Hiya folks, 

We always try to maintain the highest quality as possible and we're glad to hear that you confirm that with kind PM's to our staff. To uphold that level of quality, we've decided to turn Racing Underground in to a true private torrent site: we've gone invite-only. 

/Why did we switch to invite-only? 
It has come to our attention that a lot of people are abusing our "non-ratio" system and are leeching their ass off and simply create a new account as soon as it gets disabled. This is not what we intended with our policy, so we've made some small changes. 

/What does this mean for you? 
As a current RU member not much will change. We are going to set a maximum negative GB difference, because there are too many members who don't care about others and stop seeding a torrent once the download has completed. We always say "seed as much as you can, when you can", but we do have a limit for certain site behaviour. 

/I'm a VIP on RU, but I do have a negative GB difference. How does that work? 
The VIP status will change as well. The old system would give donors a lifetime VIP status, but with this new system, all donations coming from members that will be made from December onwards, will have limited VIP status (depending on their donated amount). This means that a donation in combination with a -100 GB (or more) difference won't automatically mean a lifetime of security. On another note, donating to RU will "buy off" some of your GB difference, depending on the donated amount. Exact numbers will be calculated within a few days and announcened in this thread. 

/What will be different for me as a member? 
From this moment onwards, members with a negative GB difference over 100 GB (-100 GB), will get three months to get their GB difference up to a decent level. This should be enough time to seed the files you have downloaded and start 'fresh' for the new racing season in 2009. March 1st, 2009 has been the appointed date on which all accounts that have a higher negative GB difference will be disabled and eventually removed. 

However, there will be some exceptions to that rule. Members who upload a lot of (valuable) torrents, are helpful towards the community, have donated money to RU (> 25 euro) or are in any other way valuable for this community, will receive leniency. No, this is not a method to receive more donations, we simply would've asked for more donations if that were the case. 

/I have a very fast connection and I used to seed large amounts 
We appreciate all the seeding that you've done so far and we hope you will continue to do so in the future, but we would like to see extreme overseeding kept to a minimum. There needs to be an equal playing field for all members, and if high-end members are "stealing" the upload stats from other members with low-end connections, the latter ones will be the members that suffer. So overseeding in combination with common sense is allowed, but try to think about the low-end members as well. 

/How does it exactly work? 
If you received invitations from our system, you will notice a new section in your User CP which allows you to generate a new invitation code. You can send the invitation code to someone you want to invite and allows them to register a new account. We've chosen for a person-to-person system, because invite systems using emails tend to fail a lot of the time and it is less personal. This usually leads to random people getting invited and that's exactly what we want to avoid. 

Once someone received your invitation code, they can go to our register page and add the invitation code in the appropriate text field and fill out the rest of the registration form. Without a valid invitation code it is impossible to register a new account. Each invitation code will only work once, so for each new 'invitee', you will have to generate a new invitation code. 

You are responsible for your own 'invitees', so if they receive a warning for whatever reason, you will be held accountable as well. For this reason, we've added another section in your User CP in which you can keep an eye out on your invitees. It contains their uploaded amount, downloaded amount and current GB difference. This section only shows up once you've actually got active invitees (ie. if they registered and used an account). 

/I haven't received any invitations yet, how come? 
We're currently still working on a fair system to hand out invitations, but I can tell you that invitations won't be given out to members with a negative GB difference over 25 GB (-25). This to prevent members with a bad GB difference to create a new account for themselves and dodge the 'seeding' bullet. But again, there will be some exceptions to this rule, the same applies as mentioned earlier. 

/I'm still not entirely sure what this means for me or how it works. 
If you have questions about this system or if you're not entirely sure whether you're safe for our 'cut-off' in March, feel free to send EnzoF1 a PM. He can answer all your questions. Please keep in mind that he does have a life outside of RU, so it might take some time before he answers your PM.
Last edited by:EnzoF1 at: 2008-11-27 21:10:49 GMT