Paying to get into trackers?

[stoi]

before i start i will just say i do not agree with it at all, and there is about a 0.0001% chance of this ever happening with us, I wont say never but it is very very slim.

So what do you think about this, Would you do it, have you done it, Do you just not bother if they have this, If you are already in a tracker like this, do you/ would you still donate etc etc

I have been thinking about this for the past few days, again though not to do it myself, but i can see it being a way to get only good members, lets say we done it for arguments sake.

£5 donation gets you in, you also get 1 month of full bonuses (which even i admit are not a lot lol but its something).

those that do pay to get in, will or i would say will be a 95% chance to be a good member, you are not going to pay and then trade the account, you may pay £5 and then sell the account for £20 though i suppose. You are very unlikely to cheat if you have paid to get in.

So i can see some sort of sense in doing it, still does not mean i would do it on my tracker though, as i still think it is wrong.

but just wondering what the rest of you think.

PS: I do not mean Donating and getting an Invite, I mean actually paying to get access like a few are doing.

[dragoi]

Well with FTP access is the same thing , you pay .

Well I am against this but now that you said it is true that if someone donated it is a very small chance that he will cheat there because he wouldn't like to pay for nothing in the end .

And about trading , he could use the account to trade it for something but if he is caught again he loses the money . If it would be a good tracker and the acces to it would be only £5 you could sell it with more as you said , but not everyone has friends that can help them with invites or they dont have time to stay all day on forum and get attention .

In some cases it would be good and in other cases not , like every things it has bad things and good things .

[Sanka113]

No, I wouldn't pay anyone sort of money to get into a tracker if there was a way to get in for free. Kinda like with pirating, If I can get what I want for free than why pay money? Now, if say in the future, a network of trackers band together and you get access to all the trackers along with freeleech and other perks, than maybe. This seems to work ok for porn. Now, of course If there were a band of trackers that did this of course there would be intense scrutiny of those trackers.

The idea of trackers making extra cash off of warez doesn't sit to well with me though. If a trackers membership base had to pay to get in, I think that that tracker would be even more of a target of the feds more than now. If I had to pay for warez, bittorrent wouldn't even be an option because of this.

[tommyboy]

Mostly I would say no, but I would condiser it to get into an otherwise impossible tracker:)

[Polarbear]

never pay for warez - enough said.

[integral]

It depends on your morals, really. If you think it is "wrong" to sell accounts to warez and other things, then it's clearly the worst thing to do. But if you're in it to be a business and profit like TL and SCT, then selling invites/accounts is quite profitable, in every sense.

Also, I doubt a true profit torrent site like TL really cares about traders. If they're selling accounts, then the only way someone can make a profit is selling it for less, and even then TL would still be making good profits, so I doubt they'd go on any hunts.

TL's staff seems to have passed first-year economics in school or something, since their business practices are a cut above ScT in a few ways. One of those ways is their VIP plan. If you pay w00t to get an account in TL, which is allowed, you're VIP. VIP allows you no waiting times, and no ratio rules. Now, that only lasts 2 months or something, then you have to pay again. If you're an unsuspecting person, and get a ratio of 0.0001 with 2TB downloaded or something, and VIP runs out, you are officially fucked. You're hit with wait times, and you only have a little time to fix your ratio, before you're banned. In this way, TL has made almost a monthly billing plan for their accounts. Smart guys, really.

So to reiterate, it's all about morals. It could be the worst abomination, or a keystone in your business model. One thing I will say, though, is if shit hits the fan in a legal sense, I'd hate to be the owner of a tracker that sold accounts, rather than a place like FTWR or FSC.

[cibu]

same here...i would not pay .You said that in this way you could get good users...but how many users do you think are willing to pay?:)...just because someone is not willing to pay for acces doesen't mean they don't have seedboxes or huge internet speeds...or just simply that they aren't good users

[stoi]

Ok but you could look at it, as you are getting the donation benefits anyway, that you are donating to get in.

before the fake page was put on our tracker, i was getting silly payments from Guest, i ws like who the hell, then 2 minutes later another email, can i get in i just donated, ffs send cash back NO.

btw silly payments i am talking £30 min i think the max was over £250 ffs

just for a bloody account, i was like, i could be making a frigging fortune here lol

PS: i wrote this in answer to polarbears, i never seen integrals.

