[Review] The Pirate Society

Hey folks. I thought that I might post my very first review of a site. TPS is not a torrent tracker per se but a discussion board much like sb-i. Though I feel that TPS is quite unique in a couple of features that I am quite impressed by.

The site is an invite only bit-torrent related discussion board. Before I begin presenting TPS, there are a couple of disclaimers that I would like to 1st take care of.

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(1) If a user from TPS in an official capacity from there reads this review and demands that I remove my review because of some privacy concern. Sorry, but it isn't going to happen. People have the right to information.
(2) Besides, I have the right to freedom of expression. Even on the Internet. I am exercising my right and liberty to freely express my self by giving this review. I am mentioning this b/c I know 1st hand that historically tracker staff come here demanding removal of the offending review. I find such a demand quite absurd actually. Besides, I am shedding your review in a positive light. :smile:

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This is going to be a bit of a lengthy review because (1) in it you might find some expression of personal opinion and (2) because there's a lot of pictures here showing the inside of the forum. I figured you folks that are not there might like to know a bit more of what's what and where it all is. You'll have to also excuse my sense of privacy throughout the pics given here. Some things throughout the board such as current, new members, personal profile, etc are blurred or blanked out. I like my privacy and it's no-one's business from TPS who presented this review. :smile:

Enjoy.

Also, I had a bit of a problem uploading images to my albums. For some reason I couldn't get them to be uploaded to a particular album in my profile. Might be b/c of some browser setting. I'll get around to fixing it later. Nevertheless....


Here is the Home page of the board. You'll see that there's some similarity to what we here on sb-i have on the Home page as well. Articles.


http://i.imgur.com/qdvBF.png



Some more pics.
Board stats shown in pic.

http://i.imgur.com/lA0YZ.png

They also have a Radio section on the board. This is the place where board DJs give notice of their platforms, times, and other radio related events. Cool stuff, I think and as I briefly mentioned above, another of the unique ways that TPS keeps it's userbase active and interested.


http://i.imgur.com/0fD18.png



http://i.imgur.com/tqENB.png


You will see that they have a contest section inside the board. Trackers have such things too as you might be aware. I still think such things are a neat and unique way for sites to garner activity from it's userbase. IMO, such activities keep people active and interested in discussion boards. TPS is no exception. According to my own personal experience, userbase is quite active on TPS.



http://i.imgur.com/6nZdK.png






TPS also has groups for users to join. The function of these should be obvious. To show that you are a member of some group that doesn't really do much other than to just show that there are groups on TPS. Functionality on TPS for groups, in my mind don't do much. Regardless, the number of existing groups is pretty small as you can see.


http://i.imgur.com/an1lB.png



Here is the Help section.


http://i.imgur.com/Otvfo.png

The events section as well as a closer look at the events section in the 2nd pic below this 1st one


http://i.imgur.com/p4dwa.png


http://i.imgur.com/oxAnh.png


As we explore further throughout TPS, you'll see a community rep section as part of the board. I really like such ideas as these give platforms to ask, comment, and discuss what-ever is on a user's mind.


http://i.imgur.com/RDj4e.png



This next section below is where community reps recruit TPS members.


http://i.imgur.com/YzAAY.png


Another screen shot of the same.


http://i.imgur.com/YLkyP.png


This is the iSpy for TPS.


http://i.imgur.com/JiYC5.png


The drop down menu of the user profile. I like drop down menus as these do make navigation a bit more convenient for the user.
Again, excuse my sense of privacy.


http://i.imgur.com/TnWD4.png









And finally, we log out of the board....,




Hope you enjoyed this. :smile:

Don't they have an invite section where you can get an invite to other trackers? I heard in another thread that they give out invites to higher level threads very easily.

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Originally Posted by Jordan

Don't they have an invite section where you can get an invite to other trackers? I heard in another thread that they give out invites to higher level threads very easily.

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how about that part of the review:

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This next section below is where community reps recruit TPS members.

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Originally Posted by Jordan

Don't they have an invite section where you can get an invite to other trackers? I heard in another thread that they give out invites to higher level threads very easily.

