Are some people just defective?

[That1Guy]

yea.. that comes in handy when ya have a lot too say and you don't chat on IRCs..

/me wonders who you are now....PM me in the irc to tell me (that is, if you know who I am )

[DV8type]

Was there a mass exodus at some point or have people moved on gradually?

A refreshing conversation. welcome

i think for the most part, the veterans of fst got tired of the same old site1 vs site2 and generally useless threads that now appear at fst. Sadly its own popularity has hurt fst and has relegated it to a shadow of its former self. This is pretty much the place where trading started, the torrent rankings started and the "anti-trading" started. now we have to deal w/ countless spam threads about outdated superficial topics such as, "which is better...."
While there have always been those types of threads, i think most of the vets got tired of them and just stopped posting. And instead of the void being filled w/ intellectual people who want to contribute it has been filled w/ "me 1st" users who's mentality has been how to get a quick buck.
tbh, its a problem in the whole torrent community not just fst. Sadly as it has become easier to create trackers, it has also attracted the type who are just out for themselves, those that ask themselves "how can i con my way into...." instead of saying "i should try and help with...." which is the real foundation of torrents and p2p, sharing is caring.

[megabyteme]

Thanks for the history and warm welcome, DV8type!

This is a community. Perhaps this forum has "slumped" from its glory days. But communities have pulled together IRL and turned things around. It is up to this community and its leaders to make changes and decide what kind of community we want to have.

The fact that this is where "anti-trading" started shows that people here have succeeded in making the BT community stronger. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves "what is possible?" I have a strong sense that a lot of people do not take the time to think about what this community represents. If we cannot join together, we will be thinking about "the glory days" when it was possible to get together in a forum like this.

The bottom line: we chose what we find acceptable in our real world neighborhoods. Why should it be any different here? If it is acceptable to walk past sleeping bums, abandoned buildings, broken down cars, and garbage spread around then that is the type of community we deserve. If we choose to clean up the trash, chase off the bums, have the cars towed and the buildings demolished then we have a foundation to have a nice place we can call home.

We need to not only get rid of the "trash", but we also need to mentor those who have a desire to make things better. We also need to change our mindset. There seems to be a self-destructive mindset that what we are doing (file-sharing)is wrong. I believe it is this line of thinking that weakens us. How can we build a stronger community if we, deep down- or sometimes right on the surface, believe that our cause is destructive or wrong?

This is the first-ever thriving community that does not base itself on a monetary system. It should be NO surprise that corporations despise us! We are philosophically opposed to the systems that are in place. Those institutions will do ANYTHING to maintain that control. We have seen it. Look at the worldwide campaign to change (and force) smaller countries to protect industries that are not their own.

If we scatter and do not find ways to strengthen our community, we will be crushed. All of the wonderful things that we can do online will be replaced with the corporate control and lack of freedoms.

And, yes, I realize that I am coming across as an idealist. People can throw bombs at this post and its ideas all day if they really want to. I do, however, hope that it will spark some discussion about "what could be". Really, if there ever existed a community where idealism SHOULD be considered a possibility, IT IS HERE!

[sez]

the veterans of fst got tired of the same old site1 vs site2 and generally useless threads that now appear at fst. Sadly its own popularity has hurt fst and has relegated it to a shadow of its former self.

Dunno how you take difference in opinion but digging through the archives here,i'd say that things are pretty much the same as they were back then only that in your days staffers from trackers actively participated in these so called useless threads.

This is pretty much the place where trading started, the torrent rankings started and the "anti-trading" started.

Good point you make but also its important to point out that guns don't kill people but rather the people behind the gun that kill people<--pulled that straight out of a DMX movie.

My point being that fst doesn't have a life of its own(like say demonoid )obviously those trade threads ought to have been typed up by people before they appeared on this board,and in our case the master scribes were these old skulers that so shun this place these days.Now its one thing for them to avoid this place altogether,could be cause of the guilt but its another when they shun this place and go on to spread shit about fst over a mess that they are almost solely responsible for.Economists will tell you that demand begets supply and in no way would there have been a WTAW thread or a trade forum if those holier than thou old skulers hadn't asked for them.
The way i see it,FST provided a platform for people to talk about file sharing but as to how its turned out,its those that came before us that take the greatest responsibility,good or bad.
As to how things remain unchanged,i hate to be the only one who seems to understand how complex this board is.

[sear]

I agree with DV8, one of the main problems from my point of view was that many people tried to change FST but FST showed an unwillingness to change. For many this quickly turned to cynicism about this forum so they left.

Another problem was that 'ant-trading' quickly got appropriated as a way to get into trackers and lost all meaning. For me anyone that claims to be an anti-trader is suspect. Actions speak louder than words and if you actually walk the walk there's very little need to talk the talk.

[megabyteme]

Actions speak louder than words and if you actually walk the walk there's very little need to talk the talk.

