Leeching: Difference between revisions

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In pre-scientific medicine, leeching was an alternative form of bloodletting in which "bad" blood would be removed via leeches instead of by bleeding.
Leeching may also refer to the practice of benefitting from others' actions without contributing in kind. For example:
- In peer-to-peer file sharing networks, leeching is downloading while uploading little or nothing.
- In bittorrent, leeching is only downloading, while not sharing pieces of what you have downloaded with others. This is, however, luckily practically removed by the use of a tracker, which monitors your up/down ratio and speeds up your downloads if you upload more, or even doesn't let you download at all if you don't maintain a certain quota.
- More generally, it is used as a term for certain types of bandwidth theft.
- In video games, leeching refers to the practice of a player joining a group for the explicit purpose of gaining rewards while negligibly contributing to the efforts necessary to acquire those rewards. This behavior may be accepted in efforts to powerlevel players. Usually it is considered poor behavior to leech without permission from the group.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Leeching.
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+*In pre-[[science|scientific]] [[medicine]], '''leeching''' was an alternative form of [[bloodletting]] in which "bad" [[blood]] would be removed via [[leech]]es instead of by [[bleeding]].
-*'''[[leecher (gaming)]]''', the term used for a person that benefits in a first person shooter, by having his team mates carry him to a win.
-*In pre-[[science|scientific]] [[medicine]], '''leeching''' was an alternative form of [[blood letting]] in which "bad" [[blood]] would be removed via [[leech]]es instead of by [[bleeding]].
 *'''Leeching''' may also refer to the practice of benefitting from others' actions without contributing in kind.  For example:
 **In [[peer-to-peer]] [[file sharing]] [[computer network|networks]], '''leeching''' is downloading while uploading little or nothing.
 **In [[BitTorrent (protocol)|bittorrent]], '''leeching''' is only downloading, while not sharing pieces of what you have downloaded with others. This is, however, luckily practically removed by the use of a [[BitTorrent tracker|tracker]], which monitors your up/down ratio and speeds up your downloads if you upload more, or even doesn't let you download at all if you don't maintain a certain quota.
 **More generally, it is used as a term for certain types of [[bandwidth theft]].
-**In [[online]] [[computer game]]s (especially [[MMORPG|role-playing games]]), '''leeching''' refers to the practice of a [[player]] joining a group for the explicit purpose of gaining rewards without contributing anything to the efforts necessary to acquire those rewards.  Sometimes this is allowed in an effort to [[powergaming|powerlevel]] a player. Usually it is considered poor behavior to do this without permission from the group.
+**In [[video game]]s, '''[[leecher (gaming)|leeching]]''' refers to the practice of a [[player character|player]] joining a group for the explicit purpose of gaining rewards while negligibly contributing to the efforts necessary to acquire those rewards.  This behavior may be accepted in efforts to [[powerlevel]] players. Usually it is considered poor behavior to leech without permission from the group.
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