Bitsoup: News

[ALAN30]

Bitsoup August 2014 Changes

Torrent Detalis Page

- Default Description has been removed for several reasons, the biggest being the maintenance needed to maintain a nice clean environment. It was costing staff hours and hours everyday just to keep up with cleaning them. It also makes the details page shorter can cleaner looking.

- Report torrent link area has been updated and now contains reseed information and what you should do should you need more seeders on a torrent. There is criteria for the torrent and your account, so be sure to read them! You must be actively leeching the torrent and have an open port before we'll honor your request. If you're not connectable, then the seeder(s) don't have a chance to connect to you and never will if they aren't connectable either.

- The NFO link has been opened for all users above leech to get all the juicy details should you happen to need them without downloading the NFO first. With a back button on your mouse, this takes mere seconds to open and read if you need it. The most critical information can be found in the torrent title.

- The picture area will be coded to resize pictures so they aren't too big and limit bandwidth. This area may have a toggle to view or not to view in the future. Not many uploaders use this function so the toggle option is not something high on the priority list, but we will place limits on the area very soon.

- There will be more work done in this area and will affect everyone depending on your class. Security is priority one and we owe it to our members and uploaders for anonymity.

Browse Page

- We have new icons for the interactive parts of the page. There is a new download, NFO and bookmark icon.

- You can now access a torrent's NFO file directly from the browse page and then the torrent details page from the NFO if you need or want to look at the NFO first. This makes things nice and easy.

- You can now also toggle the TOP 10 list on/off directly from the browse page without setting it on/off in your profile settings. Currently, you can still set it to show permanently from your profile settings, but with the super fast toggle option we may remove this setting in the future.

- Bookmarks have been improved and can serve a true purpose now for many of you.. see blow

Bookmarks

- This page has been completely overhauled

- You can no longer see other account's bookmarks

- Once you build a list of wanted torrents, you now can make an custom RSS Feed based on those torrents. It will also delete the bookmark from your list once the download finishes. More details can be found on the bookmark page itself.

Coming Changes!

Client Bans September 1st

- bittorrent named clients (this covers mainline clients), but not uTorrent as uTorrent is simply based on the base code and not the current code it uses. bittorrent named clients do not validate peer connections and is a huge security risk for our members and ultimately the site.

- Bittorrent MAC is ok and will be accepted

- Deluge 1.3.7 as this client has issues with SSL and until fixed will have to be banned to save our members and our staff issues with using it.

Budget Donations (early next week)

- We are introducing a 3 tier VIP class system in moving forward with our donation program. This will allow us more room and functionality for new programs we'll be introducing in the near future. They all have the same basic foundation and perks but each tier will also carry it's own special features in time.

- Each tier also has 4 separate donation levels that carry more time and ultimately a little more upload credit and invite totals for your account

- With each new feature that is introduced, all members in that tier at the time will automatically be included in the new program or feature

Exclusive Tracker

- For certain classes/tiers onsite, a total and anonymous tracker will be available to them with full mobile support

- That's all were saying at this time but ideas and functions are currently limitless

Exclusive BotNet

- For certain classes/tiers onsite, a botnet will be created to carry speeds way beyond those of our normal community

- That's all were saying at this time but ideas and functions are currently limitless

Bitsoup Fall Fundraiser!

It was just a few weeks ago Bitsoup was at a point it has never been in its nearly 10yrs of history. As many know we have had a very bad few months donation wise going as far back as march.

While in the past we have had slower summers this year started way earlier than anyone ever expected it would. This caused us to run dry on any funds we had set aside to do our yearly upgrades and did not even leave enough to help cover our bills over the past 3 months.

Many of you have spoken as to how much you enjoy Bitsoup and what it has to offer. For that, I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To date, we have been able to secure funding from members that have paid off our bills until Sept. However, we still need much help to cover the bills for Sept and more so to replace the funds needed to complete the required upgrades to our infrastructure. We own our own gear our own bandwidth our own space to house our gear all that costs quite a bit to run.

To help ensure we do not enter a time like we just passed we are pre-launching our fall fundraiser a few weeks sooner than normal. This is nothing new and anyone that has been here a while knows this was coming despite the hardship we've just overcome as we run it twice a year, every year! After many months of feedback from our members, we began a number of changes to the site and rules on uploading and made some cosmetic changes as well and plenty of more to come in the very near future as we never stop.

Some people have said we should downgrade to save costs

That's not possible when you want and deserve the security you get at Bitsoup. Not to mention, the reason we don't have the problems with downtime is that we are sure to maintain our equipment every year with our fundraisers. With the laws changing, PayPal freezing business accounts, sites going down everyday, it is more important than ever for our community to stick together and support its own on its own.

Some are asking why are we're always having to come and ask for help

Simple truth is far too many members use our great site and do help in seeding but never donate. We understand seeding is very important but unless monies come in there is no place to seed or download at. If you never have donated, or simply want to give what you can once a year, then this event is for you. We ask that all those members that can, please participate in this event if no other event all year long.

Members have also requested that we explain in more detail how the site runs

Well for starters we own all of our gear. We house our gear in a shared facility that charge us for space/cooling/power etc. We own our own network thus we are charged for fiber access, bandwidth and CloudFlare protection. These all costs quite by themselves. We also have to employ someone to manage all of our gear and network thus incurring more cost through their salary and these are just some of the bare costs we face. We are not about to just hand all our setup over to complete strangers that would have full control over us. Security being the only point that should have to be made in this regard.

Things Used in 2013-14 Needing Replaced

We were all very fortunate in 2013 with very little downtime. Whether it was maintenance, or server malfunction, we kept the site alive 98% of 2013 and even more for 2014 so far. One of these downtime periods was to replace a failed server. Thank god for having the backup parts from the last fund rasier and why we run these twice a year. With external or third party hosting, you rarely have this problem since they simply move you to another one. For security purposes, we don't have that luxury as we are entirely self-contained, including our own equipment. Gear always dies and we have to keep replacing and upgrading every year at the rate we use it. Costs are always going up and we used to rely on the exchange rate for any short falls which we can not do any longer.

Other Areas Needing Improved

While we are striving to get and keep the site updated and work on security, sometimes we need external help. This consists of paying a Coder or Network Tech for some additional help. With only making enough money on a monthly bases at most times to pay the bills, any other costs that we would incur get paid in an untimely manner. This is simply bad business and something I think we all definitely try to avoid. Who enjoys not getting paid when the services are rendered? Having to wait on compensation for your time and work? No one does, so we need extra money to fall back on when these times come up as well.

In Closing

We ask that all members participate in the fundraiser. The purpose, or intent of this fundraiser is to raise monies to cover our running costs for the months of the year that Bitsoup slows down due to holidays and so forth and most importantly for hardware upgrades so we don't have any crisis to face in the future. If truth be told, only 66% or 2/3 of the year are covered monthly. There are a good 4-5 months of the year that costs far out-weigh Bitsoup's income.

Without you, the supporting member, Bitsoup would not be here today. I can not lie and tell you that things have always been smooth and we have indeed been very close to closing our doors in the past and even thought of migrating over to some of our friends in Cyber Space. Times are getting tougher for all and member support has never been more needed than going into 2015; Bitsoup's 10th year on the net!

We hope we have earned your respect and trust with the changes we have made and though there are some who say we are always begging for funds. Call it what you may, but the site has maintenance cost and they have to be covered or we wont exist. Our members have always supported us and we hope you will consider to continue to to so.

Bitsoup is always in the hands of you; the member.

Without you, there is no Bitsoup!