how TPS community changed my life

I started with public trackers in 2007, mostly downloading dvdrips of movies or series, sometimes applications. in august 2009 I managed to get invite to one of the general/0-day private trackers that had a decent amount of content. I was wondering what else is out there, at that point I didn’t know much about private trackers except that you need a good ratio. I didn’t know how trading invites was regarded, but I heard some people talking about a certain hyped up tracker, let’s keep it namless, I’ll call it tracker X. so I felt that by joining tracker X my life will become better and I will have what I want, but I was dead wrong. all I knew for sure at that stage is that tracker X was just harder to get into than the tracker I was in. anyway, my journey to discover more about tracker X took me to some invite forums, and spesificly one said that tracker X was offering unlimited invites to members of tracker B. so I went on and tried to read and noticed I had to register to read more, so I decided to register, but in order to register to that invite forum, and become a full member someone had to rep me and I had to show some proof that I am a decent user of some trackers. I guess some of you might know which invite forum this is by now, anyway I joined but I didn’t feel at home at that particular invite forum. something was missing still, everyone seemed afraid and scared… many people seemed to get banned everyday because of cheating or trading, by that time I was aware of why trading is considered bad but was not sure why, just that it’s bad, nobody explained much in that invite forum, and I learned later that they actually used to condone trading in the past, but they were forced by private trackers to stop it, so it seemed they enjoyed it but could not do it anymore. so I felt something was really off in that forum, and I didn’t feel at home, specially since they forced me to use a different nick/e-mail from the one I normally use on private trackers…. that made me feel I was doing something wrong or bad by trying to get an invite to a tracker. I later decided to search for another invite forum I think on the second day, but also found it to be not much better than the first one, only a little better. one of the members in that second forum had an account on tracker X, but was actually banded there because he invited a trader through that forum. so I said to myself, if I really wanted tracker X, I am not going to get it on that invite forum too… even if I spend months and months earning rep in that invite forum to get invite to tracker X, then if the guys who invited me gets baned for inviting a trader, then I will baned too, because I am in that invite tree… so I started thinking what’s the use? I felt hopeless… and tried to think about another way to join tracker-x, but I didn’t know how or where at that point….

on my 3rd day, I was searching through one of those invite fourms and found a guy who was recruting for staff in some private tracker, so I decided to join in, but it was not a good tracker. my job was to look for hit & runs manually, and issue warnings if rquired. I felt I am not going to get anywhere with this tracker, so after 1 week of helping their staff, I asked the owner to help me , I told him my desire to join tracker X, and what is the best way to do so? he was honest and told me the best place to have the best chance, he said TPS. so I googled TPS, and within minuts I was in the IRC invites channel…

In the invites channel I met frozen, after waiting 30 minuts with other guys, but I was patient and when frozen was ready for interview, he asked who came here first ( I was first ), but sadly all people said “me me me” lol. so frozen decided to ask a question, something about american history. and said the first person who answers the question gets the first interview. I heard the question and I had no idea what is the answer, but I googled it, and got the answer within 30 seconds, so I started my interview with frozen…

in the interview, frozen asked me about many things, and also provided much needed information. he was very kind and wanted to try and explain the TPS way of doing things. I really liked everything he told me, it made so much sense and I felt he knew what he was talking about. not like those guys in those invite forums… he told in TPS it’s a different experuience and he was so right! TPS is not simply an invite forum, it’s so much more than that, it’s a file sharing community. he told me that I had nothing to hide so I can use the same nick / e-mail I use on other trackers on TPS, since TPS has good relations with most trackers. this was assuring for me and I felt safe in TPS. it was like a safe heaven I was about to join lol. so I decided those other invite forums are not worth my time they are so inferior in everyway, so I told frozen my intension is to join the best torrent community out there, and he told me that I came to the right place, and welcome me…

my next stop was the introduction forum, I made my first post and was so overwheled with all the people welcoming me! I didn’t know at that point that some of them had written drafts ready for such occasions, but it still felt sweet and welcoming. it does not matter the method you use, draft or other, it really felt good to be in TPS with all the information and links they provided me…

To continue my jounrney I had to experience IRC offcourse, this is not something I ususually do. in the past I used to use IRC to chat with friends before ICQ or other messagers were available. but other than that I haven’t used it much, I always felt why use IRC when you can just use MSN? but again I was so wrong… when I joined TPS, I learned how much you can interact with people and use smart IRC commands and how people use bots. so I started interacting on IRC, but on my first day on TPS IRC, I Had the most embarasing moment to date…

