What really bugs me about these popular private trackers' interview processes is they too discriminate against VPNs. Like I know they think they have some private community of completely trustworthy angels, but I'm still not going to stick my non-anonymized neck out.
So then what, find public Wifi somewhere to do their "interview" from, that they'll pass for a non-shared IP address? And then hang around there all day until your turn for the interview comes up? That's the conclusion I came to last time I looked at Red's requirements years ago.
Also I just assume the interview processes have gotten much more competitive and inhuman due to the popularity, like everything these days. I got my Oink account by joining the IRC channel, and just asking nicely in a way that demonstrated a modicum of technical knowledge and reasonableness.
It's all by design, invite selling/trading is a big problem in the tracker world and tracker staff often force people to use their home IP to register for this reason. By having your home IP they can easily ban all your accounts if you are caught breaking some golden rule.
The interview process is not bad, it's just particularly slow in the case of RED. Especially frustating for europeans because most volunteers are in an american timezone and so interviews often happen in the middle of the night (in Europe).
OPS has faster interviews but you want to join RED if you want to climb the tracker ladder, so passing through OPS basically just adds some delay.
Anyway, if you value your anonymity this much, maybe private trackers aren't for you.
> invite selling/trading is a big problem in the tracker world and tracker staff often force people to use their home IP to register for this reason.
It really isn't that much of a problem. Hell even ratio cheats aren't actually a problem. If you have a ratio based torrent site fundamentally someone has to have negative ratio for the site to function. Ratio cheats basically add download to others because they download. I'm of the opinion a lot of tracker staff are just nerds who power trip. And honestly, from my experience it's largely true. Simply, torrent sites have gotten away with power tripping and creating this image that people who buy and trade torrent accounts are a problem when you can literally talk you way up the chain within 6-12 months. It's really not that hard if someone wanted to infriate them, just say you're willing to code for them and boom you got yourself a staff position with access to the database and servers. Do that well, you'll get yourself a few more, you'll get friendly with staff at other trackers they'll invite you. Literally, it would be the easiest uncover role within the cyber world. And there probably aren't that many that are easier overall.
> Anyway, if you value your anonymity this much, maybe private trackers aren't for you.
This is sure a valid point. Your data 100% is not save with private trackers. Nothing is safe with then. They act all high and mighty but holy shit will they share you data like no ones business and publically out you, steal money from the "server fund" (personally I never had a problem with it but it was always drama ScT's exit was funny), etc.
It's not really a problem because they don't want people joining the tracker in general. It's about accountability, exclusivity and the quality of the user base. Invites being for sale means any random person could join, hindering the exclusivity and likely the quality of the userbase (a good user is already in other trackers and could join with other means). And of course, it also means that the user who bought the invite is more likely to break the golden rules because them getting tree banned is of no concern to them.
From the staff's POV it is very much a problem and some trackers are famous to drop the hammer at the slightest violation of the golden rules.
> a good user is already in other trackers and could join with other means
Actually, these users are generally deadbeat users. They're good at providing upload and buffering accounts but that is it. They don't make your community any better, they're spread out over multiple communities.
For example, back in the day I was on UK-T, SCC, ScT, FSC, FTN, BTN, HDBit, etc. I didn't really download much from any of them specifically. I created buffers and what not and kept my accounts alive. Like FTN I never used, for me it was actually not that good. But when I started out I just had LeechersLair, I was very active in the community, very active with comments, very active downloading and seeding because it was only account. So the good users for these sites are actually people who end up on my accidentally, aren't active in the generaly torrent scene and aren't looking for anything else. They'll make the forums better by being active there with unique content, they'll make the chat unique instead of conversations that carry on over from other chats (Been there done that), they'll file requests, etc. They'll be more active. The people who are all over the place are often deadbeats in terms of community value, if that makes sense.
> some trackers are famous to drop the hammer at the slightest violation of the golden rules.
So true, I once rejected from a so-called high level tracker FTWR (follow the white rabbit) because one guy was pissed I once said on a forum "Torrent trackers should be happy we use them." they're soo up themselves. Imagine thinking your users owe you something. The aim is to get users and get good users.
> Actually, these users are generally deadbeat users. They're good at providing upload and buffering accounts but that is it. They don't make your community any better, they're spread out over multiple communities.
You do have a point, I guess it boils down to the definition of a 'good user'.
Like you said, someone joining from an invite they bought is likely gonna be more active.
From the staff's POV the activity of an account is of secondary importance though, and the respect of golden rules is paramount. Tree-bans often end up banning users with high userclasses and (very) active accounts.
From my POV as a normal user, I like the tracker being active but I don't like the web of trust being broken. An invite-only club is good because everyone was invited by a trusted member; if you can just buy your way in it's different.
Anyway, the TL;DR is that at the end of the day your personal interests change depending on what position you're in (staff, normal user, etc.) and while you as an user may not mind people buying invites because of passive benefits, the tracker staff has different priorities and definitely does mind.
The interviews are not too difficult if you know your digital audio well and can memorize/look up a few facts. The hard part is waiting in the queue...
I'm not sure if they will allow public wifi either if it doesn't look like a residential IP. It's unfortunate... I too wish many trackers didn't do this. Totally worth it for me though. I'll just hope future me doesn't have to suffer the consequences :)
They can probably build quite a specific profile based on my searches and snatchlists, lol. There's no privacy in private trackers for the user.
So then what, find public Wifi somewhere to do their "interview" from, that they'll pass for a non-shared IP address? And then hang around there all day until your turn for the interview comes up? That's the conclusion I came to last time I looked at Red's requirements years ago.
Also I just assume the interview processes have gotten much more competitive and inhuman due to the popularity, like everything these days. I got my Oink account by joining the IRC channel, and just asking nicely in a way that demonstrated a modicum of technical knowledge and reasonableness.