Some thoughts about invites to high level trackers

[The Wanderer]

I noticed here at giveaway section that some members who offered high level invites specified in their requirements that they are sorry but can't risk giving their invites to the FST new comers.

So the credentials this user come with are not that important? If a user is a member of 3 trackers and they have a ratio above 2 (in terms of hundred GB) is not worthy to be trust?

A user is not worthy because they have 0 reputation and only 100 spam posts at FST? I am sorry to hear that some members here think that way.

I think this policy of inviting only good friends although having a highest probability to be the safest solution for getting new members, it is not the best solution for the healthiness of a tracker. I have good friends I invited to good trackers who in the end didn't managed to be the best members of said trackers. They simply couldn't "integrate" within the requirements of the trackers.

I think trackers like FTN or FSC or TT or whatever high level tracker needs to open up and bring some fresh and healthy blood or else will stagnate and eventually will die.

For example... I keep reading about FTN here and on other forums. I am not a FTN member and I can say anything good or bad about this tracker, but it seems that there are certain members who are not so happy with what's going on there. And I am not talking only about community, I keep reading posts that say there are not many leechers there.
Maybe it's not a general feeeling, but only a vocal minority. Maybe also other trackers have the same situation, not just FTN.

On iTS (where I am member)for example, in forums you can read almost everyday posts complaining about the lack of leechers.

On the other side just take a look at revott. They had free signup not long ago and although some people moaned and bitched that it lost its level and it will become another unworthy tracker, the site is thriving and is a complete success.

iPlay, torrentleech, TBytes, HDbits are living proofs of what means a successful tracker.

I have all the respect in world for the trackers who know what is best for them.

[stoi]

I dont think its so much about getting higher on that list, Oink freaked a lot of staff out (me included, i actually left BCG for a month or so till the heat died down).

so atm its keeping things nice and tight, hoping no one from the powers that be get in, staff hand pick members from other trackers and other forums like this one (obviously the risk is still there but a lot less chance than with open signups, or invites for all PU and above).

Its a risky business being a tracker owner/sysop, and yeah some get paranoid (im not a paranoid person by nature, but when Oink happened i was a lot) so you cant really blame them for tightening up.

Ok some good potential members might not be able to get in, but hopefully the powers that be cant either.

[Aeyen]

I dont think its so much about getting higher on that list, Oink freaked a lot of staff out (me included, i actually left BCG for a month or so till the heat died down).

so atm its keeping things nice and tight, hoping no one from the powers that be get in, staff hand pick members from other trackers and other forums like this one (obviously the risk is still there but a lot less chance than with open signups, or invites for all PU and above).

Its a risky business being a tracker owner/sysop, and yeah some get paranoid (im not a paranoid person by nature, but when Oink happened i was a lot) so you cant really blame them for tightening up.

Ok some good potential members might not be able to get in, but hopefully the powers that be cant either.

Agreed. Oink closing down was really a surprise.... Do you think that they'll be after RevTT too and BCG? I hope not...

[downnheavy]

you probably right
though the high level trackers you mentioned above are established and have a strong and steady group of uploaders, not to mention of the majority of the users of these trackers have seedboxes and high upload speeds.
the problem is with the new so called scene trackers that close their invites and reg on the start leaving them with a very small number of users - leechers.

[The Wanderer]

It's always great to hear the insight of the sysops/staff members.

I was not talking about open signups, only giving invites to trusty eventually old members. Like SCT did, TL did to talk only of a few important players here.

Not like FTN who because of few bad apples (who will always be) decided to revoke the invites. Nobody gained anything from that, members or non members. It's just a status quo.

Regarding the power that be (TPTB), I think one way or another they already know about what's going on bittorent world. In these days information is available everywhere and a secret is not so much of a secret.

I dont think its so much about getting higher on that list, Oink freaked a lot of staff out (me included, i actually left BCG for a month or so till the heat died down).

so atm its keeping things nice and tight, hoping no one from the powers that be get in, staff hand pick members from other trackers and other forums like this one (obviously the risk is still there but a lot less chance than with open signups, or invites for all PU and above).

Its a risky business being a tracker owner/sysop, and yeah some get paranoid (im not a paranoid person by nature, but when Oink happened i was a lot) so you cant really blame them for tightening up.

Ok some good potential members might not be able to get in, but hopefully the powers that be cant either.

[stoi]

well the bottom line is, its their tracker so they can do what they want with it.

Our invites have been offline since before Oink, so thats not the reason for us, they were just broken so need to be re-written completely.

and there is nothing worse than scanning forums/ebay and seeing someone selling one of your invites or even accounts.

I remember once i was checking ebay for BCG accounts, and the bid was up to $160 just for 1 account with no buffer. i was like wtf.

also like downheavy mentioned, if your already a well established tracker, with a few thousand members, then you can get away with having no invites or open signups for a few months, it doesnt hurt the tracker that much.

If your a new up and coming tracker though, then it can hurt you if you close the doors to early.

[DKre8ive1]

I noticed here at giveaway section that some members who offered high level invites specified in their requirements that they are sorry but can't risk giving their invites to the FST new comers.

Well you have to understand some of the higher sites hold the inviter responsible for the invitee and its a high price to pay if they happen to invite the wrong user.

So the credentials this user come with are not that important? If a user is a member of 3 trackers and they have a ratio above 2 (in terms of hundred GB) is not worthy to be trust?

