I have recently seen an older thread that seemed completely unrelated to my searches on usenet providers, and what I saw really surprised me. I was looking at the fiasco over donations on Pedro's BTMusic, and I see this:
I just don't understand how so many people in that thread can be so shocked and disturbed by something where the staff are profiting from the donations (Not saying that the allegations were right or wrong). How could anyone be so naive to what running a tracker truly requires of a person?Peace to all those who share for the love of music not profit,
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there are torrent staff or moderators who keep sites running for "the sake of sharing". But at least in my belief, those are far and few between and it would be too naive to think about it any other way.
Just think about it. While it's not like being in the scene, running a torrent site is still a a pretty shady and tedious business. Just to name a few of the things they probably have to come up with and maintain, although I'm not saying I know the inside-outs of trackers.
Coming up with a concept and layout.
Extensive knowledge of scripts, torrents, web development, programming, ect. ect
Knowledge in the programs/OS's/other crap needed to run a server (sorry I don't know much about this lol)
Hefty monthly server costs.
Constantly fixing bugs and maintaining the site.
Finding willing moderators, FLS, coders, designers, ect. (I'm not sure if they get paid on most sites, but if not you're gonna need some pretty damn good incentives to encourage them to help).
Uploaders with high speed seedboxes and scene access.
Paying for those seedboxes and scene access to keep the site running and maintained.
Promoting and/or generating interest for the tracker.
And on the off chance your tracker creating endeavor is successful, you'll end up with even more users and have to consider increasing server loads and upgrading servers, which in turn means even more money is needed.
Most importantly, running a site is risky. Under the constant threat of the feds and running an extremely thin line between whats legal and not, complete and absolute anonymity is a must. Scene access, copyrighted content, ect. all result in a need for offshore banking accounts, offshore hosting, basically a trust no one and suspect everyone approach. You don't want to turn into the next TPB or Oink do you?
Add that all up together and you finally have a recipe (or at least part of it, I won't pretend to know everything about trackers) for a successful tracker. Now tell me honestly how many people would go through all that JUST for the "sake of sharing". Why not just go to another existing site and upload some stuff for the "sake of sharing"? Maybe there are a couple people who truly which to share files with the world, but those are most likely far smaller in number. Running a tracker is certainly not childs play, and I find it amazing that so many people could be so shocked and outraged if site owners take some of the donations for themselves.
How could one be so naive
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