I was just reading through the interview process for RED, and they specifically forbid the use of VPN during the interview. I don’t understand this requirement, and it seems like it would just leak your IP address to the IRC host, which could potentially be used against you in a honeypot scenario. Once they have your IP, they could link that with the credentials used with the tracker while you are torrenting, regardless of if you used VPN while torrenting.
That whole thing looks shady as hell. To me it seems like the whole interview process is meant to collect all the data they can about you, whether it is to sell the info or to hold on to it for… reasons. Also a private, invite/interview entry only community that strictly prohibits the use of a VPN or TOR and is based around sharing media? Bruh. Either they are sharing something a lil more illicit than your standard rips of Hollywood movies, or this is a honeypot to catch the kinds of people who share that kind of stuff. Everything about this is all red flags and alarm bells
I got confused and sus when I saw the words “interview process.” I wasn’t sure if I was understanding. My interview process was a chill dude in a lemmy chat sending me a link. So far it’s been awesome.
If that lemmy user was found out to have invited someone they didn’t know, from a random website like lemme, then they would be banned and everyone they’ve ever invited would as well.
Other than being invited by someone who is already on the site and you know personally the standard way is to do the interview process. The interview is mostly questions about music quality and music files and serve to make sure that you can read and apply that knowledge so that they don’t have to moderate as much if you try to upload shitty rips of music on the site.
Sounds reasonable
Seems like a honeypot to me, telling people to use something other than their home’s connection. Kind of difficult to prove. Really seems like they want that information specifically for the purpose of going after those people, since you know, ISP subscriber ID, can’t get that if they use the Library, a friend or acquaintance’s house, or an Inn or AirBnB, not saying you couldn’t track someone down with those if you wanted to, but it’s not as convenient.
and they specifically forbid the use of VPN during the interview.
Don’t trust anyone who does that
For the known top trackers, it’s to have more control over nefarious users such as duped accounts, banned users and potential law enforcement trying to sign up. Sure it’s not a bulletproof solution to deal with bad actors but it’s still an effective way. You gotta remember that these trackers are free (yet private). The admins/operators don’t get paid, so last thing they want to do is waste time dealing with such users.
At the end of the day you still have to trust them with your real IP, but it’s mostly to protect themselves afaik. I obviously can’t speak for every tracker out there.
I’m part of a private tracker site. I’m pretty anon to them. They have an email but I use a VPN all the time. They had a requirement of having the same IP, so I just used one specific server.
How did you get your invite?
Some private trackers allow for interviews without an invite.
Their speedtest requirement also seems to be about geolocating you.
Edit: Also would anyone explain why they prefer mp3 to aac and don’t even mention ogg? And what’s the point of uploading both cbr and vbr mp3s? Isn’t it ogg>aac>mp3 vbr>mp3 cbr quality wise?
Most people using these sites prefer the lossless codec flac anyway, which can be transcoded to anything.
MP3 320kbps and MP3 V0 is transparent to most (all?) people, so there’s not much of a reason to go with a newer codec, except for space savings.
There’s not even much of a reason to go with 320kbps, as V0 achieves the same quality with smaller files. That’s why almost nobody actually downloads MP3 320.
I personally think MP3 is there for historical reasons, as I don’t see a reason for using lossy codecs for archiving purposes. Just download flac and transcode it once or on demand on a media server for streaming.
I exclusively grab FLAC. Never 24 bit. I downloaded a few to test and couldn’t hear a difference. There are plenty of people who care about mp3 though.
Also would anyone explain why they prefer mp3 to aac and don’t even mention ogg
Compatibility. Fewer devices support ogg and/or acc than mp3.
This is all so nonsensical and shady.
The only possible explanation is…
ITT: Wicked coping with some terrifyingly invasive practices from people none of us know. Seriously, some of this stuff is super concerning.
If you’re this concerned, just stick with public trackers or usenet. Private trackers have rules for a reason. If you’re so paranoid about them, avoid them.
Wouldn’t call it paranoia so much as standard operating procedure for safe pirating. Everyone has their own risk tolerance but IP guarding during anything involved with pirating is the norm.
There are enough private trackers without the requirement of using a VPN.
Not the really good ones tbh though. Show me a music tracker without this rule with even 1/3 of its content.
