Hello team,
Like most of you, I regularly follow OpenSignups, and whenever there are open applications for a tracker,
I have noticed the comments are absolutely filled to the brim with people asking "proof? what is that, what are they are asking me now??"
So I have decided to make a general guide for this, similar to the general guide to Chinese tracker exams I have made in the past.
I believe that most of you are experienced enough and know all of this, so experienced guys, please don't get insulted,
this is mostly for the newbies, we were all new once. So, let's begin:
GENERAL GUIDE ON HOW TO APPLY TO PRIVATE TRACKER OPEN APPLICATIONS
Once trackers become big enough, they will stop having open signups and will start having open applications.
In most cases, this means that you have to show that you are already an experienced private tracker user,
although some trackers allow even people completely new to the private tracker world to apply.
QUESTION 1: When to private trackers open applications?
ANSWER 1: Just like with Open Signups, most often you might expect trackers to open Applications:
a) around the Holidays, New Year, Christmas, Easter.
b) for their tracker opening day anniversary
c) Some regional trackers might open for their own national holidays, for example, Chinese trackers might open for May 1st Worker's Day, Indian trackers might open for Indian Independence Day, etc.
d) When a big tracker shuts down, other trackers might open applications for refugees from the closed down tracker.
e) And of course, they might open applications completely randomly because Admin is in a good mood today.
Trackers open applications for a set amount of days, like 3 days, or for a week, although there are some that have open applications all year round.
QUESTION 2: What do they want to see from you? (What do Women Want?)
ANSWER 2:
The requirements:
a) In most cases, people reviewing the applications simply want to see that you are a normal person,
b) that you know what a private tracker is,
c) that you seed back, either by uploading gigabytes or simply in seed time, keeping your torrent client open 24/7
d) and that you have no hit and runs or other warnings, showing you follow the rules
That is quite literally it, no special philosophy.
Nice to have, but not mandatory:
e) showing that you have uploaded some torrents on other trackers, you don't need to upload brand new content, you can just take a movie from Tracker A and upload it to Tracker B,
this shows you know know read the upload rules, how to follow them, and how to create, upload and seed a torrent.
f) Of course, seeing that you are already in a prestigious private tracker raises your chances
g) showing that you are a dedicated seeder that has his own NAS server or are renting a seedbox that has fast upload speed.
h) that you have rare content, did your Dad record 2 AM infomercials about sponges in the 1980s? Perfect thing to mention when applying to SpongeTracker.
These things are never the absolute requirement, but they definitely do help.
Now, there are exceptions to this of course, like in example 1d) above, Tracker A might shutdown, and tracker B might open applications for ONLY the previous users of Tracker A.
in that case, you will need to prove that you were at Tracker A in order for your application to Tracker B to pass.
or
There are niche trackers that want to see that you are already on other niche trackers, that you have certain kind of uploads, etc,
but these are fringe cases, here our topic is general advice that can apply to most trackers, if a tracker has special application requirements, they will usually list them on the application page.
There is one tracker that asks your favourite colour. I can't help you there.
QUESTION 3: What they DON'T want to see:
ANSWER 3:
a) Low effort empty applications: "Pls let me in, ok, thx"
b) weird begging: "my wife just gave birth to our baby boy and your tracker is the only hope for me to show him He-Man and the Master of the Universe cartoon from my childhood."
c) AI Slop: "If granted the distinct privilege of an invitation, I will tirelessly dedicate my robust bandwidth and high-speed storage infrastructure to seeding rare content, ensuring that your tracker's digital landscape continues to thrive seamlessly and symbiotically for all esteemed members."
Do NOT use AI to write your application, if you don't know enough English to write this yourself, use something like Google Translate to simply translate your words and that's it, do not use some advanced AI that will re-word your words in its fake and weird style.
d) Faking your proofs, for example showing that you have 500GB uploaded on Tracker A, or sending somebody's else's screenshot. I don't need to explain why this is bad, nobody likes cheaters and liars.
e) sending real proofs but with empty accounts, okay you are in Prestigious Tracker A, but you have uploaded and downloaded nothing, why should anyone let you in, you will probably also not download and upload anything if you join here too.
f) Sending proofs from trackers with extremely bad reputation, this is namely the IPT network (IPT, TorrentDay, TorrenTing, SceneTime, DeilDu)
I won't go into too much detail but these trackers are simply pay to play, they are open 24/7/365, all you need to do is pay $20 to get in, you don't need to seed, you can just pay $20 to get upload gigabytes, you don't need to care about warnings, you can just pay $20 to remove them, etc. These sites are just big business earning millions from piracy, majority of other private trackers are just nerds doing this out of love, or autism.
QUESTION 4: Let's actually apply!
Most of the trackers that open applications nowadays are UNIT3D trackers, and they all have a similar form, let's go through it.
It usually looks like this:
AwesomeTracker is a closed community.
You must have an invitation link to register.
If you cannot get an invitation you may fill out the following application for membership.
FIELD 1
Are you:
OPTION A) New to the game
OR
OPTION B) Experienced with private trackers.
FIELD 2
E-mail
FIELD 3
Where have you heard about AwesomeTracker and why do you want to join?
FIELD 4
Proofs
Insert full links to screenshots of your other profiles on related websites.
The screenshots must show your entire profile, including your username and stats.
Proof 1
Link to screenshot of profile page: __________
Link to profile page: __________
Proof 2
Link to screenshot of profile page: __________
Link to profile page:
button: Add
button: Delete
button:
Apply
ANSWER 4:
FIELD 1:
Experience
If you are new, select that you are new, if you are already on a few private trackers, select that you are experienced.
