Specialized Private BitTorrent Websites - eLearning / eBooks
April 08, 08 by sharky 7,528 viewsIf you’ve never poked your cursor inside a private eBook or e-Learning BitTorrent website before, you’d probably be awestruck by the sheer magnitude of content that these trackers contain. Anything and everything that has ever been written, typed, documented, taught, published, drawn, painted, penned, or even photographed can be found. Categories are numerous and plentiful; content is staggeringly vast; media exists in every known digitized format available. A good eBook / e-Learning tracker makes Wikipedia look like a comic book.
There’s little speculation as to why students, professionals, writers, designers, tradespeople (and anyone else) are clambering to get into these private sites. Hey, we all know books aren’t cheap - especially medical / science journals, University textbooks and trades/ technical/ law literature. Courtesy of textbooktorrents, here’s an example of what one can expect to find on the inside of a specialized e-Learning tracker:
eBook/eLearning TORRENT SITES
There’s not more than a handful of private BitTorrent sites that are dedicated to eBooks & learning, and of those only a fraction are even open to new signups. Without further ado, here’s a list of private BitTorrent websites that cater specifically to eBooks & eLearning. Sites listed at the top are presently open to new registrations.
http://textbooktorrents.com
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 50,000.Minimum Ratio: none.# of Torrents: 3,250.Features: Textbooktorrents is a very impressive tracker with every known classification of eLearning torrent available (see category image - above). Textbook isn’t much concerned about ratios; and more about sharing - it’s recommended to upload at least one torrent. Be sure to check out their massive forum!
| Torrents | Forums |
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http://forums.mvgroup.org
— OPEN? - YES.Members: unknown.Ratio: none?.# of Torrents: 1000’s.Features: Not so much as a "learning" site - they heavily focus on every type of documentary imaginable (BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, Nova, etc.). As you may have guessed by the title, mvgroup is a forum website with both torrents and eD2k links. Browse around thoroughly - there’s stuff everywhere!
| Torrents | Forums |
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http://bitseduce.com
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 3,000 / 10,000.Ratio: 0.45 / 1.0.# of Torrents: 2,550.Features: BitSeduce is a seduction / spiritual / self-help tracker with all sorts of obscure eLearning stuff in a variety of formats (PDF, video documentaries, eBooks, audiobooks, software and courses). Users can even browse specific authors (Anthony Robbins, Neil Strauss, Lance Mason, Carlos Xuma, and others).
| Browse | Categories | Stats |
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http://docs.torrents.ro
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 20,000 limit.Ratio: 0.2 / 1.0.# of Torrents: 6,000+.Features: DOCS is an e-Learning tracker with all the general fare - Engineering, Technology, Medicine, Arts, Graphics & Design, and more! Did we forget to mention there’s over 1,000 video tutorials?! NOTE: We couldn’t find the stats on how many members they have, but with a small 20,000 limit, once they fill up it’s going to be hard to get in.
| Torrents | Categories |
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http://ebookshare.net
— OPEN? - Always.Members: N/A.Ratio: none.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: eBookShare is a public tracker that’s open to everyone. Browse the categories on the left side to get a list of the offered torrents. NOTE: We’re none too keen on the popups with every click - we’ll stick to a private tracker without all the ads.
www.ebookvortex.com
— OPEN? - NO.Members: 8,000?.Ratio: 1.0 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~2,700.Features: Loads of reference books, mostly related to IT (3D graphics design, networking, programming - with a few extra categories in math, sciences, etc). They’ve been ‘invite-only’ for awhile now - this is no easy site to get into.
| Browse | Categories | Stats |
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www.bitme.org
— OPEN? - NO.Members: 40,000?.Ratio: 0.65 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~19,000.Features: BitMe is the grandaddy of eLearning trackers, and probably has the most content of all of them in terms of number of torrents. It’s always been a tough-ticket to get into BitMe, but not impossible. Categories range from 3D design, art, math, medical - with a generous helping of eBooks /PDFs.
| Browse | Categories | Stats | Classes |
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http://bitspyder.net
— OPEN? - NO.Members: 17,000.Ratio: unknown.# of Torrents: ~7,000.Features: Great e-Learning tracker with a wide assortment of torrents including a multitude of video tutorials from a vast selection of categories. With a small user limit, BitSpyder is not an easy account to procure. NOTE: They’ve got a hair-trigger finger poised over the ban button - we recommend you don’t H&R this site.
| Torrents | Stats |
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http://learnbits.org
— OPEN? - NO.Members: unknown.Ratio: unknown.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: LearnBits has been compared to BitMe.org as the next big e-Learning torrent site. Open registration has been closed since Nov/07 and is strictly by invitation only. We can’t tell you much more about them.
