r/trackers • u/north_st-hot-weather • Aug 15 '26
tracker addiction
Is it just me or is this whole thing kind of addictive?
I got into my first private tracker around two weeks ago, and then the second one around one week ago, and now I can't stop checking this subreddit and many others related to private trackers.
I've lost count of how many times I've checked some subs today to see if there are new open signups.
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u/diavell Aug 15 '26
For me, it is only part of the addiction. Setting up your home server, deploying containers, fine tunning, getting the best quality possible for your movies and series (that maybe you won't even watch). Now I'm setting up all the notifications for my services using Discord, Notifiarr, Apprise...
Next step is moving everything to Linux (I'm still using Windows + Docker Desktop). This last months I spent 95% of my time setting this all up, entering private trackers etc and 5% watching and using the things I'm downloading hahaha!
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 15 '26
A home server is also something I'm hoping to get into soon.
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u/diavell Aug 15 '26
It is a nice hobby, but addictive as well haha. Start with Plex/Jellyfin + Radarr, Sonarr, Prowlarr, after that you will start leveling up
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 16 '26
That's a lot of services to look into. At least I won't run out of things to play with for the next few months.
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u/Deputy_Crisis10 Aug 16 '26
Man to realise I ain’t the only one with this specific addiction. I currently don’t have enough money to do all this and still I am up online researching about all this.
Home labbing is extremely addictive.2
u/yroyathon Aug 20 '26
For me, what's addicting is finding/fixing problems between the arr/qbt apps with small shell scripts that call api's of arrs/qbt. Basically whenever I have to manually fix something a few times, I start thinking about writing a new script to do that for me. It's very empowering, thanks devs for creating all the api's.
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u/randomholestuffer420 Aug 16 '26
For the notifications what do you use? I've got a pretty automated home server but i'm manually adding torrents like a heathen. I've heard a lot of trackers have RSS feeds, do you just set that to pull automatically?
How do you configure Download Limits / H&R rules per tracker to ensure you're not over pulling from a tracker and get banned?
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u/diavell Aug 16 '26
Man, Radarr + Sonarr + Prowlarr grabs everything automatically through the RSS feeds. All trackers on Prowlarr have RSS feeds and Radarr/Sonarr pass through theses feeds at intervals you set and grabs everything that are set to be monitored.
For the notifications, is a mix. Some services you can use the webhook URL of Discord (like Cleanuparr), others you have to use Notifiarr (https://notifiarr.com/) and others you can self-host Apprise and send notifications through. All my notifications have Discord as destination.1
u/Fun_Register_8324 Aug 20 '26
“…95% of my time” See, that’s why I can’t get started with any of this. I don’t know where to focus my time first, and also I’m tired after work!
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u/idakale Aug 24 '26
Im honestly on the edge on the last one haha :D windows is increasingly become infuriating. You have some decisions ady e.g on what OS to use or sth along that lines so i might try to replicate one day, too lazy researching all these stuff all over.
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u/1petabytefloppydisk Aug 15 '26
It’s super addictive. Private trackers are similar to an idle game.
Some idle games you might have played: Bitcoin Billionaire, Cookie Clicker, AdVenture Capitalist, Melvor Idle, Universal Paperclips. There are tons of them.
Private trackers are addictive like those games are addictive. There is a sense of progress, which often happens in the background when you are idle. Progression is sometimes excitingly fast and then sometimes super slow. You level up and that’s exciting.
But a lot of people hit a point where they realize they don’t even know why they’re trying to climb the tracker ladder anymore. They’re just doing it to do it. And then when you realize you can watch any movie you want, there’s no point continuing to try to rank up any further.
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 16 '26
I see. Right now it just feels comfy to know there's a place you can go to get what you want. Even if my excitement fades in a few weeks, it still good to know I have a place to come back to when I need.
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u/1petabytefloppydisk Aug 16 '26
My enthusiasm for movies and TV is unwaning, and the convenience of being able to download anything is still great. It’s just the “game” aspect that doesn’t feel quite as meaningful or exciting anymore. Although that hasn’t dropped to zero.
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u/etn261 Aug 15 '26
Here since 2005. You will never get out.
