should tracker staff get paid?

[sokrates]

tracker staff shouldnt expect to be paid.. its just for fun right?

[integral]

If I ran a tracker, and the donation target was exceeded by a lot, I'd just lottery it off to the users who donated for that month. Seems like the right thing to do.

[becomehokage]

If I ran a tracker, and the donation target was exceeded by a lot, I'd just lottery it off to the users who donated for that month. Seems like the right thing to do.

Im sure you'd do it.

[bblogs]

If I ran a tracker, and the donation target was exceeded by a lot, I'd just lottery it off to the users who donated for that month. Seems like the right thing to do.

I know it's probably not the point you were making, but that'd be a short sighted thing to do, who knows what might happen later on, or even what security or quality could be added to the site with that money...

But anyway, who cares if a sysop is pocketing money?
If you don't like it, don't donate....If you're jealous, then start up your own tracker yourself.

[DV8type]

Depends on the site. If the site is running a P2L/P2I/P4G model then it is a business and because it is a business the owner should pay its workers, ie. staff/uploaders. They are for profit. And in my opinion if they do not are crooks
Of course there is another side of the coin, where a site is honest and forthwright to its members about the amount needed to cover server cost and will usually barely make that minimum. You can consider those non-profits and usually those staff will never think about asking for compensation as they do it for other reasons.

[stoi]

Depends on the site. If the site is running a P2L/P2I/P4G model then it is a business and because it is a business the owner should pay its workers, ie. staff/uploaders. They are for profit. And in my opinion if they do not are crooks
Of course there is another side of the coin, where a site is honest and forthwright to its members about the amount needed to cover server cost and will usually barely make that minimum. You can consider those non-profits and usually those staff will never think about asking for compensation as they do it for other reasons.

Sorry DV8type but i do have to counter that.

How do you know that every site that does P2L (and what is P2L anyway?) is making a profit.

I know we never did when we used to offer gigs for donations, but is that really P2L.

Like i have said before.

members pay for faster connections, members pay for Seedboxes, members pay for Newsgroup/Rapidshare/Scene axx. but at the end of the day, that doesnt help the site keep afloat and its head above water.

So what if members pay for gigs, the others pay to get their ratio up in another way, so why cant some pay the site to do it, because lets face it, it is mathematically impossible for every member to have a 1 ratio, or not to have a hit and run on a torrent on actual ratio alone (seeding time and Sp and all those do help that out and nullify it bit)

But i honestly cant see why a member cant donate some cash to get a little boost in their ratio, i would rather they done that and kept the trackers alive (not even mine, all of them) than everyone that did donate got a seedbox and used that instead. A seedbox is no good if there are no trackers to seed on, or no downloaders because they all got banned for low ratio.

[IdolEyes787]

If I ran a tracker, and the donation target was exceeded by a lot, I'd just lottery it off to the users who donated for that month. Seems like the right thing to do.

I know it's probably not the point you were making, but that'd be a short sighted thing to do, who knows what might happen later on, or even what security or quality could be added to the site with that money...

But anyway, who cares if a sysop is pocketing money?
If you don't like it, don't donate....If you're jealous, then start up your own tracker yourself.

While I agree with the merits of having a reserve fund,I think that there are obviously reasonable limits.
The bit about a sysop pocketing money- fine if he's willing to be upfront about it.Then I can make a informed decision if that site and the way they operate are something I wish to continue supporting.
Otherwise as DV8type put it he's a crook.

[yevgeny]

i think donations are just that donations to help fund internet bandwidth and site resources, anything left over should stay in the kitty for next month seeing as 'it is a community not run by a few power hungry members.' or thats what most faqs used to say.

IMO the best donation method is allow ratio to auto complete to 1.0 for those who need it and for those that dont they can have a warm fuzzy feeling and a star...or not donate but be expected to share in other ways like seeding and buying bandwidth.

i realise staff put a lot of time into sites but i think foremost for them it should be a hobby they enjoy.

[Swax]

Staff should not get paid, or a 'wage' as such as this would further complicate the already illegal activities going on within the tracker.

I do not see the harm in necessary/useful (yes, I do know the 2 words are not the same) products/services being paid for by the tracker donations on behalf of the site.
For example a BNC for every staff member, and a server or 2 for the staff to run competition games off or host videos/images.

People would be very naive to think that no site Sysops pocketed some of the funds raised through surplus donations.
Of course not every site does it, but who's to say what goes on behind the scenes. I don't think any staff would ever admit to it, not even to their own staff.

[mrnobody]

Someone brought a point about paying uploaders, but don't they already get enough benefits?

- They get axx to site features (like logs, top ten list, usersearch) the very instant they are promoted to uploader.

- Some sites do provide long time uploaders with free scene axx or some other kwel package like cheaper box.

- If a site has a request invite feature, uploaders have higher chance of getting accepted then normal users do.

- A contributing uploader usually ends up being VIP or something alike.

- Their torrent gets bunch of thanks. FLSers or even staffers prolly don't get that much thanks as uploader do

Basically they are liked, thanked, and loved for what they like to do (that is upload to trackers) :-]