Thread: The Grinch Who Stole HDBits

The Grinch Who Stole HDBits
by JustJenna & AfterMidnight



On Wednesday December 16th, 2009, the torrent community buzzed with excitement as news broke that the highly exclusive HDBits.org planned to open invites for one day only; something that has not happened in more than a year. The news spread like wildfire through the T-I forums, with threads popping up in both the VIP and Bittorrent Discussion forums. Members were quite excited: at last count there were 32 open and active requests for HDBits, all with activity within the last 48 hours. Many members had already been promised invitations and were eagerly anticipating exploring their new home. But today bore sad news for those hoping to finally join the elusive tracker.

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The Grinch Who Stole HDBits
by JustJenna & AfterMidnight

On Wednesday December 16th, 2009, the torrent community buzzed with excitement as news broke that the highly exclusive HDBits.org planned to open invites for one day only; something that has not happened in more than a year. The news spread like wildfire through the T-I forums, with threads popping up in both the VIP and Bittorrent Discussion forums. Members were quite excited: at last count there were 32 open and active requests for HDBits, all with activity within the last 48 hours. Many members had already been promised invitations and were eagerly anticipating exploring their new home.

But today bore sad news for those hoping to finally join the elusive tracker, when it was confirmed that HDBits canceled their planned opening. Why the sudden change of heart? Well, as with most things in life, it comes down to money. It seems that certain entrepreneurial members of HDBits attempted to exploit the invite system by offering up invites for sales - with some sellers asking for as much as $50.00 an invite. These people could care less about who the invite goes to - whether its an honest member or a ratio cheater. Their only concern? Padding their bank account. Infuriated, the tracker made an immediate retraction, informing members that “a couple of idiots have ruined it for you all. There won’t be invites on Monday.”

Some believe all may not be lost. There is discussion on the forum that this is merely a hoax pulled by HDBits staff. A recent search of eBay yields no results for "HDBits." But such items are easily removed if reported as violations. And unfortunately, private sites, such as torrentinvites.org, are still showing advertisements for the invites, so it’s easy to see that tracker admins are upset. It’s doubtful that a tracker of such high caliber would play a joke of this proportion on its members.

Sadly for T-I, it appears there will be no HDBits invites under the tree this year. Just like last year, the Grinch called invite sellers has stolen your presents.

Wonderful article AfterMidnight and JustJenna, always an enjoyable honor to read the articles you two write.
You two have amazing writing talent. Infact i had to google the definition of "entrepreneurial", never heard of it or seen it before. I was like What is that word? is it real? LOL =D

Anyway a true shame that this has happened. Personally i wasn't going to apply for HDbits this time around as i know other people are more deserving and that i don't need it as much as others do, and they would make a much better use of it. Its a real shame that the invites were closed because of some ignorant and careless members. Spoiling the chance for everyone and selling invites, that just defeats the purpose of the word "invite". Ah well what can you do, and i doubt it a hoax.

Thanks for this awesome article again, heard it first here. Also i like the way you tied it in with the Grinch, when i was reading the title i wondered what it could be about.

Thanks AfterMidnight and JustJenna. +Rep to you AfterMidnight and JustJenna you get a +rep too, but i can't do that until you first post here.

:( thats sad,....I just heard about it before reading this. Maybe they just like getting everyones hopes up. :*(

Aww thanks Majid, you're sweet. AM is an amazingly talented writer to work with and it's fun to collaborate when we can.

Regarding whether they open or not, I do hope that they might show a change of heart at the last minute. It is the Christmas season after all...

We can only hope!

Originally Posted by JustJenna

Aww thanks Majid, you're sweet. AM is an amazingly talented writer to work with and it's fun to collaborate when we can.

Regarding whether they open or not, I do hope that they might show a change of heart at the last minute. It is the Christmas season after all...

It IS fun to work together. Between the two of us, we occasionally bang out a good article. :001_tongue:

I, too hope they have a change of heart. With so many people here and around the world excited about this opportunity, surely they'll see what a massive - and productive - user base they could have. Hopefully, we'll see their hearts grow three sizes some day.

this is sad

Like everybody else I hope that they wil change their decision. I can't tell HDBit admin what to do. But if I were them then I will offer invite to those who are regular in their forum and write useful posts. They can also give who hangs in irc and offer valuable advice to fellow member. Usually scammer don't active in forum and don't care to help others.
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. [taken from movie, if you don't remember the name. forget it]
thanks
fahim

This is only an opinion I believe that they never had any intention of carrying through with the whole process its easy to promise the world but something entirely different in giving it.
They knew that there was going to be traders sellers etc before they agreed to it its sad but we have all been had.
What makes me laugh is that although many people will be cursing them just ask anybody who curses if they want an invite and wait for the response.

Baked beans on toast for Xmas day ?

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)