[Lovestoned]

stoi, my personal point of view is actually pretty general.

If the tracker isn't getting enough donations for the month then this may be employed to help the tracker, even if people don't agree with this but they're just mostly members.

If they don't agree and yet don't donate at all then forget about listening to them, piracy is meant for free stuffs but to support a tracker it's definitely not going to be free.

Pedro's has been doing it this way and I got in by donating, I've been a good member too.

What I can suggest you to do if you really have this would to be keeping a close eye of the people who has donated to get in stringently time to time.

[cibu]

:lol:..yeah..when you look at it from the money-making point of view that would increase your pocket size a lot :lol:...but i belive that's when the tracker steps out of the filesharing bussines and entering the money-making bussines...

[stoi]

Ok why does every thread i make turn into about me and my tracker lol

Its a general question i am asking, I will not do it, I dont want to know how to keep an eye on it, I do not want to know how to go about it on my tracker, as it will "probably" never happen lol

This happens with every single thread i do on here, and then ppl say i only talk about BCG when its not even me that starts it most of the time lol

[cibu]

i was speaking in general :shifty:
i wasn't refering to you

[stoi]

well i wasnt even replying to you it was to lovestoned.

[cibu]

oh:( my bad then:(

[Lovestoned]

Woops, sorry.

I would do it, it's a great way to donate to the tracker you think you will definitely use.

[Disme]

I have a very simple and maybe harsh look on all this.
I see people mentioning here that selling invites should be allowed if donations aren't met .
I believe when donation-goals aren't met, and the owner/staffers have no funds or the intention to support the tracker themselves they should shut it down.

Why would any tracker-owner/sysop want to continue a tracker that they can't afford, and that it's members don't value that much that they would donate for it. I can't think of any reason not to shut it down than.

I've ssen this so many times ... people starting new trackers and the first and most important thing is all about donations to keep the tracker afloat. Imo if you can afford to keep a tracker in the air than shut it down.

Selling access to trackers takes away every moral authority a tracker could have when claiming they don't want trading. Because selling invites means that the tracker itself is trading invites for money ... every reason to be against trading just disappears than, because selling the invites involves the same risks trading does.

[stoi]

Ok but this is not about selling invites, i do agree with your point on that, but it has nothing really to do with the thread lol

But what about a well established tracker (3+ years old), pick any, where the memberbase drops off because they are closed, recession hits (which it has) donations dries up, owner looses job blah blah blah, should they still just close, or try something different, like what the thread is about for an example.

and i am going to have to reinstate here, incase anyone hasnt got it yet, that is not BCG i am talking about, just a general question about a general tracker that may happen in the future.

[apextwin146]

those that do pay to get in, will or i would say will be a 95% chance to be a good member, you are not going to pay and then trade the account, you may pay £5 and then sell the account for £20 though i suppose. You are very unlikely to cheat if you have paid to get in.

Now for arguments sake lets assume 5 Pounds is not that big a amount ..
I give 5 Pounds then i trade the account because i knw i can get back into the tracker whenever i want just by paying up .. This way the tracker gets more Trade value while maintaing its Level value .. Take for Eg ScT ..
They do not give out invites but u can buy them .. hence u knw that u can always trade invites at anytime just by paying up .. Also u can get back into the site by just offering to pay from ur friends account .. This will pose a security threat no matter which way u look at it ..
By making a site accessible through money u r making a site accessible to whoever who has some spare cash and allowing them to do watever they want to do with that account ..

[MaNiJaK]

..

[BlackKnight]

I was in this situation when I considered very hard about BTMusic. And it's 20 Euro, not just 5, but I still wanted to pay to get access. But I changed my mind because I knew I could get invite from BTMusic members too.

So I think if trackers really need money and allow people to get in their trackers by paying money, it may work better if those trackers close the invite system permanently.

I've donated in about ten trackers, some for invites, some because I just love the trackers. I have no problems with that kind of things.


But I know that trackers that allow people to get in will be hated by a lot of people. Many members will talk about those trackers with the tag "pay to get in," or "pay to get access." Sometimes, I just feel very annoyed about those kind of bad comments about P2L trackers. I support trackers about the money because they can't have server for free. I remember when ScL changed their donate system and members who donated 40 pounds could get 15GB, and some ScL members were whining and shouting at staff that it was unfair, that ScL became very bad because they allowed P2L. I was very angry but those attitudes and I thought why the f*** they were so serious about 15GB only.

