Bannage

The following is just a fun discussion/argument. This discussion does not reflect me or anyone else... it is merely for discussion. Oh yeah, and its the how many times were you banned at oink that inspired me to post this.

Most (all?) torrent sites have a policy where once you are banned you are never ever to return again, ever. How fair is this really? People change over time, don't they? If I was 12 years old and joined Torrent Site X, got banned for low ratio, being on 56k, and then when I was 20 years old, using Fiber, I wanted to rejoin, but I couldn't because of my past. Yes you could join easily, but it is morally wrong and against the rules. There should be a limit on the amount of time you are banned for or something of the sort.

Banned for inactivity. So you were inactive for a month, your mom died or something, and you want to rejoin... you can't. Doesn't seem that fair now does it?

But hey, it doesn't matter right, because you can just change your IP and rejoin, clearly breaking the rules.

Well accounts aren't ban for inactivity, they are disabled and pruned. You are able to rejoin on most sites with the same ip if you were disabled for inactivity. As for your idea about getting banned when you were 12, I doubt a tracker would last anywhere near 8 years but w/e, in my opinion I don't think people that can't maintain even the bare minimum ratio don't deserve a second chance. A new connection might help you but remember, your low ratio was brought on by not thinking about what you downloaded and how much you downloaded before seeding something back. If you are dealing with a slow connection you have to take into consideration ratio minimums, spreading out between sites what you download, and you might need to download things from public trackers to upload at private ones.

Speaking of that, why is it trackers don't last long? 2 years ago was there a whole set of trackers that are different from today? In 2 years will I have to be on all new sites?

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Originally Posted by mforcex

Speaking of that, why is it trackers don't last long? 2 years ago was there a whole set of trackers that are different from today? In 2 years will I have to be on all new sites?

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To run a good tracker is expensive, and a lot of sysops start a new tracker believing they can survive only from donations.

After a while, they discover that the donation money isn´t even close to the bills, and then they shut down suddenly.

Yes, some trackers get a lot of donation money, but those trackers are pretty rare, if you take in count that there are over 1000 trackers running online today.

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Originally Posted by BamZow

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Originally Posted by mforcex

Speaking of that, why is it trackers don't last long? 2 years ago was there a whole set of trackers that are different from today? In 2 years will I have to be on all new sites?

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To run a good tracker is expensive, and a lot of sysops start a new tracker believing they can survive only from donations.

After a while, they discover that the donation money isn´t even close to the bills, and then they shut down suddenly.

Yes, some trackers get a lot of donation money, but those trackers are pretty rare, if you take in count that there are over 1000 trackers running online today.

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I can't see bitmetv/sct/tl/oink etc etc dying, can you? I think they are all turning over a hefty profit.

Lets just say a lot of things can happen in 2 years, and people change.

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Originally Posted by mforcex

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Originally Posted by BamZow

To run a good tracker is expensive, and a lot of sysops start a new tracker believing they can survive only from donations.

After a while, they discover that the donation money isn´t even close to the bills, and then they shut down suddenly.

Yes, some trackers get a lot of donation money, but those trackers are pretty rare, if you take in count that there are over 1000 trackers running online today.

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I can't see bitmetv/sct/tl/oink etc etc dying, can you? I think they are all turning over a hefty profit.

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Yes indeed they are, but as I said, there are over 1000 trackers, and at least one new is opening every day. Not many of them can survive just from donations. You mentioned about 5 trackers, and we all know about at least 30-40 more that is up´n running without problems. We (or I) was talking about those other 900 trackers.

The trackers you mentioned is some of the most known, most used trackers, and of course those most successfull trackers survive.
But even them have their problems. TL started with ads, ScT went P2L and started selling invites (before the giveaway). But also, we all know that both TL and ScT tries to make a good business out of this :)

There are surely some trackers out there which are what you'd call financially secure. And like BamZow I very much doubt that payment issues will be the (initial) problem that would force them to close down.

Since I've begun using private trackers my favorite (and therefore most active) site has changed a few times and while uploaders are certainly more loyal to a tracker, they might not be there forever either. Uploaders are certainly one of the key reasons for an active and successful tracker: if you got a group of uploaders who can provide new releases and do it with good speeds, then people with fat connections will be there too. That sounds very inviting, doesn't it? Well, so think most average users too and after all, they're the group tracker-owners are most interested in because they keep them financially stable.

Therein also lies the problem for all those other trackers that aren't secure enough. Are there too few uploaders, too slow speeds, too few releases, too few active users or is it the fact that too few users are interested in donating - because it's a) not necessary or b) not profitable enough for them?

You not only need the right user-profile on a tracker but also an attractive business idea. It's no wonder that very few trackers manage to do both :)

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Originally Posted by mforcex

If I was 12 years old and joined Torrent Site X, got banned for low ratio, being on 56k, and then when I was 20 years old, using Fiber, I wanted to rejoin, but I couldn't because of my past. Yes you could join easily, but it is morally wrong and against the rules.

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If you have been banned like 2 years ago for low ratio i don't think they really care as long as you can keep a good ratio, many trackers only disable/demote users for leeching not IP ban you.

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Banned for inactivity. So you were inactive for a month, your mom died or something, and you want to rejoin... you can't. Doesn't seem that fair now does it?

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It's an extreme situation! Hopefully most of the admins i know still have some human feelings :lol: and i think a little chat on irc might help.