[roboyoshi]

I think PTP is somewhat doable, but it will take some years to get there. BTN is impossible unless you know people. Both are overkill for your average media needs and it makes no sense for most people to work that effort. TPB/BTDigg has pretty much everything you could want and usenet still exists without all the ratio/maintenance hassle. The Plex Servers are a good alternative if you want convenience. My feeling is that the tracker community is getting smaller and smaller. The new generation is more in the google-drive abusing camp, although there is some activity still on p2p. Just my 2cents from the small insight that I have.

[OmarAssadi]

Yeah, getting an account on those two sites, in particular, without knowing someone would be tough. HDB is the only other one I can really think of like that, though. Most others are relatively straightforward, with passive time often being the only real requirement (e.g., the most sought-after anime tracker is basically "have an account on --insert site-- for 12 months without getting banned").

In those cases, anyone who wants an account is probably best off just having conversations and meeting new people on IRC/forums of some of these trackers. Both of those sites have a lot of active accounts, so with a bit of mingling, you'll befriend someone who can invite, plus you get to meet interesting characters along the way.

But yeah, I don't envy anyone actively trying to get an account on PTP/BTN. It takes a long time to build up the credits to invite someone, and more importantly, given things like tree bans when someone does some serious offense, you don't want to invite just any stranger.

I think that is the aspect I like the least about private trackers; as a whole, the scene can be a bit elitist and unwelcoming towards new users. I get that it is a difficult balance to maintain, though. On much less important forums, the ban evasion problems are already bad enough as it is, so I can't imagine moderating a place like PTP.