Would you Donate to a Tracker if you got no "perks"?

[stoi]

On BCG we have just changed the donations.

We now offer no perks/bonuses for a donation of any amount, before it was the usual, Star, VIP, Bonus on the SP system we have.

Now you just get the warm feeling that your keeping the tracker alive.

Just making this poll as people on here may be more honest than on BCG, and as the change has just happened, i have no idea if it will work or not. (i personally do not see why it shouldnt though).

Also with all the negative comments going around atm regarding trackers, i am hoping that we are doing something good for a change, not that what other trackers do is bad, just we are trying something a bit different than the "Norm".

the subject should be If you got no perks, not Is you got no perks, but i cant change it.

[sear]

Yes...I have in the past and will continue to do so, but it would have to be a tracker where I love the community if that wasn't the case I wouldn't donate at all no matter what perks are offered.

[stoi]

well i think that if you are into games, then we have a good community, if your not, then maybe you think its crap (but then if your not into games you shouldnt realy be a member of BCG anyway)

[SgtMajor]

Yes, of course I would (and do), if it means my favourite tracker places are still there tomorrow when I get up, then that is all I care about.

[predateur]

Yes, on my Fav trackers :)

[Tokeman]

Perks have never motivated me to donate. Either I want to donate or I don't, what you offer would not matter to me. So, if I was going to donate, the lack of perks would not discourage me from doing so.
I'm not a member at your tracker, but thought I'd throw my opinion in there anyway.

[elcapitan]

Yes...I have in the past and will continue to do so, but it would have to be a tracker where I love the community if that wasn't the case I wouldn't donate at all no matter what perks are offered.

Sear hit the nail on the head. Perks I could care less about but once I love the community I would donate whether there were perks or not.

[pro267]

What Sear said.
Btw, stoi: I don't understand why you would remove the star. It has no real value, it just shows some appreciation to the member's contribution.

[angryghost]

I would still donate, if i really like the tracker by all means a donation to keep the site alive is the least i could do. Of course this is ontop of that warm fuzzy feeling i get after i know my paypal is another $10 poorer :D

[sear]

well i think that if you are into games, then we have a good community, if your not, then maybe you think its crap (but then if your not into games you shouldnt realy be a member of BCG anyway)

Just to clear it up I wasn't speaking about your tracker I was just talking in general ;)

[stoi]

yeah i know mate dont worry about it.

This poll is regarding trackers in general, and not just BCG as well, so i understood where you were coming from.

as for the star, why not try it for a bit.

If this doesnt work i will be the first to hold my hands up and eat humble pie. but im not even contemplating that.

[fOrUmAs]

yes i would also donate no matter what happend with this bonus,but also u should have some system if someone want to buy GB.I dont see nothing bad abouth that,also not all members have great speed so maybe they can donate to buy GB to keep they acc alive and at same time they helping tracker with they cost

[SaviouR]

First of all , what i sincerely feel is that opening a thread here will not give u a proper picture at all , since ppl here have "hidden agendas" of capitalizing on threads like these by projecting themselves like the pope so they can try to get some rare level tracker through friends/giveaways, brag around and then act like an elitist and give advices to other people who may genuinely want to join other trackers which are rare. you have been here long enough to know what exactly i am trying to say here ;)

ok back to the actual thing , i dont mind at all to speak my heart out , so here goes to what i personally feel :-

Of course u have to be an EXTREMELY optimist to wish the donations would increase manifolds then the previous months .


See the thing is all the members of a tracker are grateful for the dedication of the tracker providing the contents for them , and hence they feel the need to donate to keep their fav site alive
BUT
along the line , there are certain section which may feel they should atleast deserve a Star . They also feel that just as the site has helped them in giving them good content , they feel the site should reciprocate by atleast giving them a Star . Of course we know its not obligatory to donate , but u get the point .

Its human nature basically , u help me , i pat u on the back and when i help u , maybe i also expect a pat on the back from u . not everyone does expect the pat on the back for helping , but some ppl do . they will feel atleast *something* must be given to them , to atleast differentiate them from the normal users .

