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Thread: I have stood at the gates of all those "elite" trackers.

  1. #16
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    Reading all those acronyms initialisms made me feel like I was back on 2008 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

    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 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

    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.
    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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    faltu (04.07.20)

  3. #17
    Moderator anon's Avatar
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    There is another "elite" tracker that has received minimal mention in this thread, and it is...



    Its very small user base, rule disallowing the upload of material newer than two months, and draconian inactivity policies made short work of it. Oh, and the design looked like someone had barfed the titular candies over a black background.
    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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  5. #18
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    there's one advantage such trackers have: safety. depending on your country copyright laws can be nasty. the risk of getting a letter from a law firm because of a torrent you got from let's say FTN is much lower compared to something like TL or even public trackers.
    i can tell because for me such a letter was the reason why i started looking into private trackers. and under such circumstances the more private the better.
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    Damn funny topic. I'm thinking to make my own leet tracker.

    honestly though, I regret wasting time on such so called leet trackers. No matter what's in there. Because every damn jump into one was damn for nothing. Such wast of time, was so stupid. This includes all btw.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Instab View Post
    there's one advantage such trackers have: safety. depending on your country copyright laws can be nasty. the risk of getting a letter from a law firm because of a torrent you got from let's say FTN is much lower compared to something like TL or even public trackers.
    i can tell because for me such a letter was the reason why i started looking into private trackers. and under such circumstances the more private the better.
    Fair point, assuming you can't or don't want to pay for a VPN or seedbox. I would say that if a "normal" torrenter is (theoretically) able to join these, then so can a paid and motivated fed, but in practice they go for the lowest-hanging fruit, and that's always going to be 1. public trackers, 2. private ones with six and seven-digit member counts. Even this logic couldn't save UK-T, however, but as I recall they chose to pull the plug rather than take a risk, however minimal.

    You always wanted to join FTWR, right?
    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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    Quote Originally Posted by illusive View Post
    Damn funny topic. I'm thinking to make my own leet tracker.
    https://web.archive.org/web/20100810...art-a-tracker/

    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    Fair point, assuming you can't or don't want to pay for a VPN or seedbox. I would say that if a "normal" torrenter is (theoretically) able to join these, then so can a paid and motivated fed, but in practice they go for the lowest-hanging fruit, and that's always going to be 1. public trackers, 2. private ones with six and seven-digit member counts
    and in addition it's a budget matter. spending months or even a year to get into one of such trackers with their low member counts just doesn't pay off. neither for the feds nor the law firms.

    You always wanted to join FTWR, right?
    damn you have a good memory
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    Quote Originally Posted by Instab View Post
    damn you have a good memory
    http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=16854

    How could I forget this? Nothing like having a spare account on a level 9 tracker, indeed

    Another great thread: http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=14950
    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    Reading all those acronyms initialisms made me feel like I was back on 2008 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

    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 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

    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.
    Agree with everything you said but not sure why you would decline invites to these highly exclusive sites, just for curiosity if nothing else, though its the right thing to do if you dont use it.

    BTW btmusic is alive http://xbtmusic.org/

    Also AOM did open signups accidentally twice and they banned everyone who joined but I was referring to their first open signup when they were like Demonoid. Quite a few of them didnt use their accounts and those were disabled due to inactivity. This is as per some FST user.
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    anon (08.07.20)

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    I'm short on the "Money" part. LOL . I did look for trackers announcers though and really thinking of making one
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    Quote Originally Posted by faltu View Post
    Agree with everything you said but not sure why you would decline invites to these highly exclusive sites, just for curiosity if nothing else, though its the right thing to do if you dont use it.
    Reading reviews (and in FTN's case, using that shared account once) was enough to find out they weren't worth my time. If I'd accepted the invites, they would have become yet another account requiring a regular login just to keep them alive... FTN and FSC wouldn't have taken over TL, FL.ro or IPT as my most-used trackers, that's for sure. I figured they were better off in the hands of someone with a higher chance of being active; the last thing these places needed were more collectors that never used their account.

