Happy Birthday PTN

Guess what folks? Today is PtN's fifth birthday! In a year that has seen the migration of PtN to an entirely new code, we have striven to bring you a faster, cleaner browsing experience, and things have been going well. We have killed more bugs than we know what to do with, and the end result is a v3 that has far exceeded our expectations.

This past year has also seen the introduction of our modified upload only data tracking method. We have been greatly impressed with the transition from total traffic to upload only, and you, the members, have embraced it with pleasant enthusiasm. While it has made promoting a bit harder, it's more in line with the ideals of sharing that we focus on.

Along with the new data system, we brought back the sorely missed gold store, and this has made most of you quite happy. We put the value back into gold, so people have been seeding more, which is always better for the tracker as a whole. The ability to buy upload is helping all those of you who do not own seedboxes or fancy schmancy high-speed connections, and the overwhelming opinion of you folks is positive as heck, so don't be shy, seed away.

Now, we have two new changes coming in the next few days, The first change will be obvious, i.e. the new shoutbox on the index page. We decided to install it as not everyone uses irc, but some may want to chit chat anyways. We encourage all of you to make use of the shoutbox when you log in, so the rest of the members can get to know you better. If you have a good joke, or a funny link, please feel free to share. All we ask is that you keep it SFW. PtN has a wide range of members, and many of them do not want to bombarded with filth when they log in.

A second change coming in the next couple days is that we are implementing new category icons, with special thanks to all the entries of the Category Icons Competition. While we picked winners for the contest, with first prize going to bdpt, second to Erase4Life, and third to OmegaSupreme, we couldn't pick just one set to implement, so we decided to let you choose. If you look in your profile soon, you will be noticing the ability to choose any of the new icon sets that were offered in the contest, so when you can, try them all and see which one you like best.



Invites


Also to be noted, we loosened our grasp on invites and gave out a couple thousand of them to the members. We are happy to report that there have been very few problems with those invites, so we decided to leave them in place. Consider it a sign of our trust in you guys Which brings me to our first gift to you for PtN's fifth b-day.

Because we have had such a positive experience with that round of invites, we are giving out 2 invites to all user classes. Now there is a catch though, if we find a lot of bad users getting invited, we reserve the right to take away all invites, so please be careful who you invite. Only invite people you know and trust, or you run the risk of losing your invite privileges forever. We want new members, but not at the cost of security. The invites will be added in the next few hours so don't fret if you don't see them yet.

Donations

We are also glad to announce that double donations rewards are back. It is only through your donations that we can survive, and as you may have noticed, donations have been less than spectacular over the last year. The truth is, about half of the monthly costs are covered by staff lately, and this has been hardship that we cannot continue to endure. We don't ask for much, and the costs associated with PtN are listed on the donation page so you can see where your money is going. If you have a few bucks to spare, please consider giving to a site you love.

As an added incentive to donate, we are introducing "God Mode" for a very limited time. Basically, you become immune to hit and runs, warnings, and anything negative. Of course you won't be able to go around acting like a jerk incessantly, but within the bounds of sanity (as long as you follow basic courtesy), you'll have free reign on PtN. God Mode will only be available to members who donate 50 EUR or more, but it will last for the length of your privateer status or a whole year, whatever comes first. Our hope is to come up with a surplus of donations, so that we can combat the bad months and be more financially safe, so please do consider that donation you were thinking about making. God Mode will only be available from March 19 till April 19..

Contest Mayhem

Now we come to the fun stuff, contests! We have three contests going on right now. The first will start at 7PM GMT, and consists of an easter egg hunt. Every easter egg you find will get you gold, and they may go quickly, so be ready when we start the hunt. You can read more about this Here

Next up we have what should prove to be very lucrative for several PtN members. We will be raffling off up to one million gold with an entry fee of 100 gold. You will be able to enter up to ten times and every entry increases your chances of winning. You can read more about the raffle Here

Finally, we are having another PS contest. We want to see the best b-day card you can imagine, including the PtN logo and your well wishes. Every entry will win you gold, so don't be shy. You can read more about it Here

In a year that has seen both the loss and gain of staff members, hundreds of SKALiWAGZ releases, the introduction of a new code, a new gold store, and scores of bugs killed, we have had a blast. We do this because we love it, and hopefully it shows, when you browse the site, or hang out in irc, or just snatch a few movies. Our hope is that you, the members, love PtN as much as we do and keep being the awesome members that you are. We also hope that the next year is as productive and enjoyable as this last, so enjoy the site, snatch a movie, and tells us all about it.