Suppose a club nearby opens . u like it very much . u donate there since u like it , u expect discounts inside the club after donating and becoming a member . but if u dont , how would u feel ? wierd , isnt it ? They will feel " Ok , i donated out of goodwill, still they didnt give me any discounts at all, then why the hell did i even donate in the first place , i wont donate to them at all afterwards . i'll donate to that other club , they'll give me tons of discounts and will make me feel more important " . You will be surprised to know lots of people think like this , of course on the internet everyone will deny , but just wanted to bring some facts to you .
As i said i am talking this about a certain section of people which depends how much percentage these kind of people are ther in your site , tho you should come to know shortly .

And of course there are the other section which will donate you no matter what , they are fanatics and hardcore dedicated to ur site and will donate no matter what and love ur site to death . i dont think we need a deep insight to these ppl as we know they will always help in terms of donations . They are a large section as well and these kind of people also you will come to know shortly .

Also in both these kind of sections no one is better or smarter or something . both have their own ways of thinking .

[Peter North]

Most of the trackers that i have, got donations from me.
But thats just me...

[TheDog]

yes, only for my favorites :)

[TankGrrl]

ive donated a small amt to trackers in the past for no perks... its worth it to help keep the tracker alive, especially because really good trackers are hard to find :)


What Sear said.
Btw, stoi: I don't understand why you would remove the star. It has no real value, it just shows some appreciation to the member's contribution.

yea maybe make stars optional for donations...

[Adam1990]

I feel that if they spend their hard earned money to keep your tracker alive they should get some recognition for it.

[STEViEAR]

Ofcourse, But only to the trackers i use most. I donate because i want to donate. Dont wont anything in return or expect anything in return

[kadake]

ive donated to 5 or 6 trackers

[JohnDoe]

Ofcourse, But only to the trackers i use most. I donate because i want to donate. Dont wont anything in return or expect anything in return

+1

[Grind$oFine]

I don't think anyone needs incentive to donate. I think BCG will do just fine without any.

However, I think if someone does donate their money they should be recognized for their contribution. I definitely think the star should stay for good. Especially since the people will be donating genuinely, not for special seed bonus features, or to keep from getting demoted, etc.

[Cruel]

Of course I would donate to some trackers and got no perks.

But it's ratter nice to get that star next to your nick (if you count that as a perk) though.

Often I seem to donate to trackers which I feel contribute to my experience in this P2P-scene. But also sometimes when I really need it for perks.

[t0mmy]

yeah i would, if it was to help the tracker staying up :]

[pandabear]

Really depends on tracker. Some sites just have a great feel about them, that you are just compelled to donate. Other sites, the magic isn't there, but getting a few extra privileges or capitalizing on a special offer may make it be a little more worth it.

All the same bring back the star. Or atleast make it an option to get the star, or give the ability to put a custom title or some other neat perk, which has no real value.

[Zaxx]

ive donated a small amt to trackers in the past for no perks... its worth it to help keep the tracker alive, especially because really good trackers are hard to find :)


What Sear said.
Btw, stoi: I don't understand why you would remove the star. It has no real value, it just shows some appreciation to the member's contribution.

yea maybe make stars optional for donations...

Not a BCG member but have to agree...a star is harmless having little to no affect except for a little recognition (may even spur others to donate) which is fairly harmless as there's no 'real' perks to go with it. Just my 2 cents...:)

[stoi]

i never thought that loosing the star would have been that much of a big deal tbh

I thought the other benefits would have been missed more.

actually on BCG we have a poll on the main index page, nearly 5000 votes

Would You Donate If you got No Benefits At All?

Yes 25%
No, I like SP Bonus too much 20%
No, I like VIP too much 5%
NO I like My Star too much 3%
I wont donate ever, for anything. 20%
We should have ads instead of Donations 26%

so as you can see, the star was the bottom of the list with only 3%

[seppypom]

I think the star is a pride/respect type of thing. An acknowledgment, a public, pat on the back!

I have donated to many sites without expecting anything except the site being there another month.

[Cabalo]

I think that what you are proposing depends from tracker to tracker.
First of all, i think it would be interesting for you guys to make an analysis on what kind of donors you have at the tracker.

