No one can deny the enormous success that
ThePirateSociety has shown in just 10 short
months of operation. From humble beginnings as a fledgling torrent
forum back in July 2008 to over 4,250 members today - TPS has
seen its share of ups-and-downs. Private tracker gurus: either you
already have an account here; or you should - and if you don’t, here’s
your chance to register. For a limited time, ThePirateSociety has opened
up the door to public signups - expect this to last for less than 48
hours:
• http://www.thepiratesociety.org/register.php
Things have really changed from when we first reviewed TPS two weeks after launching. Since then, many more Community Reps have joined up offering recruitment to their own trackers (there’s now 92 CRs in the Rep Deck), tracker reviews are exceptionally well-detailed (and total in at an impressive 266), and the ever-popular seedbox reviews/offers are honest and thorough. At any particular time there’s upwards of 100 active members in their main IRC channel where new invite giveaway threads are announced, as well as the latest P2P news.
TPS may just be the busiest place around for tracker invites & requests, which is why they’ve recently added “tags” to help organize the giveaways. Shown below, members can click on the **green tags**
to arrange giveaways by available tracker genres.
TPS - From Humble Beginnings…
*The following is an [excerpt][5]{: target=”_blank”} from **skindoggi**, a **Dark Pirate** at ThePirateSociety.
*
TPS was conceived on 7-July 2008 by N3v3R. The first decision to make was a name for the forum. He narrowed it down to two choices - The Pirate Society, and The Pirate Union. Obviously, the first was chosen, “not sure why but it seemed to flow much better”.
While there were already a number of similar forums out there, N3v3R felt that these forums were suited more for those people who were experienced BitTorrent users already, and the newer users, rather than being helped, were being ridiculed by the rest. “The goal from day one was to gather a mature, helpful, and fair staff for the members and also the trackers.” - N3v3R.
To achieve this goal, TPS became possibly the first forum around to respect the wishes of trackers. Trading was strictly prohibited from the beginning, as was the selling of invites. The recruitment of Community Reps began. We got our first active Community Rep (BeYonD) around two weeks after opening, and as of this moment we have 92 Community Reps.
The first post came on 8-July 2008. After the first day, the site grew to 9 members, so understandably it was a little less quiet than it is currently. But word caught on, and members did some serious recruiting.
The Rules
From the start, TPS has been a non-trading community. However, there have been a huge number of rule changes (as outlined here), which make TPS what it is today. When TPS started, the ‘tracker levels’ system seemed to be the bible to most private tracker users. TPS went with the flow, and accordingly, one of our rules was something like:
- New Recruits can request trackers in levels 1-4
- Captains can request trackers in levels 1-7
- Dark Pirates can request trackers in levels 1-10
For a while, there was talk of development of a new levels system to work better for the Captain/Dark Pirate format we had. Not long after however, it was realized that tracker levels were designed for traders, and TPS possibly led the way by shunning the ‘tracker levels’ system around the end of July. The rules were changed so that only Captains and above could request sites such as ScT and FTN. This meant that the level of ridiculous requests was kept at a minimum, and also steered clear of the levels system.
From the early days, the list of No-Movement Trackers has kept the more ’secret’ private trackers off our backs. The list is what differentiates TPS from other invite forums. If a tracker doesn’t want their invites to be offered on TPS, then they just PM one of the staff members here, and get added to the No-Movement list immediately and without question. There has been some complaining by members in the past that the No-Movement list is getting too big, but it is the backbone of TPS, and is what separates us from other forums. It is also the reason there are 92 Community Reps here, and a huge number of recruitment threads.
The Contests
The first contest began 10 days after the opening of TPS. The prize was promotion to Captain. The end of the thread was lost in the crash in October (see below), but there were a number of promotions to Captain, and it really got the site active. The second contest was to encourage people to invite others to the site. The prizes were huge:
- 1st - 500 GB HD, 2 weeks seedbox axx + captain
- 2nd - 2 weeks of seedbox axx + captain
- 3rd - 1 week of seedbox axx + captain and 4-10 captain
The lure of the prizes got a lot of people coming to the site as well as sending invites, so the number of members sky rocketed over the period of the August/September contest.
