Let's talk about BT

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

Uhm, PITA stands for pain in the ass. I guess you're a n00b at these things... or you were joking. I can never tell, tbh. :lol:

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I'm only serious about things that need to be taken seriously if that's any help.

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

PPS: About Albo and Cabalo: Constructive criticism is something that betters trackers. But the criticism that those two present is not constructive, neither is it argumented, but what bothers me the most is their approach (I'm repeating myself, I know :P). You hear a lot that at sites like TPS you have to suck dick and are not allowed to criticize sites. Not true. But if you do it the same way as those two do it here, expect to be banned. Fast.

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I'm of an entirely different mindset on this because primarily a. they are only words b. they are only words directed at an inanimate object( a bt tracker ) which has no feelings and therefore is immune to harm c. there are more than one side to every argument and by seeing other ones you begin to reason instead of just follow.

@ Bad-Day since you have now more or less confirmed what was , at least to me, apparent from the outset that there is a lot more to you than first met the eye , I just wonder if you consider your presence here as aiding or mocking .And if mocking then aren't you as much of the problem as those like Albo who you disdain?

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes

I'm of an entirely different mindset on this because primarily a. they are only words b. they are only words directed at an inanimate object( a bt tracker ) which has no feelings and therefore is immune to harm c. there are more than one side to every argument and by seeing other ones you begin to reason instead of just follow.

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A tracker has no feelings, but people who work hard to keep the tracker going and constantly improving do.

I said that it's good you see both sides of an argument. Still asking to remain civilised while expressing yourself is not too much, don't you think?

I've seen you say your mind about trackers and I know you do it in a totally different way than Albo for instance (even when you're basically saying the site sucks).

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Why do you use bit torrent, and why to the degree that you use it?

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My brother used Audiogalaxy, Napster, Edonkey, TribalWeb (now GigaTribe) at home ...i moved to BT because i was tired to have fake files with eMule.

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What do you feel is the ideal tracker for you, and are you a member of a site that fills those requirements?

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I don't think that the ideal tracker can exist ... i prefer a "specialized tracker", as WhatCD, BCG, Goem...( i know that Stoi love these words :p ), where i can easily find what i'm looking for.

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Do you feel you are on enough trackers, and what do you think is too many trackers?

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I always find stuffs which i need, then yes, i can tell that i'm on enough trackers.I'm on no 1337 tracker, and i don't feel the need, because i can't see what they can bring to me and what i can bring to them.Some of you are going to tell me "Community" (or something like that)...i'm on specialized forums for that, and i'm already member of a great community (i'm sorry to tell you that it's not here).
What also bothers me is that most trackers forums are filled with the same people who post the same topics, and even putting the best of intentions I find this boring.

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What do you see the politics of BT entailing, and does it affect your actions in this field?

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I try to find the way to not be a sheep...and not be a rebel at the same time.
As Funkin'said:

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Originally Posted by Funkin'

"Bt politics" interest me none. I just do my thing and try to stay within the rules of each tracker I belong to(whether I agree with them or not)

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Do you think there is an ethos necessary when interacting, and if so, what does it consist of? By this I mean what do you think the "morals" of BT are, if you think there should be.

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I think that kallieb is right.

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Originally Posted by kallieb

Say thanks to those who share, offer help when you can, fill a request if you're able, don't bail on a seed if you're the last one, and check in on teh site regularly enough to at least demonstrate that you're not taking up space on the tracker for ego - but that you actually want to be there.

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But nowadays people are more and more individualistic, the BT allows to avoid it a little, the BT=Sharing: but not only files, we exchange everything: the knowledge, the utopias, the visions, the discoveries, the informations etc....
I find hallucinating that people through the BT, the forums, or the web are capable of speaking to strangers, while most part of them are incapable to do it IRL. You can call it " the magic of the internet " if you want.
(I don't know how is your country, but here, when you say "Hello" to somebody, he has reflex to touch (or hide) its moneybag, or to lower eyes!)

PS: It's funny that all the threads at one time or another, end up talking about Albo or Cabalo

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

Intr4ns1t, yeah, I agree about the being nice part. The way you were raised has a big part in it. But again, there's the problem of internet, you don't know who my parents are...

PS: Great thread!

PPS: About Albo and Cabalo: Constructive criticism is something that betters trackers. But the criticism that those two present is not constructive, neither is it argumented, but what bothers me the most is their approach (I'm repeating myself, I know :P). You hear a lot that at sites like TPS you have to suck dick and are not allowed to criticise sites. Not true. But if you do it the same way as those two do it here, expect to be banned. Fast.

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for some strange reason whenever I read any of your post it always sounds like you've been sent by TPS or something.

