February 19, 2009 by sharky
Things are done a little differently at PTIA - it’s almost entirely dedicated to tracker-discussions and invites only, and has just one forum area for Off-Topic discussion. The rest is pure torrent bliss!
An Introduction to PTI Access:
- — "There are plenty of other invite forums around, and while they serve their purpose quite well, we want to offer something more secure and safe. We would rather a small member count with trustworthy members than a large one where you are never really sure if your accounts are safe. With this in mind, there is no room here for troublemakers, scammers, or people looking for a quick invite and then we never hear from them again.
- — There is no ‘pay to be VIP’ or similar on this forum, everything is based solely on merit.
- — Everything is designed to keep our members safe from having their tracker accounts deleted while still allowing them to share invites, and this includes you when you are offering invites, too.”
Signing up & the Application System:
After signing up, as mentioned you’ll need to be approved before being granted regular forum access (refer to their “Read Me First” post). They do have some strict rules for gaining access to the forum, including an interview in IRC. Below is a summary:
— After registering, you’ll have just 48 hours to make an introductory post. Within this post, you’ll need to provide a screenshot of one of your private tracker accounts with a 1.0 or better ratio, with at least 50GB uploaded. Put "PTI Access" in the URL window, and your username (at PTIA) somewhere in the screenshot. Here’s an example:
— After making the introductory post with the screenshot, you are then directed to join their IRC channel in #waiting (either externally through mIRC or onsite through their IRC Java Chat). You’ll be asked a small series of questions before being approved (or denied) forum membership.
Basically it works like this:
- 1.) Hopefully you’ve read their FAQ.
- 2.) Post an intro with a screenshot of minimum 50GB uploaded and a minimum 1.00 ratio.
- 3.) Join them in IRC in the #waiting channel. Answer a few questions. Get approved or denied.
User Classes at PTIA:
- Newbie = Just joined, no forum access yet.
- 0 - 3 Positive Inviter* Feedback = Inviter
- 4 - 8 Positive Inviter Feedback = Super Inviter
- 9 - 15 Positive Inviter Feedback = Master Inviter
- 16 - 25 Positive Inviter Feedback = Pro Inviter
- 26+ Positive Inviter Feedback = Elite Inviter
- Trinity is the final user group and it is by invitation only.
- Inviter has access to the Giveaway forum.
- Super Inviter has access to the Giveaway and Request forums.
- Master Inviter has access to the Giveaway, Request and Competition forums.
- Pro Inviter has access to the Giveaway, Request, Competition and ‘Trusted Giveaway’ forums.
- Elite Inviter has access to all of the above plus they are immune to account deletion for inactivity.
*Positive Inviter Feedback - similar to a ‘rep’ system but only successful invite giveaways are counted towards this style of ‘rep’. The Invite feedback system is ONLY for people who have given invites. So, you’ll need to get busy doing giveaways to move up in class - which then opens up different levels of the forum.
Here’s a look below at the "Exchange Place" (aka. ‘torrent invites’) section in respect to User Classes & access:
Features/Other Info:
• Recently completed invites threads are moved out of sight, to keep the forum tidy.
• What you see in the forum isn’t everything that is given away; as many of the invites are given away in the main IRC channel because members feel safer with people they have gotten to know by chatting to them over time.
• PTI Access is really just a small group of friends with invites to share, who have what they need & want, so they’re looking to spread the wealth among trusted members. They want to be reasonably sure that people who join are good tracker users first.
The ‘Giveaway Zone’ - Unique Ideas:
One thing that really caught my eye is that giveaways are done individually by tracker, not by inviter. What this means is, there aren’t multiple tracker invites in the same thread. Not only does this clean up the forum and make it more readable (you can browse through the invites by tracker, without clicking into the threads to see what’s up for grabs), but it makes this area very user-friendly when searching for an invite to a specific tracker. If an inviter wants to offer a different giveaway, they don’t edit an existing thread - they simply create a new one for a different tracker.
Another thing that really stands out is that there’s a thread which contains an index of all current giveaways. Sort of like how most torrent forums have a ‘master list’ for Tracker Reviews, PTIA does this for Tracker Giveaways:
PTI Access… At A Glance
- URL: http://www.invitethe.net
- Open Signups? Yes, but conditionally.
- Number of Members — 167 at last check (Aug. ‘09)
- Invite / Account Trading? — Not allowed.
- ‘Rep’ System? — Two styles: 1.) Uses an "Invite Count" system (for fulfilling giveaways). 2.) Has a "Rep Power" system for regular reputation.
- Tracker Recruitment — Yes
- Invite Giveaways — Three sub-levels: "Giveaway Zone" (general - open to all); "Competition Invites" (good invites - awarded for contests, IRC, site involvement, personal help); and "Trusted Giveaways" (for higher-level sites).
- Invite Requests — Yes, but you need to giveaway at least 4 invites (Feedback Rating of 4 or higher) to access.
- Tracker Reviews — Yes (broken down into tracker genres/categories).
- Seedbox Reviews — Yes.
- Donations? / VIP access — None.
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