http://elbitz.net
— OPEN? - NO.Members: unknown.Ratio: unknown.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: ElbitZ primary focus is on IT e-Learning (3D design, graphics, programming, art, fonts) but has many other categories of interest. Currently, registrations are closed so the only way you’ll be able to get into this tracker is by invitation.
| Forums | Categories |
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http://www.thevault.bz
— OPEN? - NO.Members: ~5,000.Ratio: 1.0 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~5,000.Features: TheVault is a very unique tracker that specializes in self-help, personal gain and monetary achievement! While never open directly to new signups, if you think you got what they’re looking for and take it seriously, you might have a shot at getting in. Check out their signup page, and join their IRC-invites channel by clicking the appropriate link. Follow the instructions given. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be invited.
| Browse | Categories | Stats |
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http://www.zinebytes.org
— OPEN? - NO.Members: unknown.Ratio: unknown.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: We know but two things about ZineBytes - First, it’s closed to new signups; and second, it’s a tracker from the Czech Republic.
http://forum.gfxnews.ru
— OPEN? - Sometimes.Members: ~45,000.Ratio: 0.6 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~7,000.Features: GFXNews caters to all-things graphics! While not specifically an eBook / e-Learning site, if you’re into 3D graphics documentation & tutorials, this is one private site you need to check out! Inactive accounts are pruned regularly, and they’re (usually) open for new signups on the 2nd and 3rd day of each month. GFXNews has some rather unorthodox sharing ratio rules - be sure to check out their FAQ once logged in (see ‘Rules’ below).
| Browse | Rules |
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2008 •
01 • peter42y Says: 09.04.08 at 4:54 am
This question if off topic but I feared that if I posted it in another place you would not see it.
My question is simple. How can a run a instant messenger throught a proxy server so that I could be anonymous ? Right now I am using tor.
By the way…, my 2 cents of information.
As far as I am aware the 2 file sharing services that that let user upload stuff throught tor are 4 shared and file factory.
http://www.4shared.com/
http://www.filefactory.com//
02 • Blaenk Denum Says: 10.04.08 at 12:32 am
“A good eBook / e-Learning tracker makes Wikipedia look like a comic book.”
Absolutely not. Most e-learning trackers, though encouraged, are relatively lacking. BitMe for example has a huge collection of torrents but the community isn’t spread out equally among all of them, meaning that very few have an acceptable amount of seeders. What’s worse, if it’s a private tracker like BitMe, most of the times, whatever you downloaded, be it that obscure book on how to clear your mind or that video tutorial on PHP, will be difficult to seed as the chances of someone deciding to download the same torrent are relatively low. Wikipedia is definitely a lot better than eLearning trackers at the moment, not to mention they’re not particularly comparable. Wikipedia is more of a general encyclopedia, eLearning trackers you go to to get something specific, be it a specific book, tutorial, etc.
Nice coverage on the trackers though, it’s just that statement that I disagreed on.
03 • fileprompt for free software Says: 10.04.08 at 4:41 am
The problem is elitism, most of those above are closed, invite only
04 • Trackback :: Археология будущего » Blog Archive » Трекеры с учебниками 13.04.08 at 7:52 am
[…] обзор трекеров с учебниками для высшей школы: Specialized Private BitTorrent Websites - eLearning / eBooks | FileShareFreak.И хороший трекер: Textbook Torrents - The Free Textbook […]
05 • Geekman Says: 15.04.08 at 7:29 pm
Thanks for the shout-out! I love being blogged about.
One correction: BitMe’s membership is listed on the tracker’s front page—a little over 20,000.
Of course, Textbook Torrents looks bigger than it is because accounts never expire, whereas on private trackers they do, so BitMe sees more activity from its 20,000 users than Textbook Torrents from 50,000. After all, since a lot of people only use the tracker at the beginning of the term, it’s rather unfair to make them sign up all over again.
I like to see the selection of e-learning trackers out there, but I do wish there were more textbook trackers. I’m not interested in developing a monopoly, just in opening up some new territory. Hopefully others will follow, because the strength of the peer-to-peer community lies in decentralization and redundancy. Nothing lasts forever, least of all BitTorrent trackers, as we have learned from several painful examples of late. When Textbook Torrents goes to the great tracker in the sky, someone will come along to take its place, but I would much prefer if that someone was already out there, ready to step in, rather than having to build everything up from scratch once again.
Thanks for the list. Keep the spirit alive.
~Geeks, Textbook Torrents administrator
06 • whomever Says: 01.05.08 at 3:03 am
Wish there were more of these learning sites. Most are hard to get in. Props to Elbitz though, it rox.