And about the being nice part,it doesn't take half a brain to figure who's being nice coz they are nice and who's being nice coz they want something but still refuse to admit it(what kinda idiots do they think we imiz).For starters just dig through your post history here and those other places then compare it with that of dawn-6 or lisabritpop or the guy dishing polish tracker invites or the guy who got banned by what for doing a giveaway here and eventually getting re-enabled(jincandoit was his nick) then see whether your 'niceness' doesn't warrant cabalo's distaste.

Being nice is good but i think it goes hand in hand with honesty.I'd rather an IRC stranger who chats me up coz he knows am on tracker X and may potentially have invites than someone who is being nice with me over pm or pretends to share similar interests with me only to stop upon realisation that I don't got shit for him but then continues to deny that they were/are nice only coz of the invites<---and that's what sucks even harder.

Its probably nothing but you really gotta give it to those who hold fort knox invites <insert the most relevant reasons here :lol: >

anyways this is a good thread that probably doesn't deserve such rants but like n00bz0r once pointed out,it doesn't make sense for y'all to turn every thread into an albo/cabalo affair.

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Originally Posted by sez

anyways this is a good thread that probably doesn't deserve such rants but like n00bz0r once pointed out,it doesn't make sense for y'all to turn every thread into an albo/cabalo affair.

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:lol: Strange phenomenon.

@Idoleyes show me the money, i can´t see anything from here, unfortunately. ( ps give me pm´s privileges please! )

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Originally Posted by sez

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

Intr4ns1t, yeah, I agree about the being nice part. The way you were raised has a big part in it. But again, there's the problem of internet, you don't know who my parents are...

PS: Great thread!

PPS: About Albo and Cabalo: Constructive criticism is something that betters trackers. But the criticism that those two present is not constructive, neither is it argumented, but what bothers me the most is their approach (I'm repeating myself, I know :P). You hear a lot that at sites like TPS you have to suck dick and are not allowed to criticise sites. Not true. But if you do it the same way as those two do it here, expect to be banned. Fast.

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for some strange reason whenever I read any of your post it always sounds like you've been sent by TPS or something.

And about the being nice part,it doesn't take half a brain to figure who's being nice coz they are nice and who's being nice coz they want something but still refuse to admit it(what kinda idiots do they think we imiz).For starters just dig through your post history here and those other places then compare it with that of dawn-6 or lisabritpop or the guy dishing polish tracker invites or the guy who got banned by what for doing a giveaway here and eventually getting re-enabled(jincandoit was his nick) then see whether your 'niceness' doesn't warrant cabalo's distaste.

Being nice is good but i think it goes hand in hand with honesty.I'd rather an IRC stranger who chats me up coz he knows am on tracker X and may potentially have invites than someone who is being nice with me over pm or pretends to share similar interests with me only to stop upon realisation that I don't got shit for him but then continues to deny that they were/are nice only coz of the invites<---and that's what sucks even harder.

Its probably nothing but you really gotta give it to those who hold fort knox invites <insert the most relevant reasons here :lol: >

anyways this is a good thread that probably doesn't deserve such rants but like n00bz0r once pointed out,it doesn't make sense for y'all to turn every thread into an albo/cabalo affair.

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I was not sent by TPS, but I am a big fan of them and have been there from the start. They don't thank me for posting here, nor do I get any ''other prizes''. I'm just speaking my mind.

About being honest, I am, and even then some people don't like it when I admit that one of the reasons for me signing up here was to learn more about FTN and then eventually maybe get there. I got there with no thanks to FST, btw. And yes a member at TPS invited me, but I wasn't really looking for an invite at the time, nor was it my dream to get there. I can't objectively say it hasn't affected my liking towards TPS, though. Subjectively I can.

PS: Cabalo hates me because he forced me to take sides in one of the many arguments he had with trackers' staffs and I didn't choose his side. That's all there is to it. I didn't beg him for anything and got rejected (if that's what you're thinking).

I did ask him for advice on occasion and not all of which I got was good.I really have to stop talking about this e drama loverz, so if anyone has any more questions, I just cleared my inbox.

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Originally Posted by Bad-Day

@Idoleyes show me the money, i can´t see anything from here, unfortunately. ( ps give me pm´s privileges please! )

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I don't have that kind of power all I can do is make hot women yearn and strong men cry.:idunno:

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

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Originally Posted by Bad-Day

@Idoleyes show me the money, i can´t see anything from here, unfortunately. ( ps give me pm´s privileges please! )

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I don't have that kind of power all I can do is make hot women cry and strong men yearn.:idunno:

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:lol: :lol:


:cry:

I'm disabling you at TPS for that .:dry:

Mwahahahahah I´m not @ TPS mwahahaha


I went there, but it sucks, i only use IC somethimes, its nice.

Hey U what's IC Sounds ghey.

Sorry for the off toepick but as noted I can't pm you.

