Prowlarr has listed in its default indexers a domain that reminds me a lof of another domain that closed in the last few years, but it’s clearly a revival using the same name and adding an article behind it. I don’t want to risk downloading from it but it looks well made and legit and responsive and well kept, basically too good to be true.
So, what would be your strategy to see if it’s good? Also, there’s a discord. But the discord disagrees with Prowlarr on which should the real domain be.
You mostly just have to use your judgment. Sites that steal names probably are just trying to cash in on ads, its not really that they are outright malicious though (not always anyway), and if youre acessing them by using prowlarr as opposed to going to the site in a dedicated tab then you probably have nothing to worry about.
All these clone sites are just using the same feeds and magnet links for sources, they have no original content so if you ad too many your results get cluttered but torrents on them shouldn’t be any less safe than tpb or 1337x
Private trackers are always the way to go if you care about quality.
I like private trackers but require a level of commitment I can’t really afford yet. The electricity bill etc. would skyrocket
If you care about quality and want to grind for a couple or more months*
That depends on the site. With a seedbox for even just one month (€6, one time), anywhere with freeleech becomes trivial with autobrr and a little bit of setup. I joined IPT not long ago and got over 1TB of buffer within 2 weeks. Music trackers and unforgiving niche are generally the hardest.