be a contentious subject, and was the subject of much discussion in the user forums particularly in the early days. A chat room or chatroom is a term used primarily by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. ...
In computer science and especially on the Internet, being a leech or leecher refers to the practice of downloading information from someone or group of people but not offering anything in return, or only token offerings in an attempt to avoid being called a leech. ...
It is these chat features that make Soulseek unique in the post Napster world. While some clients for the largest file-sharing networks today such as Gnutella and FastTrack, incorporate chat features, these tend to be 1:1 in nature and thus those networks lack the community feel of Soulseek. Napster was a file sharing service that paved the way for decentralized P2P file-sharing programs such as Kazaa, Limewire, iMesh, Morpheus, and BearShare, which are now used for many of the same reasons and can download music, pictures, and other files. ...
Gnutella (pronounced: with a silent g, or alternatively ) is a file sharing network. ...
FastTrack is a peer-to-peer protocol, used by the Kazaa (and variants, Grokster and iMesh) file sharing programs. ...
Album Downloads While Soulseek, like other P2P clients, allows a user to download individual files from another by selecting each one from a list of search results, a Download Containing Folder option simplifies the downloading of entire albums. For example, an artist who wishes to facilitate the distribution of an entire album, may place all tracks relating to the album together in a folder on the host PC and the entire contents of that folder (ie, all the albums track files) can then be downloaded automatically one after the other using this one command.
File Transfer Monitoring The Soulseek client features two file transfer monitoring windows where the progress of files being uploaded and downloaded can be monitored and controlled.
User Profiles Users may complete a profile which contains basic free-form text information (e.g. basic information about themself or their 'file transfer rules') together with a list of things they like, a list of things they dislike and optionally an image file. These items may then be viewed by other users when selecting the username from a list of members in a chat room or a list of files returned by a search. A chat room or chatroom is a term used primarily by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. ...
The list of items a user likes may also be used to obtain global rankings for that item in the Soulseek community or to obtain recommendations from other users who have the same items in their list of things they like.
Wishlists The Soulseek client provides a wishlist feature which functions like a stored search. Search terms are input as entries in a wishlist and each wishlist entry is then periodically executed as a search automatically by the client software, returning results as appropriate.
Privileges While the Soulseek software is free, a donation scheme exists to support the programming effort and cost of maintaining the servers. In return for donations, users are granted the privilege of being able to jump ahead of non-donating users in a queue when downloading files. Although free, the Soulseek protocol search algorithms are not published, the reason being that the performance of the central servers is sensitive to client searches, and the development of 3rd party clients that do not adhere to certain rules when searching (eg. the number of search results returned) could have a detrimental impact on the Soulseek system. The BitTorrent community experienced just such issues when certain BitTorrent clients were coded to circumvent rules defined within the BitTorrent protocol and thus offer the user certain advantages at the expense of others. Look up Protocol in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
This article is about the protocol. ...
Support Forums Like numerous other software titles, Soulseek has a set of forums where users may seek help on a variety of topics such as technical aspects of using the softrware. There are also forums where music including Soulseek Records releases may be discussed.
Versions There are two versions of the Soulseek client being the original, currently on v.156c and a separate 'test' version where new features may be developed and which uses a separate centralised server, the latest version of this being v.157 test 11 released in September 2007. (See side panel).
Ad-free, Spyware free The Soulseek website maintains that the client software is ad-free and spyware free. This is supported by the fact that anti-malware products including well known names such as Norton Antivirus, Webroot SpySweeper and Spyware Doctor, do not list either version of the Soulseek client as containing malware, nor do there appear to be any reliably documented cases of the software containing malware. Norton AntiVirus (NAV) is a popular product of Symantec Corporation and is one of the most widely used antivirus programs. ...
Spyware Doctor is a spyware removal product for Microsoft Windows developed by PC Tools. ...
Soulseek Blog (2003-2004) In the latter part of 2003 a Soulseek blog was created by Nir Arbel whereby users could be informed of various developments with the client software and the status of the Soulseek servers. However the updating of this blog was short-lived with the last entry being added in March 2004 and news about the software and servers reverted to being displayed either in the dedicated Soulseek forums or on the main Soulseek website itself. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
See also Comparison of BitTorrent software Comparison of eDonkey software Comparison of Gnutella software Comparison of G2 software Anonymous peer-to-peer Categories: | ...
wxPython is a cross-platform wrapper for the GUI API (often referred to as a toolkit) wxWidgets (which is written in C++) for the Python programming language. ...
This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ...
The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...
This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ...
For other uses, see Qt. ...
This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ...
Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...
Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...
This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...
External links - Official Website
- Official Soulseek Forum
- Soulseek Records
- Soulseek Records - Netlabel founded by Soulseek users
- Soulseek Blog
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