I actually have quite a high ratio on both the private trackers I use just from seeding stuff for a long time and trading points in so I can download stuff, it just doesn't help my ratio.

I think this is a good way to use private trackers. Most will have occasional events from time-to-time as well. If you keep seeding everything you get from freeleech, eventually you'll hit a point where your seeding benefits outpace the amount you care to download and you can just download whatever and not care anymore forever. One of mine I hit that point about six years ago and I just totally take it for granted that I can snatch anything I'm curious about. I do not understand the need to care about your ratio beyond being enough to download things you want without losing your userclass perks.

I actually like private tracker forums a lot, they are communities that no organization will ever care to astroturf and that are free of bot posts. You're just talking with people, and as you grow to recognize some of the regulars it feels like a community. Anyway, it's weird how normal most people on those forums are about this stuff considering how if you look at r/trackers you might get the impression that the purpose of these websites is for the users to move up a ladder like it's a game. (Also the consensus on that subreddit is never use a tracker's forums under any circumstances ever because you will 100% be banned for no reason because the mods don't have lives and....what?)

Part of the problem is that people who hit some massive share ratio are doing it at the expense of people who are simply trying to hit 1.0.

My guess is that most of the people with really high ratios aren't even aware of how much they're sharing. They just set the things to seed and then forget them. Some people do treat it like a competition, but for many it isn't. Most are probably just trying to be nice and make sure that something stays available.

What's really needed is some seeding priority thing so that someone who is trying to prove they're not a leech is given top priority to seed things, and someone who has already established their credentials is put at the back of the queue.