I started talking about tracker X on IRC, and noticed people not liking the way I talk, I was not sure why, I was a true noob at that stage. anyway we continued the duscussion, and one thing led to another, muddslinger was lurking at that time. as the discussion went by we started comparing some trackers, and I remembered a post in one of the invite forums that talked about tracker levels… but as soon as I mentioned the word “level”, muddslinger heard it and went nuts on me! he said “Did I just hear the world level?” I said “huh?” then muddslinger started counting down from 10 to 1 to ban me from channel without any explanation, I said “but…” and people started saying “mudd don’t” then suddendly I was kicked out from TPS channel…. I was not sure what I did wrong at that point, but I understood it had something to do with the word “level”. it is then that muddslinger PMed me saying why is it bad to talk about tracker levels, and that he knows I was a TPS noob and it’s ok and that I can go back to the chanell now. for a moment I thought my relationship in TPS has ended, as It would be hard to be insulted like that, but it turns out muddslinger was just playing a joke with me, they all told me it’s prefered not to mention the world “levels” because it’s usually associated with traders and buyers and such, so then I understood the point, but the whole approuch that muddslinger used was a nice reminder, that will always stick with me forever, he tought me the way of TPS in style, without upseting me or humliating me , just played a joked on me, and scared me a little. a smart approuch, at that time I felt like a true noob, but now I look back at that point I thank muddslinger for being so kind as to explain and mark this occasion so tighlty in my memory.

My jouney in TPS continued, I started filling the holes slowly in the tracker categories I needed, step by step, and my dream of joining tracker X wasn’t so important any more, at least it was not my priority anyway. day by day I became less and less attracted to tracker X. this is way of the TPS community you see, it is not about joining a hyped up tracker X or what ever, it is about getting the content you need. and by being active in TPS I was getting exactly what I wanted. later on I was able to fill General/0-day, music, e-learning and comics requirements in just 2 months or so, but before that, my best expereience with TPS was about to come with a member called triplehelix that I like to thank, his story comes next…

triplehelix found me in the help section one day, I was in a bad mood and was complaining how my site was hacked cause I used a pirated version of vbuliten from some tracker, and I was looking for some advice and maybe some alternatives to vbulliten. some people suggested drupal and others suggested wordpress. triplehelix suggested joomla. I have been hearing some good things about joomla already when I am surfing the web, the same for drupal and wordpress. from what I heard, drupal was the most flexable but the hardest to learn. wordpress was really good for bloging. joomla was easy and had lots of extensions. thats all I knew at that point so I thanked them for their recommendations but I didn’t act it on straight away, because I was so upset from the hack that I even canceled my web hosting at that stage. oddly, just in a few days I found myself in a job interview to work on a Content Management system ( CMS ) such as joomla or others and the job was to be the web master, developer , designer and content manager all in one. when I first joined I told them I know so little of this stuff, as it’s a new thing for me, but i told them I can learn quickly as I have a good IT background working with IBM and Microsoft parners in the past so I told them just to give me a chance and see how it goes. and so they did. I went back to my my post in the TPS helpdesk, where triplehelix and others made recommendations about CMS systems, and I asked more questions, triplehelix was so kind and helpfull to me and had all the answers I wanted, and even offered to install joomla himself to my web server, but I told him that would not be usefull as I want to learn how to do it myself but thanked him for the offer, he was so kind. I started then learning about joomla and the TPS community told me about lynda.com and how I can find many joomla related tutorials on popular general/0-day trackers that I am already in. within 2 months I made a nice site, that includes jw flash player with play list selection as well as a nice style, drop down menus, many articles and sections. triplehelix was always helpfull to me, when I am stuck with something he would either recommend me a solution or ask a friend of his, he and TPS were the reasons I was successfull in that temp job. I hope one day I can return that favour to triplehelix to help him with something too.

In the end, I did not join tracker X, after nearly 3 months time invested in TPS but I do not care at this point, after joining TPS, tracker X was not a priority anymore like I said ealyer, and suddenly I even stoped obseeing about it… TPS was the cure I was seeking to my addiction to a hyped up tracker! sure it’s nice to have tracker-X right now, I would join if someone offered but I now prefer to wait and just focus on the trackers I am in and the TPS community. when the time comes they will come to me and invite me, when I become “worthy” to be on their tracker….. that’s how TPS changed me, instead of being hungry for a hyped up tracker, I am now part of something, part of the bigger picture of the file sharing community, as far as I can see , if your not in TPS, then you do not amount much to me in the torrent world. sure there might be another stronger community than TPS, out there, maybe GOD knows, but I don’t care anymore… I have chosen TPS, and TPS members have stood by me in both hard times and good times, so why look back? sometimes I just go to those “invite fourms” and just laugh at their problems and issues.. just look at their ban logs and you will see what I mean, or take a look at their tracker levels rating section it’s pathetic to rate trackers with numbers based on how hard they are to get into, that’s all behind me now that I have joined TPS, the right file sharing community for me. so thank you TPS for taking me in, I hope one day I will help someone in TPS like triplehelix helped me… I cannot wait to become usefull, I still feel lazy sometimes I know I could do so much more and help more, this is something I am working on. now my new dream is not to join tracker X anymore, it is to become a captain. I don’t know why I just like the title lol. you can laugh at me , yes I know it’s a long road ahead, but I have made up my mind and I am prepared to do what it takes no matter how long it takes!

that’s all