TorrentBytes to shut down after 18 years
New uploads have stopped and the site has entered permanent freeleech.
The site code is so ancient it has to be ran on ancient software. Site code is not easily converted to be ran on modern software due to a fuckton of file and database access done in now deprecated ways. Some access parameters are no longer supported at all and workarounds for those take a fair bit of effort to implement. Site being stuck with ancient software causes all kinds of fun issues, like the ongoing SSL issue for past ages amongst other stuff that is not as clearly visible to the end user.
Site content has been provided out of generous individuals pockets since before the site was put up, the amount of said individuals has gone down over the years as that is not exactly a cheap hobby for the occasional thank you with a lot of asking for more, but due to events the last active providers for the content must prioritize their spending from an expensive hobby into putting food on to table, if there is a table left.
Due to the things in the first paragraph the site is not exactly in a place to cover the additional running costs in case the content was to be provided by the site nor ask the funds for it from the userbase; not that there was much time to do anything between getting to know the situation and it being too late to do anything about it. The site itself and related stuff can be kept running for quite a while, but a torrent site with no torrents is a bit of an empty barrel to beat around.
It has been almost two decades since TorrentBits went down and the successor has been very, -very- close to being shut down a few times already over the years, but those cases have been different types of bad situations. It needs to happen sometime and judging by the state of things, this might be it.