    Speaking of which, remember SceneLife? On 2009 they threatened to clean up inactive accounts and "review" less-active ones. I was so afraid of losing mine that I started snatching stuff I didn't want, even uploaded an avatar and made some forum posts. I survived the cleanup and then went back to never using it again, until they shut down... what a load of crap. If this happened today, I'd happily let them delete me. The only good thing they had was the site design

    BTW btmusic is alive http://xbtmusic.org/
    Nice; according to what I'd heard, they'd been stuck on a site makeover/recode for some time, and were considered de facto dead at this point. Doesn't affect me in any case.

    Also AOM did open signups accidentally twice and they banned everyone who joined but I was referring to their first open signup when they were like Demonoid. Quite a few of them didnt use their accounts and those were disabled due to inactivity. This is as per some FST user.
    Had no idea about this. It's very much possible, since all elite trackers have had open signups at some point. Even HDBits, BTN, PTP, RED... and BitMeTV, TC, What.cd before them... it's the fastest way to start building up a user base.
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    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    Reading reviews (and in FTN's case, using that shared account once) was enough to find out they weren't worth my time. If I'd accepted the invites, they would have become yet another account requiring a regular login just to keep them alive... FTN and FSC wouldn't have taken over TL, FL.ro or IPT as my most-used trackers, that's for sure. I figured they were better off in the hands of someone with a higher chance of being active; the last thing these places needed were more collectors that never used their account.

    Speaking of which, remember SceneLife? On 2009 they threatened to clean up inactive accounts and "review" less-active ones. I was so afraid of losing mine that I started snatching stuff I didn't want, even uploaded an avatar and made some forum posts. I survived the cleanup and then went back to never using it again, until they shut down... what a load of crap. If this happened today, I'd happily let them delete me. The only good thing they had was the site design



    Nice; according to what I'd heard, they'd been stuck on a site makeover/recode for some time, and were considered de facto dead at this point. Doesn't affect me in any case.



    Had no idea about this. It's very much possible, since all elite trackers have had open signups at some point. Even HDBits, BTN, PTP, RED... and BitMeTV, TC, What.cd before them... it's the fastest way to start building up a user base.
    I prefered FTN over the other scene sites because it was ratiofree but TL and probably SCT always had more content than it. I got into IPT a couple of times but didnt use it, the interface put me off so I let those accounts die. It was either one of the scenesites or Demonoid, sometimes TPB.

    ScL aka The flower or was it called Clover LOL. They were popular for their packs and a nice site design too. I had them hoping that I'll somehow climb to the rarer trackers like FTN/FSC etc. FTN's site design was cool too along with the stylish name "Feedthenet" which other copycat sites took like PTN(piratethenet), iTN took.

    I was a member of Pedros and was trying to get into Exigo. An exigo staffer,UObean had an Exigo giveaway just once in the forums which I narrowly missed and the only thing required was a good ratio, no uploader requirement as they seem to have now. You're right that they had a site design, I didn't use my account much since FLAC downloads take up too much space so I kept the account alive by ocassionally logging in and I think after sometime they disabled me.

    Besides open signups, it's hilarious that the sysops of these secret sites did giveaways in FST's bittorrent section. Here's a FTWR giveaway by the sysop https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...-Giveaway-F***
    The replies are quite entertaining. I wish I was a member of FST around that time just for fun.

    Another interesting thread about all the secret site admins(FTN/FSC/Exigo/FTWR/UK-T) and their account https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...members-at-FST

    You can go through their threads/posts when you have some time to kill, it's a lot of fun to read.
    Last edited by faltu; 10.07.20 at 08:55.
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    Quote Originally Posted by faltu View Post
    I prefered FTN over the other scene sites because it was ratiofree but TL and probably SCT always had more content than it. I got into IPT a couple of times but didnt use it, the interface put me off so I let those accounts die. It was either one of the scenesites or Demonoid, sometimes TPB.
    ScT was truly an elite tracker in the good sense of the word. Great pretimes, great packs, the design was slick, the jailbait thread forums and IRC were very active. And those speeds!





    Even though they had a "transparency report" thread where they provided evidence of their high operational costs, the rumors of donation misuse and pocketing circulated until the very end... and were then increased by the fact they'd had a huge donation drive just a few weeks before their shutdown. Thumbs up if you remember Feeling's engagement ring or djGrrr's gaming PC, which they allegedly bought in this manner (and djGrrr never finished the ScT v2 design, boo).

