Several weeks ago we featured a new ratioless general tracker named StoreThe.Net (STN). Due to it’s great pre times, seedbox hosted torrents and the high amount of torrents uploaded daily, the tracker was an instant hit among many torrenters. Their latest move however might not become as popular. STN will soon be switching to an ‘sponsorship model’ where users will have to pay in order to continue being a member. That’s not all – they’ll soon be launching a host of new services including one that converts leaked E-books to hardbound books. A summary of upcoming changes and services (according to Yocto, the site’s admin) is given below:
STN switches to sponsorship model E3.00 for 6 months (or longer, depends on how many sponsor make a pledge).
STN launches www.yoctogon.com and is an ovh reseller, OVH pricing and information will be online on Saturday.
STN launches ebook/pdf to REAL hardbound book.
STN will announce the launch of scene2web.com in a week or so.
There’s a lengthy post on STN’s forums describing in detail the changes site will undergo - so we won’t advertise it here again. But it all comes down to this; those who become sponsors will retain membership of the tracker (with additional benefits) while accounts of those who don’t pay will be deleted after a maximum of 28 days.
There has already been a lot of negative feedback regarding STN’s sponsorship model on various BitTorrent forums such as TPS and FST. I saw a thread on FST which even called for a boycott on P2L trackers such as Vizz.Tv and STN. STN’s admin (Yocto) however has a different take on P2L (Pay-To-Leech - a widely flamed concept among Bit torrent communities). This is what he wrote on STN forums, as reply to a question raised there:
There is not a single site that is bit-torrent (p2p) that is not p2l
Here is my logic.
Sites that sell donations (SCT, etc) are p2l
Sites that have ads are p2l
Sites that you click on anything or are forced to view something are p2l
sites that are ratio based are p2l (as you pay with your bw that costs you something).
So there are NO sites that are p2p that aren't p2l, because p2p is inherently p2l.
I (the writer of this post) personally think STN going P2L was/is a bad idea but hey, no one is pointing a gun to my head and forcing me to pay. The decision whether or not to become a sponsor, after all is up to the site’s users. On a side note, this kind of operation has a higher likelihood of attracting law enforcement’s attention than the usual scenarios. This would also cause some folks in the warez scene to go bonkers (well they already hate P2P anyways but I don’t think monthly subscriptions for scene content will be an idea they’ll love). Whatever happens, I hope STN and its users can and will be able to stay safe.
