Are torrent invite communities really trading in disguise?

[NippleCake]

That's my big complaint about general tracker forums - that no one seems to care about the content .The movie and TV sections are mostly comprised of what's the last movie you watched?
Some people even put this like The.Tournament.2009.DVDRip.XviD-MoH That's not a movie that 's a release you fucking idiot.

Whew. that felt good. Been wanting to get that off my chest for a while.

you and i are one a similar wavelength, frequency and speed

You are absolutely 100% correct. The worst example I've seen of this is on a site called TTInvite, where invites are exchanged for 'invite points', and any user 'giving away' an invite can stipulate the number of invite points they want to receive in return. This basically means that trading is similar to a bartering-based economy, and invite giveaway communities are currency-based economies.

Then, the invite communities act all righteous and claim that "we're not causing any harm, we ban trades, we only do giveaways!"

The thing is, tracker staff who've given the issue some thought don't dislike trades any more than giveaways. Both of them are equally bad in our eyes, because both of them fundamentally undermine the reasons the torrent sites are invite only in the first place.

Torrent sites are invite-only because the admins need to keep the site secure and keep the economy working. Once random people start getting invited in, no matter if it's a trade or a giveaway, both of those pillars start collapsing. This is why the so-called 'anti-traders' who think they're all cool because they only give away invites really get to me.

This is also a great point. Public giveaways imo are even more of a security risk, half the time all they want is a speedtest/ratio proof, if that.Anyone can apply and it is porbabaly easier to get some invites in a giveaway than a trade. Public invites -> bad

Just wondering, but how come what.cd dont have some sort of arrangement with fst where invites are not allowed to be given out? or are you only allowed to make agreements on trading..

@TrollinThunder, exactly! its just the fact that there is no point joining a site just for the trophy of it. I would have absolutely no qualms inviting people to my favourite trackers, but i know they would only want to be invited just so they can say "i am at such-and-such". Those people piss me off no end!

[Benjamin]

It's not really a question, people don't just give away invites without expecting something back for themselves.

Speak for yourself some like myself need nothing in return.

I meant to say smart people.

This is why the so-called 'anti-traders' who think they're all cool because they only give away invites really get to me.

Haha, those kind of people bring the word hypocrite to a whole new level.

[Polarbear]

You are absolutely 100% correct. The worst example I've seen of this is on a site called TTInvite, where invites are exchanged for 'invite points', and any user 'giving away' an invite can stipulate the number of invite points they want to receive in return. This basically means that trading is similar to a bartering-based economy, and invite giveaway communities are currency-based economies.

Then, the invite communities act all righteous and claim that "we're not causing any harm, we ban trades, we only do giveaways!"

The thing is, tracker staff who've given the issue some thought don't dislike trades any more than giveaways. Both of them are equally bad in our eyes, because both of them fundamentally undermine the reasons the torrent sites are invite only in the first place.

Torrent sites are invite-only because the admins need to keep the site secure and keep the economy working. Once random people start getting invited in, no matter if it's a trade or a giveaway, both of those pillars start collapsing. This is why the so-called 'anti-traders' who think they're all cool because they only give away invites really get to me.

Internet communities with more than 100,000 members are an accumulation of random people no matter what invite policy you have or how people were invited.

[Bad-Day]

You are absolutely 100% correct. The worst example I've seen of this is on a site called TTInvite, where invites are exchanged for 'invite points', and any user 'giving away' an invite can stipulate the number of invite points they want to receive in return. This basically means that trading is similar to a bartering-based economy, and invite giveaway communities are currency-based economies.

Then, the invite communities act all righteous and claim that "we're not causing any harm, we ban trades, we only do giveaways!"

The thing is, tracker staff who've given the issue some thought don't dislike trades any more than giveaways. Both of them are equally bad in our eyes, because both of them fundamentally undermine the reasons the torrent sites are invite only in the first place.

Torrent sites are invite-only because the admins need to keep the site secure and keep the economy working. Once random people start getting invited in, no matter if it's a trade or a giveaway, both of those pillars start collapsing. This is why the so-called 'anti-traders' who think they're all cool because they only give away invites really get to me.

Internet communities with more than 100,000 members are an accumulation of random people no matter what invite policy you have or how people were invited.

[goopka]

It's interesting to see just how many sites one individual has become a member on. Considering that I only have 5mbits down and 1mbit up on my connection, it's easy to saturate my up bandwidth with torrents from one site -how could I possibly be a valuable contributor on multiple sites?

There is, however, the benefit of bringing new content from one site over to your own.

So, here I am wondering what these multi-site members are looking for:
1. The best layout/speed/content/stability/privacy and that's why they look for greener pastures at so many different sites?
2. Access to multiple sites to always have the best quality and newest content available when they want it?
3. Bring members from other sites over to your own preferred one to bolster it up?
4. Collect elite membership "trophies" as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Considering a sense of community and contribution, I am hard-pressed to see why sites would want members who are active on many other sites, and thus I see why invite-trading is so discouraged (not to say that give-aways don't go to people who are already members of many sites).

