You Give Torrents A Bad Name
Torrent sites don’t run on fresh air, they all need some type of funding. Many accept user donations to pay the bills and that’s fair enough. But an admin of one particular site doesn’t know where to draw the line.
Torrent sites cost money to run and usually this cash is provided by the site’s users by way of donations.
According to Wikipedia a donation “is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause” but a small number of site owners seem to have difficulty with the concept.
I joined one particular private site several months ago in order to do some research there. I didn’t find what I was looking for but ended up with an account which i’ve never used. I logged in there today by chance only to discover a sea of private messages.
Every one of those messages were from the admin and each encouraged me to give a ‘gift’ of hard cash to the site. Eleven messages, some just days apart, all essentially begging for money.
This is completely unacceptable, in every sense. It looks bad and it’s completely unnecessary – a site like this runs on less than $120 per month, an amount easily achievable by freely-given donations from generous members.
A couple of the PM’s were “one off 24 hour offers” promising anything from double upload credit and VIP treatment, to another inviting me to enter a special monthly draw where I could be “chosen at random by the system” to win a percentage of next month’s donations. Oh really.
Others offered me custom user titles or immunity to the hit and run script for a price. But perhaps the bulk $30 payment for special VIP access to a private forum where the cool folk hang out is what I should go for?
No. No thanks.
I’m not even interested in the extra invites that come with a “minimium $40 donation”. Why would I invite my friends to a torrent site where free stuff ends up costing a shit load of money due to an excessively greedy admin who also boasts behind the scenes about the stuff he buys with the money? Why would I increase the userbase on a site where it’s possible to pay money to neutralize an earlier ban for breaking the rules?
Its not the concept of handing back a few goodies to people who donate that I have the problem with, it’s with admins who just don’t know where to stop. Constantly begging for money is not cool, and what really annoyed me about this site was the tone, which was delivered with a “this site is the best so you have to pay” type of way. It’s not and I absolutely won’t.
All torrent sites are not created equal. If your site continually begs for money, find another.
wtf
I have to agree with you, it’s disgusting and pathetic to see.
A chance to win a percentage of the donations?
Yeah right. That just makes me mad.
If you run a good site, and fairly, people will donate to help out and keep it running.
This type of behaviour is just wrong and just causes resentment towards the site.
Enigmax is right, remember that you don’t have to rely on these sites for stuff, you can usually find a lot of it elsewhere, the point is that you need a good community on a private tracker, that’s usually what people join for.
The better the community, the better the content is going to be because people will like the people there and the site, then invite their friends that they know have good stuff to share with everyone. That means more _good_ and exclusive content for everyone that wants it.
Doing what this guy is doing just causes that community to splinter and makes people want to go elsewhere.
How likely are you going to be to want to upload your stuff to this site if you know the admin is acting like a cunt and is taking money in a bad way from people?
Just ’cause you have a tracker doesn’t make you superior, people can always go elsewhere, it’s the building of a community in the right way that is priceless.
Don’t ever rely on places too much, always keep your options open.
[...] Give Torrents A Bad Name http://freakbits.com/you-give-torrents-a-bad-name-1011 "If your site continually begs for money, find [...]
So what is the problem? The constant beging for money, fine. But sites can’t offer special treatment to donators and supporters of the site?
Ppl are greedy and want everything for free. A little reminder that a site does not run by itself and that the community is needed to keep it alive is needed.
Sure there is a limit and it should not be spammed, but mentioning it and reminding ppl about it is good and needed.
I think this posting is rediculous. If sites have to trust on ppl donating by themselves and not do anything to promote it, sites will disappear. It’s simple, it’s advertisement and you will have to accept it if you want something for free.
No donations = No more new torrent sites.
So according to the writer of this article we have to stay at the bigger torrent sites and trust they keep running well. Well, we see how that went with tpb. Sites come and go. You can’t keep relying on the big sites that have their monthly finance guaranteed.
And smaller sites should do anything to keep themselves alive, even if it meens promoting donating.
And yes I understand giving away donations is bad…
Who cares really? These people give a lot of their own TIME and in many cases, money. So why not ask/beg for some in return? It’s completely optional also, you don’t want to donate? Then don’t. Simples.
TBytes, a site i frequent, wit ha large user base, have in the past resorted to having to BEG for cash. Just to keep the site alive. Is that disgusting? No. I’d rather the site stayed alive and had to suffer the embarrassment than see it die thanks very much.
