November 26, 2008 by sharky
It takes a lot of dough to maintain a private tracker. Just one good dedicated server can easily run $200 - $300 a month, let alone sites that run multiple servers to keep up with the heavy traffic & tracker load. Perhaps toss in some other miscellaneous expenses, such as sophisticated IRC services, P2L (Pay2Leech) scene accounts (to ensure good pre-times), site seedboxes, hardware upgrades… and the total begins to add up. TL, for example claims a whopping €6,000 (Euro) monthly bill to maintain those 14 hard-working servers to keep the bits-a-torrenting. So, what can you expect back in return? Well, it all depends on the tracker.
Donating - It’s A Personal Decision
Whether or not you donate to a private tracker is solely up to you. Personally, I’ve donated to many, including ‘torrent forums‘ so that they continue to be able to financially stay afloat. What.cd got my cash, even though I already had a 15:1 ratio there. ScT as well - even with a kick-ass ratio, if not only to get a couple of invites to share.
You Won’t Donate? Then click the Ads.
If a tracker has advertising, then what’s the harm in clicking on the affiliate ads once in a while? A great example of this is TorrentLeech. I’ve never donated to TL, and I love that tracker, but I don’t see any benefits from becoming a donator aka "VIP". Instead, to support them I click their ads from time to time. It costs nothing, yet helps the site monetize.
Various Trackers’ Donation Systems - What You Get
Aside from getting a warm, fuzzy feeling deep down in your heart, donators receive a variety of site perks; VIP status, ratio-boosting upload GBs, invites, upgrade in user class… you name it. Here’s a sample of some of the larger trackers’ donation systems:
BitMeTV — Works two ways: 1.) Upload Credit - various $ amounts for upload GBs (very useful for members who are struggling to hit 3.0 ratio [VIP] status). 2.) Regular Donations - Elite Membership & donator star.
- Where does the donated money go? "BitMeTV.ORG is situated on a Colocated Server. The current costs are about $450/month to maintain it. All donated funds go towards this."
Cinemageddon — You get 12 credits for every £1 you donate.
- Where does the donated money go? "Donations are our only means of feeding the insatiable server beast, so all your cash is greatly appreciated, especially since some of those hookers’ kids would have no dinner otherwise."
Cinematik.net — €10+ = shiny star. €15+ = custom user/forum title. €30 and up = custom user/forum ICON instead of a title.
- Where does the donated money go? "Cinematik is situated on a dedicated server in Sweden. Our monthly costs are about $80."
Demonoid.com — The donor status lasts 30 days, no matter the amount donated. The donor privileges include:
- • Supporter status on the site (different nickname color and supporter icon)
- • Ratio autocompletes to 1 if needed
- • $5+ only: Email notifications of new torrents if desired
- • $5+ only: No advertising is shown on the site
DigitalHive — Donators get upload GBs: $5 = 5 GB; $10 = 15 GBs; $20 = 35 GBs; $30 = 60 GBs; $40 = 90 GBs; $50 = 125 GBs.
FunFile — If you’re a member of FunFile, you definitely know about donations. If you’re about to sign up, you will undoubtedly find out.
GFT Tracker — Ratio-free site, so no upload GBs. Every €5 donated = 1 invite.
HDBits.org — Donators get upload GBs, that’s it: $1 = 1 GB; $5 = 5 GB; $10 = 10 GBs; $15 = 20 GBs; $20 = 35 GBs; $30 = 65 GBs; $40 = 80 GBs; $50 = 150 GBs.
- Where does the donated money go? "HDBits is situated on a dedicated server. This is pretty expensive and costs at least $175/month."
HD-Bits.ro — There’s two sections: one for international users, and one for Romanians. Here’s what you get:
- • VIP Access.
- • Unlimited slots, doesn’t matter what ratio you have.
- • Immunity for autodisable (if low ratio).
- • Upload credit (1€ = 5 GB, so 10€ you will get 50 GB upload).
- • Invitations (1 invite for every 10€).
- • You can make requests.
- • Premium support from the First Line Support team.
- Where does the donated money go? "HD-bits.ro is situated on personal server in Romania. For the moment we have monthly running costs of approximately ~ 100 euro."
IPlay.ro — To quote, "We don’t accept donations but if you buy one of the iPAL packages from Oshells, our sponsor, we will reward you with VIP access for the whole duration, upload credit and invites!"
IPTorrents — Often has "Double-Up" specials. There’s a variety of options for donations, including a unique $25 ‘freeleech’. Here’s just a sample of the available options:
Karagarga — Donations are always appreciated, but you’ll only receive a ‘donor star’.
MMA Tracker — Donate for upload GBs (credit). $1 = 3 GB (for donations of $10 or more).
MusicVids — An impressive list of site features for donators, including upload credit, VIP status & VIP Forums:
Pedro’s BTMusic — Lots of site perks for donating:
- Where does the donated money go? "Pedro’s BTMusic TRACKER is situated on a dedicated server in Poland. For the moment we have monthly running costs of approximately €310 (Euros)."