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Originally Posted by Instab

how about that part of the review:

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Yup. You betcha. That's right. The recruitment section of the board is where a user can pick up invites and be a member of what-ever tracker. I should make you aware now that there are different recruitment sections on the board. If all your there for are just to grab some invites from tracker X and that's all, you'll never be able to reach the other higher class recruitment sections intended for user classes that have been promoted. The promotion is a bit unique IMO because it relies on users receiving points from their fellow members. If all a new recruit does is post in spam type of talk, believe me that new recruit won't get anywhere and so of course will his/her opportunities for getting to other recruitment sections that are for other user class persons.

Have a look at the pic below. It gives you an example of what I mean.


http://i.imgur.com/KUfEn.jpg

See where it says that you need 5 positive ratings?? Those ratings come from your peers if you want to become Shipmate class and get additional views of recruitment sub forums on the board. The solution: Get involved in the place. And I don't mean posting spam related posts because a user's peers can see through that. The place is fairly active as I"ve mentioned earlier. Lot's of discussions and debates going on.

Now to answer your other question on 'ease of getting an invite', the answer I guess is 'yes'. I really like TPS. It's a great board IMHO. Find an invite to the place from somewhere and enjoy your stay there. :smile:

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Originally Posted by Instab

how about that part of the review:

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Well I thought that by recruitment, they mean that that they want staff members and moderators :shockkk!: :5585: My bad.

Now this is one site where we can't cheat, or does anyone have any cheating tool to increase points. :-)

Also how does an existing user get an invite so that he can invite others?

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Originally Posted by Jordan

Well I thought that by recruitment, they mean that that they want staff members and moderators :shockkk!: :5585: My bad.

Now this is one site where we can't cheat, or does anyone have any cheating tool to increase points. :-)

Also how does an existing user get an invite so that he can invite others?

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I thought like you

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Originally Posted by Jordan

Now this is one site where we can't cheat, or does anyone have any cheating tool to increase points. :-)

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I don't think I quite understand. How do you want or expect to cheat on posting?? I think you must be talking about cheating on torrents, yes?? Not posting. TPS isn't really a tracker. It's a discussion board. I believe I may have briefly mentioned that earlier.

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Originally Posted by Jordan

Also how does an existing user get an invite so that he can invite others?

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I think that this might help. I have here a screen shot of one of the rules pertaining/in regard to what you said above. Actually, I should remind myself to post all the rules for all viewers fairly soon if anyone is interested, that is. If you would like to see the rules which are quite extensive at TPS, please do let me know. :smile:


http://i.imgur.com/9nyZQ.jpg


Pretty basic rule set for something like this. This isn't uncommon, I suppose.

They're handing out invites every once in a while but there is also a interview you can make. You can find it if you search for it...

Btw. has anyone made it to Pirate, Captain and such stuff? The best invite I got there was to PTP before they completely closed their invites and recruitments.
So I'm wondering what you can get there in the higher level forums. I know the DB9 and most of the interesting recruitments I've seen so far (SceneHD etc.) are either abandoned or stopped. Don't get me wrong it's still not bad to be a member there, you can get into x264 and other good trackers but the really rare and high level stuff? Dunno.

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Originally Posted by leus

Don't get me wrong it's still not bad to be a member there, you can get into x264 and other good trackers but the really rare and high level stuff? Dunno.

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sometimes you do get a shot at a high level site there

This forum is useless when it comes to getting invites because most of the trackers are listed on the non-movement list.

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Originally Posted by THC

most of the trackers are listed on the non-movement list.

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that sounds interesting. could you tell more about that list?

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Originally Posted by THC

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Those screenshots in a nutshell (for those who have images disabled):
1: approximately 50% of private trackers in existence are not allowed to be given away
2: wen you get to captani u cn requesast ftn!!!!11111111111

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Originally Posted by anon

1: approximately 50% of private trackers in existence are not allowed to be given away

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All the good ones.

