Why do people go after l33t trackers?

Just a thought ....

Still don’t quite know how to feel about people going after trackers they only know about by rumour as opposed to being told about the pros and cons by people they know/trust ( sorry to use the t word in public)

There are so many trackers little known and less l33t out there doing a fantastic job it does make me wonder what drives newbies to torrenting (or old heads for that matter) to go after levels? Apart from the “sport” or “challenge” in subverting the courteous protocols of earning ones stripes to borrow a phrase, what does the newcomer actually want and why???

Answers please on a postcard to ...... :)

Well, in my case it's pure curiosity. I joined both ScT/FTN for that exact same reason, and I wouldn't say I necessarily regret either decision/curiosity fulfillment. The thing is, trackers are barely hyped up with just a level number. UK-T was never hyped up as level 10 site, join nao! The same applies(d) to FTWR/FSC/Skittles so on and so forth.

Usually trackers have other great incentives, like "awesome community", "1337 packs", "100% fulfilled request section", and the rarity and misplaced pride in being an elitist is an additive. People seek what they perceive as hyped/are curious to experience it for themselves, and when you tell them that they also can't have it, because of how awesome they need to be to get in, that only serves as reverse psychology; people want what they can't have.

Par exemple: The only tracker I would care to join now is PTFiles (perhaps KG, too). They're not 1337 at all, but given the fact about how the content/features of both were hyped up so much to me, and how it has been cordially asserted to me that I can't join either at the moment because of stringent invite rules (and inviter choosing habits of mine), I want them even more.

*sigh* this thread again. there's plenty of threads here that ask the same question.
what we want we can't have. you want to join FTN because people tell you that you won't get it. The only thing it has going for it is it's "level", trust me. Speeds-SCC, ratio free-GFT (or scc again, it's not that hard if you download 2 or 3 tv releases at release and leave them for a day or two, or download them from TL or RevTT and leave them seeding on scc), packs- Why in gods name would you want a pack of films grouped together because they have the same actor in them, ohter than an excuse to join an elite site. Community-FST has a more active forum than FTN does, and there's the same threads in both, "count to 1000000, why join this, favourite this that and the other"

Join RevTT/Tl/SCC for 0day,. and a niche tracker if you need it, but that's all you need. at the end of the day, it's the same content, except you get it 5 minutes faster at the 0day sites like TL, and it downloads faster at them too...

Fair point with regards to reverse psychology of the need for the unobtainable, and without regard for the old standbys of “community” “packs” “requests” “hypes” etc, I’m thinking more of simplistic terms ie for what reasons would a “newbie” want any tracker?
I suppose the question maybe, leaving all the crap out what does an individual get into BT for in the first place?

what someone should want out of a tracker is:
speed, ease to seed it back.

noone cares about pretimes if there's a 30 second difference. Fuck, your RSS feed won't even notice which one is faster.~
"Newbies" come on to FST and read threads. they see trading as a good thing "giving what I don't want for somethign I do" and then see this levels thing, take a glance, see FTN. see all the hype about it, then find out trading isn't good, but noone says you shouldn't want high level trackers,so they still want what they've seen as a high level, because a high level means good. maybe it's just me, but I don't think a site that only lets 5000 people in is worth being in for that reason, when you can have the EXACT same files from 50000 people on another private site. Anyone tell me why?

For the same reason people would pick Sennheiser over Beyerdynamic, Lamborghini over Range Rover, and chase after Mensa memberships.

Tell someone that something is the best, the most exclusive to get into or own, and you're only offering them up on a silver platter to the gods of the hunt.
It's a simple thought process really. "Both are apples, one is green, one is red. I don't know what either taste like, but I see all the rich people choosing the green one, so I will pick the green one". It's basic conformity to rules of elitism/belonging/supremacy.

First time I saw your avatar was on a 'l33t tracker', what's your story?

ps: this should prob get moved to bittorrent before it gets torn to shreds

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

ps: this should prob get moved to bittorrent before it gets torn to shreds

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Right on time!

On topic: some want them out of curiosity, others for bragging rights. Unfortunately, the latter is outweighing the former.
Many resort to trading, as they don't have the time or the will to social network their way there. Add a language barrier on many cases, and you have the formula.

Not long ago it was trendy to request those trackers "for the community". We would often see requests at FST and at many other places (some pretending to be leet) from people who weren't even active on those same communities. Now, how hypocrite is that?

For a newbie:Bragging rights.
For a Veteran:Extending their e-peen and Bragging rights.

