Let's talk about BT

[wmc]

Those people also tend to shout the loudest, making their numbers perhaps seem much greater than they actually are, and their influence perhaps makes it much harder for those new to the "community" to establish what acceptable modes of behaviour are, and what point there is in sticking to those anyway. Which in turn makes it harder for those established people to discern between someone who simply doesn't know, and someone who does and is choosing to pay no attention regardless. Its a vicious cycle really, to which I unfortunately doubt there is any tangible or achievable solution.

I like this. It made me think a bit which is nice

They do shout the loudest and most of my time ends up being spent dealing with people like this which I have to say makes me a little jaded. In the end though there's two reasons I do what I do with BT, the silent majority that you mentioned...and the good active members. At least for me the real diehards that love their site make it all worthwhile. They're what keeps me going instead of saying fuck it and downloading from FTP or another source.

I think the main problem with the private BT community is that it's been overrun by the types that you mentioned that love to complain the loudest and make a big sting whether that's complaining or vilifying someone. This can make the 'politics' of the whole scene rather ugly at times. Then there's also the collectors who just join up to be part of 'the site' whatever site that maybe I think they piss me off the most but if I start rambling about that I'll be here all afternoon and I want to go watch the new house

I'd also be interested to hear what people have to say about the 'big' egos of the BT world if anyone has something to say. By this I don't meant he big ego of your everyday 1337 user with all the private sites (yes that sounds lame but hopefully you'll know what I mean) but the actual players of BT. Does this lessen your enjoyment of trackers or do most people not even take it in? I guess maybe it's the position I'm in but I see a lot of this so I'm wondering does the average BT community member even think about these guys?

 

[Aphrodite_Mermaid]

That's one of the cool things about Private BT, generally once you have established yourself you do share a common experience. That of figuring out how to establish yourself. It's no small task, and having the desire to do so puts you at the advantage of knowing more that those "average" users. I'm not trying to say that it makes it efortless to fit into a community, but it does put you on common ground with the other members who have travelled that route.

Unfortunately fitting at a lot of places means having the same limited scope of appreciation as their increasing younger user base.


@ Pride -Day then whoever Idoleyes is I wish him luck in his relationships.

 

[*me me*]

I don't have that kind of power all I can do is make hot women cry and strong men yearn.:idunno:

:lol: :lol:

 

[Pha]

lol Brian, your cute. Can I hire you to cheer me up for those rainy day's?

 

[Sean Williams]

Unfortunately fitting at a lot of places means having the same limited scope of appreciation as their increasing younger user base.

Fair enough. So does that add a need for mentorship to the unaware masses of youthful members? Or do the "senior" members have no obligation beyond just enjoying their insular communities?

 

[Jhgjhg]

Not a problem


As far as politics, they are aren't exclusive to government. And we exhibit moral decisions in everything we do that involves other people. So I guess I should ask if your personal morals extend to torrenting, and how do they translate to BT for you?

4. Politics of BT.. hmm.. I'm guessing part of this comes from how sites are run. If so, my thoughts on that are I am not a site owner, and part of belonging to a site is respecting the rules. If the rules aren't working for an individual user than make suggestions on site. If your suggestions are tossed, try to work with it still, if it still doesn't work - move on. It's their house, they set the rules. There are enough sites out there where everyone can find something that works for them. As far as the politics out there, I think the obsession with having the bigger e-penis is a bit ridiculous, and more evident in those users who either haven't progressed and matured in finding a niche in the sites out there, or don't want to because they like the ego-stroking that comes with bragging. There's loads of asshats out there who care not for the site they belong to, but only care to brag about what site they belong to. Those type are just bottom feeders and n00bs. They're everywhere in life, why not in BT land. oh well..

I'm talking about the greater BT community and how people interact with each other on focus sites like FST, TPS, TR, IC, CFS, all the "invite sections" on individual trackers, and anywhere that large numbers of active torrenters interact. Often times our actions and opinions follow us from site to site, as there is a bigger community out there, and we are answerable to it if we ever get involved in the social aspect of torrenting.

 

[Bob Sanchezel]

I won't lie, I was/am absolutely fascinated by the sociology of it all. Probably should have put it in my reasons I use BT to the degree I do in fact.

It's intriguing to watch how the words of someone with that cumulative respect I keep referring to can have a profound impact on the greater world of BT. Just the idea you are talking about is funny in it's own right, in that those of us who are entrenched in the bigger community all know the names you are referring to even if we've never shared a word with them. Sometimes you can almost hear the hushed defference to those folks in peoples "voice" when they talk about those players.

Some interesting points in there (and in the rest of your post but I'll stick to that bit for now). I think you're mostly right about the mob rule thing, that the problem is indeed getting worse and that it is indeed hard to see any resolution to it. I do think though that its easy to forget, when active on forums like this one or the countless other invite/BT related sites that no doubt exist, or as someone involved in running or staffing a tracker, that a lot of members on sites don't necessarily participate in, or even have a great awareness of, a lot of the issues surrounding BT.