    IPT is very much worth having in your arsenal, if you use custom CSS to hide the huge site banner, and even if you don't. Despite all the dramas the sysop has been involved in, and the fact he runs it as one of several moneymaking machines, the content and speeds are still great. Just don't donate and you'll be fine. And definitely don't spend 1000 USD in seedboxes thinking a good IPT ratio proof will open the doors to "better" sites, like that guy from /r/trackers...

    ScL aka The flower or was it called Clover LOL. They were popular for their packs and a nice site design too. I had them hoping that I'll somehow climb to the rarer trackers like FTN/FSC etc. FTN's site design was cool too along with the stylish name "Feedthenet" which other copycat sites took like PTN(piratethenet), iTN took.
    ScL had three years to become a decent site, but apparently just couldn't achieve it, despite several open signups and lots of invites given out. The design was great, the packs were okay; the community was said to be good but I'm into torrents to get files, and the levels of activity made it evident no one used this tracker as their main one.

    Having a domain ending in "the.net" was a surefire way to show you were serious about your tracker. Perhaps you remember storethe.net, rapthe.net and even elitethe.net

    I was a member of Pedros and was trying to get into Exigo. An exigo staffer,UObean had an Exigo giveaway just once in the forums which I narrowly missed and the only thing required was a good ratio, no uploader requirement as they seem to have now. You're right that they had a site design, I didn't use my account much since FLAC downloads take up too much space so I kept the account alive by ocassionally logging in and I think after sometime they disabled me.
    I had an account on Pedro's too, several years ago, given to me by a friend who wasn't going to use it anymore. We set up an elaborate story to explain the IP country change to the staff (which they accepted), and I even cloned his browser fingerprint and cookies to make it look like I was him, using the same laptop as usual. It worked, but my activity levels weren't good enough to stay alive either. Unfortunate, but no big loss.

    Perhaps you remember Lossless World, a FLAC tracker started by the shady GeddyLee? I had a lot of fun abusing their referral link system and stealing their exclusive rips to upload on What.cd and reach Elite rank on one of my accounts

    Besides open signups, it's hilarious that the sysops of these secret sites did giveaways in FST's bittorrent section. Here's a FTWR giveaway by the sysop https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...-Giveaway-F***
    The replies are quite entertaining. I wish I was a member of FST around that time just for fun.
    Note the timestamps. On 2007 I wasn't on FST either; my only tracker accounts were ILT, TL and BCG, and I had zero interest on the BitTorrent community or politics. However, according what I can grasp from reading old threads and asking around, it was a very different time. There was a lot more activity and engagement between users and tracker staff. Brandon did an FTN giveaway and also once invited someone who made a request with like 5 posts (can't find the thread right now), Feeling did an ScT giveaway, fatcat69 recruited several times for his "mystery" site FSC, Squizzle did a UK-T giveaway in TTC some months before they shut down.

    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...gh-and-get-FTN
    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...ew-ScT-invites
    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...-Recruitment-D

    All of that died down in the years that followed. Many blame trading, or at least changing attitudes towards it, stating that it eventually became too contentious of an issue and it was impossible for FST to maintain a good relationship with tracker staff at the same time they ran a subforum where one of their rules could be broken. Others believe that said staff decided they felt much more at home on invite forums like TPS and tR, whose activity levels indeed soared post-2008, because everyone there was a "perfect" member who would never dare to trade or cheat and was always ready to suck dick. I think it's a combination of both.

    Trading is one thing that no one cares about now, but was serious-fucking-business in its heyday. Tracker levels, middlemen, scammers, FST's secret Veteran Trade Group, trader hunters and their IP-catching images/links, my oh my... personally, I never did it. It seemed too hard and risky in the beginning, and by the time I'd gotten accounts and invites with enough "value", I also already had all the trackers I wanted and could get any new ones by just asking.

