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The original was posted on /r/trackers by /u/Teppiest on 2023-09-08 06:09:17+00:00.

Something I’ve observed and don’t see talked about often enough in discussions on trackers. The communities. I got into private trackers early this year with the fall of RARBG, and I’ve been continually adding to my list of sites whenever I can get invites.

This is a long rather rambling post, so TLDR; the communities on private trackers are far better than anything I’d expected going into it. The rest of the post is just backstory and giving examples of why I like them so much.

I used to use Reddit a lot more often but these days it’s quality seems to be going down. It’s more boring, and too samey. There are less posts overall, lots of posts that seem suspiciously more formulaic, top comments and “discussion” that don’t seem to add as much as they used to. I go on Reddit at the start of my day, see a few interesting posts, come back at the end of my day, the same posts are on my top, and then in the morning I still seem to see the same posts. I don’t think Reddit is dying and I’m not gonna pretend that it’s the end. But it’s just not my thing anymore. Maybe I’m just outgrowing it in my old age.

Tried to do Lemmy but there’s only so many reposts of the same tech news and Trumpwatch that I can see before I get bored.

Before social media I used to use forums a lot. Really, all the time. And with my move to private trackers I’ve been finding forums have come back to take up my free time again. Before all this social media I spent all my time on forums. I really love reading, lurking, and reading more. Seeing familiar names day in and out, reading topics where people have well thought input and are sharing their own opinions in good faith. It’s also restoring my love for some hobbies that isn’t getting muddled down with this weird passive aggression that some Reddit communities can fall into that have this “holier than thou” tone.

Been getting more into music exploration, and finding more stuff in my niches that I’d never heard of before. Also finding things that I didn’t even know I’d like based on others recommendations. Recently got a book tracker and there are so many threads where people are sharing their favorite novels within a genre or theme. Then obviously there’s talks of movies and shows, and not only the surface level commentary but discussions about production quality, translator groups, compression, media fidelity, and tons more things that matter to me that are often variables that get drowned out on Reddit.

There’s so many conversations you hear about people trying to find niche content that is almost impossible to find on primary channels, even if you had all the money in the world. Discussions about finding one specific version of a non popular piece of media that existed sometime like 50 years ago and someone tracked it to like 5 copies, and lo someone found it. Crazy stuff. Getting lost in people arguing between the best print of an 80’s album that was remastered like 5 times based on loudness, spectral analysis, overall mix, and then discovering that some Japanese Vinyl Exclusive release is objectively the best mastered version due to a bonus track, and hey someone ripped it on a $5,000 kit and now it’s yours.

It’s insane and despite the private nature of it makes the world feel so much more open and accessible. It feels great to be apart of communities that care about this content. It’s infectious and makes me want to care about things I normally wouldn’t either. I mean I didn’t care about Kdrama’s, but a friend wanted access to some old Korean shows that they can’t get on Viki so to a Korean tracker I go. And wow there’s people on the forums furiously preaching how amazing some show is and now I can say I’ve seen a Kdrama and it really was good.

Was on a game tracker and I saw a thread that was functionally people helping each other troubleshooting issues for a single game. But those same issues when talked about on the steam discussion boards, or game’s subreddit was met with dismissal, “I dunno it works for me.” or “You can’t run it on a potato.” But here on piracy sites, people are spending the time to help each other fix problems, getting them going, then after it’s fixed saying “This is a great game, don’t forget to buy it when you can if you enjoy it!”

I’ve consumed so much media that it’s given me a great new perspective on life, and it’s really entirely based on the communities that are passionate enough to collect, archive, and enthusiastically share this content with other like minded individuals. I’m sure there’s toxicity if you dig enough, and I’m a lurker extraordinaire so I don’t often actually participate. But I really do dig the vibes on these private trackers a lot. It’s genuinely been refreshing.

Now if only I could find a private tracker for pirating coffee and tea just for access to the brewing forums.