Actually a good topic and no disrespect to the OP .
I'd add something intelligent but if already used up my quota for the day.

Sorry Intransit :( hes still asleep...

Idoleyes this no pm rule for 30 days is really shitty.

U dunno what is IC ? its a forum. Nothing like tr or tps or cfs, ppl dont beg for nothing... or suck...

Anyway....

Back on topic boys and girls

@leech i dont think so, but im not all that active so...

Invite Central
It's like all the rest of those forums.

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

I'm of an entirely different mindset on this because primarily a. they are only words b. they are only words directed at an inanimate object( a bt tracker ) which has no feelings and therefore is immune to harm c. there are more than one side to every argument and by seeing other ones you begin to reason instead of just follow.

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Exactly, people should have the right to speak their mind, I mean if you have a strong feeling about something you should be able to express it. As long as you're not trolling I don't see the problem.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

I'm of an entirely different mindset on this because primarily a. they are only words b. they are only words directed at an inanimate object( a bt tracker ) which has no feelings and therefore is immune to harm c. there are more than one side to every argument and by seeing other ones you begin to reason instead of just follow.

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Exactly, people should have the right to speak their mind, I mean if you have a strong feeling about something you should be able to express it. As long as you're not trolling I don't see the problem.

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This is all fine untill some says and has a go about things/sites they have never checked out therefore have no real facts about it to make judgements on them.

A bt tracker may be inanimate but the owners who put time and effort into them running them are not so they do have a right to take offence at people who say things about the tracker with out even having the manners to check it 1st.

Did anyone say that people shouldn't be able to speak their minds?

Do you always say the first thing that pops up in your mind in RL? I usually don't.

I dont usually :)
I also do not comment on people or things I know nothing about, which I bring to my online stuff as well.
I am of the view if you are going to comment about some thing at least have the manners to check it out 1st

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

Did anyone say that people shouldn't be able to speak their minds?

Do you always say the first thing that pops up in your mind in RL? I usually don't.

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True. Doesn't matter if it is online or in real life, sometimes it's good but usually that makes you look like an idiot (this makes me remember of a certain House episode lol)

P.S: Bad-day is 100% right about IC, nothing like the other forums, doesn't matter what anyone says. :)

P.S.2: Bad-day <3 :whistling

Well, I won't lie, I was fairly certain that Albo and Cabalo were going to come up in this thread, but I want to point out one thing. Neither of them posted a single thing that was expressing an opinion or in fact of any substance in this thread nor did either of them flame anyone or anything. And yet, they still show up as a subject matter. What gives?

On the subject of criticism of sites, from my experience, that criticism, if it has any single thread of validity, can only serve to help the sites it's about. Hell, alot of the focuses I have had with my site have derived specifically from threads that were bashing us. Doesn't matter what the tone of the post is, if its content is valid, it's valid.

Yes it can hurt, especially if you put heart mind and soul into your project, BUT, in mind of what duckater said, much of the criticism posted some places are made by people that don't know what they are talking about, and that makes it hard to take them all seriously.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

Exactly, people should have the right to speak their mind, I mean if you have a strong feeling about something you should be able to express it. As long as you're not trolling I don't see the problem.

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What constitutes trolling then? Make no mistake, I agree with your statement, but what is the difference between critique and flame? The problem lies in the fact that we all define those two things differently, so one mans criticism is another mans slap in the face.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

On the subject of criticism of sites, from my experience, that criticism, if it has any single thread of validity, can only serve to help the sites it's about. Hell, alot of the focuses I have had with my site have derived specifically from threads that were bashing us. Doesn't matter what the tone of the post is, if its content is valid, it's valid.

Yes it can hurt, especially if you put heart mind and soul into your project, BUT, in mind of what duckater said, much of the criticism posted some places are made by people that don't know what they are talking about, and that makes it hard to take them all seriously.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

Exactly, people should have the right to speak their mind, I mean if you have a strong feeling about something you should be able to express it. As long as you're not trolling I don't see the problem.

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What constitutes trolling then? Make no mistake, I agree with your statement, but what is the difference between critique and flame? The problem lies in the fact that we all define those two things differently, so one mans criticism is another mans slap in the face.

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KNow what you mean about comments on own site, I do not consider noting things said by people who do not even bother to at least have a look at the iste first and will tell them they have no real knowledge about some thing they have not viewed for themselves.

To me trolling is covered by the above making remarks about things they have not checked out for them selves. Other form of trolling is usally by banned members of sites that want to make the site they are banned from look bad and to be fair it is more than likely happen when the ban is justified, i.e they have not followed sites rules.

You create an opinion based on experience as Duckater says and the same holds true about people.
If I edited ever stupid thing that came out of people's virtual mouths how could anyone tell who was a fool and who wasn't?

