While reading various torrent blogs and forums, I’ve seen a recurrent bit of advice given. The advice is to have your forum nickname different from the one you use at your trackers. The reasons why were often vague, but one poster was particularly blunt. The poster basically said if you get an invitation to a tracker from an “invite forum” and the tracker finds out, then you will be banned from the tracker.
Well a notable exception to such advice exists at The Pirate Society. At TPS, it’s perfectly acceptable to keep your nickname the same as your usual tracker nickname. For one thing, TPS fully cooperates with trackers, and no activity on the forum needs to be hidden from them. TPS has a “no movement” list, and members cannot offer or request invites on this list. Any tracker which requests to be on this list is added without question. That being said, several of the “no movement” trackers have community representatives available at TPS to recruit new members. Speaking of community reps, there are over 140 of them as members of TPS.
TPS members have no reason to fear being banned from a tracker, as long as they just play by the rules. Having the same user name at TPS and trackers has its benefits as well. Once you join a tracker, you can recognize usernames of your fellow TPS members, so you’re not a total stranger when you post in the forums. Plus the community reps can (and do) post on the forums, so you can chat with them about your favorite sports team or movie, for example. Then should you join their tracker, you already know a staff member going in.
In conclusion, TPS is not an “invite forum,” but a true torrent community in every sense of the word.
P.S. It would be prudent, however to keep your passwords different at TPS and your trackers, even if your username is the same.
Definitely agree. There is no changing the super paranoid, but anyone who is interested in the community aspect of torrenting would do well to heed this advice.