Curiosity is an excuse really.When you hear a "l33t" tracker sucks and there is nothing special in there,why do you care to join?Because you wanna see for yourself how much the tracker sucks?
Curiosity is not joining a tracker when you very well know what the tracker offers and how it "looks like" but it is when joining a tracker when you dont know anything about it other than rumours,like how people wanted to join CN back sometime when it was a rumour producing factory and when "it dint exist".

/me came
/me saw
/me LOL'd!

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Originally Posted by AbyBeats

For a Veteran:Extending their e-peen and Bragging rights.

Curiosity is an excuse really.When you hear a "l33t" tracker sucks and there is nothing special in there,why do you care to join?Because you wanna see for yourself how much the tracker sucks?
Curiosity is not joining a tracker when you very well know what the tracker offers and how it "looks like" but it is when joining a tracker when you dont know anything about it other than rumours,like how people wanted to join CN back sometime when it was a rumour producing factory and when "it dint exist".

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Disagreed. Veterans actually think they "earned" their place in the private BT world, and deserve, as a culmination of their efforts, to get in to certain sites. At a certain point in time, it ceases to be for bragging rights.

Disagreed again. Curiosity will always be a factor. Even if every page of a given tracker is screenshotted out there for people to see, people will still be curious. A noob would be curious about how 1337 his status becomes when he gets in, and a veteran would be curious to see how he'd fit in/if "the community" would wish him well every morning he strolls into IRC. Etc.

As I mentioned a few days ago: It's a crooked BT world we live in, where people forget about the content eventually, make a mockery out of "community participation" mentions, and yet hang out in private BT related forums, and such boards as FST, bad mouthing the entire ordeal, and cursing their woes of being strung out because of one reason or another. The more I get to know people on this corner of the internet, the more I feel like it's a waste of time socializing.

Everything has been said already. I'd just like to add, that some newbies really are so naive as to think that you can find stuff at FTN for example that can't be found anywhere else. And I'm not making this up either. :P

Oh and yeah curiousity is a big factor. :lol:

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Disagreed. Veterans actually think they "earned" their place in the private BT world, and deserve, as a culmination of their efforts, to get in to certain sites. At a certain point in time, it ceases to be for bragging rights.

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A Veteran feels left out when he dosent get invited to a place and thus he tries to get into that place just to prove/brag to others that he is "l33t" enough.This may not be the case of some but it is for the majority.Veterans feels the pressure of not being "l33t" enough if they are not in a tracker which hails itself to be "l33t" enough.

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Disagreed again. Curiosity will always be a factor. Even if every page of a given tracker is screenshotted out there for people to see, people will still be curious. A noob would be curious about how 1337 his status becomes when he gets in, and a veteran would be curious to see how he'd fit in/if "the community" would wish him well every morning he strolls into IRC. Etc.

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A n00b thinks he becomes 1337 when he gets in and a *majority* of the veterans does what I said above."Even if every page of a given tracker is screenshotted out there for people to see, people will still be curious" Thats not curiosity,its desire to be part of a special circle.

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

As I mentioned a few days ago: It's a crooked BT world we live in, where people forget about the content eventually, make a mockery out of "community participation" mentions, and yet hang out in private BT related forums, and such boards as FST, bad mouthing the entire ordeal, and cursing their woes of being strung out because of one reason or another. The more I get to know people on this corner of the internet, the more I feel like it's a waste of time socializing.

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True that.People socialize for the sake of socializing to get what they want in BT not because they enjoy it.(I dont mean you do that,I am talking about things in general)

a REAL veteran doesn't need to try to get into l33t places; those invites are already being thrown at them. noobs grovel to get into trackers

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

a REAL veteran doesn't need to try to get into l33t places; those invites are already being thrown at them. noobs grovel to get into trackers

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QFT.

And torrenting ain't the only way to get your filez. Everyone focussed on tracker-l33tness should wander a bit on http-boards and usenet-boards and they would soon notice there are countless ways and places to get the same content without the need to be part of small l33t trackers.

Although a majority of the n00bs start out like 'invite-hunters' I'm conviced the ones with a shred of intelligence will eventually realise it's all just a bunch of trackers, nothing more, nothing less and just move on.
The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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Originally Posted by Disme

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

a REAL veteran doesn't need to try to get into l33t places; those invites are already being thrown at them. noobs grovel to get into trackers

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QFT.

And torrenting ain't the only way to get your filez. Everyone focussed on tracker-l33tness should wander a bit on http-boards and usenet-boards and they would soon notice there are countless ways and places to get the same content without the need to be part of small l33t trackers.