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

You create an opinion based on experience as Duckater says and the same holds true about people.
If I edited ever stupid thing that came out of people's virtual mouths how could anyone tell who was a fool and who wasn't?

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Thats easy to answer, you would be the fool for wasting so much time :P :P

Sorry could not resist ;)

Criticizing and flaming are 2 separate things. Nothing is reason to flame someone, even if that person is flaming you. There's constructive criticism, you can say "your site sucks" or "I think your site needs to improve, x and x are not good on your site and you could improve it doing x or x". You picked sites criticism but the same goes for members flaming each other. There's no reason to be "the bad guy". Sure, it's fun flaming, but it takes you nowhere.

What i believe is that sometimes there is a certain confusion between mocking and flaming, not criticizing :P

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Originally Posted by Duckater

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

You create an opinion based on experience as Duckater says and the same holds true about people.
If I edited ever stupid thing that came out of people's virtual mouths how could anyone tell who was a fool and who wasn't?

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Thats easy to answer, you would be the fool for wasting so much time :P :P

Sorry could not resist ;)

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NP I'm a fool for a lot of reasons.

All I can say is, don't take all this bt stuff too seriously. It's just sending files from one to another. There are many people that feel they are mighty in "bt world" (maybe they need to compensate something), but you do not need to support this. I don't see why you would need to - In the end they are just small illegal groups, receiving content from somewhere else and isolating that and themselves from the outside world.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

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What constitutes trolling then? Make no mistake, I agree with your statement, but what is the difference between critique and flame? The problem lies in the fact that we all define those two things differently, so one mans criticism is another mans slap in the face.

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If you watch someone's posts over time you will know if they are for real or not. Flame should be taken lightly I mean this is the internet, and respect to you for going through those bash threads and taking something from it.

I found in this torrent community there's a lot more serious business people who can't tolerate flame from people like somebody has personally insulted them. People like that are no fun, and they feed the real trolls who only exist because they take everything so seriously.

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Originally Posted by Sonnentier

All I can say is, don't take all this bt stuff too seriously. It's just sending files from one to another. There are many people that feel they are mighty in "bt world" (maybe they need to compensate something), but you do not need to support this. I don't see why you would need to - In the end they are just small illegal groups, receiving content from somewhere else and isolating that and themselves from the outside world.

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See, I think it's moved past being just a bunch of small groups sharing files in isolation. Don't most trackers have a power user forum dedicated to invites to other trackers? To me that signifies a desire on the part of those trackers to deisolate themselves. It's an example of cross site cooperation and trust, and a good sign that we are part of a bigger culture than just the individual sites we belong to.

Many sites share info on bad users as well as good users, and for good or bad, that is a sure sign that the people running those sites are of the same belief. We are all taking a risk by providing the service we do, and care and seriousness are called for when risk is at hand.

Haven't been around much but can't miss the opportunity to post in a thread thats actually on topic for the most part ;)

Why do you use bit torrent, and why to the degree that you use it?

I use it to steal files :happy:. I don't want to pay 30-40 bucks for just a season of a TV show I might not like in the first place. My opinions on games tend to be drastically different from review sites such as IGN and as such I almost never know whether I'm really going to like a game (IE I hated Oblivion but loved Prototype, both of which seemed to get quite contrasting reviews).
And if a game is done well enough, I always end up buying it to play the multiplayer to the full extent that it's available. My single player attention span is mediocre at best, but I love MP as I'm pretty competetive and a major sore loser. So basically I use BT for games and TV shows, and not really too much else as I don't really listen to music very much. I have DLed a couple apps like WinRAR so I don't have to click that goddamn popup every time :whistling.

What do you feel is the ideal tracker for you, and are you a member of a site that fills those requirements?

I think it's a site that's easy to seed or has a good bonus system to make up for that. What's the point of downloading files if you have to constantly worry about whether it will kill your ratio? Takes the fun out of it :dabs:. And yes, I feel like I'm a member of a couple sites that fufill that :).

Do you feel you are on enough trackers, and what do you think is too many trackers?

I really feel like I am on enough trackers right now. I use to join the new trackers on blogs to check them out and see what's new, but once you've seen a couple of them you've seen them all. New 0day sites that really don't bring anything interesting to the table aren't needed at all, and I've learned to be rather skeptical of new trackers. I have what I need already so why join others? I'm set. I think too many trackers is too the point where you log on to the site for a second every day from your bookmarks just to avoid pruning. If thats all your doing, you probably already have another tracker that fills that niche and don't need another one.

What do you see the politics of BT entailing, and does it affect your actions in this field?

I really despise of BT politics and I think I've expressed my opinions of it in quite a few threads here. People get wrapped up in this world of "leetness" and awsomeness from owning/being on a secret tracker, and people from this forum constantly throw punches about past mistakes. We also get threads like "zomg pedros spending donation money!!!111" and random scene notices "warning" tracker owners to stop leeching their files and "hacking" personal files from people like the ST admin just to show they can. We're just here to share and discuss files, not find how who has a bigger epenis :ermm:.