And yet, they are still held to those standards despite that fact. That's why I see it as such a big issue in this current era of BT history. Now, granted, there can't really even be a universal and well defined set of guidelines, because of the fact that the community is spread out over many sites that are each run under a different set of internal guidelines, with a mind for the overall good of the society. But, at some point, most people that stick with private trackers do learn at least the bare essentials. The rest, well they either move on, or they are forced on.

Doesn't really seem fair, but as is the mantra when faced with the immutable voice of staff saying "you fucked up, gtfo", Their tracker, their rules. There are no democracies in private sites, be they BT or anything else on the web.

 

[Marzipan]

Nice read sear.

Nothing on torrents is worth sacrificing a second of real life for.

I agree but a passion it's still s passion and for some of us this is all that we have for now. All of us like to hide between masks, we like to create/re-create an image about ourselves the way we would like us to be. This is way we spend ages posting in forums, chatting in irc channels and so on. It's the need of identity and I think that when you gain more and more BT friends gives you a dose of self esteem, that, sooner or later, will help us in real life too.

Now to quickly go thought Intr4ns1t's questions I will tell you that I use BT only because I still can't afford to pay 20 quid for a film I 'll stop watching after the first 10 minutes or for a game that will end up in the atic the next week.
My ideal tracker...it's a toght one, hmm... I used to really like file**st.org because they were only uploading filles that I wanted, that's for oday and it's forums were friendly and active. Now, like most of today's BT users i like P*N because I ve realised I don't need any of the 0day stuff and I love to discover new-old films I ve never seen before. Thanks Intr4ns1t. And to answer your question the ideal tracker for me would be a union between demoniod, P*N and old fil**ist.org.
I was a member of way to many treackers imo. It hurt when I was deleting trackers from my bookmarks and others were begging for an invite here on fst for their "dream" tracker. Now I only use one 0day tracker, one music tracker, 2 films trackers and demonoid but not as often. I had enought of all them ratio problems, silly new staffers on new trackers... in one word BT drama. Now I like to chill out on safe trackers, posting among friends, really enjoy a forum and a tracker. "and what do you think is too many trackers?" what does that supose to mean ?
We should never forghet that what we're doing its illegal and one day it may cost us. Most of us respect BT rules which I dont consider too harsh but it's silly to think that we'll all do it, its just like asking a murderer not to steal.
The "morals" of BT... Do we all agree with Robin Hood and his actions? I bet anyone reading this is so BT (illegal filesharing) its a win against multi billion corporations who don't even have the decency to give us back a bit of quallity we paid for.

Scuse My French
Tara

 

[Dion J]

.
What constitutes trolling then? Make no mistake, I agree with your statement, but what is the difference between critique and flame? The problem lies in the fact that we all define those two things differently, so one mans criticism is another mans slap in the face.

If you watch someone's posts over time you will know if they are for real or not. Flame should be taken lightly I mean this is the internet, and respect to you for going through those bash threads and taking something from it.

I found in this torrent community there's a lot more serious business people who can't tolerate flame from people like somebody has personally insulted them. People like that are no fun, and they feed the real trolls who only exist because they take everything so seriously.

 

[hippyboy92]

All I can say is, don't take all this bt stuff too seriously. It's just sending files from one to another. There are many people that feel they are mighty in "bt world" (maybe they need to compensate something), but you do not need to support this. I don't see why you would need to - In the end they are just small illegal groups, receiving content from somewhere else and isolating that and themselves from the outside world.

See, I think it's moved past being just a bunch of small groups sharing files in isolation. Don't most trackers have a power user forum dedicated to invites to other trackers? To me that signifies a desire on the part of those trackers to deisolate themselves. It's an example of cross site cooperation and trust, and a good sign that we are part of a bigger culture than just the individual sites we belong to.

Many sites share info on bad users as well as good users, and for good or bad, that is a sure sign that the people running those sites are of the same belief. We are all taking a risk by providing the service we do, and care and seriousness are called for when risk is at hand.

 

[khobbs]

I'm disabling you at TPS for that .:dry:

 

[swtkoreanpanda]

lmfao minute i joined that shitty forum all these scrubs kept tellin me how we were all family and then some indian guy kept messaging me telling me how he dreams to join sites

left that place in the dust

I BT because it's an addiction. Same with stats and getting to those uber ranks. It's not even about the content anymore for me, unless it's a music tracker.

how is bt an addiction u just download and go afk ...

 

[Jasson]

I dont usually
I also do not comment on people or things I know nothing about, which I bring to my online stuff as well.
I am of the view if you are going to comment about some thing at least have the manners to check it out 1st

 

[Pat Nguyen]

RE: the above, BT is one of the most unsafe forms of filesharing since everyone in every swarm can see your IP address, and all of your personal data is stored in giant databases on sites that the feds have most certainly infiltrated

Started with torrents because limewire had too many fakes/viruses/etc and terrible quality. Also, my cousin was on OinK and I was dying to have that much music at my disposal.

