May 27, 2008 by sharky
Looking for an invitation to a private tracker? Personally speaking, your best bet is through invite trading forums. Free invite "giveaways" to great trackers are bountiful - although the competition is fierce. Invite-givers are selective to whom they’ll provide invites to, so you’ll want to be properly prepared. Here’s the Do’s & Don’ts for requesting invites:
What NOT to do:
1. Don’t join an invite forum and begin making heavy requests right away. Not only do most forums have a ‘minimum post’ count required before making any requests (or viewing the "Giveaway" thread), invite-givers will assuredly check to see what you’ve contributed to the site.
2. Don’t spam the forums. Most invite-givers will check to see what posts and comments you’ve made to the forums. Don’t make short comments like "nice work" or "great post, thanks", or "thx for the review" - for the purpose of boosting your post count.
3. Don’t beg or whine for invites. The following pleas for invitations almost certainly never work:
* "I was PU on Oink…have 10 terabytes of files to share, but no invite. Waffles pleez!"
* "I would be eternally grateful for a F**R invite…help me out, LOL!"
* "If you invite me, I promise to be a good uploader."
* "Does anyone have a spare invite to [x]" (No one ever has spare invites to really exclusive trackers)
* "Whine, whine, whine…no one ever invites me to a tracker I like. Invite me to … [supplies laundry list of high level trackers]."
4. Don’t be greedy or appear like you are trying to acquire invites for the purposes of simply trading them to someone else later. You’ll look insincere and untrustworthy or otherwise undeserving of an invite. By being "greedy", this pertains to asking for too many invites in one day. I recommend that you make no more than one request per day, hence the reason to use multiple invite forums simultaneously.
What you SHOULD do:
1. The number one tip - be active in the invite forums. Quantity is not always quality. Make meaningful posts - I can’t stress this highly enough.
2. Share your invites. If you have any invites you don’t mind parting with, make an OFFER in the proper thread. Many invite-givers will check to see if you’ve contributed anything worthwhile. Even if you post some FunFile invites and get no takers, it still shows that you’re trying.
3. Trading - this is a contested topic. On one hand, some invite-givers may look at this favorably, as it shows that you know how to handle a private tracker. BUT… most will frown upon this, especially when it concerns High-Level tracker invites. Nobody wants to part ways with their precious invite in the risks that it could just be used by someone to trade-up to a different tracker, or sit unused. I once gave away an ScT invite, and the account was successfully activated but the UP/DOWN ratio remains at 0.00 KB/s. No torrent activity ever took place on that account.
4. My personal success tip - ‘Cross-site posting’. I recommend that you join a few of these invite forums, and check out what each has, and what the other ones are missing. This is a great tip for coming up with new threads - and you’ll look good doing it. For example, each forum offers a section for "Tracker Reviews". If you see a review that’s not posted, say, on TTIF but you see it on TrackeReactor, then add the review to TTIF. There are a million ways to apply this tip. Adding tutorials found on one site to another is also a great idea. Be creative, and do some research. Sit back, and watch your "rep" soar!
5. Be patient. Build a reputation on invite forums and on lower level trackers. As your "rep" increases, so will your probabilities of getting your desired tracker invite. It will probably do you some good to spend time on more lenient trackers so that you will form an understanding of the (sometimes draconian) rules to which the higher-level trackers will hold you. You don’t want to blow your account at Waffles in one week because you tanked your ratio too quick by misunderstanding the rules.
Before making a request for an invitation, here’s a few things to consider:
— Do not burn the locals. Understand that getting an invite to most private trackers will result in both negative and positive consequences for the person inviting you. If, after receiving an invite, you abuse the rules governing the tracker you can get banned. Even worse, the person inviting you can get banned too. As a result, people with invites are not going to just hand them out to anyone who asks. On the positive side, some trackers provide inviters with benefits (such as additional invitations, ratio bonuses, etc.) if those they invite establish good ratios.
— Know the "value" of what you are requesting. For example, if you post an offer to trade a Demonoid invite for a FTN invite, you probably will not get any takers. Even worse, if you simply post a request for a high-level tracker, you will do little more than make someone else laugh. I suggest that before you make a request or post an offer to trade, you peruse the tracker levels, and know it well. Try to offer trades involving trackers at or near the same level. Quantity doesn’t really count for much, so offering 25 different level 1 trackers for a level 10 tracker will probably not be successful.
What an inviter wants:
It is entirely reasonable (and even expected) for invite-givers to demand proof from invitees of their competence and knowledge (even if only basic or cursory) of how private torrent trackers operate. Be sure to read the rules associated with the giveaway. Aside from that, here’s a few other things that are requested of a potential invitee:
Speed Tests.
Be prepared to show that you have access to an Internet connection with bandwidth capabilities exceeding those provided by dial-up service. You’ll likely be asked for ’speed tests’ that show your Internet connection. Most aspiring invitees use http://speedtest.net for their examples.
TIP: A seedbox helps immensely - it shows you are serious about uploading. If you have one, be sure to save a ‘proof’ of your seedbox (showing transfer speeds) and include this in the thread when asked for a speedtest. Personally, I don’t use a speedtest.net screenshot in my requests for an invitation - I simply show my seedboxes in action and it will usually be enough persuading evidence to get me the invite over someone else who uses their home computer to seed torrents.
Ratio Proofs.
The number-one request! Before an inviter takes a chance on you with a good invite, they’ll want you to prove your worth on other trackers. Save some proofs of your other trackers, showing "today’s date" along with the UP/DOWN GBs and RATIO.
TIP: Include your ‘best trackers’ as the proofs - your chances for acquiring that elite invitation will be all that much better. If you can show off a good ratio to a hard-to-seed-at tracker (such as What.cd, Waffles, ScT, SCC etc.), it exposes your superior knowledge on how to properly seed, thus giving you an edge.
Hosting your ‘proofs’.
You’ll need to save your proofs (images / screen captures) to an image hosting site such as imageshack.us, in order to post the link for the inviter to view.
Other Tips.
Diversify your private trackers. Keep a good ‘general’ tracker, a music tracker, and a movie tracker. For instance, many inviters who are giving out invites to good music tracker such as What.cd or Waffles will require a proof from another good music tracker. So start out with something small, such as STMusic, Libble or even FunkyTorrents, and build a good ratio on these. Use these proofs for getting into What or Waffles.
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