Thread: What do people really think of FTN?

To judge using the basic criteria for a tracker is easy, it's the context that you have to remember. I'll give those who haven't been there for a while a history lesson.

• FTN wasn't made to be a speed demon and race other trackers - it just wanted to have scene content.
• FTN isn't about file retention, the user base is too small for it anyway. Content wise for it's stature it's still pretty good.
• The community aspect is a very touchy subject.

The "community" of FTN has fallen off I'll admit that. While I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone it's not hard to see what happened to FTN during the first big donation scare (in the past year, not the recent one). The members then thought it would be a great idea to get some new blood circulating since they would most likely be the ones to donate. This was true, however there were unforeseen consequences of that decision.

There was a huge flood of new members in a very short amount of time and when that happens you get a stat-whore competition. The new ones were the main perpetrators of the "spam" because they wanted to get their forum post count up. On damn near every tracker I'm on spam dominates everything else. Even here at T-I it's that way. But I digress. Anyway, there came another decision to be made in whether or not a certain forum should be opened again. Again people said yes to the idea, mainly the new members.

That forum is now the most active forum on the board - which I can't stand. I have over 500 forum posts there and not 10 of those are in that forum.

None of this is to say that the noobs back then were the only reason FTN is the way it is now, but they did have a very strong role in changing the feel of the community.

No tracker has a "worth" - everything is in the eye of the beholder. Our collective opinions on the tracker are irrelevant, or at least they should be. A member shouldn't like a tracker only because his friend does. A member should like a tracker if they do. That's all that matters and that's why I won't be voting.

I never wanted FTN because I was happy with all the trackers I already had. When offered the opportunity to get in I quickly took it. My heart raced and I was so excited. Anyway, I wasn't completely disappointed but I wasn't impressed either. I rarely use it nowadays, I only snatch a couple torrents a month and seed for weeks. Just enough to maintain the account.