If you’ve been in the private BitTorrent scene for at least a couple of months, you should be familiar with TorrentBits.Ro tracker (TBS). TBS is one of the larger General trackers out there and is one of the long standing private torrent sites with over 4 years of lifetime. The site has its roots in Romania and its right up there in the list of respected Romanian trackers along with the likes of iPlay, FileList, LastTorrents, ExtremeShare, SceneFZ etc. Despite being a popular tracker with a huge user base, TBS ran into troubled waters a couple of weeks ago. Misunderstandings between the site administration and its web hosting provider resulted in an extended downtime, prompting many loyal users to think that TBS was shut down for good. This however was not the case. Despite the downtime causing some damage (database deleted along with all user accounts and torrents), the site has returned. Its currently in a phase of rebuilding and launched as TBS Limited Edition (TBS-LE).
Back when we last mentioned TBS on this blog, it was a behemoth of a BitTorrent tracker with 20000+ torrents and 60000+ users. However, stats on the the resurrected site are very different. Since their old database was deleted during the hosting provider move, TBS now has to start everything from scratch. However, the site appears to be heading for a speedy recovery with over 7000 members recruited and 550+ torrents added during the first few days since re-launch.
There are several key differences between the old TorrentBits.Ro and TBS Limited Edition. The site appears to be built on a different codebase and looks very different from the user interface introduced in TBS v4. Type of indexed content however remains unchanged – this is still a general tracker with all sorts of scene and non scene releases including movies, music, TV shows, games, books, etc.
Getting into old TBS was not that hard – the site had random open signups at regular intervals. This is no longer the case with TBS Limited Edition. According to TBS administration, the goal is to recruit 10000 users during the first phase and them become a completely invite only community. The site had an initial open registration period with the aim to recruit 7000 members. Due to high demand, this number was reached in the first couple of days itself and signups have now closed. For those who still have not made it inside, you can sign up for an account if you pass the IRC interview (which is not hard btw). Interview channel is currently open and there are 3000 more spots left for the taking.
Server: irc.p2p-network.eu
Interview Channel: #tbs.interview
Direct Link: irc://irc.p2p-network.eu/tbs.interview
Please follow the instructions on channel topic once you are logged in. If you are new to IRC, rad this brief tutorial to easily get started.
Special thanks to Tanaka (TBS staff) for the heads up.
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