    Another interesting thread about all the secret site admins(FTN/FSC/Exigo/FTWR/UK-T) and their account https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...members-at-FST

    You can go through their threads/posts when you have some time to kill, it's a lot of fun to read.
    I have done so back in the day, and indeed it was very fun. The trash section had lots of interesting threads too, hidden away from public view, until it was wiped by the administrator last year. Same with the infamous TTC (which was just a largely inactive hidden subforum, but successfully pulled the "exclusive and impossible to join BitTorrent-based topsite" prank for years).

    Note how all of the accounts listed on that thread are no longer active, and some were even banned.
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    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    ScT was truly an elite tracker in the good sense of the word. Great pretimes, great packs, the design was slick, the jailbait thread forums and IRC were very active. And those speeds!

    image
    image
    image

    Even though they had a "transparency report" thread where they provided evidence of their high operational costs, the rumors of donation misuse and pocketing circulated until the very end... and were then increased by the fact they'd had a huge donation drive just a few weeks before their shutdown. Thumbs up if you remember Feeling's engagement ring or djGrrr's gaming PC, which they allegedly bought in this manner (and djGrrr never finished the ScT v2 design, boo).
    I remember that speed screenshot. Crazy and those speeds were seen about a decade ago. Some said it was almost a topsite. Feeling was a funny guy, he had fights with the FTN sysop Brandon over some girl and competition between FTN and SCT. Not aware of the Feeling engagement ring and djgrr stuff but sounds interesting.

    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    IPT is very much worth having in your arsenal, if you use custom CSS to hide the huge site banner, and even if you don't. Despite all the dramas the sysop has been involved in, and the fact he runs it as one of several moneymaking machines, the content and speeds are still great. Just don't donate and you'll be fine. And definitely don't spend 1000 USD in seedboxes thinking a good IPT ratio proof will open the doors to "better" sites, like that guy from /r/trackers...
    I think I'll give IPT another shot and try the custom CSS thing, if someone invites me. It's funny that all the criticism around pay2leech sites and them going down but it's the secret sites that went down and sites like IPT and TL are still around after so many years. I think the sites that are hosted in London almost always go down.

    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    ScL had three years to become a decent site, but apparently just couldn't achieve it, despite several open signups and lots of invites given out. The design was great, the packs were okay; the community was said to be good but I'm into torrents to get files, and the levels of activity made it evident no one used this tracker as their main one.

    Having a domain ending in "the.net" was a surefire way to show you were serious about your tracker. Perhaps you remember storethe.net, rapthe.net and even elitethe.net
    ScL tried but couldn't either become a rare site because of invites and signups and didn't have enough content so they were caught in between, not a good place to be stuck. The 'F' sites and UK-T were crap but they had the rarity status so could attract good users and their members could get invited to all the good sites like SCT, TL etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    I had an account on Pedro's too, several years ago, given to me by a friend who wasn't going to use it anymore. We set up an elaborate story to explain the IP country change to the staff (which they accepted), and I even cloned his browser fingerprint and cookies to make it look like I was him, using the same laptop as usual. It worked, but my activity levels weren't good enough to stay alive either. Unfortunate, but no big loss.

    Perhaps you remember Lossless World, a FLAC tracker started by the shady GeddyLee? I had a lot of fun abusing their referral link system and stealing their exclusive rips to upload on What.cd and reach Elite rank on one of my accounts
    Pedro's inactivity rules were retarded because you were forced to download so you had to be active(active cheater I mean ).
    I saw GeddyLee in the Pedro forums, he had a red indian avatar and do remember lossless world but couldn't manage an invite; wasn't that interested, my eyes were always on Exigo, still want in. That's the only rare/leet site I've always wanted to join, the site design is just beautiful.
    I don't know how you managed to steal their rips and upload to what.cd cause it was risky as Pedro was tough to get and What.cd had the music uploaded already.

    Quote Originally Posted by anon View Post
    Note the timestamps. On 2007 I wasn't on FST either; my only tracker accounts were ILT, TL and BCG, and I had zero interest on the BitTorrent community or politics. However, according what I can grasp from reading old threads and asking around, it was a very different time. There was a lot more activity and engagement between users and tracker staff. Brandon did an FTN giveaway and also once invited someone who made a request with like 5 posts (can't find the thread right now), Feeling did an ScT giveaway, fatcat69 recruited several times for his "mystery" site FSC, Squizzle did a UK-T giveaway in TTC some months before they shut down.

