TeamOS News : Understanding Team OS Rules.

I am sure you all have noticed that our site, unlike many other torrent sites, has an extended set of rules.
I also noticed that some members, may not understand the why behind our rules, especially on a torrent site that proclaims that everything should be free.

So I think it is long overdue to explain and also open a conversation (but please keep it logical and not only support your personal views)
about why we have the rules the way we have them, and if and how they are needed.

Before I start I want everyone to understand one thing.
Almost all Super Admins, Admins, and Mods started as registered users like everyone else in here. We all got chosen because we were helping the community with whatever skills each one had.

We are also members of other torrent sites and in general "underground sites", and most of us have been doing this since the early days of the internet and Napster and Kazza and Warez sites, and we know how easy it is to use the system in order to spread viruses, mislead people, advertise, or simply just troll with fake uploads. So from the early days of the site, we decided that this is not a way we want to go but rather create a community and a site that people can trust, as much as one can trust people they don't really know.

In order to do that we needed to establish a set of rules, that would level the field for everyone, and further down, I will try to explain for our major rules the reasons we have them.
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Language​
Use only ENGLISH on our site. No other languages are allowed.

Fairly simple rule and I think it's easy to understand.
Currently, there are at least 195 countries in the world but about 7000+ languages. If each one spoke their own language, no one would understand what the others wrote.
So we choose English only because it is the computer's default language as far as terminology goes, the vast majority of people have, even at a very basic level, an understanding of the English language, and also there are hundreds of translator apps and websites from any language to English and back that they can use.

Don't use words like "HacΚ", "serial", "cracΚ" etc.

This one confused a lot of people. "...but it's a site that deals mostly with pirated software that is cracked, so what's the harm?" many have said:
The main reason for this rule is... the search engines.
Almost hourly and every day we get visited by the search engine spiders/robots that index this site.
If a site is found to have excessive use of some words that the search engines consider bad, like hacks, etc, they will flag the site as inappropriate, or even malicious and dangerous
and that will harm both this site and you as members. At some point, it can even invite law enforcement agencies from any country.
I'm sure no one wants that.
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Don't post external links.

The reasons behind this rule are simple.

A. If this is left unchecked, some people will start posting anything and we have no way of verifying it or controlling it nor we want to spend our time checking every link.
We are concerned mostly for files that have viruses, but also for links that that irrelevant, music, offensive videos, porn, and worse... advertising :p
We are a torrent site, after all, we don't really need external links that much.

B. Without getting into technical details, sites can track where their visitors came from if they came by a link.
Hypothetical scenario but let's say that someone posts an Adobe link, and then 30 000 people from here visit Adobe's site, they will see Team OS as a referer, they might come and find their beloved Photoshop for free, and boom, next week we are closed just like that.

We know that there are ways around it but why trouble ourselves? If a link needs to be shared we can use the code or icode tags like bellow
https://www.teamos.xyz

You must maintain an overall ratio of at least 0.4.

Torrents are based on ALL OF US MEMBERS.
We don't have a server that people download from, you download a torrent from other members that share their internet.
Knowing the above, I think it's only fair to ask from all of us to give back to others, what we took from others.
A ratio of 0.4 means you at least have to give back 40.% of the total you downloaded.
This can happen by seeding the files you downloaded or using the seed bonus you accumulated.

Multiple accounts from the same Person/IP/PC are not allowed.
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Avoid using VPNs, TOR, data centers, or public proxies for browsing the site.
(but you can use VPN for downloading via torrent apps)

What is the point of enforcing a ratio and asking everyone to seed, if someone can simply make a new account and circumvent/bypass the ratio requirements and start downloading again?
And if we let some of the members to do that, the others will mimic the behavior.
That is why we actively trying to block people from making multiple accounts.
Have one account, seed, and be part of the community. If we think about it, isn't it enough that you get the Windows and software you want for the very low cost of... seeding?

For the same reason, you should not use a VPN while browsing the site and ONLY for browsing.
You can use a VPN when you are downloading or seeding torrents.

The issue is when using a VPN you might use the same server as other members and our security software may mistake you as another person's 2nd account.
And let's be honest here, a big portion of the cheaters, use VPN to circumvent the one account per person rule and so to avoid seeding.
If you don't want to get in the crossfire, whitelist us on your VPN.

Uploading rules for registered users in general:
Why create threads in a specific way, Why use specific hosts and file-sharing sites,
Why only direct links for registered members and not torrents, and other similar topics.

As a site, we decided to have some extra upload rules for registered members in order to help and serve the rest of our members the best way we can.
Also, we have to understand that we can either have security and uniformity, or ease of use and chaos, but we can't have it all.
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Why specific upload sites?
We ask for specific upload sites (we refine the list from time to time), because those work with the majority of our members.
Some sites behave one way with some countries and another with others.
Some have limitations in speed or times of download per day or per session, some don't.
Some inject viruses, some don't (yes we had that happen).
So out of the thousands, we picked a few that work for almost everyone.
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Why a decent presentation of the thread?
We ask for a decent presentation (clear headline, a short description of the software, a few images showing what it is, installation instructions, etc) because we understand not all members know all the programs and even tho they can google about it, we would like them to get an idea more or less without leaving the site. It also helps them make a decision if they want to download or not.
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Why a virustotal?
We ask for a virustotal even tho it can be faked in some cases, so we can give an idea to people who will download, of what to expect.
Simply put, our members must have the facts in order to make a decision.
If we find (and we will) a fake virustotal, we will just ban and remove all the uploads one made. 3 clicks for us and all the work one did is gone.
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Why restrict torrents to uploader rank?
Since we are a community, to become an uploader or verified member, you have to work with the community.
We select a limited number of people that gain the community's trust over time, to be able to upload torrents, and so to build trust and avoid the spread of viruses and info stealers and in general bad content. Also have a consistent number of new torrents from our Windows modifiers and software uploaders since those people tend to be consistent.
On top we avoid double posts (the same software from 2 different people)
If we just let everyone upload torrents... judging from other sites, it won't end well as there is no effective way to verify what is going on.

User Classes

Since we see this site as a community and not just another torrent site, we thought that is only fair to reward members who do more than just seeding.
Some people create Windows ISOs and those become Windows Modifiers and/or OS Masters.
Some members, find, test, and upload new software, and those become uploaders.
Some help other people with technical issues, both with the site and their PC/Windows, those become power users.
Some help in threads by telling us their opinion, and help excessively with seeding, making all downloads fast, those are verified members.

In general, the more involved you are in the community the higher the chances to be promoted.

Nope, this is not the end.
Are the rules perfect? Of course, they are not, but we really try to simply keep things fair for all.
Sure they can be an inconvenience but in some cases the alternatives are far worse.

As time goes by I will keep updating this especially if we see that more rules need explanation based on your requests.
As always, we are open to suggestions but please keep them logical.
Dont ask for things that may benefit you personally but not the site and the rest of the members.
We will be happy to hear things that will help the community as a whole.

I hope this helped you understand better why some rules exist.
Thank you for your time.