*and I do realize that not all sites cover the same type of content, but I still see plenty of overlap.

It's a tough battle, this invite business.

[Rart]

You are absolutely 100% correct. The worst example I've seen of this is on a site called TTInvite, where invites are exchanged for 'invite points', and any user 'giving away' an invite can stipulate the number of invite points they want to receive in return. This basically means that trading is similar to a bartering-based economy, and invite giveaway communities are currency-based economies.

Then, the invite communities act all righteous and claim that "we're not causing any harm, we ban trades, we only do giveaways!"

The thing is, tracker staff who've given the issue some thought don't dislike trades any more than giveaways. Both of them are equally bad in our eyes, because both of them fundamentally undermine the reasons the torrent sites are invite only in the first place.

Torrent sites are invite-only because the admins need to keep the site secure and keep the economy working. Once random people start getting invited in, no matter if it's a trade or a giveaway, both of those pillars start collapsing. This is why the so-called 'anti-traders' who think they're all cool because they only give away invites really get to me.

Thank you for being one of the first to actually respond to my topic...

Internet communities with more than 100,000 members are an accumulation of random people no matter what invite policy you have or how people were invited.

I would have to agree with Polarbear. I was under the impression that most staff didn't approve of trading simply because it breeds bad users. Invite GA's on the other hand (while avoiding the trouble of torrent invite sites) would allow higher quality users through the examination of proofs, activity, ect.

With a site of 100,000 members, can you really expect anything more than "an accumulation of random people"? And even so, the what.cd interview would seem to point out that any RIAA spy could find their way in assuming they knew their music. So how could this policy of banning invite GA's and only allowing close friends (many of which could be new to the BT scene all together, and inadequate to handle What.CD's tough competition for upload), be beneficial to the tracker? Wouldn't it just decrease the userbase of a site built on a large amount of content and retention?

[cinephilia]

while i agree with Whatman about the inconvenients of such processes, no one can deny the fact that without GAs and trades, what.cd would never have 100.000+ members at the present time.

PS: great topic Rart, i 100% agree with your analyze.

[dvdasacd]

Er, I don't think WhatMan was saying that what.cd's methods have resulted in a clean, trusted body of 100,000 members.

It doesn't matter how many hoops you make people jump through to get into your site, unwanted people will still get in, play by the rules, and stay there. Some say that anti-p2p operatives are in EVERY known community and have been making sure they watch every new site and join it for many years now.

So it's about choosing the best ways to minimize this unavoidable reality while still allowing however many good new members you want to trickle in for you site. If you're a tracker that wants to attract *as many* good members for your site as possible, I agree with being "non-movement" but ONLY if you offer an interview process as well.

I am a STRONG believer in the interview process, it's how I got into what.cd, my first private tracker, it was what made me actually believe in private trackers. Before that, I couldn't find a way into OiNK for THREE whole years, and the trading thing I could never even break into either (tit for tat - well I did't even have tat so how could I have tit?). Ironically, as I learnt, that was a good thing anyway.

So Rart? For me, the interview process is a more effective system than allowing invites to be given away in invite forums (which among other things harbours tracker collecting), but no method is flawless and can 100% keep out the authorities.

I like e.g. TPS and the fact that some honest good people can join trackers by showing their worth to others (flaws in that system and all). *If* there were more trackers doing IRC interviews, I wouldn't be so alright with this. It just depends on how hard the tracker in question wants it for people to join their tracker.

And anyway, if a tracker is ok with gieaways at private forums, isn't that THEIR business? They have the right to distinguish between trading and giveaways, which *are* different things. One is just more secure and less risky than the other (depending on how it is done - TPS is very different to TTinvite). But nothing is perfect.

I do believe in non-movement, don't get me wrong - but if you say that anti-traders who believe in giveaways are hypocrites then you're also saying that the staff of the trackers allowing that are also hypocrites. It's just a matter of what your opinion on the issue is, and how secure you want your site to be.

[sez]

Internet communities with more than 100,000 members are an accumulation of random people no matter what invite policy you have or how people were invited.

Ok then,so whats your point exactly?
You rarely post retard but I think you just let this one slip.Unless of course maybe my interpretation is wrong.

In other news,I noticed FST has finally decided to be 21st and introduce the web bookmark functions.Good move I must say.They would have been really handy in the prime of that swedish nutter swe

But no facebooking or tweeting I see,I wonder who decided against those two .
But I did hear that gay and metrosexual aren't necessarily the same thing

[brightsid]

I do believe in non-movement, don't get me wrong - but if you say that anti-traders who believe in giveaways are hypocrites then you're also saying that the staff of the trackers allowing that are also hypocrites. It's just a matter of what your opinion on the issue is, and how secure you want your site to be.

The non-movement list is one of the things I can't really understand in TPS. I'm tvseries maniac and I want to join BitmeTV for example. Noone is allowed to request or ga invites of this tracker. I'm a good user with perfect proofs. What's the point of not allowing to request? Is there something I can do except pming highly reped guys offering bj in private?