Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 16/11/2023 23:06
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Title: Your opinion wanted!
Hi everyone,
Please take a look at a topic I created in the General Discussion board. It's a sticky and named 'Refreshing MouseBits'.
The future of MouseBits relies on your input, so please take time and contribute. Together we can make MouseBits better.
Kind Regards,
wcool |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 10/11/2023 19:10
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Title: We're back online!
Due to a technical error the website had been offline for a relatively short amount of time. I'd like to apologize for this, even though it was something that I could not have anticipated upon.
But... now we're back, so enjoy!  |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 14/04/2023 21:37
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Title: E-mail issue fixed!
| After forcefully absent I am glad to announce that the e-mail issue has been fixed! All e-mails should land in your inbox. If not, please check your SPAM/Junk folder. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 11/05/2022 20:15
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Title: More migration steps
Just a quick update on the migration, guys! I've been very busy with work lately, but I did make some more progress on the newly designed (more simple) tracker and forum and can say that some of it is finally live on beta.mousebits.com It's still closed 'under maintenance', as it's API is heavily tested.
Will hopefully let you know more in the near future. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 08/11/2021 12:03
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Title: Exciting progress!
Hi fellow Mousebits members!
We are pleased to announce that substantial progress has been made regarding the migration to XenForo as a more stable environment. Besides being stable, XenForo is also better manageable, which would be a welcome extra to the staff members. A basic XenForo license (with intention to add stuff later) has been purchased, along with a new VPS for hosting the beta. Research regarding tracker separation and continuity has been finished as well. A custom tracker environment with logon (which will be same as your XenForo account) is in progress.
In short, there is a plan and we hope to migrate everything to a new environment in the second or third quarter next year, depending on circumstances (COVID and such). It is a bit later than planned, but we haven't given up and we hope you haven't too.
Besides these changes there is also something else going on in the background. A torrent seedbox is being setup with a 1Gbit/s uplink, so not a single torrent would be slow anymore
Hang in there and stay safe in these difficult times,
wcool |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 31/08/2021 12:38
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Title: Networking issues
| Networking issues have plagued our website. Some people would have been able to access it and others wouldn't (me included, so could only share the news through Discord). I can now access Mousebits again and the service provider estimates that all issues should be resolved within the hour. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 28/06/2021 19:42
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Title: Tracker up again!
| Sorry for the long delay. I know how much you care and there is no excuse! I have just fixed the tracker, so connections should come up automatically. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 28/06/2021 19:18
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Title: E-mail issues fixed!
After a long hunt (due to PHP not logging certain actions) I have finally been able to fix the issue of e-mails not arriving. If you still have issues, please post in the Technical Assistance section of the forum.
- wcool |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 06/06/2021 00:42
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Title: Tracker issues
| I can say with certainty that the tracker has issues at the moment. I will look into it tomorrow and update here as soon as everything is working again. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 31/12/2020 11:54
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Title: 2021 will have a surprise for all of you
Hi everyone,
There will be some big changes coming for MouseBits in 2021! I have decided to migrate this forum to XenForo. All the other tracker bits will be worked out, so no worries! For all the details, have a look in the corresponding topic: https://mousebits.com/smf/index.php?topic=10463.msg96838#msg96838
The MouseBits team wants to thank you for your eternal patience and we wish you a very happy and healthy 2021! |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 07/02/2020 21:36
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Title: HTTPS certificate
I am sorry to report that unfortunately the LetsEncrypt TLS/SSL certificate was expired. Due to this reason you will have seen a big fat warning when trying to access MouseBits.
Cause: The certificate should've been renewed automatically (which it did), but the service was not restarted. This resulted in the error, because the new certificate was not picked up.
Please be ássured that there was nothing serious going on. Only the HTTPS certificate was expired.
I am sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 25/12/2019 18:34
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Title: Merry Christmas!
| I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let us hope that there will be many new (not commercially available) Disney multimedia discoveries for everybody to enjoy |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 16/11/2019 19:29
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Title: Unexpected downtime
I am sad to report that the site had some unexpected downtime. The cause was the transfer of the domain name to my own registrar. Ownership was transferred, but not the necessary DNS (name resolution) records. As I was not able to update it right after the change, the site has been down.
For this I would like to apologize to everyone! |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 11/11/2019 19:42
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Title: Forum upgrade (success)
The forum is down with immediate effect as it is being upgraded!