Since then, there have been a few other contests. The “give me piracy or give me death” slogan you see on the banner is the result of a contest. In March 2009, a contest ran for a week in an attempt to get people into IRC. In the early days (July-October 2008) the max IRC users would usually be around 20-30, but during the contest I think we got to around 112. The winners were announced, one gaining Captain status and the others gaining rep. Subsequently the first and second place-getters have been promoted to Interview Moderators, so the contest was a major success.
The Server
The site has grown significantly since July 2008. With new members comes more strain on the server. The first server upgrade was on 23 July 2008. Before the upgrade, it was running quite slowly because of the chatbox and the arcade, which had to be taken down to speed up the forum. The site was down for a few hours, and came back up along with the chatbox and arcade. A few weeks later, the huge number of invites being sent out for the contest meant the chatbox and arcade had to be taken down again. At the end of September, the second server upgrade was done.
At the start of October, signups were closed and we went invite only for the first time. Everything went pretty smoothly, and by 19 October we had well over 2,000 members. But on 19 October 2008 the server crashed and all of the data was lost. That week was a huge week in IRC, as most people went there to find out why their beloved TPS wasn’t working. Staff remained optimistic and wouldn’t say exactly how much was lost.
On 25 October the site came back up. The logo had been updated, and we had a new front page - the same one that is there today. However, due to a mix-up between staff, the last backup that had been taken was 23 July 2008 - just over two weeks after the site had been opened. Thousands of threads and tens of thousands of posts were lost, and thousands of members had lost their accounts. Some people were lucky - those that joined before 23 July still had their accounts, but had lost a significant number of posts and reps in most cases. Signups were reopened, and people had to rejoin TPS. There was an Appeals Thread which was used to get member’s post and rep counts fixed.
Most people were shocked and a number of angry people didn’t come back, stating that there are better forums out there. However, those who did come back were the ones who were dedicated to TPS. There were over 500 signups within the next few days. This data loss even consumed some of the moderator’s accounts. However, this only made TPS stronger, and with the staff always learning from their mistakes, we haven’t seen another large data loss since.
In January, there was a little bit of downtime, as the membership base had outgrown what the server could handle. The chatbox disappeared for a while to compensate, but another server upgrade means that now the chatbox and arcade can run and the server can handle the thousands of members simultaneously.
The Staff
Obviously, the first staff member here was N3v3R, the creator of TPS. bmick was a good friend of N3v3R’s from P2PTalk. The other staff (except for Danmaxito) joined TPS and started off just like everyone else. Soopy and T3 were brought on as staff quite early, but I still remember their days as New Recruits. Beagle spent quite some time as a Shipmate before making the transition to Moderator, and later to admin.
One story I remember is about JTM, who is now one of the Admins here. JTM was just an active New Recruit, until one day he came up against N3v3R in a Gator Hop tournament in the Arcade. N3v3R got a huge score, and Soopy said something like “+rep if you beat that score”, and then N3v3R said “forget the +rep, if you beat that I’ll make you Captain”. With the added incentive, JTM beat N3v3R’s score and true to his word, N3v3R made him Captain. Soon after that he was made a mod, and later an admin.
The Future
Sometime in the near (or maybe far) future we will see TPSv2, which promises to be an improvement on the current design and functionality of the forum. Lately, the site has been improving anyway, with new concepts such as TPS Seedboxes. There is an exciting future ahead for TPS, so stick around and watch as history unfolds.
skindoggi Says:
Nice article sharky!
skindoggi Says:
Oh, and I should’ve said that since the time I wrote that article (14 April), we now have 92 community reps. These reps are from a huge number of private trackers, and most of them are very happy with the way TPS is running. A number of them run recruitment threads to their trackers, meaning that members of TPS have ways into trackers which other people do not. TPS is worth joining on this point alone!
Sign up now
monkeyballz Says:
i think they are having a database error
skindoggi Says:
Yep the site is down at the moment, try to sign up again later
nahz Says:
i think so too having difficulties accessing the site..
RedTheHat Says:
I can not reccomend TPS highly enough to members. We have a great crew of people over at TPS, and we are all happy to help each other out.
skindoggi Says:
It’s open now, GO GO GO GO!
T3 Says:
Thanks for the great article! We appreciate filesharefreak a lot!
