Vortex Network - The New Mac Tracker
July 14, 08 by sharky 5,257 views
Mac users have long played second fiddle to Windows when it comes to private BitTorrent sites. Most Mac/Apple enthusiasts have to rely on ‘general’ trackers that offer a special section dedicated to them. That’s where Brokenstones came along and filled in a much-needed Mac torrent void - sorrowfully, they were dealt a staggering blow two weeks ago when the Malaysian government ordered the closure of torrent sites. Fortunately, as we have seen (and demonstrated) in the past, destroying a site is futile if the community and its ideals are allowed to remain. Although rebuilding a lost torrent site takes a monumental effort, the dedicated communities surrounding them are invariably capable and motivated enough to do so.
Enter Vortex Network - the new torrent tracker devoted solely to Mac.
Gazelle Codebase
So what’s so special about a new Mac tracker? For starters, it’s only the third tracker to use What.cd’s Gazelle tracker codebase. But what really makes Vortex special is the community effort and support put into its fruition. To quote Rachel Faith (owner/sysop of Vortex): "The best sysops, admins and coders from around the world, working on the bleeding edge of this technology, have spent days going over the code, site, layout, modules and effects. You do not get a brand new tracker in 7 days without such heroics. And that is what these fine folks are: Heroes." Well said - they hydra lives on.
Something to Behold
The first thing you’ll notice about Vortex is the striking similarities to What.cd, as torrents can be filtered through a sophisticated ‘tagging’ scheme (hence Gazelle). Vortex has a ‘Roman’ theme going on, as you’ll notice in the Fora (not "Forums") which are incredibly busy for such a new tracker. There’s already 1,000 torrents - not too shabby for a tracker that’s only been online for 2 days. Torrent "details" are in-depth and informative with tracker info, file & peer details, and individual user comments are encouraged for each.
| Homepage | Browse Torrents | Torrent Details |
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| Fora | Categories/Search | User Classes |
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Getting an Invite
Vortex is not publicly open to new signups, but invites are easy to come by (for now). Stop by their IRC channel and request an invitation: irc.vortexnetwork.org:6667. Use these channels:
#vortexnetwork
#vortexnetwork-help
With a user limit of 22,000, expect Vortex to fill up fast - they’ve already filled up 6,600 slots, and added 3,000 new users just yesterday alone.
All new users get 25 invites to use as you wish (although, it has been brought to our attention that all the invites are being taken back this Friday).
Sitewide Freeleech
To honor Brokenstones, Vortex is offering a sitewide freeleech for the first week. Looks like there’s only 5 days left for users to snatch some very large torrents for free.
Look for Vortex Network to get very popular, very fast. Mac-lovers should not hesitate to join this great community - once they hit 22,000 users they’ll be strictly invite-only.
Well, it looks like members and staff are leaving en masse in reaction to the “Pay-to-Leech” scandal surrounding Vortex. Read the story at:
http://torrentfreak.com/controversy-as-rookie-admin-aspires-to-bittorrent-domination-080730/”
01 • Blaenk Denum Says: 14.07.08 at 7:12 pm
I’ve been told that the invites are all going to be removed on Friday or some other time soon.
02 • Flux @k Says: 15.07.08 at 4:54 am
Man, how do you get into these websites.
03 • Rachel Says: 15.07.08 at 12:05 pm
Greetings.
I just wanted to thank you for this very fine write up. I was not even aware of your site until google captured the keywords and someone posted a link to this article. Your research and professionalism is to be commended.
In the eye of the storm,
RF
04 • jojohn Says: 15.07.08 at 12:52 pm
getting in is hard but doable. just keep looking on the internet and you might get lucky.
05 • Shaun Says: 15.07.08 at 5:59 pm
How do you get into the IRC channel? You can’t get into it by clicking on the hot link.
06 • Ducky Says: 16.07.08 at 5:37 pm
Would you please change this review to include our sites public name and remove the screenshots.
Regards
Ducky
From Staff
07 • sugarbx19 Says: 17.07.08 at 10:41 pm
sharkey
Please delete comments 07, 08, and this one for me. And if you don’t mind, could you email me?
08 • Zig Says: 18.07.08 at 4:12 am
Shaun, you’ll need an IRC client for that. Get ChatZilla (an open source extension for Firefox and SeaMonkey) and it should do it. If the problem was with the port number which is not included in the URL (although it worked fine here) try this link. Once you’re connected, type /list to get the… list of available channels along with their description, and /join channel_name to join a channel. Don’t forget /help, just in case. HTH in some way.
