April 29, 2009 by sharky
It’s not rocket science to figure out how to get your ass banned from any discussion board. It’s fairly simple, really. Simply badmouth a moderator or other members, or break some silly in-house rule or act like a jerkoff nub - basically anything that goes against better judgment falls into this category. However, torrent forums are a less-forgiving group and have their own ruleset for what’s deemed acceptable behavior and what’s considered repugnant; guidelines which extend far beyond regular forum douchebaggery. Pay special heed to these no-no’s in our Top 20 picks for why you can’t login to your favorite torrent board anymore.
Found yourself banned from a torrent board? - you’re not alone. According to statistics, between 10% and 50% of overall registered members have been banned on most boards, but often this can be attributed to inactive account pruning.
- • TorrentInvite.com has banned 5,600 members out of a lifetime member count of 11,591 (and currently has 2,694 active members).
- • TrackeReactor.com has banned 562 members, and has a current member count of 2,086.
- • ThePirateSociety has banned just 303 out of 4,250 members for the life of the board.
We received a little help for this article from the ban logs of select torrent discussion boards:
How To Get Banned From a Torrent Invite Forum
Creating Duplicate Accounts. This is the number one most popular reason for getting banned; forums everywhere (torrent or otherwise) just hate this. Don’t create dupe accounts, you’ll just eventually be caught anyways. Sure, you’re known as a douche trader / cheater / scammer under the name "inviteguy88". Think you can outsmart the board by signing up as "cooldude46"?? While your new alias is no giveaway (no pun intended), your IP address is exactly the same. D’oh! Now you’re banned under both names. Of course, it goes without saying that if you’ve been previously banned and try to re-sign up, it amounts to the same thing. Just don’t do it. Category of ban: Dupe Account.
Support another Torrent Forum. Do you recruit for, ask for, or post invites to a rival torrent board; or worse yet - PM members telling them of a new exciting forum? It happens more often than you’d think. If so, you’re a Benedict Arnold - no matter how you try to sugar-coat it later on. This banhammer is swift and permanent. Buh-bye now, and oh yeah… don’t burn the locals. Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
Trading invites/accounts. These days, any self-respecting torrent forum has probably outlawed any form of invite/account trading, we should only hope. Trading gets a bad rap for being akin to currency - hell, you may as well just be selling your invites on eBay. Not only that, but it opens up the door to a different scam involving cheaters who welsh on their end of the deal. Category of ban: Trader Scum.
PMing Members Asking for Invites. Unless specified in a thread, never PM and ask a Community Representative or someone else offering invites in a GA thread unless otherwise stated. You’ll get reported, you’ll get banned. Read the rules - this is not OK on any torrent board. This also goes for trying to trade accounts through PMs. Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
Spam Spam Spam. While this will most likely just get you a verbal tongue-lashing from more experienced users, likely spamming itself won’t get you banned straight away. Yep, we’ve all done it to build up postcount at some time or another. Especially dangerous spamming includes saying "Thank you" in a giveaway thread, or posting the same lame trackers with "open signups" over and over again. Do it often enough, and it shows you are: 1.) A complete nub; or 2.) Ignorant, and not worth keeping around. Category of ban: Spamming Noob.
Flaming / Thread Crapping. Similar to above, flamers & trolls are not welcomed with open arms on torrent forums. This includes racist comments, excessive cursing/bashing of others, or other general nuisance. Save your crap for FileShareFreak articles where we could mostly care less. Category of ban: Flamer/Troll.
Forgetting to "Rep". Torrent boarders are somewhat fussy about getting their due reputation for giving you that precious invite to IPTorrents or Demonoid. Or SCC. Regardless of the tracker, be sure to ‘rep’ your inviter. It may not come back to burn you the first time, or even the second - but forget to rep the wrong guy/gal, and it’s all over. Category of ban: Cheater/Scammer.
Asking For Multiple invites to the same tracker. This is one of those things that’s sure to land you on the business end of the banhammer. Requesting multiple invites means you’re either 1.) Asking for a friend, or 2.) Trying to sign up again at a tracker you’ve already been banned at, or 3.) Using the second invite to trade or sell elsewhere. It’s not an easy thing to pick up on, since mods have to watch threads carefully, including screen captures. Here’s the bonehead scenario: You request an invite to TL on Tuesday but used a TL ratio proof when asking for SCC on Monday. Umm, don’t you already have TL? Or did you fake the ratio screenie for Monday’s request? Either way, ta-ta! Category of ban: Scammer/Douchebaggery.
Collecting Trackers. Just not cool; collecting trackers is unacceptable especially when conducted so blatantly obvious. Use the trackers that you’re requesting. A case-in-point scenario involves asking for way too many invites at the same time. What are you gonna do with TL, RevoTT & IPT all in the same night? This raises eyebrows that you’re either a trader, or collecting trackers to get even more invites to gain some sort of advantage down the road. Sayonara, bucko. Category of ban: Collector.