Thank you for your patience and understanding, it should be back up soon.
--
EDIT: The forum is back up and upgraded successfully! |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 10/11/2019 18:47
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Title: Torrents fixed!
I am glad to report that the torrents issue has been fixed! Stats, seeds, leechers are all updated again
[technical]
The new MariaDB version had too strict settings for the XBT Tracker binary. I relaxed the settings to comply with the previous versions and now it is working again.
[/technical] |
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Posted by: wcool
Date posted: 10/11/2019 00:00
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Title: Transfer completed
Well, that was a bumpy ride! However, it is all done now.
A list of what works:
- Tracker.
- Forum (including search).
- Stats.
- Etc.
What doesn't work:
- Recording current seeds/leeches of torrents. Workaround: On the torrents page, select 'All' from the 'status' dropdown box and hit search.
I will further investigate this issue tomorrow. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 04/11/2019 17:12
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Title: Announcements
Have you noticed that the hosting duties have been kind of lacking around here recently? I agree. That's why I am very pleased and appreciative to announce that our good ol' buddy "wcool" has graciously volunteered to take over hosting duties for MouseBits. wcool was once very active in the community here, but after having been less present for some years, he has taken interest in MouseBits again, and to such a degree that he has proposed taking over the administrative gig. I am happy to accept his offer as I expect it will result in much better quality of services for everyone who continues to support our community.
At the same time the whole service will be transferred to a new more lean web host. We have been coordinating over the past few weeks to set up for this, and generally it should be a seamless experience for all of you except for a brief scheduled downtime. The service will be shut down entirely for a few hours midday on Saturday November 9th. The exact duration is uncertain so please just expect disruption all day and we'll do our best to keep it to a minimum. Active torrents will report errors but should self-resolve once the service is back online.
For those of you who have any security concerns about your private data being involved in a hand-off, all p*censored*word data is stored "salted" meaning we don't have any way of actually knowing what the p*censored*word you type in is. We only store a code which is generated after it gets p*censored*ed through a scrambling algorithm. I have taken data security seriously from the beginning and to that end we don't keep any of your secrets on file. The most serious data we have on our users is basically a list of email addresses and a list of IP addresses.
Ultimately the forum here will be made functional again but for the moment it remains offline. If you have concerns or feedback about this or anything else you can message me "SirLamer" in the MouseBits Discord group.
Thanks for stickin' it out with us for so many years. The site shall continue on under new management and I expect it will be better for it.
(TLDR: "wcool" is new admin, new server hardware for the site, downtime scheduled for Saturday November 9th, everything will be better.) |
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Posted by: TheBeets
Date posted: 13/05/2019 22:25
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Title: MouseBits Discord Channel
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 19/03/2018 15:23
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Title: Forums are back
Yesterday I fixed the forums by mistake. It was so much by mistake that I only realized that I fixed the forums today.
GOOD JOB, ME.
Thanks for being patient. In the meantime I am actively experimenting with options to move the whole site to a new more modern (and less breakable) platform. In fact, this is why the forums were accidentally fixed! No promises for the moment, and when we have a migration plan in place I will update you. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 14/12/2017 14:10
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Title: Forum reply bug
| I am aware of an issue with replying in the web forum, I am working on it. I apologize for the disruption. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/09/2016 14:37
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Title: Server stability
We are aware of a server stability issue. If you come back and find the site unresponsive, beware that we are working on it. That said, restarting the server sets it back to normal for quite awhile. So it's one of those things.
A server move was planned to occur in the near-term, so this may be used as a reason to move the schedule up on that.
Thanks for your patience. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 14/09/2015 12:34
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Title: Torrent tracker is running
The torrent tracker is back up and running again. Due to the nature of the backups we relied on for restoration, some uploads from June are lost. Those who posted them are welcome to re-post if they're so inclined.
I have recently been made aware that the forum search function is not working so I will tend to that next. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 25/08/2015 14:14
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Title: Long time no see
So yeah... what was with that downtime, eh?
MouseBits' website is up however the BitTorrent tracker service is not running yet. Don't be surprised that no torrents will work. That will be restored tonight. Perhaps then I'll offer a little explanation of what was going on.  |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 05/06/2014 00:54
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Title: we're back!