Although a majority of the n00bs start out like 'invite-hunters' I'm conviced the ones with a shred of intelligence will eventually realise it's all just a bunch of trackers, nothing more, nothing less and just move on.
The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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Couldn't have said it better. ;)

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Originally Posted by Disme

The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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i don't nor have i ever chased for invites/accounts to the obvious top-tier trackers/communities, but somehow i am or used to be a member of them, does that make me retarded?

:ermm:

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Originally Posted by n00bz0r

/me came
/me saw
/me LOL'd!

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/me too

In many cases it's simply curiosity. If you like all tracker related stuff I don't see a proper reason not to try obtain also l33t ones.

I can only comment on my own experience and as a new bt user was swayed by the propaganda that certain , for lack of a better word, high level trackers were by definition....better.
Obviously that to a large extent is not necessarily the case but it also doesn't mean that they are necessarily worse.A person fits in where ever they fit in both in terms of "community" and the content they are happy with so maybe FTN is "right " for some and goem is "right" for others.A fact that unfortunately only experience will reveal.
Me I've learned that I only want to be places that are totally low-key and where people can have some fun without some metaphorical dagger always hanging over their heads.

[QUOTE=Disme;3502836]

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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I don't believe that. I collect stamps for a hobby, and I want rare stamps for my collection yeah?
does that make me a retard because I want the rare items of the items I collect.

now change the word stamps to trackers. For some it's a hobby, It was for me originally, now I've just let most of my accounts die, and keep the few that I use. **** the community on these trackers, here is where it's at, decent quality posts, with the odd troll thrown in for amusement, this is better than any l33t forum I've ever been a member of.

all real l33t trackers are deep underground...

funny thing though....i realized that on all l33t trackers i am at , i have the same collectors neighbors idling in IRC...

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Originally Posted by QPD

all real l33t trackers are deep underground...

funny thing though....i realized that on all l33t trackers i am at , i have the same collectors neighbors idling in IRC...

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In case anything l33ter lurks out there.:yup:
Seriously though all this discussion only applies to 0day/general trackers .People don't join niche trackers to be l33t.

When I first started torrenting, it was because of the hype of course. In a nutshell, it was essentially because of WTAW. When you're a newbie, and you end up in a place like this, you really don't know any better. You see a review for some 1337 tracker, let's say FSC, that's about 3 years old, doesn't have many pictures, and goes on and on about how the community is the best on the net, the forums are an utopia for discussion, etc. The reality upon joining is quite different, but by then it's too late.

As time went by (as has already been said), these invites are eventually just offered to you. When someone comes along and says "hey, want to join uk-t?" out of the blue, it's hard not to be curious about the site.

I could count on one hand the number of smaller trackers I've joined that have lived up to expectations in any meaningful way, and usually they're niche trackers, not these small 0-days with "legendary" communities. Smaller and more secretive just means fewer seeds, worse torrent retention, less content, dead forums populated only by spamthreads, IRC channels with about five people who ever talk, etc. Over time I've realized that it's all pretty useless, and all of these sites have the exact same core of members who you can interact with at any one of them.

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Why do people go after l33t trackers?

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Because they're l33t? Or so hyped that even if you keep on hearing they're just another 0-Day tracker with nothing out of the ordinary, you'll still want to get in until you see it with your own eyes, something one absolutely can't be blamed for.

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Par exemple: The only tracker I would care to join now is PTFiles (perhaps KG, too).

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I can easily help with KG if you're willing to be part of my invite tree.

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

par exemple: The only trackers i would care to join now are the few that i don't already belong to).

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:o

One reason and only : e-penis . They feel a special if they are members on trackers with a very small userbase which are extremely hard to get in .

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Originally Posted by th0r

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Originally Posted by Disme

The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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i don't nor have i ever chased for invites/accounts to the obvious top-tier trackers/communities, but somehow i am or used to be a member of them, does that make me retarded?

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You might want to reread what I wrote ... I didn't say 'every' n00b, but 'a majority' ...

On the matter of your retardness ... wasn't it you who once said he was jealous of my FST-join-date :ermm:

I like the analogy that a tracker is a stamp in a collection

ps Tutela I fail to understand your twisted logic that making said comparison at all helps yer case

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Originally Posted by Stabber

One reason and only : e-penis . They feel a special if they are members on trackers with a very small userbase which are extremely hard to get in .

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:P nice point indeed.
+1 from me.

