Thread: Private Trackers - Carrot or Stick?

Many trackers are "cracking down" and getting stricter - creating monthly or quarterly DL/UL requirements, establishing assessments/TESTS, reducing freeleech, and pruning members left and right. I sometimes feel like I'm "guilty until proven innocent" and I have to keep a catalog of all the requirements just so I can stay in the trackers I currently use!

In the meanwhile, LFM seems to be doing the exact opposite. I haven't been there long, but it is refreshing to see the staff of a private tracker take a warmer, kinder approach. Here is the most recent staff post on their homepage:

9 Apr 2012 - Free karma for everyone giveaway



Our old karma giveaway thread was meant just for new members. I'm taking it a step further. I figure why limit who can ask for karma. Why shouldn't anyone who wants or needs karma be able to ask for it? We don't want anyone to worry about their ratip. If your not going to download its not going to be because of your ratio. We don't want anyone to be afraid to download.

There's only two rules: don't ask for karma if you've already got tons and tons of buffer that you'll never use. And if you receive free karma from us please use it for what its intended for. We are giving it to you so you can use it to buy upload credit.

Giveaway thread is located HERE

How do you guys feel about the two different approaches? Should trackers use the carrot or the stick?

Personally i like carrots, since i don't like to get whipped in the direction where the tracker owners want to get rid of the "old" people by forcing to download something what they don't even want to download.
At least the upload limits will add donations and seedbox users in the trackers. (and ofc more leechers) and it is all about the money in this type of business.

The carrot, I find it very restricting that some trackers tell you to DL 25GB every quarter...but what if it's not my main tracker and I only download like 10 GB scarce times? Sure, I'll seed what I DL, that much I get, but giving me a warning because I didn't download enough? It's kinda sad.

I think its necessary to have a combination of carrot and stick. While there are trackers that I'm on that seem to threaten the stick more than I care for it's important to understand that more people are driven by the stick more than the carrot.

One thing I haven't seen... A tracker that shares some of the donations with those most responsible with the trackers success. That's a carrot that I think would motive some. I'm sure the amount wouldn't matter to most, but its nice to receive a token amount to show appreciation for your contribution.

carrot i think its bullshit the way some trackers work if you have a good ratio they should be happy but most trackers only do stupid crap like that for donations its all about money for them if you cant d/l there quota you have to donate so you dont get kicked out

Carrot really.. Not that it has to be much but quarter dl/ul rules are really not way to go. Community matters much for me and if I find tracker atmosphere somewhat friendly I will most likely contribute for tracker. If I'm being threatened by _tracker_ I really don't give a sh... Maybe I've become a little bit old for all this then but for me it's not worth the effort if the rules are too strict. I simply look for other more friendly place