Seeing whats on the tracker before asking for invites

[ernestus]

I think it would be better if one would be able to see what kind of torrents are on a given tracker before going through the hassel of finding an invite. I mean, whats the point of joining a private tracker if none of the torrents are of any interest, or even found elsewhere with a bigger swarm?

So if a potential new user visits a private tracker and can't see whats available, or perhaps is looking for only a very specific title and nothing else, why not have some kind of quasi-limited account which is only active for a time period of say, 24 hours, after which the account is locked for a time of 30 days or so?

I think the idea has more advantages than complications.

As far as abuse is concerned, any tracker, whether public or private is going to be subject to the same sneak-in attempts by police or other anti-piracy agencies, which they all have accounts on the trackers anyway.

Leeches and hit-and-runners could be monitored by bots, and auto banned or throttled tracker side.


I personally don't want to keep track of each torrent site to make sure my account is still active because I needed one file from said tracker once upon a time.


Any constructive comments or thoughts on this from the forum?

[sababot]

you are right
sometimes you work so hard to get on a certain site
and you get upset when u see its not what you thought it would be

[Ivanov]

I agree!

[lambsbreath]

So if a potential new user visits a private tracker and can't see whats available, or perhaps is looking for only a very specific title and nothing else, why not have some kind of quasi-limited account which is only active for a time period of say, 24 hours, after which the account is locked for a time of 30 days or so?

I would like to see a torrent site that shows all the torrents on their tracker to non-members, but make it "read only", that is to say all hyperlinks would be disabled, and people would not be able to download something using the torrent file hyperlink until they were members. That way, you could decide before-hand if it would be worth the trouble of joining. Membership would not be bloated with people who join thinking it is something else, only to never return, and not bother deleting their accounts (I've done this on 1-2 sites before...)

[rguinn]

that sounds good and all, but it simply isn't how invite-only sites work.

I've always thought of invite-only sites as gangs. gangs don't give a shit about you (and probably dislike you) until you're one of them. a good invite-only torrent site has no incentive try the above-mentioned ideas because they already have an excellent userbase and selection of torrents. it would be easier to get into the site if they didn't.

oink is an excellent example. their site is awesome, and they know it. therefore they don't need to be nice or user-friendly.