People have different motivations to donate to a tracker, be it cuz of personal motivation, some vip "bragging" or just cuz they are unable to meet the ratios and they don't want to be kicked out of the place.
I think it's not so hard for someone to look at a VIP database and see what are the interests of each donor. I suppose that you probably did it in advance, instead going blindly and taking your chances.

Thus, i believe that what you are proposing can work in content specific trackers. The community at those trackers is not so diversed as you can find at most "generalistic" ones, because some are there for things ranging from XviD to Xbox games or MP3. So, in my opinion, when you are in a specific top tracker that REALLY suits your needs, i don't see why not make a donation and keep it running for your OWN interest. It's all about people's own interests here.

my own example, i'm in for many things, but specifically e-learning (economics), PC games and some major xvid releases.
Recently i got into thevault and i saw it was nearly impossible to make a ratio there, so i decided to donate because i would get some nice gigabytes uploaded, that i desperately need to startup with. In the future i'm certain that i could had donated there for other reasons, mainly the excellent site it is, unparalleled, but for a started, that was my motivation to donate. And i'm sure that if they didn't offer gbs for €€, i wouldn't donate there, cuz i would get the boot anyways.


Honestly, i believe that you will get a lot less donations, that's my feeling. Many users with slower connections will have problems to get what they need (i've heard about your seed points, but i have no idea how it works though) and eventually get the boot. Let's not forget that in gaming, pc games nowadays are 4gb+ , x360 are 6gb+ etc etc. It's a lot. It's not like a MP3 or a Xvid movie.

anyway, what you are doing will serve as a testbed for other trackers, although i consider that the chances of succeeding at content specific trackers are higher than at all-purpose trackers.


PS: keep the star optional, i wouldn't consider it a perk (although it is).

[SAM]

only on my fav. trackers and in the community based ones

[TheFoX]

There's always the option to allow the donator to decide whether they want a little yellow star or not.

The star is a simple badge to let everyone else know that you are a donator. It can also act as an advertisement to those who haven't donated yet, and who may likely donate in the future, to spur them to donating sooner rather than later.

I will donate if a site I respect needs the funding (not necessarily torrent sites either, since I am a senior member of TBDev as well). After all, once the resource disappears, it is very hard to find a suitable replacement for the knowledge lost.

[stoi]

i wont go into to much detail regarding the SP system as its very long winded (even though its not that hard to understand).

But lets say you jump on a 360 game thats 7 months old, so not much chance of other leechers any time soon. and its 7 gig.

you dl 7 gig, but you cant upload to anyone.

you then keep seeding for 72 hours (does not have to be all in one go)

after the 72 hours SP kicks in (it minuses what you have ul, but lets say you uploaded 0)

you then get 1 sp point per hour if your connectable, 0.250 if your unconnectable.

100 meg is 1 Seed Point.

so 100 meg into 7 gig is 70, so in 70 more hours you get a 1 ratio on that torrent.

so thats in 6 days of seeding, you get a 1:1 ratio unless a leech jumps on it (which is where it gets more complicated so i wont go into that now lol)

Also no one gets disabled for hit and runs, and we do work on an individual torrent basis, not a global ratio basis. If you reach a certain number of Hit and Runs, you get demoted to Kitty Litter and you are not allowed to download anything until you clear the hit and runs. But with SP no one should realy have any hit and runs anyway.

so gigs for ££ wouldnt realy work on our tracker anymore, as you still have to seed everything back to 1:1 anyway, so no making a huge buffer, and then raping the site clean of everything you want. Only reason i can see for people donating to get gigs for ££ would be to get promoted to a higher class. but then we havnt had gigs for ££ on for about a year now.

anyway thats a lowdown of the SP system and why we do not have gigs for ££ on the site. but VIP did get a bonus on the SP system.

basically

36 hours seeding time before SP kicks in (compared to 72)
3 SP an hour instead of 1 SP per hour
Does not matter if you are connectable or not, you still got the above.
10 seeding slots to get SP (others have 5 slots, seed more torrents than that and you dont get SP on any)

and thats what we have stopped.

