µTorrent users please update to 2.0.4

"µTorrent Quickly Patches Windows DLL Vulnerability"
Update to µTorrent 2.0.4

More info: http://bit.ly/90OI8y (torrentfreak)

Older versions of µTorrent 2.0.x will be removed from the whitelist soon.

--Jarudin--

Do you watch English dubs?

I've wondered about this, how many people here watch English dubs?

I myself don't like dubs much but I've often encountered heavy resistance when voicing my 'opinion' ^^

So vote!

--Jarudin--

Planned downtime July 2nd 0300h CEST

All services will be down for a few hours after 0300h CEST for maintenance.

--Jarudin--

Downtime 30/06/2010

As some of you might have noticed we were down for aprox 1 hour. The reason for this was that the server lost power :-(
This had however a nasty side effect of losing all data from the previous 20 hours. 

Meaning:

• That all torrents offered in the last 20 hours need to be re-offered.


• You are back to the ratio you had 20 hours ago, some will be happy, some will be sad ;)


• If you requested a torrent swap, please request it again.

Our updated video categorisation system

Finally, after months of discussion, we have settled on a new video categorisation system that better categorises our torrents, and should hopefully make things easier for us and less confusing for you.

The details are already updated in the wiki, but I'll summarise the salient points.


1) Video groupings

Video groupings have been changed to [A - FullHD - 1080p], [B - HD - 720p] and [C - SD - <576p]. Each video group has 2 slots: {single-audio} and {dual-audio}. If the best available release happens to be dual-audio, then only one slot will be used (see wiki for details).
[Note: This is not a ranking system. Releases are classified, not ranked, by display resolution.]

These namings are for the purpose of categorisation only; they are not strict technical definitions so don't get all pedantic over them.


2) Group D

Staff-approved exceptions will now be granted under Group D. This should minimise confusion, especially in cases where we had three or more torrents under Group B or C.


3) Codec neutrality

From now on, we will no longer give Xvid and older non-h264 codecs special treatment (in the form of their own video group). The consumer market has reached a point where h264-decoding on hardware is no longer the nightmare it used to be, so we've decided to stop keeping xvid releases around solely for "hardware support".

This means releases will be judged based on video, audio and subtitle quality. In cases where an h264 release is encoded in an incompetent manner, a better Xvid/Divx release will be approved. The implementation, use and results of various codecs and encoders should speak for themselves. Users who still need to use Xvid-encoded video in an AVI container can search our forums for guides on converting to those from other video formats.


4) Subtitle neutrality

Eagle-eyed users may have noticed that the format preferences no longer discriminate between R1/CR subs and fansubs. This goes in hand with our codec-neutral stance. There are good and bad fansubs; there are good and bad official/third-party subs. We'll pick whichever we find is significantly better.


We'll need your help!

While the video categorisation system has changed, actually implementing these changes and updating our torrent list will take much time. As always, we welcome your help in the form of torrent reports for torrents that need removing or recategorising. Give us a week to do what we can, then start the reporting :) Providing comparison screenshots and other substantive info goes a long way in assisting our decision-making. [edit: BBCode is supported in torrent reports too.]

I can't guarantee that the new system will help us grant offers any faster, but it should resolve a lot of conflicts and simplify some complications, especially regarding to SD releases.

Well, that almost worked

We got hit by a DoS again, but that's not the reason for the downtime, just the cause.
Our server admin messed up a config while trying to nullify the DoS, and the server became unreachable.

Anyway, we're back up :)

--Jarudin--

BakaBT vs DoS part 2

We were supposed to have quote "some huge raep coming at teh server". As the site had no downtime at all since the last 48 hours his attack either failed or he forgot about it. In any case, big kudos to the guys/gals helping us with our DoS protection (you know who you are, and wish to remain anonymous).

The post we made on our blog(s) has spawned huge interest from people all over the world offering help in all manner of ways.

Thank you for your support
It may sound corny but your supportive comments really improve morale

I've realized that BakaBT is not 'mine' but it is just as much 'yours', the users; there simply is no other site like it. For this purpose alone my buccaneers and I will try our best to keep BakaBT running as long as possible.

I'm hearing from more and more people/sites that they've also been attacked by this same person, and they want to see him put to justice.
If you are such a person and are seeking legal aid you can contact me here, on IRC or by email (bakabt on gmail)
I myself wont be actively seeking legal aid as I do not wish to reveal my identity or jeopardize the continuity of our community, but I can at least be a hub for information.

--Jarudin--