09 • Shaun Says: 18.07.08 at 4:39 am
Got it, thanks!
010 • gnouhk neiv Says: 18.07.08 at 11:46 pm
Hi ZIG, I got ChatZilla installed but can’t be connected…
It says:
:irc.what.cd NOTICE AUTH :*** Looking up your hostname…
:irc.what.cd NOTICE AUTH :*** Couldn’t resolve your hostname; using your IP address instead
:irc.what.cd 451 GET :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Host: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 User-Agent: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Accept: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Accept-Language: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Accept-Encoding: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Accept-Charset: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Keep-Alive: :You have not registered
:irc.what.cd 451 Connection: :You have not registered
ERROR :Closing Link: [xxx.xx.xx.xx] (Ping timeout)
What do i do now? any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks
011 • Zig Says: 19.07.08 at 9:03 am
For some weird reason it looks like it messed up with the protocol and tried to establish an http connection. I never received such an error message in ChatZilla, I think you’ll have to try again. As usual, if in doubt, reboot/reinstall and then try this link for what.cd: irc://irc.what.cd/#what.cd-help , it should directly bring you to the #what.cd-help channel. Alternatively, you may launch ChatZilla, then type /server irc.what.cd (or any other address of course) to join the network, and then /list or /join
Also, try to connect to another, general network to see if the problem is only with their server (launch ChatZilla from Tools/ChatZilla and read the message displayed, there are links to several networks as well as to ChatZilla’s help channel). If still in trouble, please describe as precisely as possible what your config and what you’ve done (OS, Firefox version, the link on which you clicked and so on).
012 • StevieBoy Says: 21.07.08 at 7:33 am
Wow, and thanks to this review,screenshots and helpful joining up info, another dedicated Mac site is now firmly on the radar. Corporation greed weapons loaded, ready, aim, fir…….
013 • WeNDoR Says: 21.07.08 at 8:28 pm
Hi … i know it sounds dumb … but could please somebody send me an invite ?
because when I try to connect to their IRC serveri I get this :
“* Connecting to irc.vortexnetwork.org (6667)
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-irc.what.cd- *** Looking up your hostname…
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-irc.what.cd- *** Couldn’t resolve your hostname; using your IP address instead
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-irc.what.cd- *** You are permanently banned from irc.what.cd (2008-05-30 Banned IP-Range. ARtelecom, Romnania. -sexten.) Email w..@gmail.com for more information.
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Closing Link: WeNDoR[89.123.234.233] (User is permanently banned (2008-05-30 Banned IP-Range. ARtelecom, Romnania. -sexten.))”
Please send me an invite if you have/want to
Thank you … WeNDoR
014 • Zig Says: 22.07.08 at 6:41 pm
I’m afraid an invite wouldn’t be of much help in your case. In fact an invite is not necessary to get connected to the network (although ops quickly remark those who don’t have an account). The topic of #what.cd-help states, amongst other things, the following: “If your ISP is banned, please leave the network, there are no invites here for you”. And looks like for some reason, your ISP is banned so you’ll have to contact the e-mail address - and next time, please don’t offer e-mails to spam bots as you did, write something like whatcd at gmail dot com instead — a little cleaning, sharky?
015 • startupchimetime Says: 26.07.08 at 12:08 pm
can someone invite me?
I have lots of unusual mac stuff to share and also make Cider ports of popular indie pc games
startupchimetime@googlemail.com please!
016 • iamse7en Says: 27.07.08 at 4:40 am
Thanks for this heads up! Awesome private community.
017 • tazman2 Says: 27.07.08 at 10:53 am
was a member would love to get a invite
018 • Concerned Torrenter Says: 27.07.08 at 11:40 pm
http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/f-bittorrent-43/t-threat-bittorrent-305235/?
This thread really says all there is to be said about Vortex. Place is fucked.
019 • Zig Says: 31.07.08 at 3:58 am
TorrentFreak has an article about Vortex, posted today: Controversy as Rookie Admin Aspires to BitTorrent Domination. Weird, to say the least…
020 • Trackback :: OVH: tilos a P2P/Torrent hosting at Asva.info 05.08.08 at 2:38 pm
[...] http://filesharefreak.com/2008/07/14…w-mac-tracker/ [...]
021 • tehsusenoh Says: 16.08.08 at 10:27 am
Erm, please invite me someone…
022 • tehsusenoh Says: 16.08.08 at 10:31 am
Durr, my email is tehsusenoh [at] gmail [dot] com