Private trackers are well known for their elitist and insufferable users. I'd like to know the reasons behind their gatekeeping. Is it just mere elitism to feel superior or are there any other reasons? I've heard people saying they like to have a smaller number of high quality users for long term stability. I've even heard people tell they're designed to keep government and federal agents away. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

  • Nakoichi [he/him]9•4 months ago

    I've even heard people tell they're designed to keep government and federal agents away.

    more likely that they are trying to stay off the radar of big ip holders. That is who would shine the feds eye of sauron on you and if the feds want to look at your files they will.

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]9•4 months ago

    It's bullshit. You'll get 99% of the content well seeded on a relatively open private tracker like IPT or Torrentleech as you would on BTN and anyone who says otherwise just wants to feel they are part of the cool kids club or whatever.

    And certain nzb indexers are even more annoyingly elitist, see nzbs.in who get mad and ban users for even mentioning their name.

    • calm.like.a.bomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com3•4 months ago

      You’ll get 99% of the content well seeded

      In my case, I love to be on private trackers because of the content and moderation. You will not find 99% of the music on RED or even OPS at that level of quality anywhere on the public trackers. Hell, I don't even find a lot of the music in lossless formats on usenet.

      So, one of the reasons for the existence of private trackers is to catalogue and moderate great collections (of music, movies, TV series, etc.).

  • @driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br8•4 months ago

    I used to visit an specialized private tracker that went offline, deli.sh, it's had only food content, like video courses and a lot of books. Everything had at least a couple of seeders, so even that ultra rare French language pastry book was available to download. My girlfriend, now wife, was on cooking academy and I downloaded a lot of books and courses for her that would be unavailable anywhere else on the internet. I don't think you can really have that kind of collection on a public tracker.

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]5•4 months ago

    Is it just mere elitism to feel superior or are there any other reasons?

    Security concerns are a part of it. The idea is that there's an added layer of security if everyone is a friend of a friend, but obviously it's not very practical. Generally the security is added by making sure you're drafting from an "in"-crowd, which usually means familiarity with the content hosted and how the content is generated (like the old what.cd test) in addition to being a member in good standing in a tracker or a proven history of seeding. User limits also make the need for people to be very into the specific content type in order to make sure even the more obscure content is well seeded.

  • reverendz [comrade/them]5•4 months ago

    There’s also a “I’m not going to get some bullshit masquerading as the movie I was looking for.” thing in place.

    I belong to a couple private trackers. I use them nearly exclusively and have never once downloaded a bullshit file/virus/whatever. It’s happened a couple times on public ones.

    I know who the good uploaders are and know that seeding on the private isn’t going to get me flagged to my ISP, which happened twice before going off public.

    I guess what I’m wondering is: why wouldn’t you use one if you can find what you’re looking for?

  • @Diurnambule@jlai.lu4•4 months ago

    It is hard to find films with specific languages on public trackers. They are private one in some languages only.