Having a big buffer or ratio is less important to the smaller sites and as for using this as proof is kind of flawed because it can be easily faked.

A user is not worthy because they have 0 reputation and only 100 spam posts at FST? I am sorry to hear that some members here think that way.

Hey I am sorry but for this you will have to blame all the lowlifes that have scammed so many users that the a reputation system had to be put in place.

I think this policy of inviting only good friends although having a highest probability to be the safest solution for getting new members, it is not the best solution for the healthiness of a tracker. I have good friends I invited to good trackers who in the end didn't managed to be the best members of said trackers. They simply couldn't "integrate" within the requirements of the trackers.

I think trackers like FTN or FSC or TT or whatever high level tracker needs to open up and bring some fresh and healthy blood or else will stagnate and eventually will die.

I am sorry but I have to disagree with you on this since its not about the quantity of members that make a site like FSC survive, but about the quality of its members.

Don't get me wrong I agree that sites need fresh blood now and again to keep it healthy, but the smaller and the site the less blood it needs to keep it healthy when compared to those bigger sites.

For example... I keep reading about FTN here and on other forums. I am not a FTN member and I can say anything good or bad about this tracker, but it seems that there are certain members who are not so happy with what's going on there. And I am not talking only about community, I keep reading posts that say there are not many leechers there.
Maybe it's not a general feeeling, but only a vocal minority. Maybe also other trackers have the same situation, not just FTN.

I don't see how a person can complain about there being no leechers since there is no ratio on FTN and they only have to share it back for I think only 72 hours to fit the requirement.

On iTS (where I am member)for example, in forums you can read almost everyday posts complaining about the lack of leechers.

Since I am not a member on there I have no idea what system they use so I can only make a suggestion that they use a time seeding ratio to help out with the lack of leechers then people will be less scared to grab a torrent.

On the other side just take a look at revott. They had free signup not long ago and although some people moaned and bitched that it lost its level and it will become another unworthy tracker, the site is thriving and is a complete success.

iPlay, torrentleech, TBytes, HDbits are living proofs of what means a successful tracker.

I have all the respect in world for the trackers who knows what is best for them.

Success means different things to different people especially if the creators of those sites have different goals set for there trackers.

[Femto]

Personally, I think the invite system is pointless. People sell them, people trade them, and people scam with them. The invite system imho is more like a gimmick. It doesn't keep cheaters out instead it keeps the people that come for the torrents out.

The best system out there is the now-open-closed-then registration. Bitsoup is living proof of this. It's been here for 3 years, it has 115,000 members and most of the torrents are still alive. To keep a site invite only is pure paranoia especially if your servers aren't hosted in the US. Bitsoup servers are hosted in Canada and they're still breathing.

Just my thoughts.

[The Wanderer]

Having a big buffer or ratio is less important to the smaller sites and as for using this as proof is kind of flawed because it can be easily faked.

I have to disagree with you because I didn't talk about small sites and those ratio proofs can be easily checked up if the inviter really wants to... by just asking to a link to their profile.

Hey I am sorry but for this you will have to blame all the lowlifes that have scammed so many users that the a reputation system had to be put in place.

I didn't complain in any way about the reputation system, far from me that thought.

On another forum where I'm old member, I saw a member who build an reputation giving away invites/accounts and being helpful only to scam somebody at the right time of a high level invite.

Since I am not a member on there I have no idea what system they use so I can only make a suggestion that you use a time seeding ratio to help out with the lack of leechers then people will be less scared to grab a torrent.

I was speaking generally and not about me, sorry if I gave you that impression.

Success means different things to different people especially if the creators of those sites have different goals set for there trackers.

I agree and I respect that, I was only talking from the regular members point of view.

Again, it's always nice to hear an opinion from a sysop/staff member's point of view.

Thank you.

[fsephie]

Well I cannot speak for everyone else, but I would like to think I have a good process for giving out invites.

1. How did I even begin to consider this person for an invite? is this a giveaway thread of mine (a) or is this just some random guy asking (b)?

If A:

2. Did they follow the rules? I rarely ever ask for a speedtest (sites that are extremely fast might require higher speeds). Sincere enough? Generally if a person will at least put in enough effort to make a coherent, one or two paragraph statement they pass this point. You're weeding out so many people at this step it's ridiculous.

3. Where does this person post? What is the makeup of his posts? Are the posts made frequently or is this a once a week poster? I've given an invite to a tracker to a person with 10 posts (this was outside of the invite forum so it wasn't 10 over 20 odd days) an invite because he had posted in the section that this tracker dealt with and had good questions and answers. Some people spam hundreds of posts.

4. Do I already know this person? That's always a helpful boost. However, it can also hurt you if I don't like the cut of your jib. Impartiality is dead .

Get this far and I'll probably invite you.

if B:

2. Where did this person come from? Did I ask him to pm me? Most of the time this isn't a problem at all.

3. Did they just look at my sig and think they might get an invite out of me? Well, if they just ask for the invite you can bet they don't make it past this step.

4. How do they explain themselves? I figure if you're going to pm out of the clear sky blue, you definitely need to impress upon me immediately why it is that I should invite you. There are things I look out for in what is written, but I won't say what here .

5. Do I even have an invite? If I think you deserve one, I'll do my best to track one down for you.

At this point you should be enjoying the successes of your labor, otherwise go back and try and fix where you fell off the path.