I've noticed nobody wants to be called collector since it connotes a despicable person in the Bittorrent Community. I also used to use the term as derogatory because of the meaning I thought it had (the 2nd Option below). But the term collector is not derogatory at all if we take the meaning from a dictionary.
I think the 1337 torrenters (Firon, Brandon, Deimos, djGrrr, Feeling, sMiLeY, etc.) should agree on the meaning of collector :
1st Option: Someone who tries to get into all the trackers he wants, maybe more than he really needs. He usually abide by the tracker's rules, so he doesn't trade or sell invites. He cares about all his accounts and treat them like jewels, he usually finds something special in every tracker he is a member of. Contents, Speeds, and Community are the most important things for him.
2nd Option: Someone who tries to get into all the trackers he can. He usually create multiple accounts and trade them, accounts for him is a merchandise, he also trades his invites and sell them on ebay. He doesn't care about Community at all. His "low level" accounts are disabled because of inactivity. Rarity is the most important thing for him.
3rd Option: Someone who tries to get into all the trackers he wants, he usually abides by all the rules except for the trading related rule at the beginning of his collection, because his main goal is to get into those "rare trackers" as soon as posible and he thinks trading invites is the fastest way to achieve it. He also uses other several methods to get what he wants but he avoids trading accounts and selling/buying invites. He is very active in forums like this, and he even get to know with some tracker staff in the long term, and he doesn't trade anymore, but after he gets all what he was looking for he run away and keeps a minimum activity. Rarity, speeds and contents are the most important things for him.
I could call the first option average guys, the second one scum, and the third one impatient guys.
What does Collector mean to you?
I choose the 2nd option, so derogatory. But it could the 3rd option as well.
On the other hand, The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. So, the collector according to the dictionary is not a bad person at all, since he always cares about his items, that is, either the 1st option or 3rd option.
Once again, this is my take on things. And one thing that is important to remember is that, at least from my experience, no one person has the exact same opinions as another, but after all, the meaning of a term is built of several different opinions and I think we could agree on a meaning.
Edit:
After I've read all your comments I came to this conclusion:
A collector is someone who joins to every tracker he can and usually prefers higher levels, he is always looking for invites and sites open for singups, but he really doesn't use most of his trackers or just keep a minimum activity on them.
In this definition a collector could be a trader but not necessarily, he could also be an anti-trader who takes care of some accounts but doesn't give a damn about others. A collector could also be that scum who doesn't care about community and sells invites and accounts on ebay. That is, collector is not an insult after all. There isn't any direct relation with the number of trackers you are member of, but there is a relation with the ratio: trackers you use/trackers you have .
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