What do you feel is the ideal tracker for you, and are you a member of a site that fills those requirements?

Content-wise it's What, and yes I'm a member there Community-wise it's probably somewhere I shouldn't mention.

Do you feel you are on enough trackers, and what do you think is too many trackers?

I feel like I'm on too many, especially 0-days. I'm active on maybe 9 of my trackers and download occasionally from a few more.

What do you see the politics of BT entailing, and does it affect your actions in this field?

Having been directly invovled in the BT world's politics, I'd say it does shape what I do. However, I feel like a ton of people have this ridiculous sense of entitlement being members of certain sites, and need to learn to stfu and get back to sharing files among themselves, which is the entire point of BT. However, the politics are sort of like a train wreck, and it's great fun to watch it all play out when you aren't involved in the particular matter.

Do you think there is an ethos necessary when interacting, and if so, what does it consist of? By this I mean what do you think the "morals" of BT are, if you think there should be.

This really depends on what your goals are in the BT world, and the site in question. I've found that if you simply be yourself, good things will come to you. Talking to people in IRC and helping out with the site you're on is a good way to get noticed for VIP there/invites to harder-to-get-into sites/etc. Most of my "rare" sites that some people here seem to idolize were simply spontaneously offered to me in IRC, I didn't expect them or ask for them. In most cases I didn't even know they were members of that given site. There's no need to e-dick suck, though some members here seem to believe any time you aren't acting like a total asshole towards everyone else you're kissing their asses.

Deviated a bit there. For the ethos in general, I see filesharing as a try-before-i-buy type thing. I have ~300 CDs and a few LPs in my collection. The vast majority of these albums are from artists and genres that I never would have discovered without What and other music torrent sites. This collection is much larger than that of everyone else I know my age, including those who don't fileshare. So the record labels have profited handsomely from my filesharing habits, and I think they need to wake up and smell the free advertising. When Wolverine was leaked early, the studios thought it would be a disaster for ticket sales. Instead, it was one of the best selling movies of the summer.

 

[JordanTheGreat]

you're right sear.... but imo ppl who create places such as fsc with an awful tracker and a forum slower than dialup on a t1 connection ...dont give us torrenters much to enjoy except that it is ranked 9 on a traders level list

Wow you're a real gem. I'm truly hurt.

@Bad-Day, they're using public trackers I guess or giants like TL that's all the average user really wants is huge swarms.

 

[illinoismommy]

Are we all having fun yet?

 

[brother_razia]

@Bad-Day, they're using public trackers I guess or giants like TL that's all the average user really wants is huge swarms.

Why the "average" user ?

 

[sneely3]

Well, I won't lie, I was fairly certain that Albo and Cabalo were going to come up in this thread, but I want to point out one thing. Neither of them posted a single thing that was expressing an opinion or in fact of any substance in this thread nor did either of them flame anyone or anything. And yet, they still show up as a subject matter. What gives?

On the subject of criticism of sites, from my experience, that criticism, if it has any single thread of validity, can only serve to help the sites it's about. Hell, alot of the focuses I have had with my site have derived specifically from threads that were bashing us. Doesn't matter what the tone of the post is, if its content is valid, it's valid.

Yes it can hurt, especially if you put heart mind and soul into your project, BUT, in mind of what duckater said, much of the criticism posted some places are made by people that don't know what they are talking about, and that makes it hard to take them all seriously.

Exactly, people should have the right to speak their mind, I mean if you have a strong feeling about something you should be able to express it. As long as you're not trolling I don't see the problem.

What constitutes trolling then? Make no mistake, I agree with your statement, but what is the difference between critique and flame? The problem lies in the fact that we all define those two things differently, so one mans criticism is another mans slap in the face.

 

[Casey Z]

u forgot to mention u are an ex trader and how ptn was started by a group of traders

Get your facts straight before you post retarded comments you know nothing about.

Intr4ns1t, epic thread.

 

[dannypopso]

I like pita ,true story, although I try to avoid carbs with a high glycemic index as much as possible.

Uhm, PITA stands for pain in the ass. I guess you're a n00b at these things... or you were joking. I can never tell, tbh. :lol:

Intr4ns1t, yeah, I agree about the being nice part. The way you were raised has a big part in it. But again, there's the problem of internet, you don't know who my parents are...

PS: Great thread!

PPS: About Albo and Cabalo: Constructive criticism is something that betters trackers. But the criticism that those two present is not constructive, neither is it argumented, but what bothers me the most is their approach (I'm repeating myself, I know ). You hear a lot that at sites like TPS you have to suck dick and are not allowed to criticise sites. Not true. But if you do it the same way as those two do it here, expect to be banned. Fast.