I only torrent TV shows which are quite well covered by public trackers so I don't have to bother with private trackers. I also feel like private trackers go against the spirit of bittorrent. I also use a seedbox and sftp for privacy from my ISP and so I can seed all the time without using my own bandwidth.

I use nyaa occasionally, but otherwise 100% pt

At this point I'm almost exclusively Private only, apart from some anime releases that can be harder to find.

For movies, the best is PTP. It takes time and effort to join. Some more accessible alternatives would be BHD, BLU, and FL.

For TV, the best is BTN. They are currently closed outside of personal invites, so virtually impossible to join at the moment. Some more accessible alternatives would be MTV, BLU, and FL.

For music, the best is RED. They have a hard economy, so if you want any easier economy and overall experience the best alternative is OPS. Soulseek is also a must if you are looking for music.

For games, the best is GGn. Nothing really comes close in the private tracker ecosystem. There is PxC, but they are light-years behind in terms of breadth and depth of content. More accessible alternatives would be in the public tracker space like 1337x and Rutracker.

For audiobooks, the best is MAM, which is also the easiest private tracker to join for someone who is not on any private trackers yet. Start here, even if you're not looking for audiobooks. Seriously, this is the best private tracker to learn the ropes on.

For ebooks, the best is BIb. I may be wrong, but I don't think they are recruiting at the moment. A far more accessible alternative would be MAM.

For literally every single person who has asked, is currently asking, or will ask in the future some iteration of "how do I join these trackers/where do I start/can you invite me to tracker x," the answer stays the same: join MAM or RED via irc interview, increase your user class with time and a little effort, and then you will unlock a subsection of forums where other trackers offer recruitment threads. Read the recruitment requirements, make sure you meet them, message the recruiter asking for an invite, wait patiently, and you'll receive an invite link to join said tracker. Congratulations, you are now a member of your second private tracker! Repeat this process on tracker #2 until you have accounts everywhere your little heart desires. You are now "climbing the ladder."

What's at the top of the ladder? The cream of the crop trackers, those best in class communities that everyone wants but very few put in the work to actually join: the "cabal" sites. They are called cabal because the staff from cabal trackers will reach out to each other if you get caught breaking the rules, and you're likely to be banned across the board on all cabal trackers you are a member of if your rule violation is bad enough. There is very little slack given at this level, so you best know what you're doing.

And once you've climbed to the top, diversify. There are best in class usent indexers like the ones that prefer to not be discussed publicly, there are ddl sites like SIG, wdma sites that live on like unicorns as the piracy landscape shifts with gains and losses, forums specifically for piracy and tracker discussion, and of course...magic sites (good luck, better pack a lunch).

It's a fun ride, being a part of all this. But it isn't for everyone. Just find whatever works best for you and enjoy it for as long as you can.

I tried out TorrentLeech a few years back, but at the time their faq said to use uTorrent and specifically mentioned banning users of QBittorrent, so I fucked off real quick and haven't really tried again since.

IPTorrents is very good. RARBG was brilliant - even though it was a hybrid. Torrentgalaxy seems to have all the good uploaders at the moment. I am pulling down some very high quality stuff - however, it seems to have gone down tonight. I use qBittorent - any site that bans it is run by fuck wits.

I stopped using public trackers back in 2006, went to private trackers only back then. I still can't understand why are still so many ppl using public trackers.

I really enjoy the specialized PTs. You are looking for an ebook? MAM's the way. Music? RED or OPS it is. Easy but great.

I use private tracker mostly for content from my own country, otherwise it's public trackers all the way.

I don't need too obscure things that I am in need of private trackers.

Anime: Nyaa TV/movie: Depending on my preferred quality public or private. If a usually private torrent is on public I will download it there first and then cross-seed

I use two private trackers, all other torrents I funnel through real debrid so I get ddl speeds, also have usenet setup

I've been on iptorrents for over a decade. I know they've had plenty of controversy but it's just worked for me. More recently I have been majority Usenet to find nzbs instead of torrents.

