Tracker Ratings Should Be Redone

[TheFoX]

The idea behind the WIAW thread is to offer a simplistic guideline which members can then use to decide what they want. As with all honest mechanisms, though, it can be abused.

Rarity of accounts is often used to increase their worth, regardless of whether they are worth anything. The ability to sign up to a tracker is considered worthless to having to trade accounts to gain an invite, which boosts the trackers' worth.

So, what is a tracker actually worth?

In the most simple terms, a tracker is worth what the account owner thinks it is worth. Two people will not rate the tracker at the same level, because their perceptions of that tracker may differ.

We hear phrases such as 'pre-time', 'community' and 'content', yet what do they actually mean. On any given community, you will have the lurkers and the activists. The activists are those who are active in the forums and/or IRC, or who upload. These people treat the community as an extension of themselves, and their peers are their online buddies. The lurkers, on the other hand, just check the browse page, read a few threads without responding, and could probably delacct.php without blinking.

Two different groups of people, and two different views of the same tracker community.

So, what is a tracker worth? It is worth exactly what someone is prepared to put into that community. Hard work will always pay off. Ask the staffers at numerous communities, who were at one stage ordinary members who went that extra step and became an activist.


So, when you see FTN at lvl 10, this means that someone who is active has the opinion that the tracker is of that level. Someone who has acquired an account for trade will advertise that tracker as lvl 10, but to them it's worth is not lvl 10, otherwise they would not be trading it. It's worth, then, is only what that tracker will gain them.

[AugustoP]

It won't change anything, you'll never get an FTN invite for, let's say, Oink invite. While it influences the market more than it should, people with axx at top trackers are hardcore traders and won't let go invites easily. They know the value. It'll never be like "you've got what i need, i've got what you need, let's trade".
And when it comes to buffered accounts tracker levels don't mean a thing. You transform TL account into FTN invite in a week or so.

[Ratzy Rox]

Tracker ratings just shouldn't exist. People weren't so demanding back in the day before they were created. At the time when they were created they were pretty good since it stopped people cluttering the invites section with trades which wouldn't happen. Since then its spun out of control and people set far too much store by the ratings becoming greedy and hoarding sites rather than trading for sites they actually want to be active on.

[slick99]

i think with all the traders in this top tracker sites, u'd think there speed would lack cuz they dont all use the sites they have, they just use them for bragging rights or to trade. the real good trackers are the middle of the line trackers where its not difficult, but not super easy to get into and the people there have the seedboxs and are actually using there accts, ie bitmetv, oink, revtt. i'd take pu on all three of them over sct or ftn anyday. again i like having the stuff asap but i also like the fact that they bring a lot more than just pretime, but speed, leechers, seeders, and good community not based on people who dont use the site.

[LinkS v2.0]

You guys want to know what invites are worth?











































nothing theyre meant to be given out for free.

[InTooDeep]

You guys want to know what invites are worth?











































nothing theyre meant to be given out for free.

Halleluja !!

[KFlint]

move on, this topic has already been discussed so often...

[Brandon]

Let's look at supply and demand shall we.
Let's think of FTN as like a PS3 during launch. Everyone wanted it, it was way overrated, and then everyone saw how badly it sucked. Thankfully, with the PS3, after people realized it sucked, no one cared about it anymore. FTN sucks, but because of a silly thread, it is hyped up, and people think it is uber.

Second I saw your nick as the creater of this topic, I KNEW what the purpose of it would be. Yet another anti-ftn topic/post from you.

Didn't I ban you on FTN? Maybe that's why you're so pissy

What little credibility you had, just went out the window when you said FTN sucked.

Care to back that up with reason?

Read his post history and then tell me if you really think he "had" any credibility at all.

move on, this topic has already been discussed so often...

[Tiffany]

It should be based on:

* How good the content is
* How varied the content is
* How fast the pre-times are
* How fast the upload speeds are



...and not how hard it is to get an invite to! I mean, if a site doesn't give out invites, it's automatically rated higher. Silly.

[Roark]

Rarity rankings have a place because this is a trading forum - it's useful to know how hard it is to get an invite when making trades. Some people may be taking the rankings too personally, the thread is clearly labelled what invites are worth, not what trackers are worth.