Do you think there is an ethos necessary when interacting, and if so, what does it consist of? By this I mean what do you think the "morals" of BT are, if you think there should be.

I think the only real ethos needed is not randomly attacking members to the point where its degenerating, or attacking their "l33tness". Random, unrelated insults are unnecessary. If you have a valid on topic point about another person and can express it well, so be it. That's whats great about this forum, no one will ban you for having a negative opinion of almost ANYTHING. But it gets to a point when short, offtopic remarks about other members that really annoy me.

On another note, as I kinda think I saw a while back Idoleyes raised a good point in another thread. We should'nt use the word "steal" when talking about sites stealing other sites releases and stuff. It is kind of hypocritical.

Good thread by the way, got me thinking :).

Edit: I just noticed, I tend to use a lot of smilies in my posts o.0

I had no idea, they share good info about the users...... That comes has a surprise to me.

"We should'nt use the word "steal" when talking about sites stealing other sites releases and stuff. It is kind of hypocritical."

So true!

Yes of course they do.

If sites have an agreement to share info (and this usually comes down to personal relationships between staffers) they may come to you and say look I'm thinking something about this member I know he's on your site so what's he been like on your tracker...or can you confirm this is the same guy I want to invite him or promote him or whatever. Though most information sharing is about bad members.

Really good thread this, some interesting and well thought out responses

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

Why do you use bit torrent, and why to the degree that you use it?

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After using a bit of the old napster at uni I had some time away from the net, when I got back online at home a few years ago I managed to pretty much bypass fasttrack and gneutella and arrived straight at BT (apart from Soulseek). I've always been into music, films and games but had got exceeding frustrated that all my old (bought) vhs & casette tapes were becoming obselete, so I set about replacing them initially, and then expanding my collections. There's been points over the years that downloading has become almost an obsession, trying to get everything I could ever possibly want to watch/listen to/play etc, but these days I'm much more selective and prefer to pick up rare or interesting things and help keep them alive for others who'll enjoy them as I do.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

What do you feel is the ideal tracker for you, and are you a member of a site that fills those requirements?

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I was very lucky in many ways that my first introduction to private trackers was by a real life friend, to a site that I much later discovered was much coveted by many (for all the wrong reasons). Over time, through open signups or randomly offered invites I gained access to a lot of other great sites, but for ages I considered that first site to be the ideal tracker for me. It felt personal, like I was sharing with a small group of real people round the globe rather than just faceless masses, and I met some great people there through random convo's started over a torrent comment or an upload etc.

I'm not sure I still feel the same though. Things change, it started to feel like a lot of new people on that site were there for the wrong reasons, or maybe I've just gained more perspective or become more cynical. I still use that site, and like it, but I would no longer call it ideal. Nor would I call any other site that either, some are more or less ideal for a particular niche content, but all have their up and downsides. Content is the main thing for me, "community" is a much over-used word where torrent sites are concerned, I'm not a big one for irc and most of their forums are pretty naff so I'm rarely that bothered with them (I run a football related forum anyway which takes up most of my chatting time on the net), however its always nice to find sites where members go out of their way to help others out, and that happens on most of my favourites.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

Do you feel you are on enough trackers, and what do you think is too many trackers?

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Definitely enough, I think I've signed up for like 1 or 2 new sites in the last year or so, certainly no more than that. I think "too many" depends on what sort of thing you tend to share, I certainly don't think anyone needs more than a small handful of 0-day sites and always laugh when I see people trying to get into some l33t site when they obviously have access to many others with exactly the same content. I've always liked to spread my downloading / seeding of certain things around a bit so I do maintain active accounts on probably around a dozen sites, of which say a couple are music related, a couple gaming, several for old and new films, a couple of larger 0-days and then one or two smaller trackers. I've had several prunes of my bookmarks in the not so distant past, and probably will have another again soon.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

What do you see the politics of BT entailing, and does it affect your actions in this field?

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I just try to keep out of all that as much as possible. A lot has changed in BT over the years, I could go on forever about silly levels lists, the proliferation of seedboxes & pointless account "buffering", trading and anti-trading, inter-site disputes, speed whores, money making, back stabbing and "stealing", but I won't as this post is well long enough already, and none of it really effects me massively. I definitely preferred things the way they used to be, or perhaps that was just the way I perceived them, but what can you do? Ultimately the main purpose of BT for me has always been and will always be to share files, everything else is coincidental.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

Do you think there is an ethos necessary when interacting, and if so, what does it consist of? By this I mean what do you think the "morals" of BT are, if you think there should be.