PS: sorry its 4am here and i tend to ramble on and write essays when im tired lol

[pandabear]

Personally experiencing the Sp system, i did not think there were any real advantages to being vip for that. The idea of ads is good, as long as their not those current ads which require you to sign up etc, because while initially you might get a bit of cash from people trying to support the site(by going through hassle of registration) after a while they will start forgetting to fill, and a lot of revenue is lost.

[ScreaminJay]

Well, it should never be granted that you are giving away benefits for money.... trackers that give gigs for money are wrong. They are selling what their members are providing.

So you are doing the right thing... if anything, I would more likely consider donating to a site that do not offer perks than one who does.

[stoi]

well the ads is another thing.

I can see how huge public sites can make a fortune off them, as they must be getting a couple of million hits a day at least.

but when we are getting about 50,000 impressions it just doesnt add up.

Some ads are impressions and clicks, others are sales and leads, problem is im getting more impressions and clicks on the sales and leads ones so will have to sort that out.

But lets just say they wont even pay for 1 server never mind the 3 we have got.

[Cabalo]

@stoi : got it about the SP. i used to be at a tracker that had a similar scheme, but it worked with overall ratio,i.e., once u had enough seedpoints you could "buy" upload credits. something like 100 SP = 1gb (wasn't this value, but i don't remember now). and if u seeded 72 hrs it wouldn't be considered a HnR.
they did it cuz they considered that it would minimize the risk of having people cheating and i think it worked like a charm. Lots of seeders on every torrent, torrents living longer, no one being afraid of getting onto the torrent too late and not being able to fulfill 1:1. I see a lot of positive things in such a policy.

so, no gigs for €€, meaning nearly no one was donating on ratio purposes.
it makes me suppose that people donated just to keep the site alive, cuz no one would get booted for HnR'ing or low ratios.

My only concern is the human nature. No one likes to spend money knowing it won't get them nothing concrete in return. after all, most users consider that the tracker being online is something they haven't to worry about, it's not their problem. there are so few that worry about it, and honestly this poll's results won't reflect the majority of users that use a tracker, cuz most users here are hardcore torrenters and see things in a broader perspective.

i think it will take u a couple of months to take conclusions on your action. and should you have to return to the old model, there will always be lots of people complaining.

i wish you the best luck, what you are doing is a model for non-profit-only oriented trackers, that we see rising each day.

[Mistral]

"Yes, the tracker survival is what matters":yup:
It's the only "benefit" that's really important.

I personally don't see a star or anything like that as a perk, it provides no real advantage. It's more just a mark of recognition. I don't see it as something necessary either, but some folk like that sort of thing and it doesn't do any harm.


yes i would also donate no matter what happend with this bonus,but also u should have some system if someone want to buy GB.I dont see nothing bad abouth that,also not all members have great speed so maybe they can donate to buy GB to keep they acc alive

With that SP system in place they don't have to, it completely evens the playing field.;)

Great poll btw.:)

[bigdaddykane]

if i love the place enough perks dont mean much plus anyways what do they really give you when you donate not much a couple of gigs upload and you can read some info or get into certain areas that if you do the right thing when you become a power user you can get in anyways so perks dont matter if you love the tracker. donate.thats just my opinion.

[zizo85]

Never pay for File Sharing!
thats my rules:Dand FST rules:yup:

[sugam]

If I donate, I am not doing it for status, stars, upload credit, etc. Benefits are cool, but that should not be the poin of the donation inmo.

[FACE_TO_FACE]

Its a personal choice... but i would give my money only for 1 or 2 trackers.

[stoi]

well the star is back on BCG.

Before is was £10 for VIP and the bonuses you got, but early impressions are that more people are donating smaller amounts under the £10 than before, but the £10 donations have subsided a lot, but we are still getting a few and some for even more than that.

Suppose it will take a couple of months to see how it pans out though.

[grimms]

Like i stated previously if i like the tracker i would donate for zero perks also never hurts to donate for those that give you upload credit or a shiny star.

[Dark Archon]

I don't earn income at all...donations are bit much for me

[Actatoi]

If I were to donate it would be to the survival of the trackers I enjoy the most, content or community wise. For example TT, there content in what I love is just unreplacable so if I had the money on a paypal account and they needed money I would not hesitate to donate. Now I don't earn any income as the previous poster and am only a poor student and parents that wouldn't understand the thing about putting money into paypal to donate :) so I havn't donated to any site so far. But if I were to make money online in some way I would gladly donate to a few trackers.

