Community Moderation Update

There's no denying it: PTP is old. We started almost 17 years ago now. We have old torrents, old staffers, and a community that has been thriving for many years now. This post is about you -- the community, and how we as a staff team have grown in our understanding of what it means to manage effectively. As they say, wisdom comes with age, right?

In more recent years we have acquired somewhat of a reputation for being heavy-handed in community moderation. In many ways this was completely justified . This is something we intend to address in this post and share some updates on our new internal moderation policies.

The Problem

We lacked a system, plain and simple. Essentially, it was up to the discretion of the individual moderator who happened to see a post or report to enforce their version of what moderation looked like. So as staff changed over the years, so did how the PTP community experienced "moderation." Unfortunately, this at times lead to overzealous or unfair moderation decisions, which will only ever discourage genuine community participation. For this, we are truly sorry. We want to earn back the community's trust and bring fairness into every moderation decision.

The Solution

We have recently welcomed Invincible as our new community moderator. With this, we as a staff team have come together and established a set of standards for what should and shouldn't be moderated against, and precedents for how we deal with a variety of different situations. We won't claim this was always an easy process (there were some bumps to smooth out along the way), but through many discussions, hypotheticals and dealing with real reports and cases, we got there. Central to this is the idea that it should not be one moderator alone making a decision. As such, from now on (and for the past few months), reports (and most community moderation decisions) will be discussed by multiple staff members before being acted on. This combined with our set of previously discussed standards and precedents will ensure fairness in community moderation going forward.

What we want is for users to (correctly) feel that they won't be pounced upon by mods for just having fun on the forums. We just want people to enjoy the community. We'll step in when we need to, not when one of us wants to.

In the event we do have to step in, actions taken will be proportional to the situation. Nobody is going to lose their posting privileges for a first offense, minor offense(s) or without getting clear warning(s) in advance informing them exactly what the problem is and what they need to change. In fact, very few warnings have been given out for community-related incidents in recent months (not turning on 2FA when you're browsing the site with a VPN on the other hand ), which is a pattern we anticipate continuing.

Serious Discussion Rules Overhaul

We have recently revamped the Serious Discussion forum rules. The changes here are somewhat of a microcosm of our overall revamped moderation mindset. Streamlined, more friendly, encouraging of participation, but with the necessary rules in there to keep the wheels on. Want to have a more serious or focused discussion than the chat forum usually provides? Look no further. Also, politics and "touchy" subjects go here. We may occasionally move threads into this forum when we need to also.

Other Community Updates

For those of you up for a fun and addictive game, check out the latest PTP Mafia game that is due to start in just under 8 days! This round of the long-running PTP Mafia game will be hosted by armistice and Faithy, and features the the largest prize pool in the game's history, with over 200 million bonus points to be won. New users can check out a short guide here and/or ask questions in the thread or PM the hosts. Good luck to the liars and the liar hunters in there!

JPTV.club Archival Contest Payouts

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contributions for the JPTV.club Archival Contest. The rewards will be paid out in the next 24 hours of this post being up. In total we were able to rescue 1,262 torrents to add to our archive. We appreciate everyone who contributed to this contest, and we encourage you to keep your eye on the front page for more future contest opportunities!

Without further ado, the top three...
1) @TurkeyRhubarb (203)
2) @yyt0536 (176)
3) @cabbagesu (106)

Please congratulate these users for their immense contributions in the comment section. They've earned their rewards!

User Recommended Films/Freeleech Pot System Improvements

We're happy to share with you that we have made some serious improvements to our user recommendations feature. Our previous system has resulted in a backlog of recommendations, meaning new recommendations would not make it to the front page (and freeleech status) for more than two years after the freeleech pot had been filled.

How we got here:
Previously, users could start an unlimited amount of freeleech pots, which resulted in a small number of users freeleeching a lot of torrents by themselves. This contributed to our significant backlog. This wasn't fair for the vast majority of users, and lead to a lot of frustration and discourse about why the system was in place unchanged for as long as it was.

What does it all mean:
Moving forward, the system will only allow each user to have one recommendation/freeleech pot that they have personally started at a time.

Users are free to add as much BP to any pots started by other users as they wish.

What will happen to my BP/Recommendations:
Recommendations/freeleech pots beyond the first one started by each individual user have had the BP returned to those who donated to the pot.

Further considerations:
It is possible in the future we may make further tweaks to the system to keep it balanced/balance it further.