Following a disastrously stupid mistake on my part that we needn't get in to, MouseBits went down for an extended period. Ironically this resulted in part because of my ongoing work to secure us a more reliable space.
Anyway... it's fixed now - except I had to resort to a backup of the website from 2014-04-16. All torrents and other content that was contributed after then is, unfortunately, lost for the moment. I am hopeful that content providers will be willing to re-post any lost material.
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 18/02/2014 13:21
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Title: Shoutbox language
| Guys (and galls!) can we remember this is a family site, so please mind your language in the shout box as well as elsewhere on the site? Thanks. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/02/2014 12:58
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Title: Website stability and server migration
| No doubt you have noticed that we have been having trouble with the stability of our website in the last few months. In order to address this we will be migrating to a new server machine shortly. Within the next few days we will be down for a few hours while we migrate. Thanks for your patience! |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 09/12/2013 12:02
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Title: Please remember the golden rule...
| Remember if it's commercially available it won't be available on this site. Nor do we tend to deal with YouTube wobbly camera videos or noisy live audio unless it's of historical value or similar. Thanks! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 21/10/2013 15:46
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Title: Tracker available again
| The tracker is available again. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 21/10/2013 15:12
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Title: Tracker unavailable
Our announce URL is not working preventing the tracker from working properly. This is being investigated, but might take some time to fix.
This is preventing me from posting the newest Martin tribute correctly.
Will keep you posted. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 07/10/2013 01:39
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Title: New edits
| Now everyone's back from a fantastic vacation the first new edit is available,... Unleash the Villains Night. More to come |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 15/09/2013 07:05
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Title: Walt Disney World
I am enjoying Walt Disney World at the moment. This means I will not be checking in regularly.
Edit:
I am back |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 23/07/2013 15:19
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Title: Server has died
So it finally happened. My server that runs Vuze has died on me 
I will try to find the root cause of this in the next couple of days, but it is definitively hardware related.
This means that me posting new videos is on hold for now. :'(
Edit: Server is back up |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 05/07/2013 12:29
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Title: The Good, bad and good...
The good news is I now own a TM700 as well as my 300. Expect them to be put to good use. I can now shoot full HD with three cameras (also a SX-50) at the same time if needed. Along with friends too
The bad... My edit PC is in bad form. Root virus I can't remove so it may be a reinstall of windows. If its hardware related it'll be a new pc 
The good.... once I'm editing again I'm receiving a ton of amazing quality angles from all this weeks Celebrate America shows
EDIT Celebrate America is now available. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 16/06/2013 06:36
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Title: Storytime with Belle removed
I removed Storytime with Belle by Martin on Martin's request. It will be back though, but with the correct title to this new experience.
Edit:
And now the tribute is again available using the correct title. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 11/06/2013 03:42
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Title: Like video game music? missingNo!
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 01/04/2013 14:48
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Title: WDW vacation
Hi folks,
I will be at WDW from the 17th to 26th of May.
Let me know if you want to meet up |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 12/02/2013 21:56
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Title: Website outage
The MouseBits website and tracker was down from February 8th to 12th. The failure was attributed to a hard drive on the verge of crashing and being unable to handle the server machine booting up. The drive has been replaced and most services has been restored. As far as we know there is no loss in data as we were able to recover all records right up until the website went down.
Work on restoring the tracker itself is ongoing but will be completed shortly.
Update: The tracker is up and running again. Thank you for your patience! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 29/12/2012 09:21
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Title: Disneyland Resort Paris
I will be in Disneyland Resort Paris for the next couple of days (including new years eve). So behave and direct any issues to the other mods.
In case you want to say hello in person while you are there too, send me message and we will arrange something.
-Dajatje |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 02/10/2012 22:26
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Title: Epcot 30th torrent removed
I removed Epcot 30th Collection torrent.
Although epcotlegacy.com was properly credited, we are requested not to post any epcotlegacy.com material. You are more than welcome to download that material through epcotlegacy.com.
Please direct any questions regarding this to the mods.
- Dajatje |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 04/09/2012 05:23
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Title: Epcots 30th
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 27/04/2012 14:24
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Title: Wanna meet @ Disneyland ?
Hi Folks,
I'll be @ Disneyland from 7-13th of May.
Let me know if any of you guys/gals want to meet up.
Cheers |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 05/03/2012 15:54
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Title: Temporary site outages
Update: The maintenance has been completed.