    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...gh-and-get-FTN
    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...ew-ScT-invites
    https://filesharingtalk.com/threads/...-Recruitment-D

    All of that died down in the years that followed. Many blame trading, or at least changing attitudes towards it, stating that it eventually became too contentious of an issue and it was impossible for FST to maintain a good relationship with tracker staff at the same time they ran a subforum where one of their rules could be broken. Others believe that said staff decided they felt much more at home on invite forums like TPS and tR, whose activity levels indeed soared post-2008, because everyone there was a "perfect" member who would never dare to trade or cheat and was always ready to suck dick. I think it's a combination of both.

    Trading is one thing that no one cares about now, but was serious-fucking-business in its heyday. Tracker levels, middlemen, scammers, FST's secret Veteran Trade Group, trader hunters and their IP-catching images/links, my oh my... personally, I never did it. It seemed too hard and risky in the beginning, and by the time I'd gotten accounts and invites with enough "value", I also already had all the trackers I wanted and could get any new ones by just asking.



    I have done so back in the day, and indeed it was very fun. The trash section had lots of interesting threads too, hidden away from public view, until it was wiped by the administrator last year. Same with the infamous TTC (which was just a largely inactive hidden subforum, but successfully pulled the "exclusive and impossible to join BitTorrent-based topsite" prank for years).

    Note how all of the accounts listed on that thread are no longer active, and some were even banned.
    Wish you had taken screenshots of Squizzle's UK-T giveaway on TTC, that would've been interesting. Those days were fun when trading wasn't looked down on.I think even sites were ok with invite trading at one point but not account trading, Oink was one such case. FST was the mecca. Fun times.
    Due to the people who wanted to get in these rare trackers started this anti-trader thing where they would claim they're anti-traders so they could get in.

    With streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify, torrent sites have become sort of redundant and with that the end of torrent site collectors too.
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    Quote Originally Posted by faltu View Post
    I remember that speed screenshot. Crazy and those speeds were seen about a decade ago. Some said it was almost a topsite. Feeling was a funny guy, he had fights with the FTN sysop Brandon over some girl and competition between FTN and SCT. Not aware of the Feeling engagement ring and djgrr stuff but sounds interesting.
    Those speeds were absolutely insane back then, when gigabit lines were slowly beginning to become a thing. Then again, if you visited the forums on ScT and SCC, there were quite a lot of people who apparently spent hundreds of dollars a month on the fastest of seedboxes. Do the names splic3 or SpX21 ring a bell?

    I have read some of those ScT vs. FTN threads, where indeed the sysops of both often participated personally. The girl you mention may have been kimii? In hindsight, though, the Feeling vs. Brandon rivalry was likely an act they pulled rather than any serious hostility. In any case, I think FTN couldn't hope to compete with ScT in anything besides seeding difficulty.

    Brandon was an ex-FSC staff member who decided to create his own tracker, and was doxed at least once, as was Feeling who apparently lived in England and used his real IP everywhere. As for the engagement ring, the rumor had been circulating since at least 2008 and the ring itself allegedly was for michelle from Waffles. Who said love can't bloom in the torrent world?

    I think I'll give IPT another shot and try the custom CSS thing, if someone invites me. It's funny that all the criticism around pay2leech sites and them going down but it's the secret sites that went down and sites like IPT and TL are still around after so many years. I think the sites that are hosted in London almost always go down.
    Send me a message if you want an invite. As for the rest, I'm in complete agreement. It's insane how TL and IPT have hundreds of thousands of users (the former even opens signups regularly) and big monthly expenses, yet apparently have never faced any sort of legal trouble in the 15 years or so they've existed, whereas many smaller and harder to get into trackers have disappeared in the last decade (see http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=33773). It's like they're untouchable... not that I have any problem with that!

    Hosting or operating a torrent tracker on a Five Eyes country is suicidal nowadays, but then again I think everyone already knows it, and only uses them for reverse proxies if at all.