Development Updates

We would like to to take this opportunity to update you on some development changes that have happened (which includes some of the above):

• FIXED: Torrent search relevancy with short search terms
• CHANGED: Up to EIGHT user recs on the front page.
• CHANGED: API limit of 150/hr.
• CHANGED: Upload preview does not overwrite the detected subtitles. Instead highlights them red if it disagrees with your selection - Forum > Implemented Ideas > Don't overwrite subtitle selection on upload preview :: Old: Undo the require preview on Upload form change
• CHANGED: Movie autocomplete now sorts by relevancy rather than snatch count descending.
• ADDED: WEB-DL is now a valid format for 1080p/i and 2160p in missing.php - Forum > Resolved Bugs > missing.php does not track WEB-DL
• ADDED: Reject TV related searches to the JSON API. 30% of our searches are TV related due to Prowlarr versions prior to 1.35.1.5034 marking PTP as TV indexer.
• ADDED: Personalized Custom CSS to Edit -> Stylesheets -> Bottom of stylesheets to add customized css to your account.
• ADDED: Click on code blocks copy to clipboard
• ADDED: Filter by snatched/not-snatched in advanced search
• EXTERNAL: Prowlarr removed PTP from TV category - https://github.com/Prowlarr/Prowlarr/releases/tag/v1.35.1.5034

🛠️ Donation Wiki Mini-Contest 🛠️

Hey, crypto enthusiasts, CatGPT here! We need your help to revamp our Donation Tutorial for Monero (XMR). If you’ve got the skills to create a clear, user-friendly guide on the most accessible ways for the average person to donate using Monero, this challenge is for you!

What We’re Looking For:

• ✔️ An easy-to-follow donation guide
• ✔️ Screenshots to improve clarity
• ✔️ Step-by-step walkthroughs

💰 Epic Rewards Await!
🔥 1m Bonus Points for every entry that shows real effort!
🏆 25m Bonus Points to the winning guide!

Key Topics to Cover:

• Where & how to purchase crypto (any form to be exchanged)
• Understanding currency exchanges
• How to swap crypto for Monero/XMR
• Sending Monero to PTP
• Finding and submitting the right TxID for credit
• Pros & cons of using an intermediary wallet
• Bonus challenge: Using a local Monero wallet & quick-start blockchain importing

🚀 Ready to make a difference? Let’s create the ultimate Monero donation guide together!

The current guide is here: Donating via Monero
Submit your entries here: Contest Entries

Related threads for more information:
Obtaining XMR/Monero & Related Issues
Monero Banned in the UK
Allow Donations in Monero

SITEWIDE FREEELEEEEECH*

While we pranked you with the randomized timer for April Fools, we'd never leave you hanging like this. We told you there'd be a celebration for 1,000,000 torrents and 350,000 groups... and well, here we are. The entire site is now freeleech for the next week, with a few terms and conditions that you need to read.

This milestone couldn't have been done without the Popcorners, the Uploaders, and lastly the Staff who have volunteered their time and helped shape us into what we are today as a site. We would like to give a special thank you to everyone who has believed in us when times were tough. We have some big things planned in the wings with new development, new features, and a whole lot more.

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. Normal site seeding rules apply: Once you have downloaded at least 95% of a torrent, you must seed it for at least 48 hours within a 2 week period or until you have seeded at least one full copy (1:1). No exceptions to this rule will be made.

2. 100+ GB Uploads are Neutral Leech: Any upload with 100 GB of data in one torrent is marked as Neutral Leech: this means that no upload or download will count for the duration of the event. At the end of the event, the torrent will go back to how it was before (this means that Logistics will stay permanently Neutral Leech.)

3. Don't Abuse the Site: You are welcomed and encouraged to snatch torrents, but don't abuse the site or excessively scrape the site. The site will give you a Popcorn Quota if you attempt to use scripts like DownThemAll, do not attempt to bypass this limitation. Please note that there is some protections in place to prevent too many torrents from being downloaded in rapid succession, if you run into an error: yes, that's why.

4. Duration: The site will return to normal status at this time exactly one week from the time of this post. Please give yourself wiggle room for the cut-off, anything counted as announced after the event will still charge you download credit. Please do not ask us to correct your ratios.

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ADDENDUMS

We would like to offer a melancholy happy trails for Gene Hackman and Val Kilmer, who both left behind a vast catalog and bodies of work in cinema. Feel free to reply with comments about your favorite films from these two.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing @tinyrick for his service to the site, who gave over 4 years of his time to the site.