Originally Posted by
anon
Reading all those acronyms initialisms made me feel like I was back on 2008 :soMuchWin: Thank you for making this post!
HDBits, never been a member. I didn't even care about HD until I got a laptop with an FWXGA-resolution screen five years ago, and wouldn't you know it, 720p series and movies were readily available elsewhere. Several friends who are in tell me they are really good at what they do, but it's not the end of the world if you don't have an account, because most stuff in there trickles down to other trackers and Usenet.
FTN is a superb example of the hype, rarity-seeking and general bullshit that used to surround the torrent community. They had the amount of torrents and members you would associate with a tracker created one or two months ago. But everyone wanted it because it was ratio-free, had amazing packs and a great community, of course... someone once shared their login details with me so that I could have a look, that's where the screenshots in post #11 come from. Later on I was offered an invite and said no, there was nothing there for me.
FSC, I've never been a member either, but here's the consensus given to me by 100% of the ones I have asked: it is a forum with a tracker duct-taped to it and not the other way around. The torrenting part of it always sucked: few torrents, slow speeds, bad retention. The community aspect is good, but in recent years many members have moved on with not enough newcomers to fill the void. Had the opportunity to join once, turned it down. A tracker where the torrent selection sucks and the oh so amazing community would happily behead me if they knew who I am... no thanks.
FTWR and UK-T, perfectly average and ordinary general trackers that few would have cared about if they hadn't been extremely hard to get invited to. UK-T (a.k.a. Wheelmods) was most iconic of the hysteria over rarity: it was "level 10", the "impossible" one which would make your e-penis huge. Interestingly both of them shut down, or were forced to shut down, around the same time. Apparently, spelling their names as F*** and U*-* wasn't enough to save them from hardware failure plus lack of backups and the threat of law enforcement, respectively :wfrown:
Exigo a.k.a. E****, ultra-rare lossless tracker with lots of jazz, blues, and the like. Never had the slightest interest, as I'm not into those music genres and I can't tell the difference between FLAC and V0 MP3 in any case. A more exclusive version of Pedro's BTMusic, which I am told doesn't exist anymore?
AoM, allegedly the only "level 10" tracker that remains. The open signups they once had were caused by a glitch, and they disabled all accounts created in this manner. Never bothered either; I'm not into magic, and if I were, other sources exist. I think even hardcore traders have realized they can't get in and stopped bothering, but hope dies last. Apparently, for those with genuine interest, there is an invite application process via e-mail where you're supposed to answer a long questionnaire and submit a video of you performing a trick they haven't seen before. AoMKiller/CHEEKYCHAP used to spawn drama threads semi-regularly on FST, but thankfully they stopped; none of that shit had any sense or relevance for those who weren't involved anyway.
iTS, had almost forgotten about that one. The first thing that springs to mind is their fake login page where you had to "search" the right details... or bypass it setting a cookie :wgrin: Someone once gave their account away to me, I logged in and saw they were nothing special, then when I eventually logged in again to keep it active it had been disabled because "[they] do not support account trading". Well, they did me a favor. Back in the day at least, 90% of their members were either traders or collectors. I once saw a request from someone who didn't even know what they specialized in (thinking AFR stood for "Alternative Frame Rates") and obviously wanted it because it was rare.
Revolt is another more extreme example of a forum with a tracker and not the other way around; as I recall they only had 2~3 torrents. They're largely remembered for the various dramas they've been involved in. Opened signups on '07, but their strict anti-spam and anti-trading policies wiped out 99% of those who joined. Surprised they still exist, but I guess it doesn't take a lot of donations to keep a server with a stock TB source and few active members running :wwink:
For those who want to know what the hell we're talking about, all of the above trackers have review threads here, even the dead ones.