So don’t simply assume if you build up a large number of members that the donations just come flooding in. They don’t.
I do wonder if you’d of been so harsh here if it was a site you used frequently, and not some poxy site that didn’t have the content you were after? Hmmm? Eh??
Thought so.
@Starsoft
The situation with donations is different on every site, they all have their own ways. But the one i’m writing about simply takes things too far.
I don’t have a problem with the sites taking donations nor mentioning that they do **gently** once in a while. As I pointed out, sites take money to run, it can’t be avoided and the money has to come in somehow.
When the ONLY contact a site owner has with you is to ask for more and more money, and you see the same guy on IRC bragging about things he’s bought with the money, IMO things have gone too far.
@Bob
This isn’t a case of a site trying to survive, we can all sympathize with that, this is just blatant cash grabbing – by no means am I saying this is the situation at many sites, just a sad handful.
I used to think that social networks that charge money for useless account “upgrades” and “subscriptions” are the peak of greedy adminitration. You proved me wrong.
I think perfectly fine to beg for cash to meet the monthly charges. But to earn a profit, its bad.
Again it depends on the users whether to donate or not.
@ Sandeep
Read the post again, then read the comments please.
You’ve missed all of the points that were raised entirely.
The main argument in the message is how & how much to ask/how often. Asking for donations if fine, but to the extent that it is ridiculous is another. Also making enormous amounts of profit from running the site & bragging about it is not a good idea either. Perhaps spend that money to further file sharing instead of wasting it.
As a site admin I find it despicable to see donations and the means to raise them abused. It hurts alot of other sites when people consider being asked for them anything other than what it should be, the fact we need them. We have never solicited a donation via pm or email and i have added 2 messages in our news on the site in 2 years simply stating if you don’t think the sites worth supporting we’ll go away . Not a threat just a simple truth, none of us should have to beg for donations, I apologize to all who are bombarded with the begging and abuse of other sites asking for donations, Please don’t hold it against all the other sites though. Some of us do legitimately need the money and use it as intended.
I agree with enigmax Completely, and thanks for bringing this up.
Truth be told… These greedy bastards make me and my site look good. I know of one particular site that i would be embarrassed to be associated with. On there MAIN page, u need to scroll down a full page before you reach the site. the top 12 inches is nothing but them asking for donations and explaining what u get for your money, and they offer so much for so little that it makes them look desperate. (Apparently xbox360’s cost money. lol)
Donators are not bargain shopping. They donate because they like your site/community. (I hope nobody from there reads this, it’s not my intention to help them)
If you have a good site with friendly/helpful staff (not power trippers). The Donations will come to you. If they don’t and u you need to beg… you are doing something wrong.
I understand the frustration but to me it’s the equivalent of whining about what’s on TV but not switching the channel.
Simple market forces (supply/demand) will dictate the prevailing torrent site models. Those who, like the OP, dislike the nature of a particular site’s method of fund raising will cease using that site. If there are a sufficient number of people with a similar attitude the site will simply fail due to a lack of users. I’m a member of over 60 private torrent sites and have seen dozens fail for precisely these reasons.
Alternatively, those sites sticking to revenue raising models which are acceptable to a ‘critical mass’ level of users will continue to flourish.
You can’t polish a turd.
@Bob
I’ve been a member of TB for four years and in that time I have received no more than 4 pm requests for donations in my inbox, each at a time when TL appeared genuinely to need help. I have to say that along with TL and FL (excluding FL’s recent debacle) they are the least intrusive private sites I have encountered, and, I would say not coincidentally, also have the largest and most consistent collections of seeders.
Sorry, above should read “each at a time when TB appeared genuinely to need help.”
Some sites have a donation meter displayed. It is amazing how it always starts at zero in the new month and then grows to 100% just in time for the month to end. Every month same thing.. Never start at 10%.. Never ends on 90%.. And never ever reaching 100% before the end of the month.. Isn’t it miraculous!
wtf, it is lame that some websites ask you for money, but the leechers that don’t even click the adds are worst.
if you don’t want to give money, is’t ok, but at least help the admins. by clicking the adds. that way websites keep up and runing for free (mininova, piratebay)
Definitely agree with this, in fact i love the free torrent sites best, everyone is fairly helpful, most torrents are uploaded in there and it just feels so much nicer
thank you those sites