Thanks for mentioning the TPS Seedbox area! We are super excited to be providing those to our community!
I hope everyone can get in and enjoy our community with us!
Looking forward
to seeing more people around and providing support to those who need
it!
T3
bana992 Says:
Excellent article FSF; I thank you sincerely for helping and supporting us with this well written article.
To all interested readers: The Pirate Society is the best Bitorrent community bar none. Now is your chance to receive membership without an IRC interview. You should come aboard and see what the best kept secret on the internet is all about!
Come join us!
zzenn Says:
It’s a great place for all things piraty! Bring your pegleg and rum and join IRC too after you sign up. We’re all waiting for you
Valkuros Says:
“in the crash in October”
You mean the “The Great Downtime of ‘08″
Edde Says:
anyone interested in the p2p world should definitely try to sign up why u can…it is the best forum of its kind on the internet
T3 Says:
Side note: We are having a script or addon bugging out and causing the server load to go through the roof. We are working to fix it, but until then, the site might be unstable. But we are still looking forward to seeing everyone!
jack Says:
yeah, it’s not working now. :\
bana992 Says:
the site’s back up everybody!
we’d love to see you there
XBOX Says:
Working on this end.
You’d be foolish not to join this great community!
N3v3R Says:
We’re back up and shouldn’t have any more server issues. btw thx for the nice article Sharky.
UGRection Says:
Nice work Sharky and also Skindoggi.
I highly recommend you join TPS while you can. Members rub shoulders with staff from the most respected private trackers and bittorrent sites. Theres no better place to learn almost everything there is to know about private trackers.
Martin87o Says:
What can I say that hasn’t been said before?
Maybe that unlike other invite forums TPS can be fun and serious. There’s a debate section of the forums, but thingsnever get too heated. At the end we agree to disagree.
Also the members’ ages are very different, from teens to ”old farts” (not my term, lol), which is also different (in a good way) from your usual invite forum.
So what are you waiting for? Join!
gerozz88 Says:
Excellent and very detailed article, thank you FSF.
I recommend everyone to take the chance to join this magnificent forum.
Martin87o Says:
Btw, thanks for the review, Sharky!
aieee Says:
i am unable to signup whats the problem,please help.is site down?
RouteR Says:
i’am unlucky database error
skindoggi Says:
Come back soon, see T3’s post above. It’s not a server problem, but a bug in the script. Some of the staff are trying to fix it as we speak, so hopefully it won’t be down for much longer.
Gonzo Says:
Still down, hope they close soon again. Keep it private!
Chickenultra Says:
Join IRC guise, it’s awesome
AzzA Says:
TPS is a great place people.
i also recommend everyone joining!
Nyggan Says:
Still Down, shit! I really want to join…;)
Martin87o Says:
Just be patient. If I know the staff, they’ll extend the open signup period because of these errors.
aieee Says:
hope the staff extend the open signup period so i can join the TPS
RouteR Says:
still down, i think they have closed the registration
cpx Says:
Why the hell we’ve opened reg again? A lot of cheaters, scammers and traders signed up during last open reg. Also tons of dupe accs were banned. Damn… I hope this will be the last open registration ever! -_-” INVITES AND INTERVIEWS FTW!
aieee Says:
is they really closed registrations???? really am unlucky
St0rm Says:
tho I would say that the trackers in the no movement zone is the ones you want so prety crappy site…
RouteR Says:
at last register with TPS, site seems to be bit slow
Nostradamus Says:
TPS FTW. Been a member for quite some time and never been better.And btw, nice article there filesharefreak.
Nyggan Says:
Site still down or what?
I still can´t get it to work…
bestvalueb Says:
nice review FSF…TPS is a very active site and members who join will find a very fun and communicative community there.
don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
delightes Says:
stupid tps the only site which has ever ban me,u staff really need to grow up!join their irc and enjoy being raped !there are a bunch of racists there! be nice to them and enjoy the worst treatment u will ever get!
Martin87o Says:
Wait a minute. Delightes is it you? The blady fool?
lol
nunya Says:
My most sincere apologies, but I must ask an unrelated question: what movie are the two top screenshots in this article from:
http://filesharefreak.com/2008/11/19/blu-ray-brrip-bdrip-two-new-xvid-hd-formats/
Direct link:
http://filesharefreak.com/images2/brrip_d-zon3.jpg
Asking here because nobody reads old posts and there’s no way to contact the author directly. Thanks in advance.
