your thoughts on Pay2Leech sites?

[r0uJe]

for those who don't know what Pay2Leech is, it's you "donate" (& i use that term loosely) a certain amount of $$$ and you either get upload credits (ala BitMe or BitMeTV) or you get VIP status in which you don't have to worry about your ratio (ala SCC or TL).

as for me, i think it's OK. i mean, let's be honest... for a BIG site like TL, it takes a powerful server to make it run smoothly. that, and bandwidth isn't free.

i'm surprised many in the torrent community look down on these sites when the ppl running these so-called "pay2leeech" sites are only doing it so they can keep their server(s) online!

sure, the guy in charge of the "donations" get a little extra cash after every donation period (*ehem*ScT*ehem*TL*) but i think they deserve it for getting their site as BIG as it is and to where it is right now.

i'm sure if i had a site where i have around 10K+ members, i'd do the same!

[torrentslave]

sorry but sct isnt pay2leech

sites that are
tl
pisexy
tt
bitmetv
bitme

just to name a few

[riceboi]

filelist

[r0uJe]

sorry but sct isnt pay2leech

i never said ScT was pay2leech. i merely HINTED that their Admin gets a few extra $$$ after every donation period (hence, the *ehem* comment).

also, i'm not asking for a list of sites that are pay2leech! i'm asking for your thoughts about it...

[Melvinmeow]

Personally I dont mind sites that do it. I just hate sites that send you pms about it every other day. or have big flashy banners about the options.

If they leave it on the donations page its all fine... Just dont overpromote the option.

[Sentient]

I never donate (well directly at least) because I don't want my real name and paypal on their logs, but I don't have any problem with it as long as the money is only going for servers. I don't even mind looking the other way if an admin skims a little to pay for his personal servers or uploaders' servers, perhaps.

But a site like TL is running solely to profit from it's members and uploaders, and that's just wrong. It's not on any small scale either, TL brings in tons of money every month. I don't understand how they're holding onto uploaders, but perhaps they're throwing them just enough to keep them happy.

[digitalism]

I don't think there's a big problem with donating and getting a little upload credit in return. But, I don't agree with donating for VIP (and not having to seed anything back.) It paints a negative image of the tracker/community and makes me not want to bother seeding either.

[mestari]

Nobody forces anyone to donate. If someone wants to, I think that it's ok.

[Melvinmeow]

I never donate (well directly at least) because I don't want my real name and paypal on their logs, but I don't have any problem with it as long as the money is only going for servers. I don't even mind looking the other way if an admin skims a little to pay for his personal servers or uploaders' servers, perhaps.

But a site like TL is running solely to profit from it's members and uploaders, and that's just wrong. It's not on any small scale either, TL brings in tons of money every month. I don't understand how they're holding onto uploaders, but perhaps they're throwing them just enough to keep them happy.

To my knowledge they dont skim money. Alot of their files are posted with the seedboxes that their VIP donors pay for. They use multi 100mbit boxes to seed their files.
Not to mention the cost of the webservers themselves as well as scene access.

[torrentslave]

theres some1 here that can back this but pisexy makes $40,000 mo via "donations"