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This is not a pro-trading manifesto. It is a look at the correlation between ‘traders’ and ‘inviters’, and the overall impact on private trackers, their members and torrent forums.

Through the eyes of a private tracker, there’s really no discerning difference between trading an invitation, or by simply giving it away (publicly) to someone who asks - the fact is, either way it’s against tracker rules. While most reputable "Tracker Invite" sites & forums have now opted to go ‘anti-trading’ in recent times, ‘invite giveaways’ are as popular as ever. But is there really that much of a difference between the two?

Trading vs Giveaways - The Same Thing?

Picture this: I go to a tracker invite forum, and post a giveaway offer. Say, for example, a user called “Mister994″ asks me for my offered invite. Now, Mister994 is a very active member on those forums, so I don’t hesitate to give it away to him. Not only that, but similar to me, he also offers giveaways on a consistent basis. Now, two minutes later, I go into one of his GA threads, and ask HIM for an invite that he’s currently offering. Certainly, he gives it to me, not only because I just invited him to one of my private trackers, but because I’m also a valuable active member. Now, wasn’t this entire two-way transaction just a big fat trade, cleverly disguised as two separate giveaways?! In essence, it amounted to the exact same thing. And it happens all the time.

Trading: A Form Of Currency

One negative connotation associated with trading can easily be summed up by the general consensus that it is, indeed, a form of currency. And since trackers are (usually) non-profit for the purpose of free information, invitations to them are not to be sold (aka. traded) in any way, shape or form. Having said that, many trackers turn a blind eye to invites being so freely swapped and handed out, as it’s a form of publicity that generates new members - new members who may eventually donate to the tracker, or become upstanding denizens. Other trackers, such as What.cd and SaveTheCoratee have aggressively taken the stance of keeping their invites out of such torrent forums - regardless of trade or giveaway. These trackers have come to be known as No-movement trackers.

No-Movement Trackers

There’s a great deal of divergence between Torrent Forums when it comes to site policies & rules. Some forums will respect the wishes of trackers that wish not to be listed in their invite giveaways and requests, while others may not; or do not know. Below is an example of the trackers that have contacted ThePirateSociety and requested to be removed from any invite activity. Whilst most forums will likely not have a list as complete as this, it should still be assumed that these are higher-risk trackers and should be either avoided, or handled very carefully:

• • What.cd
• • ScL (clover)
• • iTS
• • x264.me
• • FSC
• • TorrentLeech (TL)
• • TorrentIt (TiT)
• • BitMeTV
• • BitMe
• • LzTr
• • Acid Lounge (A-L)
• • SaveTheCoratee (STC)
• • SyncTheBits (StB)

Private Tracker "Levels" Are Dead (or Should Be)

I’m not sure what all the emphasis is on private tracker "Levels". Why does the merit of a private tracker weigh heavily on what level that it is in? The inherent categorization of private trackers into specific levels - in terms of rarity, or their degree of difficulty to obtain - has done nothing but propagate trading, and thus collecting. An example of this is clearly shown in the ‘requests’ forums, whereby everyone who knows anything about private sites would sell their firstborn to get into Exigo. Obviously, it’s not for the content of this "high-level" tracker; both What.cd and Waffles easily contain 10 times the number of FLAC torrents, yet everyone "needs" to get an account there. And, of course the naysayers to this theory will mention that it’s such a great community, and it has less to do with the actual content - albeit most of the desire tends to be born out of the rarity, and its assigned level is in direct correlation to this.

Traders vs Collectors

Trading gets a bad name for several reasons, but one of which is the direct connection to tracker collectors. A collector is someone who amasses a large variety/number of private trackers, solely for the purpose of collecting them, most likely for bragging rights. Usually these trackers get unused, or are used only to generate more invites in order to give them away or trade for other trackers. In the case for the latter option whereby these accounts are most often kept in good standing, they’re still not being used for the right reasons. A collected account takes up a slot in which there are ample members who would gladly actually use the tracker (if they could get in), but can’t.

And let’s face it, we’re ALL collectors. No one has just RevoTT. No one has just What.cd. This does not occur in the world of private BitTorrent. Anyone who says you need only one tracker is full of shit.

Traders vs Inviters: A Different Breed?

Usually, traders aren’t overly picky about who they trade accounts with or who they bring into the tracker, as the "who" is much less of a concern than "what" the trade can actually yield through a transaction. For this, most traders won’t bother to ask for ratio proofs and speed tests; things of which that are normal customary requests through most invite giveaways. While both of these are somewhat easy to falsify, inviters are more often inclined to ask for a profile link to the actual account of a tracker - something of which that is very difficult, if not impossible, for a scammer to circumnavigate. Additionally, speed tests mean absolutely nothing and offer no real insight behind the user, and should be abolished as prerequisite proof when offering an invite to a prospecting member.

However, when giveaways are conducted properly by incorporating the profile link verification scheme, it offers a viable alternative to direct recruitment, albeit some trackers still argue that this is a no-no, since the tracker (staff) has no control of who gets in.

Site Recruitment Through ‘Community Reps’

Trading, giveaways, or any other method of invite/account attainment (publicly or privately) in which the tracker has no direct involvement is most likely in contrast to their rules. Picking up invites in torrent forums is easy, although somewhat risky. Community-Reps, if you didn’t know, aka ‘Community Representative’ (or CR) is a member - usually staff - of a private tracker who most likely has the ability to invite new members. The "CR" will screen who gets in to the tracker, through a variety of qualifications. Not only is this safe, but also a highly recommended method of achieving an invite. Many trackers have special forums available, usually to Power Users and up, that offer recruitment forum threads, such as What.cd. Torrent Forums are not left out, either; and often have CRs actively looking to recruit new members.

The Bottom Line: Getting Good Members

Shouldn’t the bigger picture be for private trackers to get good members to the site, regardless of how it’s done? While the rule stands that you’re only supposed to invite ‘friends’ to the tracker, they may not always be the best candidate for both the tracker - nor for you, the inviter.

Thus, specialized community trackers will continue to proliferate, and they often have a very limited number of invites, or none at all. Security is paramount; and camaraderie is high - although the drawback is often in the lacking content of the tracker. The tracker-du-jour is a tight-knit group of close members & staffers that employs recruitment to get new members, therefore cutting "invites" right out of the loop, so to speak.

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• Date Wednesday, 05 Nov 08 at 2:04 am
• Under Tracker Invites
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