[Gareth321]

This doesn't answer your question directly but it might help anyway. Usenet is an excellent (paid) alternative to climbing the private tracker ladder. All traffic is secure and effectively anonymous. Download is lightning fast. If you're on the right backbone there is an ocean of content. It's only missing very old, obscure stuff. It's MUCH easier than climbing that ladder and worrying about ratios.

[wkat4242]

Stuff is also taken down within about a day. This is really the problem with usenet.

I actually find it much better for ancient stuff because my provider has 10 years retention and the DMCA takedowns only started a few years ago.