Pretome — Offers VIP status and credits for donating.
PTFiles — Offers a huge list of site perks:
RevolutionTT — Two methods: 1.) Upload Credit - various $ amounts for upload GBs. 2.) Regular Donations - VIP Membership & donator star. Additionally, there’s also a frequent "Double Upload" promotion for donators.
SCC — Lots of bonuses here! Donating give a mixed bag of site perks, including; upload GBs, invites, Beta access, custom title, SCC peerlist anonymity, and more.
- Where does the donated money go? "SCC is situated on a dedicated server in the Netherlands. All the donated money goes towards the server bills."
ScL — Loads of site perks for donating. It’ll cost €40 for an invite, though.
- Where does the donated money go? "Offshore dedicated server; IRC server + Pre-Bot; Seedbox 100 mbit; Domain expenses."
ScT — Invites ‘cost’ €20 and up (€30 for 2, €50 for 4). Upload GBs can also be purchased.
TehConnection — All Donors will receive a voice (+v) in the main IRC channel. Donations are for upload GBs (5 to 320), from anywhere between $5 and $100 (plus a donor star).
- Where does the donated money go? "TehConnection.eu is situated on a dedicated server in the Toronto, Canada. For the moment we have monthly running costs of approximately 550 USD."
TheBox.bz — Donations for upload GBs and a shiny star. All donors with a star next to their name (ie over €20) will be exempt from inactivity pruning.
- Where does the donated money go? "All donations are used for monthly hosting charges, server upgrades and various other expenses."
TheDVDClub — Users cannot buy upload credit. Less than $20 = Donatee star. More than $20 = Donatee star, plus Donatee user class & IRC access to pre-channel.
TL — Donating gives users VIP access, which automatically includes 2 invites. VIP also includes:
- • No wait time restrictions, regardless your ratio.
- • No slot restrictions, regardless your ratio.
- • Immunity to the auto-ban because of low ratio.
- • No ads at all.
- • You participate to a monthly drawing to win a valuable prize. Could be an iPod or a game console for a lucky VIP user :)
- • You get VIP privileges in our IRC channel.
- • Only Vips get invitations, usually each month, and 2 of them when you donate for the first time or renew.
- • Premium Support and high priority from First Line Support queries.
- • You will get a distinct pleasure, knowing that you are helping TL providing you the best service at all time ;)
- Where does the donated money go? "TL is using 14 dedicated servers in the Netherlands. For the moment we have monthly running costs of approximately 6000 euros/month."
TorrentBytes — Donating will not give you any privileges (such as a ratio boost, vip status, invites - which we don’t utilize, right to leech, etc.). You will get a nice shiny star beside your nick.
- Where does the donated money go? "Bandwidth, servers and hosting costs don’t come free, and there’s only so long the site owners can subsidize before they need a fourteenth mortgage!"
Torrent-Damage — The ability to request invites anytime & VIP status. No upload credits.
TranceTraffic — "Donations of $50 or more will upgrade your user status to VIP and allow you to download, without the worry of getting banned because of your share ratio at all for a period of 4 whole months." Additionally, if you ‘PayPal subscibe’ (monthly $10 donation), the same applies. A mere $5 gets you a donation star.
TTi.nu — Donators are immune to automatic demotion, and get a shiny star. Currently, there are no minimum $ amounts for PayPal donations.
- Where does the donated money go? "The money covers the cost of running the server (hosting/upgrades)."
TVTorrents.com — Donators receive 1 month of "premium" access per Euro. Thus, if you donate €5, you’ll get 5 months of premium. ‘Premium’ users are awarded:
- • RSS Feeds for Favorites and Recently Uploaded
- • Access to the Premium Tracker*
- • A 3.0 ratio for credits while seeding
- • Less advertisements when you visit the website
* - The Premium Tracker is an additional tracker, if it becomes overloaded, your client will automatically fail over to the standard tracker. This is OK, they both report to the same database. Having a premium tracker reduces chances of not being able to connect due to tracker being overloaded.
TVTorrentz.org — No donation system - you can’t donate here. "…If you still want to give money to someone, give it to your favorite charity instead."
Underground-Gamer — Users who donate $20 or more receive VIP status. This means: Ability to leech 100 torrents at a time; given 10 invites; immune to automatic demotion in user class.
Waffles.fm — Donating at least $5 or 3€ will give you donor status & privileges. Note: Other than donor status, we make no specific promise to provide any features or products to the specific donor.
- Where does the donated money go? "All donations will go to the Waffles.fm Server Fund. This covers bandwidth costs, hosting fees, and hardware such as server upgrades and new servers altogether!"
What.cd — Minimum donation (for site perks) is €5 (Euros). Donators get 2 invitations, immunity to inactivity pruning, access to Power User exclusive features, A warm fuzzy feeling". Donators do not get: Upload GBs, Immunity from the rules.
- Where does the donated money go? "We accept donations to cover the costs associated with running the site and tracker. The costs come from renting servers which are in a datacentre in Canada, and the bandwidth they consume every month."
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