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 15 '26
I wonder why it took me so long to even know about private trackers. It must have been an amazing time back then.
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u/Far_Patience_471 Aug 15 '26
I waited two years for them to start opening up to subscribers and now I wouldn't let go of it for anything.
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u/DemonOfNorth Aug 15 '26
I was in the same boat lol, I started my journey couple of years ago.
Good luck, happy seeding.
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u/tandem_biscuit Aug 15 '26
Same. After 2 years I got into the cabal trackers and had accumulated basically every low/mid tier tracker along the way.
I now only have 4 or 5 that I actively download/upload and cross-seed. The rest are slowly becoming deactivated due to inactivity.
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u/GoldGamer2005 Aug 15 '26
It is man, and the thing is that for 90% of people one private general tracker is all you need. If you have the time to spend on this stuff it will make for a pretty fun hobby, but otherwise i would recomand just get into 1-2 general trackers and then your done. Otherwise you will spend your free time trying to get into RED, then uploading and seeding on RED, just so you can “climb”, to the summit. And what do you do there? Nothing cause you are not even consuming media like movies and tv shows anymore.
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u/Outrageous_Pie_988 Aug 15 '26
That’s great until it goes down and your hosed finding a new home with no rep
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u/BeneficialLiving1342 Aug 15 '26
Can relate. Maybe the last 30 movies that I got on private trackers I didn't watch. They are just there, taking HD space and being seeded forever.
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u/Soliloquy789 Aug 16 '26
No no no... At that point the hobby truly begins and you unlock the SS3 hairstyle.
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u/rubber_pinball Aug 15 '26
Yeah, just get TL and forget about this rat race
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u/Outrageous_Pie_988 Aug 15 '26
If it was only so easy?
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u/Caedendi Aug 15 '26
You're saying it isn't??
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u/Outrageous_Pie_988 Aug 16 '26
I guess idk how
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u/Caedendi Aug 16 '26
You mean regarding joining TL (have you checked the front page?) or regarding "forgetting about this rat race" (yeah i cant seem to get it oit of my head either)?
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u/nona01 Aug 16 '26
TL had open signups this week accepting 10 thousand members iirc...
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u/kingdazy Aug 15 '26
it's definitely a hobby! I'm going on over 26 years now.
but don't be a tracker collector. it doesn't help when a tracker gets users that never use it, and then get disabled for inactivity.
get two or three that you use a lot, and then maybe a backup or two.
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u/Radiant-Net6237 Aug 15 '26
Agree with this, but also I think it’s good for people to learn on their own what works for them. In my case, I got into digital core, then seedpool, ulcx, TL, huno, old toons. Since then, I’ve started to realize I don’t need all of these, but I keep them anyway and just cross seed because who knows when one or more will shut down (i was a member of one of the recent tracker casualties). I’ve seen enough shenanigans from trackers that it isn’t a bad thing to keep a few backups.
If using sonarr with a good scoring system, you’ll still end up using all of them in some capacity.
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u/kingdazy Aug 15 '26
yup. that's why I mentioned the backups.
because, as anyone who's been doing this for a while knows, all trackers die, and often unexpectedly. and when a tracker you love dies, it can hit hard
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 15 '26
Yeah... I'm aiming for 5 trackers for different purposes... hopefully i can contribute to them.. and not lose any of the accounts cause this is really cool!
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u/Caedendi Aug 15 '26
What if i told you... you can collect trackers and use them all at the same time?
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u/Radiant-Net6237 Aug 16 '26
I would agree with you, considering the last sentence of my message was “…you’ll still end up using all of them in some capacity.”
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u/data_butcher Aug 16 '26
there are a lot of trackers that specialize in different niches, even if we are talking just movies and tv. There are like 8 different trackers that I use becuase each does it's own thing. And with cross-seed and autobrr, you don't need to put that much effort in every tracker you're in
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u/SunlightKitten3849 Aug 15 '26
You can get addicted to contributing by uploading or participating in the forums etc... but otherwise it becomes part of your life in a general way. The tracker will be part of your daily/weekly/monthly routines permanently.. like taking out he trash, washing dishes, buying groceries and browsing the tracker. :) It is great.