Due to site maintenance there may be a disruption of service in the near future. The timing and duration of the outage will be difficult to predict and will affect users differently. I will update this post when the applicable changes have been applied. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 13/11/2011 04:25
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Title: WDW40 EPCOT Center
For those that missed my shout:
Because of a missing track 13 in part 5, I took down the original torrent and replaced it with a new one with the same name. Please download the new torrent to have your client pick up the extra track if your download does not have track 13 in part 5. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 13/10/2011 15:16
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Title: Site outages
As you may be aware, MouseBits has gone down for an extended period a couple times over the past couple weeks. We have investigated and, we believe, resolved the underlying issue.
Thank you for your patience. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 22/09/2011 10:56
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Title: Away
In just a couple of days I will be heading out to Walt Disney World. I will be enjoying WDW during it's 40th birthday.
I will be keeping an eye on mousebits from there, but at least try to behave when I am away. 
Want to meet up? Just send me PM and we might be able to arrage something.
-Dajatje
Edit:
I am back |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 27/08/2011 19:45
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Title: Meet me
Hi folks..
I'll be at the Hollywood Studios (Orlando) on the 30th of August. Let me know if you want to meet up.
Greets |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 18/07/2011 00:04
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Title: Links in forums
Please do not offer links to streaming or download sites which offer commerically available media in the forums.
Threads in the forums abide by the Mousebits rules too!
Thank you. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/03/2011 20:56
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Title: MouseBits website downtime today
MouseBits was down for several hours today due to a complication during a routine update to backend software. The server is back to normal operation.
I apologize for the disruption. Thank you all for your patience! |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 19/12/2010 20:59
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Title: Going to Germany for the Holidays
Hi folks
No new video this week as I am packing for going to Germany tomorrow. I might have some time after christmas. (would be sharing with my sweet 50/10 mbit VDSL line in Germany then)
So long ...
Merry Christmas to you all |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 03/10/2010 06:54
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Title: My turn!!!!
In just 8 days it is my turn for a trip to the sun.
October 11th I will arrive at MCO for 15 days of Disney fun and magic. If you like to say hi in person, just send me a PM.
Although I will try to keep in touch it is best that issues are addressed to the other mods.
Have fun and behave while I am away!
-Dajatje
Edit:
I am back  |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 27/08/2010 01:09
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Title: Trip
My turn...
From tomorrow I will be bouncing between the east and west coasts of the US for 3 weeks
If you have any problems please direct them to any of the other mods.
Cheers,
Martin
EDIT SEPTEMBER 17th;
I`m home in a few days after one amazing trip, with 52 hours + of HD from Disneyland and WDW...
EDIT - I`m home. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 16/08/2010 17:47
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Title: up up and away to Disney World
Hey folks..
I'm off to WDW tomorrow..so I'll be in the parks from the 17 till 27th .. so if anyone wants to meet up .. PM me
I won't be online much..so please let the other mods and admins of any problems..
Thanks .. and see ya real soon
edit:and I'm back |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 13/06/2010 18:32
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Title: MouseBits is restored following hacking
Last night MouseBits was hacked. Using a security hole in the tracker software, the hacker was able to make MouseBits forward users to another BitTorrent website. Aside from this small change, no other damage was done. Service has been completely restored with no loss of data.
Measures have been taken to close this security hole by updating our tracker software with the latest changes.
This makes two disruptions in one week! Once again, thank you for your patience during this unplanned downtime. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 10/06/2010 22:34
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Title: Server upgrade complete
Service has been restored following a lengthy service outgate to update the server's operating system. This infrequent upgrade won't be needed for another two years, and next time it will be much faster.
Update: Tracker service has also been restored.
Thank you for your patience! |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 10/06/2010 12:36
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Title: World of Color live premiere
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 27/05/2010 12:05
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Title: World of Color
Guys,
Do not ask for or make torrents for a show that hasn`t even debued yet. The material may be available on other sites but keep it that way, as per MouseBits policy. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/05/2010 22:26
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Title: RSS services now available
An often requested feature for MouseBits is an RSS feed. Thanks to our server move, we can now offer this service.
The RSS feed feature the latest torrent uploads can be found at http://www.mousebits.com/rss.php.
We will add links to the RSS feed into the site's interface in the near future. In the meantime, you'll have to refer to this news post.
