https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-ThePirateBay-Want-Trusted-VIP-Status-Pink-Green-Skull-See-Here
I already know, but I feel like this post belonged here. Trust the skulls, I have usually found original seeders seeding the torrent alone for years at time (1 seeder) and they get the job done.
Green Skull, Pink Skull, Number of seeders column (what else?) are the things you should care for while downloading torrents.
What are you the cia?
For movies (rip rarbg) I use TorrentLeech
For music I use Soulseek
For books I use irc.irchighway.net #ebooks
I recently purchased a Usenet subscription+indexer to plug up any gaps, and it seems to be a pretty good option as well (although not free).
For software, I just try to always go open source when I can, and I don't really pirate games. I find executables to just be too risky.