I was asking if you would call me retarded for collecting stamps? (I actually do collect stamps if anyone cares) but if you wouldn't, then why would you cal me a retard for collecting trackers? People like to collect things that are difficult to obtain, but everyone knows trackers are obtainable if you really want them all, so it's a completeable collection.. the 1337 ones I mean..

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Originally Posted by Tutela

I was asking if you would call me retarded for collecting stamps? (I actually do collect stamps if anyone cares) but if you wouldn't, then why would you cal me a retard for collecting trackers? People like to collect things that are difficult to obtain, but everyone knows trackers are obtainable if you really want them all, so it's a completeable collection.. the 1337 ones I mean..

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I used to collect stamps but then I hit puberty.:OTrue story btw
(Long) After that I used to collect single malt but I found that I was always drinking my collection :(("nother true story btw)
The best and only useful thing to collect is life experiences and friendships and consequentially memories.Hopefully one day I will see the wisdom in my own words and do a better job of doing it.

Oh well as long as I'm not collecting dust or debts I guess.

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Originally Posted by n00bz0r

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Originally Posted by Disme

QFT.

And torrenting ain't the only way to get your filez. Everyone focussed on tracker-l33tness should wander a bit on http-boards and usenet-boards and they would soon notice there are countless ways and places to get the same content without the need to be part of small l33t trackers.

Although a majority of the n00bs start out like 'invite-hunters' I'm conviced the ones with a shred of intelligence will eventually realise it's all just a bunch of trackers, nothing more, nothing less and just move on.
The ones that keep chasing for l33tness are the retards imo.

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Couldn't have said it better. ;)

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This right here ^^^^

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Originally Posted by IdolEyes787

I used to collect stamps but then I hit puberty.:OTrue story btw
(Long) After that I used to collect single malt but I found that I was always drinking my collection :(("nother true story btw)
The best and only useful thing to collect is life experiences and friendships and consequentially memories.Hopefully one day I will see the wisdom in my own words and do a better job of doing it

Oh well as long as I'm not collecting dust or debts I guess.

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eryone needs something to keep them ticking over. Sure its stupid, but so are alot of things I do.. point I'm making is that everyone is entitled to collect if they feel like it, we just shouldn't give it to them!

Your point is that you're stupid and we shouldn't give you any tracker invites? I'll give you a point for blunt honesty, I guess..

I thought you just had to be a "veteran " and then people just gave them to you?

i suppose that depends on your definition of the word

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Originally Posted by Fishy2

Fair point with regards to reverse psychology of the need for the unobtainable, and without regard for the old standbys of “community” “packs” “requests” “hypes” etc, I’m thinking more of simplistic terms ie for what reasons would a “newbie” want any tracker?
I suppose the question maybe, leaving all the crap out what does an individual get into BT for in the first place?

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This seems to have swung round just to focus on tracker levels, and despite being the worse for a few Vodkas when posting not exactly what I intended :)

I was trying to get at what does the “average” member get into torrenting in the first place for, before that is this or that tracker and the pursuit of it takes over. And yes “sigh” most people reading through FST can reel of the usual answers/reasons/excuses for seeking status l33tnes and all that.

Recently there seems to be a trend for closed communities to be actively seeking new members and many staffers will have had conversations about how to get more “quality” users to frequent a particular site, be it for activity, uploads, donations or whatever. Sound familiar?

Because there’s the rub, where do “they” come from and what do they want from a site? Would they be newbies to green to know about levels? One time traders given a chance? Experienced torrent users? Veterans you see on every site?
So many good sites out there I cant help thinking curiosity aside, that there seems to be something lacking from the I want what I cant have argument?

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

First time I saw your avatar was on a 'l33t tracker', what's your story?

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If you mean me? My first 6 years of torrenting were spent on a l33t tracker that and this is quite funny for me in hindsight, I had no idea and I do mean no idea was so sought after by so many :lol:

Thanks to being on there and to people I met back then and since it went down (and FST), I find myself on a few places now and for some of the reasons mentioned in this thread, but mostly because of people I enjoy socialising with and to simply grab whatever files I like, but then we could all say that couldnt we ;)

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

Your point is that you're stupid and we shouldn't give you any tracker invites? I'll give you a point for blunt honesty, I guess..

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No, I'm just saying if you don't want to give to a collector, then you're going to struggle giving away invites, espeically somewhere like here! I'm not going to beg for invites, I'kll ask if I want one in particular, but other than that I'm content with what I have!