The thing is almost trackers need money from members and they ask members in many ways, and pay to get access or pay to leech are just two kinds of it.

[dragoi]

Yes that isnt very good , the ones that have more money can get easier in a tracker an buy invites this way and I think to get in a tracker it doesnt matter how much money you have because there are things in life that are more important and need money , not to join a tracker , maybe when you are in the tracker , then it would be good to donate .

Also if it should be like this , there should be a limit of invites , let's say 10 per month and to be an action for them , to not be an exact price .

[stoi]

By making a site accessible through money u r making a site accessible to whoever who has some spare cash and allowing them to do watever they want to do with that account ..

BTW i know i said i did not agree with it, i just love discussions about this sort of stuff, so if i do argue for it, thats just the way i am lol

Back to the quote

If you are a tracker that has built up a very good rep over the years, as the place to get in, 1 of the best places for what it does, again pick a tracker, and they just opened up, they would get about 10,000 members a day, but only about 500 of those would be unique, as in lots of dupe accounts, because they are bound to close again, once closed, sell sell sell, or trade trade trade.

so you could argue that just by opening up, or giving invites for free, we are allowing them to do what they want with that account.

[apextwin146]

This could work to a Owners advantage (from security perspective) if every member who donates to get in gets his entire IP range banned once he/she is disabled (assuming they have a code in place to figure out the IP even if the user is using a Proxy)

EDIT : just read your post .. I am not a proponent of the open signup theory too .. But i would like to bring to ur notice the Example of ScL and Electronik .. The staff there are very adept at catching the the traders and disabling the traded accounts(watever technique they use) .. Secondly they give out plenty of invites to get in the new blood while continously and ruthlessly weeding out the bad ones ..
This stratergy has two advantages :
1) Since u r actively disabling accounts u always free space for new users (taking the obvious risk of bad seeds)
2) Since u give out invites actively the trade value of the same decreases .. seriously tell me how many trades have u seen for ScL and Electronik .. Since the site is easily available traders wont value it much and eventually the trading will decrease like for the above mentioned trackers

[Lovestoned]

BlackKnight, it's 5 Euros.'

You get 1 week of PU once you're in, but a month if you got 20 Euros.

[dragoi]

Well if you would want to make a user to not sign up on a tracker after he gets banned there could be made a virus and but when you click the link for registration a virus to enter you're computer , one undetectable by anti-viruses , and when you get disabled that virus to some harm on your computer or to mark somehow that computer and cant register on a tracker again even with proxy , but this idea wouldn't be good if someone has 2 computers / latpotps.

[apextwin146]

EDIT : just read your post .. I am not a proponent of the open signup theory too .. But i would like to bring to ur notice the Example of ScL and Electronik .. The staff there are very adept at catching the the traders and disabling the traded accounts(watever technique they use) .. Secondly they give out plenty of invites to get in the new blood while continously and ruthlessly weeding out the bad ones ..
This stratergy has two advantages :
1) Since u r actively disabling accounts u always free space for new users (taking the obvious risk of bad seeds)
2) Since u give out invites actively the trade value of the same decreases .. seriously tell me how many trades have u seen for ScL and Electronik .. Since the site is easily available traders wont value it much and eventually the trading will decrease like for the above mentioned trackers

[stoi]

they only have 1000 frigging members though, thats the bloody difference lol

[Nemrod]

No, never, under any circumstance.

[RedRansom]

PS: I do not mean Donating and getting an Invite, I mean actually paying to get access like a few are doing.
well, i really dont know what to say both for staff members and random members...
you probably talking about tracker policy cuz some ppl talked about Btmusic...
well point of Btmusic there is 20 k torrent and all of these files rip'd by their members from orginal cd.There is a rule at tracker if you will upload an album it must be your work(your rip from orginal source)...
and there is amazon advertisement at the tracker "Do you like music on our Tracker? Buy it on Amazon.com ( click! ) and support us!" and you can simple see "buy album if you can" at the end of torrent page...
well to be honest welldone to btmusic cuz they are really know what about sharing...
think about scene stealers(0-day,scene tracker) they are stealing scene's shit and uploading their tracker aftter that they are baheve like this is their own shit and if a member upload to abother tracker they're banning him/her/it look at these lol. dont steal my shit stolen by me lol.... and they're opening the donation bars at christmas and they are all giving invites to who donate tracker and after that saying ohh we are not like "X" selling invites lol. just fun there' no much...

