What is the benefit to joining private torrents? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by editediting@kbin.social to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Apologies if this is a basic question, but I am curious to know what I am missing out on by not having access to private torrents? I have been able to find everything I wanted using public ones.

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[-] rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

You mean private trackers, yeah? The advantage is obviously they are not open to the public, which means copyright trolls need an account on the tracker to view the IP address of torrent participants. Secondly users are vetted for quality so the torrents on them are well seeded and trusted.

The advantage of a private tracker is also its disadvantage. You need to get through the vetting process. An invite and history are required to join which can be kind of a chicken and egg thing. It all takes some effort and facility.

If you don't have your own full time torrent server with high upload bandwidth, it's going to be difficult to get the seed ratios you need. Best thing there is to contract a seedbox. Even so you have to put the effort into working your way up to the ladder by getting a history of tracker accounts.

[-] ram@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

If you don’t have your own full time torrent server with high upload bandwidth, it’s going to be difficult to get the seed ratios you need.

I agree with this for some trackers, but many give bonus points based on passive seeding as well, which can then be exchanged to contribute to your upload ratio. Just having a large drive to use for seeding should be enough - that's what I've done at least for nearly 8 years now.