Disclaimer: We've been getting a lot of basic questions about trackers so this is just a primer for people wanting to see what it's all about. Skip if you are already well versed with trackers, unless you want to read just to contribute or correct me on anything.
What is a private tracker?
Let's start with what it isn't. Chances are you are familiar with infamous torrent trackers such as The Pirate Bay and 1337x. These trackers are what's known as public trackers. "Public" means anyone can visit them and download whatever they want to their heart's content. This is all fine and dandy, but it does introduce some problems.
- While you are downloading your file, you are known as a leecher. Once the download is finished, you become a seeder, which means you are done but will continue to upload the data you just downloaded to other downloaders who come along after you. The problem here is that on public trackers, most users stop the torrent, remove it, or close the BitTorrent client as soon as their download is complete. The end result? You have many more leechers than seeders, which equates to slower download speeds and a longer time required to download your files.
- A peer is another term that can be used to refer to either a seeder or leecher. The swarm is the sum of all peers on a particular torrent. Since anyone can effortlessly access and download files on a public tracker, it leads to unwanted parties gaining access to the swarm and its data, such as copyright holders or their agents. Why is this bad? When you are part of a swarm, you can see the IP addresses of other peers within it. Unless you use a service such as a VPN to mask your identity, your IP address uniquely identifies you on the internet. With this data, parties representing the interests of the people whose content you are pirating can monitor the downloads and issue copyright infringement notices to your ISP, resulting in you receiving nasty letters, having your internet shut off, or possibly facing worse consequences depending on your local laws..
- Torrents are decentralized, meaning the data isn't downloaded from a persistent, dedicated location; instead, they rely on the users, particularly the seeders. As mentioned earlier, if you abandon a torrent after finishing, you are no longer a seeder. If enough people do the same, the torrent could end up with zero seeders left, also known as a dead torrent. This means it becomes impossible to complete the download, as the entirety of the data isn't available in the swarm. Unless a previous seeder decides to return and seed again, nobody will ever be able to download the torrent again. Consequently, a significant amount of niche or older content is lost with the passage of time.
- So, where do these torrents originally come from? The uploader is the initial seeder of the torrent. On most public trackers, uploading content is almost as easy as downloading it. This large volume of uploads makes moderation difficult. The result? Poor-quality content, fake/mislabeled content, or even viruses.
Private trackers seek to solve these problems by restricting access to the site. Not just anyone can waltz in and download or upload a torrent; you have to be a member. Think of it as the VIP lounge of the pirating world. Here are some of the advantages of this approach:
- Users are incentivized to keep seeding torrents they've downloaded. This means the seeder/leecher ratio is much higher than what would be found on a public site. On a good private tracker, you'll notice that a majority of the downloads will utilize the full speed of your internet connection and download in the shortest amount of time possible for their size.
- For the most part, the companies and interested parties mentioned above, who would love to spy and tattle to your ISP about what you download, are completely absent on private trackers. I've been using them for over a decade and haven't encountered a single issue. This means you don't have to take risks, spend time configuring and updating IP blocklists, or invest money in a VPN.
- Due to the number of dedicated seeders on private trackers, torrents tend to stay alive much longer, if not indefinitely. This makes private trackers a treasure trove of content. There is a lot that you will only find here. Want to watch some obscure indie film you saw once when you were a kid back in 1989? They've got you fam.
- Due to the controlled nature of private trackers, the content tends to be very well moderated and curated. You can be sure that what you are downloading is exactly what it claims to be, and the quality is excellent as well.
- Private trackers are more than a download site, they are a community. Many are packed with helpful forums, and members who generally care about the scene and helping one another. Managed to find something that's actually no on the site already? Many trackers have request systems built in where you can ask the community to find it and upload it for you, and believe it or not, chances are pretty good that someone will!
Ok, but what's the downside?
Just one really. Your ratio is the amount of data you've downloaded on a site compared to how much you've uploaded. So, if I've downloaded an 8 GB movie but continued to seed it after finishing until I had uploaded 16 GB to other peers, my ratio would be 2.0 (16 ÷ 8). If I downloaded a second 8 GB movie but didn't upload any data, my ratio would fall to 1.0 ((8 + 8) ÷ 16). Most sites have rules about the ratio you must maintain to encourage people to keep seeding torrents they've downloaded. This means, unlike public trackers, you will want to keep seeding after your download has finished so that you can maintain a good ratio and continue to download more content as you please.
So how do I get in?
Private trackers recruit in a variety of ways:
- Open Signup - The easiest trackers to get into are the ones where you just have to sign up to become a member. Some trackers have what's known as limited open signup, which means you can't sign up anytime, but they open signups intermittently when they see fit.
- Official Recruitment - Some trackers have official representatives who recruit in the forums of other trackers. To qualify, you often have to be a power user on the tracker where the recruitment is taking place. The requirements to achieve this rank vary from tracker to tracker, but typically include uploading a certain amount of data at a minimum.
- Invites - On many trackers, members who meet certain requirements are given invites to pass out to whomever they want. If you can get someone to give you one of their invites, you're in.
- Interviews - There are trackers that conduct official interviews. If you interview and they like you, they'll let you join.
- Additionally some trackers will let you buy your way in. I don't encourage this because for one it's usually unnecessary, and second because it's the shadier trackers that usually offer this route anyways.