For movies, the best is PTP. It takes time and effort to join. Some more accessible alternatives would be BHD, BLU, and FL.

For TV, the best is BTN. They are currently closed outside of personal invites, so virtually impossible to join at the moment. Some more accessible alternatives would be MTV, BLU, and FL.

For music, the best is RED. They have a hard economy, so if you want any easier economy and overall experience the best alternative is OPS. Soulseek is also a must if you are looking for music.

For games, the best is GGn. Nothing really comes close in the private tracker ecosystem. There is PxC, but they are light-years behind in terms of breadth and depth of content. More accessible alternatives would be in the public tracker space like 1337x and Rutracker.

For audiobooks, the best is MAM, which is also the easiest private tracker to join for someone who is not on any private trackers yet. Start here, even if you're not looking for audiobooks. Seriously, this is the best private tracker to learn the ropes on.

For ebooks, the best is BIb. I may be wrong, but I don't think they are recruiting at the moment. A far more accessible alternative would be MAM.

For literally every single person who has asked, is currently asking, or will ask in the future some iteration of "how do I join these trackers/where do I start/can you invite me to tracker x," the answer stays the same: join MAM or RED via irc interview, increase your user class with time and a little effort, and then you will unlock a subsection of forums where other trackers offer recruitment threads. Read the recruitment requirements, make sure you meet them, message the recruiter asking for an invite, wait patiently, and you'll receive an invite link to join said tracker. Congratulations, you are now a member of your second private tracker! Repeat this process on tracker #2 until you have accounts everywhere your little heart desires. You are now "climbing the ladder."

What's at the top of the ladder? The cream of the crop trackers, those best in class communities that everyone wants but very few put in the work to actually join: the "cabal" sites. They are called cabal because the staff from cabal trackers will reach out to each other if you get caught breaking the rules, and you're likely to be banned across the board on all cabal trackers you are a member of if your rule violation is bad enough. There is very little slack given at this level, so you best know what you're doing.

And once you've climbed to the top, diversify. There are best in class usent indexers like the ones that prefer to not be discussed publicly, there are ddl sites like SIG, wdma sites that live on like unicorns as the piracy landscape shifts with gains and losses, forums specifically for piracy and tracker discussion, and of course...magic sites (good luck, better pack a lunch).

It's a fun ride, being a part of all this. But it isn't for everyone. Just find whatever works best for you and enjoy it for as long as you can.

I haven't used a public tracker since 2005.

After joining TL, I really only use it and Nyaa for torrents, and Soulseek for music.

The "why"is just that there's rarely anything I can't find on TL.

I mostly use Usenet, but a few private trackers with niche interests like cathode-ray.tube too. I try my best to avoid public trackers though.

I use both, the private tracker is used mainly for latin Spanish media I gave it the highest priority with Radarr and Sonarr, but sometimes they'd pick something from public trackers too.

I have only been use public (for about 20 years), but I have been curious about private trackers for a while. I have a good grasp of the concept, seeding requirements, etc. What would be one or two recommended private trackers to start with? (for TV, movie, music)

Managed to get an invite to a decent private tracker with a great selection. Ever since the downfall of RARBG I’ve basically been 90% private for most of my stuff. I relied very heavily on it. Like someone else said, public occasionally has things the private ones don’t. Private trackers may integrate public items into their communities.

May also want to check out the Tracker communities for tracker specific discussion

!trackers@lemmy.dbzer0.com

!trackers@kbin.social

!trackers@lemmy.world

In the process of setting up a media server using Unraid instead of just a HDD in my main PC. Seems like seeding regularly may become more viable - is the trick to just stay hooked up to a VPN continuously?

Part of iS and have been there for a few years. I'd say the community, and how fast we get content. But truly the community is great and it's the first place I interacted past just downloading stuff