My favourite torrent tracker recently closed, which sent people scrambling for an alternative. I was able to secure an invitation to one of the trackers touted as an alternative, so I accepted the invitation, created an account, visited the tracker...and discovered there was nothing there of interest to me. None of the things I'm currently looking for are there, none of the things I got from the old tracker were there. Even though its description sounded like it would meet my needs, it didn't.
So my much sought-after invitation was wasted. Other people were still after invitations to this tracker, but I couldn't give my account to them.
Solution: set up torrent trackers so that people with invitations can conduct a limited number of searches before accepting their invitation. You put in your invite code, then you're allowed to conduct maybe 3 to 5 searches, then you have to either accept or decline your invitation. If you accept, you create an account and can start torrenting. If you decline, the invitation reverts to the person who gave it to you, so they can pass it on to someone else.
Private trackers are private for two reasons: to limit themselves to quality users, and to protect themselves from parties who want to get people in trouble for torrenting. Letting people with invitations search won't hinder these objectives. People who turn out not to be as interested in the content of the tracker as they expected aren't going to be high quality users, because they have less of an incentive to participate and keep their ratio up, while taking up a space that could otherwise be occupied by a more enthusiastic user. And people who want to get the users in trouble would simply accept the invitation and get in.
I don't know how easy or difficult allowing searches to invitation-holders would be from a technical perspective, but it would create a better torrenting experience for everyone.
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