well at least btmusic selling their own shit and there is a support link of orginal source from a dedicated selling site..

well scene always say support it if you will use it or like it and we are just doing this for fun...

and stoi you cant separate donations or tracker policy

Ok why does every thread i make turn into about me and my tracker lol
well now its turn to Btmusic :P lol.

when i rent a seedbox, can i get files to my computer faster?
ok, then it doesn't make much sense for me to rent one.
never pay for warez - enough said.
and we are loving fst's polarbear:P
edit
ofc wrong i am agree with you, no doubt i just wanted to mean at least
***

[stoi]

Ok but even then, they are making cash by doing it from their users work, not their work.

its still wrong in my eyes

[dakat]

Lovestone I am on same site but I never have had to pay a cent to any tracker to get in or get my ratio improved.

So I am against anyone selling invites even the tracker themself If I am there its because I have earned it in someway. by being a good user and getting to know the folks I am in a community with

[Lovestoned]

I CBA'ed to wait for a friend to give me one during that time, my father had wanted the KISS in the original CD format and he made a promise that if I got it he will get me something I've always wanted.

It's just another way to support the tracker, if it's not for the members who donate then who will be the ones paying for the server?

The staffs themselves can pay once or twice but they aren't that rich to pay continuously.

[Detale]

While I don't think anyone should ever pay for access to files Many of us along with torrent downloading do pay for Usenet access. I pay the $20 a month and cant really complain so maybe it's not so far fetched an idea. I know someone will come along and say well you're paying for the news server but the truth is paying this guy or paying that guy doesn't matter at all as long as I get the goods :)

[EL REY]

I'm not really uderstanding what you are asking, so I'll answer the best way I can.

I have donated to get on a small tracker Ozone-T to get an invite, but the price was nothing really so I didn't mind at all.

Now, would I donate to a site like FTN/PTN you get in? Sure, I would.

But......for me to do so, I would have to really trust & believe the person who will be handling my money, and that part isn't really gonna happen. Bcuz, it takes a lot for me to trust someone in the real world, imagine in the net world.

To sum it up: Yes, I would but highly unlikely I will given the chance.

[stoi]

so why do it for Ozone-T if anything i would rather trust Brandon off FTN as i do not have a clue who runs O-T or desi T or any others that do this.

so i just dont see your point, O-T to me is not a well established tracker, to me i had never heard of it till a thread was posted here the other day, which in turn made me think about this thread in all honesty.

so i dont understand why you would do it for a tracker no one has heard off (for all i know it may be excellent, i have just nevr heard of it) rather than a well established tracker like FTN or suchlike.


To sum it up: Yes, I would but highly unlikely I will given the chance

and hmm you did to O-T lol

[Villalltheway]

I think paying for invites or anything like that goes against the fundamentals of file sharing (thats why im not on usenet or rapid share), also when money is involved u gonna expect a lot of heat. If there are profits to be made, u know there is gonna be someone watching, and u will become a sitting target.

Also this idea of 'stealing', i think when u start to make money out of invites, u r effectively accepting a payment for someone to use your product (your website) vizave u r simply now stealing someone elses work to make money (u r no more better then the guy selling knock off dvds to you in the street). However if u r distributing someone elses work for free because u like there work and u think everyone should share in this enjoyment, then i think its not so bad.

lol i might not of explained myself brilliantly but i hope u get jist of what im trying to say.

[105802]

well I've only ever paid to get into one tracker and that was pedro's, when i got there i was really disappointed but I still DL and Seed just to keep my account so it isnt a waste of money

[Swift]

the people who buy invites from ebay and other seller sites are idiots how can somebody pay 50 euros/dollars for a invite ... you must be a moron...

[EL REY]

To sum it up: Yes, I would but highly unlikely I will given the chanceand hmm you did to O-T lolI really didn't get most of your reply, so I'll just answer this one.