Ratio Cheating. We know what you’re thinking here: How in the hell are they gonna know I’m ratio cheating on my private tracker accounts? They have ways, believe it or not. Like perhaps you dumbly forgot to omit that ‘ratio cheat’ application running in the taskbar when creating a proof screenshot, or have it as a desktop icon in the image for all to see. Ding ding ding - we have a cheater! Rarer to find, but it’s a very gratifying ban. Category of ban: Cheater/Ratio Cheater.
‘Rep’ Cheating. This one consists of a single member or even a coalition between you & others where you’re faking ‘rep’ to look better than you are. In the solo example, it may be that you created multiple accounts and are repping each of them for non-existent giveaways. Or, you and a friend came up with the very un-unique idea to rep each other for the same thing. You ain’t the first idiot to come up with this little brainstorm, buddy; and it’s fairly easy to catch. Category of ban: Cheater/Rep Cheating.
Too many Rule Violations (warnings). How many chances do you need to clean up your act? Maturity is a big part of torrent forums - it’s their way or the highway. Some violations are forgivable; others are not. Break too many rules and it’s bye-bye, Kansas (an expression you’ve probably heard of if you’ve ever taken the time to read private trackers’ Rules/FAQ). Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
IRC / Chatbox tomfoolery. Being a goof on a torrent forum is generally more acceptable than being one in their IRC channel or chatbox (both of which are much less tolerant to misbehavin’ fools). Hey, at least in a forum thread you can go back and edit your post. But everyone should know that the IRC/chatbox are not the place to ask for invites (let alone attempt to trade them), and can only mean one thing: You don’t deserve to be on their IRC, chatbox or forum. Ciao! Category of ban: IRC/Chatbox Idiot (IRCtarded).
Using the Same Name on Different Torrent Forums. By no means will this get you banned if you’re a good member across different torrent invite forums (we shouldn’t have to tell you this if you’re a respected member in the community)… but if you’ve been banned at one, it’s highly probable you’ll be banned at others. Especially if you trade/sell invites. Case-in-point: FST, TorrentInvites.net & Torrent-Invites.com have trading sections - if you go by the same username in these trades/sales threads, and then try to use (sign up under) your same username in a non-trading forum, then it’s curtains for you. Yes, they have spies. Category of ban: Douchebaggery / All of the above.
Using the Same Name on Trackers & Forums. Torrent forums in particular admonish the dangers of using the same username on a forum & on your private tracker accounts. It’s just wrong on so many levels. While it’s not grounds for the banhammer neccessarily, if your entire invite tree gets banned because of your invite GA stupidity - it’s likely that a few of ‘em are also fellow members on the torrent board. Word of your lameness spreads fast. Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
Lying in the Interview / General Deception. Anyone can deviously fake a ratio proof or steal a speedtest screenie from elsewhere, if so inclined to take the easy way out. This might get you into FunFile but it won’t get you into FtN, FFS. An especially annoying tactic when done in recruitment threads. Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
Choose your username wisely. Sounds like a weak excuse for banning your sorry ass, but first impressions mean a lot. If you choose to sign up with a ridiculous username (or mock one that exists, such as a moderator’s name) then the last laugh is on you. Here are just a few real examples of what members have used for signing up: im.a.scc.faggit.mod, ihavetorrentinvite, & BigTrader - we’re not sure about you, but with names like these, who needs ‘em? Category of ban: Douchebaggery.
Selling / Advertising Spam. Pimping out your own services for profit on any forum is a no-no. Same goes for torrent boards. Examples include promoting a scam seedbox, selling invites, pay-p2p services, or even a donation drive for your uncle who’s dying of cancer (like we care) - to name just a few. You’ll be banned faster than you can say "Ponzi". Category of ban: Douchebaggery / Invite Seller.
Signing up under a Proxy. This one’s relatively uncommon, but very much a reality on anything you’ll ever need to login to. Signing up and/or logging in under the anonymity of a proxy can only mean one thing - you’re trying to hide your real IP address. So why are you attempting to cover up your real IP? Simple - you’re a douchebag and have already been banned. Give it up, this won’t work either. Category of ban: Proxy Douchebaggery.
Ask For a Ban. Want to get banned? Just ask! We know how silly this sounds, but people often ask for a ban since it’s not often possible to delete the account. Either that, or arrogant members are tempting fate by saying, "Hi, can I have a ban please?" or "Can I get banned plzzz" (both of which were genuine requests) which resulted in… well you guessed it… a quick an immediate ban. Category of ban: Self-ban.
Above all else - use common sense and follow the rules.
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