[SaRkAsM]

I myself will not donate to just any site, don't really care about perks such as credits or anything special but atleast showing others members that your are a proud donor just can;t see how it hurts nor how you would even consider removing the star.

Also taking into consideration that sites such as BCG which have a bunch of users donating receive heavy amounts of donations which basically in one month can pay the server costs for a years worth just leaves you wondering you guys more than happily receive the money to " KEEP SITE ALIVE " and can't even say thank you.

[stoi]

1 month can pay the servers we have for 1 year

i wish, but no your wrong, just because we are a big site with a big user base does not mean we are raking it in. less than 0.5% of our users donate.

and sorry but i have a lot more things to do than sending the donators a PM, that does not mean i am not grateful for their donation though. We could send out an auto PM for donations, but they always sound hollow to me, and for a repeat donator they will get boring very fast.

[krunktastic]

As far as donations go, I am a firm believe that those who will donate will donate no matter what. I think the difference by adding a benefit to the donation not only trivializes the donation itself but creates a marginal increase in numbers. Stoi, I think that this is a really great idea that adds a stronger significance to the donation. Instead of people donating for personal gain, they are helping the site that you created, in turn helping other people.

This is what the bittorrent community is based upon: people sharing with other people, receiving only to give back.

[raj3186]

As a student, I never had a chance donate to a tracker :( but i contribute to a tracker by maintaining a 1:1 ratio :D

[Bucktoof]

I've donated to 5 trackers that I can remember as of this moment. A couple sites I did so only because of upload credit, and two sites were because I wanted to see them stay around (starting out) so I donated more. The other one I was just so happy to get the exclusive content that the tracker offers.

Honestly, I just like the donation star - but I like it when it's special to the tracker, like for example a site's favicon is put beside your username. Something to that effect. No other status or perks are necessary imo.

[Pzero]

edit:nvm

[stoi]

well most people on my tracker are supporting this, only people that are not are the ones that need the SP bonus (Kitty Litter Members)

here is one post.



I hope black cats fails and you all go broke. The ONLY reason I stuck around for as long as I did was because of the donation system. Now that it's gone there is no reason not to save my money and just get stuff from isohunt. Enjoy your fail and aids. Also everyone thats in support of removing the donation are poor under aged faggots that live at home with their parents

Nice eh lol btw i was in a good mood so i didnt ban him for that.

another few have had a go as well but nothing as bad as that.

but my latest reply to one of them i hope changed his mind. he made about 10 posts though so cant quote all of his, and i apologize for the swearing in advance.



ok fine, do not donate again if all you donated for before was to get yourself out of the mire, this is one of the reasons i got rid of it so members couldnt take the piss anymore.

remember having a shit ratio on a torrent is not my bw your raping, its the uploaders and the other members on here, so why should I get money so you can get a 1:1 ratio quicker if your whole intention is to download as much as possible, donate, and use the bonus to get back so you can download again.

that to me is bollocks.

If you want to donate donate, if you want to get into KL get into KL, but dont expect to donate so you have an easier time getting out of it, like i said this is one of the reasons i got rid of the "perks" to start with.


and his reply to me



I have to admit that I admired your values about all of this and that you are not here to get money the easy way.. too bad it is about helping the Internet to match people into trading Pirated Software. Other than that you are perfect.

so i think we are changing some users attitudes to this, but like ive mentioned, only time will tell.

[STEViEAR]

LoL at the first quote stoi. If he said that to me he would have got instant ban and message saying go to isohunt and wait 5 days for your download to finnish.
If there is lots of users thinking this way i can see the amount of users dropping through been banned for having bad ratios
Might not be a bad thing though (well for me) you might open sign ups again :P

[grimms]

I wouldn't ban him for that. It wasn't too harsh. Stoi he was probably just peeved that you all switched the donate system without perks. You'll get hate from some and love from others. Good choice though.

[STEViEAR]

Yeah well i dont like people been disrespectful