I got Ozone-T from their site. If you go to their site, it says something like you wanna be a member? Click the link, and donate.

See, I didn't have to trust my money to someone, just the site it self. Big difference

I donated to Ozoone-T cuz the site looked cool & I heard it have a really nice section of TV DVDRips seasons.

[stoi]

What??

pml that is what this entire thread is about, you are confusing the fuck out of me atm mate lol someone help lol

PS: who do you think that cash goes to, the site? lol it has to go to someone to pay the bills, so how can you trust that someone when you dont know who the fuck they are.

[EL REY]

PS: who do you think that cash goes to, the site? lol it has to go to someone to pay the bills, so how can you trust that someone when you dont know who the fuck they are.Good point

But, its a site & I would hope a site wouldn't fuck people over being they want people in, correct?

If your site was where at sign up, people who aren't a member can become one by paying a fee. Would you fuck them over?

I'm guessing no, right? Therefor, I trust my money that way rather then someone from here or the net.

[stoi]

But the whole point of this thread is.

Would you pay to get into a site that was charging members for entry, like O-T or Desi-t if they still do it.

It was not about paying for an invite from a complete stranger or an account/invite on Ebay.

So your answer then after 4 posts, is yes you would and yes you have done, and you see nothing wrong with it.

fine, we got there in the end lol

[EL REY]

Lol I belive, I said I would in my first post.

Something like, sure I would if its from the site it self.

But....its all good now

[stoi]

you probably did, but everyone is going on about selling and trading invites, which has absolutely nothing to do with this thread at all, (which is typical BT, no one reads anything properly anymore) i got confused lol

[The_Martinator]

I believe Pedro's does that. But you can also get in with an invite there. So I think that's fair. If you don't have any friends you can buy yourself a membership. I bet the people who pay to get in are the best users. That said, I wouldn't pay to get in. I'm not that desperate, and I think I shouldn't have to pay for something I can get for free (yeah I know I'm cheap).

[Tokeman]

Nope, never. If I was going to pay for 'stuff' it would be from newsgroups. At least then I know I get full speed on all files available. Not gunna pay for some mystery tracker that may or may not have what I want, and it may have low seeder count on some stuff.

Filesharing is supposed to be free, and with the exception of paying for bandwidth (newsgroups) it should remain that way. Trackers only need a webserver, and they take donation from willing members for those costs, which is also fine IMO, but none were required to pay for access.

[Dolphin]

I believe that many would pay to get what they want. And theres also a question about how much it would cost and if it's worth it. If the tracker is that good and the only way to get in unless u spend huge amout of time doing stuffs u dont like, then hell ye, i would pay around 40$ to get access to F*N & P**** but i would not want to risk those $40 by buying it at ebay or such.

Well i guess i'm not poor and that maybe will make some of u here mad at me. But remember this: time is money, money is time.

[D1zkK1ll]

I believe that many would pay to get what they want. And theres also a question about how much it would cost and if it's worth it. If the tracker is that good and the only way to get in unless u spend huge amout of time doing stuffs u dont like, then hell ye, i would pay around 40$ to get access to F*N & P**** but i would not want to risk those $40 by buying it at ebay or such.

Well i guess i'm not poor and that maybe will make some of u here mad at me. But remember this: time is money, money is time.

:pinch:

[cinephilia]

you don't even say why you don't agree with it while you enumerate all the assets of a paying system... confusing.

[apextwin146]

I believe that many would pay to get what they want. And theres also a question about how much it would cost and if it's worth it. If the tracker is that good and the only way to get in unless u spend huge amout of time doing stuffs u dont like, then hell ye, i would pay around 40$ to get access to F*N & P**** but i would not want to risk those $40 by buying it at ebay or such.

Well i guess i'm not poor and that maybe will make some of u here mad at me. But remember this: time is money, money is time.
u just wasted a lot of money ermm time i mean :dry:

[Disme]

you probably did, but everyone is going on about selling and trading invites, which has absolutely nothing to do with this thread at all, (which is typical BT, no one reads anything properly anymore) i got confused lol

Well I reread it properly, but I stand mostly by what I wrote earlier.
If a tracker doesn't get enough donations eventhough the members know it's staff/owner can't afford to support the tracker any longer, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't close the tracker.
It clearly indicates the members, nor the staff are capable or willing to invest anything in return for whatever satisfaction they get out of using the tracker. Pretty clear to me the only thing to do is closing it.