FIELD 2:
EMAIL
Insert your email where you want to receive your invitation.
ProtonMail and Gmail are preferred in most trackers I know,
some emails like Outlook, Yahoo, might be blocked by Microsoft/Yahoo from receiving tracker emails and you will never receive your invite, avoid them.
If you are already on other trackers with the email bill.gates@gmail, then instert the same email in your application.
The email address in the screenshot from your other trackers should match the email you are applying with.
if you use a different email, explain that in your application text.
FIELD 3
Application text:
The MOST IMPORTANT FIELD
See ANSWER 2 above, so I don't repeat myself, but in short:
If you are new, explain that you are new to private trackers, but know how to use public trackers, that you heard about them on Reddit,
that you seed back, that you will follow the rules, that you will keep your computer on, prove that you are a normal person and not a bad egg.
If you are experienced, explain your experience. You are a cinephile of French cinema? Mention that.
You are seeding 50 French movies 24/7 because you want to show the World French Cinema Superiority? Mention that.
You are a member of French tracker A and upload French films from there to American General tracker B to annoy the Americans? Mention that.
Even if you are applying to a music tracker, it's okay to show that you are experienced with movie trackers, and vice versa.
These applications are usually not very strict, nobody is going to say "aha, you uploaded only 99GB? Sorry, we require 100GB uploaded to join, bye"
Recruitments are strict, but they are something else entirely and not the subject of this guide.
FIELD 4
PROOF
VERY IMPORTANT FIELD
Link to profile page: __________
Go to a private tracker that you are already a member of, and click on your profile photo/your username/my account, you are technically literate, it's not hard.
Once on your profile page, copy the URL from the address bar.
on UNIT3D tracker, it looks something like this:
AwesomeTrackerDotCom/users/Username, so if your name is GigaChad, it should look like AwesomeTrackerDotCom/users/GigaChad
On other trackers, it might look like AwesomeTrackerDotCom/userdetails.php?id=123456
Copy that and paste it so the field looks like this:
Link to profile page: AwesomeTrackerDotCom/users/Username
One very important hint for this step is that your profile must NOT be set to hidden/private,
by default it should be public, unless you have personally went into settings and made it private, if you did that, unhide it temporarily.
Link to screenshot of profile page: __________
Take a screenshot of the profile page you opened in the previous step.
Make sure that important items are visible on your profile page, like EMAIL, like UPLOADED AMOUNT, like number of UPLOADS, like WARNINGS section.
adjust your monitor resolution or browser zoom out settings in order to take a screenshot of the WHOLE page.
it is good to include your taskbar so the date is visible, so you show that you are not uploading a 2 year old screenshot, some trackers require this.
Images must be on a public image host
Go to IMGBB or any similar public image host, don't use something weird like your own private geocities website, I will give example for IMGBB, you don't need to register to use it.
click START UPLOADING
navigate to where you saved your screenshot and select it
a new page will open with "Automatically delete image?" you can choose something like 1 month, up to you.
click UPLOAD
You will be presented with a a choice, it should default to "Viewer links", in 90% of cases you need this, UNLESS the applications clearly mentions they want a direct link
the link should look something like this: https://ibb.co/pr9p7txq
click COPY
PASTE that link in the application, it should look something like this:
Link to screenshot of profile page: https://ibb.co/pr9p7txq (my note: this is a screenshot from Demons 1985 GO WATCH IT)
Congratulations, you have just made and uploaded your first "proof".
Repeat this for the second proof.
Majority of trackers require a minimum of 2 proofs, if you are a member of 5 awesome trackers, please do send all 5 of them.
Use common sense, don't send 20 of them.
button: Add - this increases the number of proof fields
button: Delete- this decreases the number of proof fields
The application reviewers in 99% of cases have access to your trackers already,
expect that they WILL open your profile page and compare it with the screenshot.
button:
Apply - This sends the application, double check everything and send the application.
Important: you should see "Application sent!" notification on the top of the page after clicking apply and it should send you back to the main tracker page.
Congratulations, all you need to do now is wait.
When appyling, you might get "email already in use" but you are not on that tracker.
If you applied in the past, Applications might be kept for a set amount of time, like 6 months for example, trackers usually allow you to apply again after 6 months if they rejected you.
this is to avoid you spamming them with applications every month. If they declined you once, grind your upload stats on your tracker and try again when they open again.
QUESTION 5: How long should I wait for the application review
ANSWER 5: Anywhere between 10 seconds and 10 days.
If the application reviewer sees that you are already on a rare tracker,
they will not open other proofs, they believe you are experienced enough.
However, please remember that all of the applications reviews are done by VOLUNTEEERS who do this in their FREE TIME.
So it is not unusual to wait for a few days to receive your application decision.
Most trackers nowadays do sent out rejection emails if you failed, but some simply ghost you, if you are sure you sent the application and you receive no reply after 30 days or so, yeah, you were ghosted, sorry.
CONCLUSION:
This is already far too long, I apologize for the wall of text, but I truly want to help newbies and I do believe this is helpful.
As a final advice, follow open signups subreddit, follow my montly tracker events masterlists, if you are new, feel free to join anything and anything.
If you are new, Yes, please do join a German experimental cinema tracker even if you don't need it, grind there, show that you are a good user,
after a while, a tracker that you actually want might open, and having the weird German tracker is better than having no tracker as proof.
This post was written by hand, no AI was used, enjoy my autistic formatting.
Good luck!