John Says:
NUNYA, you should just sign up to TPS when it comes back up and ask sharky through there
As has been said, TPS has all the staff - including the author of that article
T616Loco Says:
I cant wait to join when the website comes back up!!!
T3 Says:
TPS apologizes for the down time we have had! We have identified an addon which caused the crashing of our server. Fixed a few things and are running at good load levels now!
We will make sure to stay open a bit more so everyone can get in!
T616Loco Says:
For what is worth, I can confirm that the website is back up. I just registered.
Thanks T3!
Wall-E Says:
Outstanding article Sharky, and as always greatly appreciated
<3 Wall-E
Martin87o Says:
You see. What did I tell ya?
RD1 Says:
F*ck thats some epic shit.
I have the cheasiest smile every time I read the historical overview of TPS. In its 10 months of existence its changed how I use and percive the internet. The internet has alsways been a valuble resource for me , however TPS has increased that 10 fold.
TPS FTW!
N3v3R Says:
We are now closed. We had well over 1000 new signups…thx again Sharky
Gonzo Says:
Still down?? wtf
Martin87o Says:
Yes, does anyone know what’s going on?
ifishcat Says:
(martin97o, visit the irc if ya haven’t already) yes, the system is down, they are in the process of moving, last report, should be back up early in the week as i understand it.
as a nOOb, i have to say that tps has helped me to grasp a better understanding all round. through direct interaction, and indirect browsing from the irc channel, the forum and the helpful individuals. One can read a guide/tutorial, and if something is still unclear, visit the irc or chatbox for a further point (of clarification).
the tps seedbox subscriptions again from a noob standpoint is outstanding as well as competitively priced from what all i’ve had a chance to glimpse. perhaps the biggest value to me, has been the irc channel that was open as a type of 24/7 support of the SB’s, n it works rather well!
anyways, when the system is back up n running, its well worth going through the irc invite/interview channel
Martin87o Says:
Thanks for the info fishy.
I wasn’t in the IRC cause I don’t have the password.
T3 Says:
Hey everyone!
The host of TPS has disabled our server, we honestly thought hosting a forum was legal, we still do! When the site went down, we quickly bought a new server at a new host in a new country. Making sure TPS is online is a huge priority of ours! We are expecting the server to be accessible to us on Monday and the site coming back online shortly after. I’ll make sure I post an update when I have them.
As a temporary location, we are hanging out at a friends place: http://www.dynastyforums.com/showthread.php?t=1350
T3
odd Says:
well that’s odd. :\
www Says:
wtf it’s Tuesday and it’s still unaccesable ! It’s been this way since May the 1st they didn’t even emailed me to let me know something happened and when can i expect to be back again !
ifishcat Says:
there are more than a few who wait for this unplanned move to complete. without knowing the details on what its gonna take, i can only guess the steps required to build/copy the tps system on a new host…
it will happen, there is real commitment behind the tps scene, i’ve seen it!
T3 Says:
Well guys!
We have our new dedicated server now! The company we went with got backed up and took longer than expected to get our hardware setup. Nothing could be done to get things up quicker, as the datacenter couldn’t get a hold of enough hardware. The server is being worked on and if everything works out, we will be up tonight!
Sorry for the downtime! But please realize, our site is 100% legal, so we did not expect to get shut down! We are in a new country now on a blazing server! Much more ram, faster dual-core processor, and unlimited bandwidth!
maneter Says:
that sounds great T3!:D I´ve missed tps…
A13 Says:
Hey guys,
TPS is back up now, and running at full speed with the new dedi server! Our latest backup was on the 28th, so for all those who signed up after the 28th, meaning including the open signups and such, go sign up again. We aren’t refusing you
Come join us! I look forward to seeing and talking to you guys on board
A13
PS: Great article Sharky, luving you man
Trackback :: [BitTorrent] Private trackers - Page 2
[…] into a few of the harder to get inot trackers so this place is a place to learn what is expected. Here is a unbiased preview of what to expect in TPS. Hope this helps…and this is in no way an attempt […]
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