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Lol, honour among thieves and all that? I think everyone has their own standards, personally I'm usually quite respectful of people in real life and see no need to change that on the interwebs. I respect every site I'm on's rules, and understand that I'm a guest there, they call the shots and if I don't like it I can simply leave and go elsewhere. I believe in seeding because I want to, not because I'm told to. I wish more people felt the same but i'm not going to lose sleep when they don't, there's much more important things in the world. :happy:

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Originally Posted by Rart

got me thinking :).

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That's all I wanted was to make people actually think about this thing instead of the usual read and react that is normal on forums.

It occurred to me just now, that I haven't answered my own questions. :O

/me grits his teeth and starts his answers

Why do you use bit torrent, and why to the degree that you use it?

Well, at the outset, I had one goal with computers, namely to find mixed martial arts fights. I spent lots of money on MMA dvds before I started torrenting, and was limited to two organizations, Pride and UFC. A friend of mine offered me a free laptop because he thought it kind of ridiculous that a 30+ year old man didn't have any experience with computers.

Up to that point I was a serious technophobe, and was quite sure that I would use it for a week, then move on to some other interest. Well, obviously I was wrong ;) I found a torrent on mininova that belonged to MMAtracker, and that put me on the hunt for how to join that place as at the time, they were closed for signups. And so the hunt began.

I perused several forums at that point trying to figure out how to find a way into MMAtracker, and was entranced by the atmosphere. Many of us may not see the forest for the trees in this world, but there is a lot of passion in BT, and that passion made me curious. Why did all these people feel so strongly about what they were doing?

That led me to private forums. My first was DarksideRG, and holy shit did that blow my mind. Thousands of people talking about a whole realm of things I had no clue about. I joined a site that was just starting out that advertised that fact at said forum, and within a week was a staffer there.

Once that happened, I really started to see alot of invite forums with the goal of advertising that site :gasp: As I spent more time talking to the members of a couple of those forums, I realized what a huge knowledge base was available to me to learn how to use that laptop. I was hooked at that point as I have an unending thirst for knowledge, and was regularly getting that thirst sated. Now, it should be noted that that initial site failed miserably, but it was a good experience for me in that I learned what doesn't work. ;)

The point now is to try to have some sort of impact. That's all. Not in an "epeen" sort of way, I don't really give a shit if people online like me or not, I just want to have the opportunity to change peoples way of thinking on anything. even if it's not to my personal view, I only want people to think about the world around them, and I have an opportunity to do so in BT. I also have an affinity for the mindset of what we do, namely get shit for free. :naughty:

What do you feel is the ideal tracker for you, and are you a member of a site that suits those needs?

Three things would be required for a tracker to be ideal to me.

1. All the content that I regularly seek.
2. Like minded individuals involved
3. Staff that care about their users happiness

Because my tastes are so varied and specific, no I'm not a member of one tracker that fits those parameters, but I do have a combination of trackers that all together do fit those desires. Number 2 is easy, it's just a matter of taking the time to find those individuals in any group. Number three is the tough one, but there are plenty of sites out there that have the end user in mind.

Do you feel you are on enough trackers, and what do you think is too many trackers?

I am on more trackers that I need to be sure. But, as a staffer, I think that I am required to be on some sites for more than files, especially in light of the belief I hold that there is a bigger community involved. On one hand it has to be a detriment to some of those sites, but on the other, who am I to say I won't have something valid to add at some point?

I don't mean to make it sound like i am a member of 5 million trackers, as I'm not. But were I a normal user, I'd certainly have fewer sites. I grab files from all the sites I am a member of, and I seed the files I grab for as long as I can, so I don't feel too bad about not snatching 100gb a week on some sites.

I think the definition of too many is really up to the individual, but I will echo a common answer in this thread that if you are just logging in to 50 trackers once a week to make sure you don't get pruned, you most certainly have too many trackers. I see no need for 50 trackers for anyone tbh, and the folks that have that many or more trackers are wasting not only the trackers time and resources, but their own as well.

What do you see the politics of BT entailing, and does it affect your actions in this field?

I am going to make a serious effort to be as brief as possible in this question as I could probably expound on it for days :P

First off, there is a definitive mob rule in BT and it has been a evident to me from the start. The biggest problem with that is the fact that there is no common agreed upon set of behavioural guidelines for new people to use to lead them in this field. Only the current vaporous and ill defined whims of the mob.

As bt has exploded, that problem has gotten worse and worse and tbh, I don't think there can be a resolution of it. A need has risen for new ways to approach how to keep sites active, and with that need, so grows the confusion about what is required of you, the end user, to be considered active.

This has led to a very wide difference in that definition on the part of staffers and the core members of those sites. Which in turn leads to a lot of disagreements about what is the common law in BT. Just by virtue of the nature of what we do, logic would state that a free hand is implicit, but it's not. We are expected to be respectful of the members who compose that core of sites, but can suffer extreme repercussions if we deviate from that respect, especially if we dabble in the bigger community.