    ScL tried but couldn't either become a rare site because of invites and signups and didn't have enough content so they were caught in between, not a good place to be stuck. The 'F' sites and UK-T were crap but they had the rarity status so could attract good users and their members could get invited to all the good sites like SCT, TL etc.
    True, but I think most people would have already had ScT and TL by the time they joined FTN or FSC.

    Pedro's inactivity rules were retarded because you were forced to download so you had to be active(active cheater I mean ).
    I saw GeddyLee in the Pedro forums, he had a red indian avatar and do remember lossless world but couldn't manage an invite; wasn't that interested, my eyes were always on Exigo, still want in. That's the only rare/leet site I've always wanted to join, the site design is just beautiful.
    I don't know how you managed to steal their rips and upload to what.cd cause it was risky as Pedro was tough to get and What.cd had the music uploaded already.
    I don't blame them for wanting people to be active, but I don't think mandatory downloading works well on a small and fairly niche tracker. As I recall there was also a strict anti-overseeding rule, and if you had a ratio higher than 3:1 or so on a torrent you'd get a warning?

    Lossless World had open signups initially, that's how I got in. I had access to a shared seedbox at the time, and thought I could put it to good use on an upcoming global freeleech at What.cd. Autodownloading every new FLAC torrent would have worked well, but I felt it was possible to do even better... the answer was taking files from L-W and VIPMusic (a long-defunct scene music tracker) and reuploading on What, to build buffer and reach a higher user class. I also filled several requests in the same manner, because some people were apparently too lazy to do even the simplest searches.

    Hitting Power User was easy. Becoming Elite took a few days of continuous work. I wanted to go all out and reach Torrent Master, but gave up at around 120 torrents (out of 500 required), because it was getting too repetitive and boring. Also, L-W staff noticed my deed and banned me shortly before the freeleech ended. Funnily enough, some of "my" uploads eventually trickled down to RuTracker, with me being credited as the original ripper in the description, and those torrents are still there! A small monument to the days when ore-sama was a high school boy and had lots of time for this shit, I suppose

    Wish you had taken screenshots of Squizzle's UK-T giveaway on TTC, that would've been interesting. Those days were fun when trading wasn't looked down on.I think even sites were ok with invite trading at one point but not account trading, Oink was one such case. FST was the mecca. Fun times.
    Due to the people who wanted to get in these rare trackers started this anti-trader thing where they would claim they're anti-traders so they could get in.

    With streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify, torrent sites have become sort of redundant and with that the end of torrent site collectors too.
    From memory, the thread was titled "anyone want a UK-T invite?", and in the first post he acknowledged that while they were unlikely to offer anything an experienced torrenter couldn't already get content-wise, the security aspect might be attractive. One or two people took him up on his offer, then it was basically an FST thread.

    Not all trackers have opposed trading, indeed (see https://web.archive.org/web/20100811...hates-trading/). Personally, I've always been of the opinion that the "security risk" rationale to disallow it is greatly exaggerated and never saw a problem with it, as long as both parties involved are genuinely interested on what they're trading for (see https://filesharingtalk.com/showthread.php?p=3336460); account trades, giveaways or sharing can also be okay depending on circumstances (see http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=21339 and http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=24222). If trading was seen as more acceptable in the past, it was likely and simply because these good traders (so to speak) outnumbered rarity seekers and sellers looking for merchandise.

    FST allowed tracker staff to become official community reps on the forum and disallow account (but not invite) trades for the sites they belonged to. However, said rank was relatively short-lived (see https://filesharingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=278399) and the relationship between both fell apart from 2008 onwards, as we discussed above.

    The anti-trader thing was as stupid as it sounds. Sticking a label on yourself so that it was really clear that you were a good, trustworthy guy who deserved to be invited everywhere "for the community". Not surprisingly, some of those "anti-traders" were just pretending to be nice at all costs to get what they wanted, were collectors, actually traded in secret with dupe accounts, or a combination of the three. The premise of forums run entirely around the concept of obtaining tracker invites was not healthy, and led to this sort of behavior (see http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?p=350819).

    Streaming services have been responsible for a big decline in filesharing in general, even if there are occasional bursts of activity. However, I want to believe that tracker collectors grew up and realized there was no point to that shit anymore
    "I just remembered something that happened a long time ago."
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