Thread: T-I: The Story, Part I

T-I: The Story
Part I: In the Beginning

It began as a dream. One man, who felt lost in the jungle of the private tracker world, decided to forge a path for all those trying to find their way. He decided that a new community should be built. A place that focused not on elitism and snobbery, but on inclusion and friendship. A place where people could share not only invites and trackers, but ideas and opinions. Members would not be reviled for their ignorance of the torrent world; instead, they would be extended help and guidance.

The man is Dave; the place is Torrent-Invites. Join me for a story in four parts. Join me for T-I: The Story



Today, Part I: In the Beginning

T-I: The Story
Part I: In the Beginning

Like any community, this one has had it's ups and downs. In the two years since it's inception, people have come and gone, fights have broken out, and there's been more drama than you can shake a stick at. It's almost too big of a story for four parts, let alone one article. In part one, learn the story of the biggest change here at T-I: the end of trading. Part two will focus on the community: who helped to shape it, who almost destroyed it. In Part III, learn about our admins and intro crew. The time, effort, and risk they put in to keep you safe and sane will simply amaze you. And in Part IV, catch a glimpse at the future of our community... as history proves, T-I is always growing and changing. So without further ado, AfterMidnight and the T-I community present: Part I.

It began with a dream. Like many of you, Dave wanted to be important. There is nothing wrong with that; his strong desire led him to create a forum where people could find even the most elusive tracker invites. At the time, "elusive" covered just about every tracker out there. And if you were new to the world of torrents, forget about getting help or even attention. Dave wanted to change all of that. He wanted a place where people could find invites, but more importantly, get the information they needed (and not look like such a n00b). And so it began: on Monday, December 3, 2007, Torrent Invites! Get your free private torrent tracker invites! was born.

While the idea of a community offering the invites you need sounds like a good one, the trackers hated it. Trackers spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours coding their sites, installing security measures, and interviewing candidates. Their motto: keep out the riffraff, screw the cheaters, and know who you invite. Trading invites bypasses all of this. If you consider that a trader couldn't care less just who was getting this SCC invite as long as they give him that FTN invite... well, you can see where the system breaks down. Simply put, there was no trust involved. No friendship. No security.

The long-held belief was that people simply would not give away invites to high level trackers; they would only trade for them. Complicating matters, members could never be sure whether they would actually receive the invite they traded for. The Chopping Block is filled with members accusing others of reneging on deals. Even the introduction of middlemen, members who agreed to act as an uninvolved third-party, wasn't a complete success. Some even went so far as to put up hundreds of dollars in escrow accounts, to be paid out should the trade go sour. As if this were not complicated enough, it was about to get worse.

When a tracker discovers a trader, that member is banned immediately. Trackers began to, well, track these users back to T-I. And, since birds of a feather flock together, tracker staff started banning members simply for belonging to Torrent-Invites.com. These members had not violated any the trackers' rules; they were simply banned for their association with Torrent-Invites. Faced with overwhelming outrage from banned members, one thing became clear: Our site had a decision to make.

In late 2008, amidst growing tension between trackers and T-I members alike, polls began to surface asking T-I members' opinion of whether or not to close the trade section. After several polls and and many arguments, T-I voted to remove the trade section. Citing the very reasons we use today, T-I members overwhelmingly stated that they did not want the trader section. The few dissenters gave no real reasons for keeping the forum; vaguely stating that it would destroy the site, send trading underground in the PM's, and result in more scamming. Despite the worry, T-I not only still exists, it thrives.

In the last days of March 2009, Torrent-Invites removed its trading section and permanently banned trading from the forums. Even before then, the site was in the midst of a culture shift. The high-level tracker invites that people said would never be freely given began appearing in the Giveaway sections. First one invite to a high-level tracker. Then two. Then four. Then eight. It seemed that Torrent-Invites would not be destroyed by removing its trading forums. If anything, it would become a stronger community than ever before.

Join me next time for Part II: The Community

Thank You for your help in writing this article:________________________
Balauru, Beepin, Dave, ethicks, flutrose, J0sh, Jekata, JustJenna, rawr, Sam91, Schmak, scoobydoo, Synthesis, Vegas, theXader, and any one else I may have forgotten. I couldn't have done it without you.

Lovely story, very informative backstory and fun to read. Nicely done as usual!

Well written and interesting!!
When is part 2?

A great bedtime story.

Great informative article, thanks for all the information AfterMidnight and all those people who helped in making it.

For those who've asked or wondered:

There's not a set date as to when Part II will be up; I learned from this not to set deadlines (at least for forum news!). I hope to have part II in a week or so. I've got some good stuff; I just have to craft and shape it before it's ready. Also, I may have to beat the article with a hammer. We call that a technical tap. -AM

what a story AM, it is AwesoMe!

Looking forward to the next part. Well written.