It's created a need to learn, on our own usually, what is acceptable and what is not, but this field holds little in the way of forgiveness, and that is hard to swallow for me. So yes, my actions are affected by that, and I often times find myself biting my tongue on a plethora of subjects for simple self preservation of me and my site. I'm not trying to imply that I hold excessively different views from the majority on lots of subjects, just that I feel a need to curtail full and unfettered discussion because I just don't have the time to explain myself 20 different ways to 20 different people.

Do you feel there is a ethos neccessary when interacting, and if so, what does it entail?

Bluntly speaking, I think yes, and I use the rules I practice when dealing with people in real life, tranlsated to BT. Be nice till given a reason not to be nice, be understanding when understanding is called for, sharing knowledge with those who possess less of it than I do, and excercising caution when caution is called for. Pretty simple really, but that pretty much covers almost any situation, real life or internet, that we might come across.


Hope this makes a bit clearer where I personally stand on these subjects I have so avidly heard other peoples thoughts on and thanks to everyone for taking this thread seriously. It's very cool to hear all of your folks' thoughts andd I hope some people read this thread and learn a little bit about what makes BT tick. :)

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

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Originally Posted by BrianH

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

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Well, first off, the only thing I ever traded in my life was baseball cards when I was a teenager, and secondly, all that was beaten into the ground more than a year ago, but thank you for the well spoken and greatly enlightening post about how you view bit torrent.

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

Well, first off, the only thing I ever traded in my life was baseball cards when I was a teenager, and secondly, all that was beaten into the ground more than a year ago, but thank you for the well spoken and greatly enlightening post about how you view bit torrent.

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Fuck baseball I traded Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. I think I might still have my Reptile deck even...

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Originally Posted by BrianH

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

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Or maybe this thread's not about that. Seriously though :ermm:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Intr4ns1t

First off, there is a definitive mob rule in BT and it has been a evident to me from the start. The biggest problem with that is the fact that there is no common agreed upon set of behavioural guidelines for new people to use to lead them in this field. Only the current vaporous and ill defined whims of the mob.

As bt has exploded, that problem has gotten worse and worse and tbh, I don't think there can be a resolution of it. A need has risen for new ways to approach how to keep sites active, and with that need, so grows the confusion about what is required of you, the end user, to be considered active.

This has led to a very wide difference in that definition on the part of staffers and the core members of those sites. Which in turn leads to a lot of disagreements about what is the common law in BT. Just by virtue of the nature of what we do, logic would state that a free hand is implicit, but it's not. We are expected to be respectful of the members who compose that core of sites, but can suffer extreme repercussions if we deviate from that respect, especially if we dabble in the bigger community.

It's created a need to learn, on our own usually, what is acceptable and what is not, but this field holds little in the way of forgiveness, and that is hard to swallow for me.

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Some interesting points in there (and in the rest of your post but I'll stick to that bit for now). I think you're mostly right about the mob rule thing, that the problem is indeed getting worse and that it is indeed hard to see any resolution to it. I do think though that its easy to forget, when active on forums like this one or the countless other invite/BT related sites that no doubt exist, or as someone involved in running or staffing a tracker, that a lot of members on sites don't necessarily participate in, or even have a great awareness of, a lot of the issues surrounding BT. I know I breezed along in blissful ignorance of a lot of the politics for ages, simply downloading and seeding things I liked, maintaining decent ratios despite my then 25kb/s upload, and only ever really having positive interactions with other members or staff. Its only when you really look into things a bit deeper, which many people may never do, that you find what you assumed to be univerally held behavioural codes, based on nothing greater than common sense and courtesy, are not so universal after all.

My first proper exposure to that was probably a thread on here I found linked through my old fav. sites' forum. That site was (and is) focused on privacy, I never thought anyone else would have an issue with that until I read some of the vitriol, deliberately destructive attacks on the way it was run etc. I found that quite shocking, not because most of it was nonsense, but because I couldn't at the time imagine why people would want to behave like that about a small community of people just sharing with each other.

Since that time I've become a lot more aware of the nuances involved in the wider BT "community", and on the internet in general, and aware that there's a lot of people out there who are only really capable of thinking about themselves, who would far rather tear something down than become involved in it constructively. Those people also tend to shout the loudest, making their numbers perhaps seem much greater than they actually are, and their influence perhaps makes it much harder for those new to the "community" to establish what acceptable modes of behaviour are, and what point there is in sticking to those anyway. Which in turn makes it harder for those established people to discern between someone who simply doesn't know, and someone who does and is choosing to pay no attention regardless. Its a vicious cycle really, to which I unfortunately doubt there is any tangible or achievable solution.