This reminds me of the couples I have seen out on first dates. You can see the guy wearing clothes that don't suit his style, his posture is forced, and he is really concentrating on all of the things he knows he is supposed to do- holding the door, napkin in his lap, etc. He is memorable because he is so unnatural in everything he does.

It's fun, yet painful to watch.

[KushBlow]

I agree with DV8, one of the main problems from my point of view was that many people tried to change FST but FST showed an unwillingness to change. For many this quickly turned to cynicism about this forum so they left.

Another problem was that 'ant-trading' quickly got appropriated as a way to get into trackers and lost all meaning. For me anyone that claims to be an anti-trader is suspect. Actions speak louder than words and if you actually walk the walk there's very little need to talk the talk.

Just like in real life, you never know who someone really is or where he/she has been unless you find out or he tells you.

[megabyteme]

Just like in real life, you never know who someone really is or where he/she has been unless you find out or he tells you.

Time reveals who people really are. It would sure be nice to know ahead of time, wouldn't it.

[integral]

I don't think most of the people aforementioned are necessarily defective, but I also won't argue that there are bad seeds here; believe me, I've had personal experiences.

What people posting here should take into mind is exactly how people end up here. It's not like someone just all of a sudden opens their browser, and are all of a sudden presented with FST without ever having been here before.

Most people wind up here from a search engine, therefore you have to consider the keywords they typed in to wind up here. Or, if they wound up here from a post on some other site they frequent, you have to take into consideration the context of that forum or post. And you can generally assume those keywords/contexts summarize the mentality of people who wind up here.

So, if someone ended up here searching for "free torrentleech invites", or from a torrentleech thread on their favorite gaming forum, do you think they're going to be in the mindset for being a productive member of the community and learning the ropes? I sure don't.

People in general want everything quick. They're not going to want to make a name for themselves, contribute to conversations, or anything like that. They just want the invites, and they want them fast. Sure, the 30 day rule helps, but as I mentioned before, people are just in a rush, and they already have that preexisting mindset they had the minute they typed those keywords into Google. And of course, without delving too far into the morality argument, I don't think people searching for private trackers are going to be too keen on following rules based on not trading or economizing invites/accounts.

In my opinion the most anyone can do to help is to politely remind newer users of the rules that most trackers follow, and to guide them in the right direction; giving them a be-a-productive-member-of-the-community-and-get-invites flowchart won't help at all and it cheapens the entire aspect of any community.

As for people who traded in the past, they just have to deal with that stigma. If they truly become productive members here and on other trackers, and stop trading, then their past trading won't matter as much. Attacking people who call them traders isn't productive at all.

[stoi]

To, me its a hell of a lot of different things. now i am not having a go at FST here, I am not like a lot of staff thathate this place, even though i have gone off it a lot recently, i still dont hate it.

1: The news section is just recycled news from other sites, yes it is informative, but if this site was so "good" surely they could get news exclusives where other sites would take from here.

2: Staff of trackers are treat like crap, we are the enemy, if we say white, the staff of here say black (now i can understand this, but their point blank refusal to even accept an olive branch or even listen sometimes gets on my wick), I would even go as far to say that traders are respcted more, but meh, will shut up there are skizo will have a go at me again for going on and on about the same thing.

3: Members that sign up here, are usually noobs to the private tracker world, if they had most of the trackers, they wont need this place, so the 1st thing they see is the reviews thread (guests can view that which knarks a lot of tracker staff off as well), then after 30 days the fabled (and yes it is fabled, its been coppied on that many sites, they want to see the proper version) of the WTAW thread, and as the do not know anything different, they end up trading.

You see it all the time from noobs, have demonoid, want (lvl 1-3 tracker here) and thats it, they are already on that slippery slope before you can stop them. Just because they do not know any better for the most part.

4: Members want something now, fast broadband, fast food, fast pre times, they are not prepared to wait and work for it anymore. I remember when this was the Klite forum, it even had its own IRC back then (which is where i actually discovered torrents believe it or not) and members for the most part just used to be a lot more nicer, we would help each other out, post K-Lite and Emule links to stuff we ripped ourselves and were seeding, i even had my own FTP with about 10 members from here in it, and my first 5 staff on BCG were members from here. It just seemed back then a lot more friendlier atmosphere and as we all had crap connections, speed was not everything.

I actually left here before the BT forums came about, as i had my own site and was just to busy to frequent here, i also ditched kazaa and emule and most of my friends from here, were staff on my site anyway, so it was pointless, I only came back here because when BCG went down for a week or so, a member Emailed me and said there was a thread on here with members wondering what was going on, tried to sign up and stoi was already taken, thought hmmm, pretty unique name which git stole it lol but tried a few of my old passwords and 1 worked, did not realise this was the K-lite forums for another 3-4 months after that though. (so i cant say if the BT forums in all their glory (gieaways and trades) made it worse or if it was just time and changing attitudes)).

tbh i think the whole internet is changing for the worse, its all ME ME ME and NOW NOW NOW from the vast majority, and communication and helping others has for the most part just gone out the window, which is a shame.