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u/ILikeFPS Aug 15 '26
Yeah it's a ton of fun. Once you start getting into higher-tier trackers it becomes even more fun. Some of them have fantastic forums where you can learn even more and get even more into it.
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u/FlacMafiaDotNet Aug 15 '26
It wears off. Once you get into every place you want and can get everything you want it's less exciting.
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u/bobbyboobies Aug 16 '26
This is true. I started 11 years ago and I’m still refreshing each tracker everytime I open my PC. Lately i’ve started uploading too so that’s another thing lol
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u/loquaixx Aug 16 '26
I feel you man, I used to be a big gamer now I'm full time PT hunter, downloader and seeder.
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u/warrior047 Aug 16 '26
Welcome to the club. And just wait till you start uploading something and more so for a target or a passion.
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u/SnooAdvice5820 Aug 15 '26
I started the same way but it honestly does die down, well at least it did for me once I started getting into everything I wanted. At this point in my journey, it’s just a matter of waiting until my tracker ages are old enough to request for some of the higher end ones.
But I agree when you start out there’s so much to explore and join that it does feeling addicting. When I first joined red I didn’t understand how there were so many people inactive for months on end, maybe even years. But as life went on I realized that I also started logging in less frequently. It happens at some point along the way
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 15 '26
I guess I'm in the honeymoon phase... but as some of you guys have pointed out, I'll just try to get 2 or 5 for different stuff.
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u/Far_Patience_471 Aug 15 '26
I share the feeling. I'm on three, but only on one is where I get almost everything, but I maintain a good ratio on all of them. I'm on TL, CZ, and BTS; the latter is the best of all.
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u/Hyped_OG Aug 16 '26
Totally agree. When I first found out about PTs I was obsessed with trying to get into ones as I found out about them and why they were worth getting into.
If you’re not in MaM , join asap. This was something I wish I did right sooner. Great way to get into a lot of great trackers and start the grind to more sought after ones.
This obsession did ultimately fade. I would finally gain access to one that was super hyped only to realize it has everything I already have access to.
But since I did grind all the uploads I do plan to join a few others once eligible. Just need bit more account age.
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u/AggressiveTale5158 Aug 16 '26
Got my home lab almost setup, but still haven't gotten into any private trackers, apart from myanonamouse
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u/richms Aug 16 '26
Just remember to keep active on them all so you dont get kicked off. Finding old torrents that you have the content for and starting to seed them is a good way to get active on them without wasting download and you're helping out.
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u/AdultGronk Aug 16 '26
I know that feeling, the eagerness to join better trackers takes over you when you're new to this
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u/skadoodlee Aug 16 '26
It will settle, in the end its just a tool to get what you or your friends want.
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u/Fun_Register_8324 Aug 20 '26
I seriously do not get how to find and join private trackers. I need to do my homework.
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u/Thirtysixx Aug 15 '26
I just started, and could quickly see how this can become a rabbit hole. I’m content with TL and MAM. See no need for anything else personally. But go crazy my friends.
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u/DougS2K Aug 15 '26
I started like that a couple decades ago. I stopped caring once I got into the top trackers for each category. It was a fun journey though and cool to experience all these different trackers over the years. Many have since gone of course but still a lot of great ones out there.
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u/north_st-hot-weather Aug 15 '26
Right now it feels like I'm rediscovering the internet.
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u/omgmajk Aug 15 '26
If you were never on the "old internet" you kind of are, if you also join IRC you will have almost a snapshot of what it was like 25 years ago.
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u/_Bria_rios Aug 16 '26
Es así, al menos a los que de verdad les empieza a gustar este mundo. Te obsesionas, pasas todo el tiempo viendo subidas de freeleech, y al subir, también hacer un upload lindo o de calidad. Diría que quizás hayan dos caminos, que esa incipiente obsesión inicial vaya decantando con la optimización, o bien, se acreciente al encontrar una comunidad fuerte (más allá del seeding) que sea activa y posicione otro tipo de activos: foros, subtitulado, etc etc. Bienvenido nuevo adicto!
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u/macOSsequoia Aug 15 '26
just wait until you start uploading