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Originally Posted by MadIrish

Those people also tend to shout the loudest, making their numbers perhaps seem much greater than they actually are, and their influence perhaps makes it much harder for those new to the "community" to establish what acceptable modes of behaviour are, and what point there is in sticking to those anyway. Which in turn makes it harder for those established people to discern between someone who simply doesn't know, and someone who does and is choosing to pay no attention regardless. Its a vicious cycle really, to which I unfortunately doubt there is any tangible or achievable solution.

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I like this. It made me think a bit which is nice :P

They do shout the loudest and most of my time ends up being spent dealing with people like this which I have to say makes me a little jaded. In the end though there's two reasons I do what I do with BT, the silent majority that you mentioned...and the good active members. At least for me the real diehards that love their site make it all worthwhile. They're what keeps me going instead of saying fuck it and downloading from FTP or another source.

I think the main problem with the private BT community is that it's been overrun by the types that you mentioned that love to complain the loudest and make a big sting whether that's complaining or vilifying someone. This can make the 'politics' of the whole scene rather ugly at times. Then there's also the collectors who just join up to be part of 'the site' whatever site that maybe I think they piss me off the most but if I start rambling about that I'll be here all afternoon and I want to go watch the new house ;)

I'd also be interested to hear what people have to say about the 'big' egos of the BT world if anyone has something to say. By this I don't meant he big ego of your everyday 1337 user with all the private sites (yes that sounds lame but hopefully you'll know what I mean) but the actual players of BT. Does this lessen your enjoyment of trackers or do most people not even take it in? I guess maybe it's the position I'm in but I see a lot of this so I'm wondering does the average BT community member even think about these guys?

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Originally Posted by sear

They do shout the loudest and most of my time ends up being spent dealing with people like this which I have to say makes me a little jaded. In the end though there's two reasons I do what I do with BT, the silent majority that you mentioned...and the good active members. At least for me the real diehards that love their site make it all worthwhile. They're what keeps me going instead of saying fuck it and downloading from FTP or another source.

I think the main problem with the private BT community is that it's been overrun by the types that you mentioned that love to complain the loudest and make a big sting whether that's complaining or vilifying someone. This can make the 'politics' of the whole scene rather ugly at times. Then there's also the collectors who just join up to be part of 'the site' whatever site that maybe I think they piss me off the most but if I start rambling about that I'll be here all afternoon and I want to go watch the new house ;)

I'd also be interested to hear what people have to say about the 'big' egos of the BT world if anyone has something to say. By this I don't meant he big ego of your everyday 1337 user with all the private sites (yes that sounds lame but hopefully you'll know what I mean) but the actual players of BT. Does this lessen your enjoyment of trackers or do most people not even take it in? I guess maybe it's the position I'm in but I see a lot of this so I'm wondering does the average BT community member even think about these guys?

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I won't lie, I was/am absolutely fascinated by the sociology of it all. Probably should have put it in my reasons I use BT to the degree I do in fact.:P

It's intriguing to watch how the words of someone with that cumulative respect I keep referring to can have a profound impact on the greater world of BT. Just the idea you are talking about is funny in it's own right, in that those of us who are entrenched in the bigger community all know the names you are referring to even if we've never shared a word with them. Sometimes you can almost hear the hushed defference to those folks in peoples "voice" when they talk about those players.

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Originally Posted by madirish

Some interesting points in there (and in the rest of your post but I'll stick to that bit for now). I think you're mostly right about the mob rule thing, that the problem is indeed getting worse and that it is indeed hard to see any resolution to it. I do think though that its easy to forget, when active on forums like this one or the countless other invite/BT related sites that no doubt exist, or as someone involved in running or staffing a tracker, that a lot of members on sites don't necessarily participate in, or even have a great awareness of, a lot of the issues surrounding BT.

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And yet, they are still held to those standards despite that fact. That's why I see it as such a big issue in this current era of BT history. Now, granted, there can't really even be a universal and well defined set of guidelines, because of the fact that the community is spread out over many sites that are each run under a different set of internal guidelines, with a mind for the overall good of the society. But, at some point, most people that stick with private trackers do learn at least the bare essentials. The rest, well they either move on, or they are forced on.

Doesn't really seem fair, but as is the mantra when faced with the immutable voice of staff saying "you fucked up, gtfo", Their tracker, their rules. There are no democracies in private sites, be they BT or anything else on the web.

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Originally Posted by BrianH

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

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Get your facts straight before you post retarded comments you know nothing about.

Intr4ns1t, epic thread.

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Originally Posted by BrianH

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

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duh.. retards like ya make FST 'out Fucking STanding'.. :frusty:
refrain from posting if ya have no idea what you are on about..

Tranny.. I have got to agree wid DeadCell..this is one EPIC thread.. imma post me answers asap! :P