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Originally Posted by anon

2: wen you get to captani u cn requesast ftn!!!!11111111111

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You must make tps your second life to get to captain. A sort of a no-lifer. Don't forget that you can request TL if you're a captain. :smile_rofl_2:

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Originally Posted by THC

Don't forget that you can request TL if you're a captain. :smile_rofl_2:

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TL was great before they changed their design to their current horrendous one. I first got invited in 2007 and used it a lot (in fact, that's how I got into cheating - using it a lot from a 16KB/s upload connection), then lost the account due to inactivity. When I managed to get in again two years later I was pretty excited. I even made dupes so that I'd never lose access again. Then they changed the design and I said to hell with it.

Site is up again after being down for unknown times

Don't waste your time with this shit forum. If they find out you're a trader or a cheat you will lose all your accounts. It's not worth it. This forum is trash. :gun2:

Is there even a reason to join now that FTN doesn't exist anymore? :rolling_eyes:

Back in the day there were many of these "community-driven", no trading, no selling invite forums. They were good for obtaining invites (duh) and catching up with new events in the torrent world, but recruitment threads and Reddit have taken over that. Don't waste your time.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=20392

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Originally Posted by H265

Don't waste your time with this shit forum. If they find out you're a trader or a cheat you will lose all your accounts. It's not worth it. This forum is trash. :gun2:

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and it is a dead zone. i just want to copy their "invite tree" table hahahaha

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Originally Posted by anon

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What happened after 2012 anyway? End of the world? :ggrin:
Is that because the numbers of Broadband Internet users exploded globally and they wanted their chairs in the table?
I think, even the secret societies tend to increase the numbers of its members around the world. But the PT world wants to be small as they possible. I couldn't understand its logic.

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Originally Posted by 5thDimension

What happened after 2012 anyway?

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The most attractive official recruitment threads closed, citing the large proportion of bad apples they attracted. Most of the rest was already "no movement", meaning regular users are not allowed to offer or request them. This left discussions as the only good reason to participate, so as older members moved on (this stuff can get boring once you've been into it for a few years), not enough new ones came in to fill the void (nobody wants to join an invite forum where 90% of sites are off the table no matter how you sell it). Chatter is mostly on /r/trackers now, where requests, offers or trades are strictly disallowed, and /r/invites plays by the same rules as above.

Two other thoughts.

• All of this allowed sellers to flourish: supply dropped, while demand remained the same. Just search for "torrent invites" on Google and check out the top results.
• If you're over 30, you may remember MP3.com and how artists and bands uploaded their music there for free to promote themselves, yet suddenly became vocal critics of piracy once they got big and managed to sign record deals. Private trackers did the exact same thing with so-called unauthorized giveaways.

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the PT world wants to be small as they possible. I couldn't understand its logic.

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That's not very accurate. Some private trackers want to maintain their current size because they're happy the way they are. This does not equate to the entire torrent world trying to become smaller. Many are harder to join than in the past, but none are purging their userbases beyond disabling inactive accounts.

The ladder game is bullshit, but at the end of the day, their site = their rules. Just because they exist, doesn't mean we're entitled to an account.

Thanks for the clarification, anon.

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Originally Posted by anon

Just because they exist, doesn't mean we're entitled to an account.

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You're right about that, after all.

TPS is dead place.

https://www.sb-innovation.de/showthread.php?t=35130

TPS was one of many invite forums that experienced a huge surge of activity on mid-2009. Unfortunately and no matter how they wanted to paint it, building a community around the idea of obtaining invites to other sites creates perverse incentives, which ultimately became self-evident and made tracker staff flip from recruiting there themselves to banning participants on sight, a move started and spearheaded by What.cd. It is also the reason why even during the glory days, most members would vanish after successfully requesting FTN, and presumably seeing what a disappointing waste of effort it was.

Dramas, cliques, anti-traders and witch hunts, invite forums that were themselves invite-only... it was a lot of fun. One thing I believe was objectively better back then is that trackers hadn't yet become fastidious about "security" nor finished amassing the user bases and torrent catalogs that make them sought-after now, so joining most of them was easier. Also, the amount of movie and TV sites was greater than 1.