About the selling of 'memberships'. I do believe you will get a lot of scum in your tracker. There are many traders that are willing to pay for an open slot to a tracker, and trade it afterwards to get into a harder to get tracker. The moment you start 'commercialising' access to a tracker the chances of it all ending badly are far greater than if you don't.

Just my personal view on the issue.

[Funkin']

On the subject of me personally paying money to get access to a tracker...no, I wouldn't. Why? Because I wouldn't be getting access to any content that I don't already have access to at another tracker. It would be very stupid of me to waste my money like that just so I can call myself a member at whatever tracker.

Now, I personally don't agree with the fact that one of my favorite trackers, BTmusic, sells accounts. But, I can say that only because I'm a member. My view may be something different if I were to be an owner of a tracker. Perhaps that greed factor would kick in where I would want more and more money, and I would then start selling invites/accounts.

So just because right now I don't agree with sites selling access to their tracker I certainly can't fault them for it either. And I think it's unfair for any other members only to fault these trackers for it too. As you really don't know what you would do until you are in that position.

[snakebite]

before i start i will just say i do not agree with it at all, and there is about a 0.0001% chance of this ever happening with us, I wont say never but it is very very slim.

So what do you think about this, Would you do it, have you done it, Do you just not bother if they have this, If you are already in a tracker like this, do you/ would you still donate etc etc

I have been thinking about this for the past few days, again though not to do it myself, but i can see it being a way to get only good members, lets say we done it for arguments sake.

£5 donation gets you in, you also get 1 month of full bonuses (which even i admit are not a lot lol but its something).

those that do pay to get in, will or i would say will be a 95% chance to be a good member, you are not going to pay and then trade the account, you may pay £5 and then sell the account for £20 though i suppose. You are very unlikely to cheat if you have paid to get in.

So i can see some sort of sense in doing it, still does not mean i would do it on my tracker though, as i still think it is wrong.

but just wondering what the rest of you think.

PS: I do not mean Donating and getting an Invite, I mean actually paying to get access like a few are doing.

Ok this just my option and just that but are u NUTS if u said people come into a tracker a great one at that Say Sct or BCG and only pay £5 and u get gets you in, you also get 1 month of full bonuses..there would be so many hit and runs it would not be funny...Well am I right or not???:unsure:

[stoi]

Well maybe with SCT (but i do not know how their donation system works), but for us no, even if you do donate you cant hit and run.

[MaNiJaK]

.......

[CoD]

I would gladly pay to get into trackers. It would be cool if there was a pay2leech tracker that required a subscription each month/year or whatever to be a member. Like nzb indexing sites.

Just imagine how great a tracker could be if funded by all the seedboxers who, instead of spending 25-50-100 Euro a month on a server, could contribute at least some of that to the tracker's servers/seedboxes.

[Intr4ns1t]

I would gladly pay to get into trackers. It would be cool if there was a pay2leech tracker that required a subscription each month/year or whatever to be a member. Like nzb indexing sites.

Just imagine how great a tracker could be if funded by all the seedboxers who, instead of spending 25-50-100 Euro a month on a server, could contribute at least some of that to the tracker's servers/seedboxes.

So basically you just want scene access?

[mclevels]

I think if you start a torrent tracker, you should have a back up way to fund it. Maybe start a secondary site based on something else that is open and has no legal pitfalls. Then you could try to make enough advertising money to fund both sites for half a month. And then still set a full months goal for the torrent tracker just the same.

You can't always count on your members having extra cash to donate. Look at the music industry there so stuck in there usual way of making money off of artists. And only now are they realizing they need to find new streams of revenue.

I don't claim to know the final solution to keeping a safe haven for file shares. What I do know is that, putting a tax on site memberships will effect the overall torrent community negatively. Once site owners lose the passion for running there site and are only fueled by profits things turn bad. It starts becoming less about what the members want and more about how to survive and increase profit margins. All the while taxing members, until it becomes the Boston Tea Party(Revolution) all over again :)

Of course that's worst case but still, once you start focusing on money it's hard to stop. The easiest thing to do is to stop focusing on one way to make money and find many ways to make money. By doing this there's less stress on your site members. And yes I own a torrent tracker and use many ways to fund it.

