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I have a cheap 2 bay synology NAS that acts solely as a backup server for my main NAS in an offsite location as well as a USB drive locally.

Backups run every night with duplicacy

I exclude media files (movies, TV shows,…) from my backup routine due to the sheer amounts of data accumulated over time and the fact that most of it can be re-aquired using public sources in case disaster recovery is needed

When I was younger I pirated because I didn’t have any money to spare for digital media. Today I have a stable income and can afford all these things but I still pirate because it’s just more convenient in many ways.

Whenever I consume something that I really like I 100% support the artist / developers mostly by buying this exact product and / or some merch or by going to their concerts (if it’s music related)

To me piracy is just a way of freedom. Which includes to respect other people if they like or dislike spending money on certain things. In my eyes we should not split this community in such a way because this would kill the essence of freedom to make your own choices

When I started to get into private trackers I did the following, which worked out really well in my case:

1. Basic research (back then mostly via re*dit) on what the most popular trackers are and select the ones I want to join
2. Be prepared that being part of private trackers also means that one has to contribute back to the community by seeding
3. Hang out in their irc or discord channels and either wait for open invites or just be nice to other people and get invites from them (just trying to be part of the community)
4. be patient, it took a few days to get into the first one and after a month or two I was already in all of the trackers I wanted to be in

It was actually not much effort, I had to go through only one interview which was easy to prepare for and not very challenging. All in all it was definitely worth it and I’m glad I brought up that little bit of patience