That whole thing looks shady as hell. To me it seems like the whole interview process is meant to collect all the data they can about you, whether it is to sell the info or to hold on to it for... reasons. Also a private, invite/interview entry only community that strictly prohibits the use of a VPN or TOR and is based around sharing media? Bruh. Either they are sharing something a lil more illicit than your standard rips of Hollywood movies, or this is a honeypot to catch the kinds of people who share that kind of stuff. Everything about this is all red flags and alarm bells

and they specifically forbid the use of VPN during the interview.

Don't trust anyone who does that

For the known top trackers, it's to have more control over nefarious users such as duped accounts, banned users and potential law enforcement trying to sign up. Sure it's not a bulletproof solution to deal with bad actors but it's still an effective way. You gotta remember that these trackers are free (yet private). The admins/operators don't get paid, so last thing they want to do is waste time dealing with such users.

At the end of the day you still have to trust them with your real IP, but it's mostly to protect themselves afaik. I obviously can't speak for every tracker out there.

I’m part of a private tracker site. I’m pretty anon to them. They have an email but I use a VPN all the time. They had a requirement of having the same IP, so I just used one specific server.

Their speedtest requirement also seems to be about geolocating you.

Edit: Also would anyone explain why they prefer mp3 to aac and don't even mention ogg? And what's the point of uploading both cbr and vbr mp3s? Isn't it ogg>aac>mp3 vbr>mp3 cbr quality wise?

If you're this concerned, just stick with public trackers or usenet. Private trackers have rules for a reason. If you're so paranoid about them, avoid them.

RED is so not a honeypot. Y'all paranoid. If your threat model includes hiding your IP from one of the most respected private trackers in the game, then you should probably stick to public where they don't care if you use a different VPN every time you log in.