[bblogs]

It seems to me that anti P2L is the result of the ultra1337ness BT community. While there's nothing wrong with it, obviously you're going to have to consider whether or not it's good value. If you're charging as much as newsgroups obviously you won't have any success, but for a small fee (even just something like 3 USD) think of the benefits to the tracker...no collectors/traders/cheaters making dupe accounts upon open signup, and a handy amount of cash to help support the site, maybe just for emergencies.

Naturally you'll lose some users who prefer to get their files 100% free, like some of the guys have mentioned before, but I think for a one-time payment (of just a few dollars) I think the tracker environment would be improved for it to be worth it by far.

[walkman79]

I think there is nothing wrong if members get invites by donation but accepting payments from total strangers to get into the site could attract a lot of snitches from CopyRight organizations and could put in risk the current members. Imo, sites which sell membership don't really care about its current members.

On the other hand, donations are never enough, if donations of the month surpass the server costs you can give the surplus to release groups to buy new stuff to be ripped and shared with the community. I can't see anything bad in reward a donation with an invite or upload amount. At the end donators are the ones who keep alive the tracker.

[viru5]

Warez- not paid.

FTP - paid.

P2P - only for donate.

[walkman79]

It seems to me that anti P2L is the result of the ultra1337ness BT community.


I totally agree with this statement. Actually, not everyone has a high bandwidth or even the chance to get a seedbox. I live in South America and there isn't any decent bandwidth here, I used to p2l on sites which accept this to mantain a fair ratio. Even though I keep seeding 24/7 it's impossible for me to get a 1.0 ratio on each torrent, and trackers which are anti p2l were a nightmare for me till I discovered the seedboxes. But I have to send the money to a friend who lives in Europe to rent the server for me because it's not available for my country. And not everyone in South America and Africa have a friend in Europe, so p2l is the only thing that could help them.

[K4BS]

I would pay £5 to get into a tracker that had stuff that I wanted and think nothing of it. I already pay about £17 a month for usenet so somthing like a £5 one off fee seems reasonable to me.

[interwebz]

i would NEVER pay to join a site. my history on the sites i do use is proof that im a good member and people who are inviting can use that as proof rather then money. i have donated to a few sites but i dont decide if im going to donate until i have seen the entire site and what it has to offer, after that if i decide i like it all i'll help them with their server costs.

[RizKhan25000]

It is wrong on a number of issues:-

What is the justification?
So far 1. the site needs money, 2. the people getting in through payment would be better members.(would not cheat, would not trade etc)
It is rubbish....for 1. if the site needs money then it is the responsibility of the old members power users, elites , staff members and the owner himself to raise the money. Every established tracker usually has a lot of power users and elites.. why they don't come forward. After all a tracker does not need a lot of money if only a few elites would take trouble to donate -they would have no problem. On the other hand I think a noob/new comer should have no obligation or desire to donate something for the site. It is only after spending some time in a community when a member would develop an attachment towards the community...only then he would be able to donate not for some material purpose but out of loyalty and friendship. I even think it is rediculous to advertise for donations to the noobs... it is not their responsiblity but of the old members and elites of the tracker. The best strategy for a tracker is to look towards its old and established members for donations.If the elites of a tracker do not contribute how can you expect the new commers to contribute.
for 2. It is an assumption which I am afraid is not based on logic but on wishes and greed.How many good, old and reliable member of a site came through payment. You can analyse your own site members and decided how many good members came through payment. I think answer would be majority of good members came through invite or open signups. So how one can assume that only through payment method one can get good members. I would say it is doubtful whether or not you would get good members but yes a lot of good customers of stolen stuff can be won through allowing them to enter by paying some dollars.I think one should be sure whether they want customers or members.

[tony2005]

if the site had very fast releases and the seed was coming from a seedbox instead of some slow 50kbs uploader then i wouldnt mind paying £5 to get in but then again any torrent you find on any site isnt hard to get hold of elsewhere meaning whats the point of paying in the first place when you can get it for free elsewhere :) every site i see showing such as "invite only or donate" then i simply turn away cause there never is what you think there is behind them invite doors only sites :) nice topic though :)

[muc147]

for most of the desi torrent sites you have to pay to get in
at least that has been my experience