Enjoy! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/04/2010 09:13
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Title: D-Oscars on DizFreak radio!
Over the past few weeks, Stratofarius and some others have been accepting nominations for the "D-Oscars" event on our forum. Well, the nominations are closed and the votes have been collected by the voting panel. It's time for the big show!
The D-Oscars will be awarded live on DizFreak radio on Saturday, April 3rd at 6:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM PST.
Make sure you tune in to hear your favorite Disney attractions in designer dresses as they strut down the red carpet! Er... yeah.
Update: More information on the broadcast can be found here.
Though it's April Fools Day, this post is not a joke. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 21/03/2010 12:01
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Title: Duplicate Torrents
It has been brought to my attention that Americas Thrill Makers and Into the Fire are already available. The torrents of recent versions will be deleted.
Please ensure before uploading anything that it isn`t already available. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/01/2010 23:14
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Title: We're back online
Hooray! MouseBits is now running on its own (almost) dedicated server.
With full server control, we will enjoy more consistently available service without threat of shut-down. We can also now offer improved service, including the restoration of live usage stats and more responsive tracker activity. We also expect to be able to expand our service, including the introduction of a long-desired RSS feed.
Uploaders should start using the new announce URL http://www.mousebits.com:2710/announce
It is our expectation that everyone's torrents will automatically resume and our library will remain intact. If you find that torrent activity does not resume, or if you discover any other technical issues resulting from the move, please report these issues in this thread with appropriate detail.
Edit by dajatje:
Vuze (aka Azureus) users will need to take extra attention to this thread, since manual actions might be needed. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 22/01/2010 15:13
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Title: Server move this weekend
It's finally time!
After resolving the last (and most stubborn) technical hurdle, we are ready to move MouseBits to its own dedicated server.
The move will begin during the evening of Sunday January 24th and should be completed early in the next morning. In order to insure continuity, the site will go down prior to the move and will remain down for the duration of the transition.
Prior to the move on Sunday night, it is important that you manually shut down your BitTorrent client. This is so because we have turned off advanced statistics tracking features on this server to reduce load, and your activity history will not be captured until the moment you close down the client. If you don't do this, there is no real technical consequence other than the lost record of activity since your last shut down.
No action is required of anyone in order to restore service. All your torrents will automatically resume when the server is back online. Though keen eyed users will notice that the announce URL will change, the old one will continue to work for those torrents already downloaded.
Because of how the Internet handles server changes on URLs, some people may experience a service outage of up to 48 hours. Most people will only notice an outage of around 12 hours. In case of a technical issue, the outage may be longer. Please be patient as I work on this transition, as I am making sure that it is done properly.
In order to protect the integrity of our media library, torrent uploading has been suspended until the server move is complete so that a newly seeding torrent doesn't get disrupted by the server move.
Should any technical issues arise that prevent you from returning to MouseBits, you can contact me directly at SirLamer@gmail.com.
Edit: The admin address admin@mousebits.com will go out of service temporarily with the server move. Use the address provided above for help.
Thank you everyone for your patience during the server transition. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/12/2009 01:57
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Title: Happy Holidays
Christmas is a busy time for Disneyland and Walt Disney World! I'm sure many of you will be spending many good days at the parks during the holiday season.
We wish you a wonderful Christmas season and look forward to the fun Christmas-themed content that is sure to come out of this year's celebration. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 27/11/2009 10:27
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Title: Away in WDW - and home again
I will be in Orlando for my first WDW Holidays trip this week. Until I return please direct any MB questions to other admin members.
And expect a lot of HD
-Martin
Added 6th Dec - I`m home. Jet lagged to hell but with a LOT of material |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 16/11/2009 14:37
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Title: SM Soft opening video from WDWMagic
| I`ve deleted the Space Mountain soft opening video that is from WDWMagic. By all means link to the homepage www.wdwmagic.com where the video is easy to find, but we shouldn`t be hosting other sites content. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 26/10/2009 14:01
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Title: Christmas Loop torrent
I deleted the Christmas Loop torrent, because of suspicion of commercially available material.
Until proven otherwise, I will not allow this content to be posted.
I know that a lot of our members would love to see more audio on here, but we (the admins) have the entire community to consider. We would like this community to be around for many more years.
If any of our uploaders is planning on posting audio, please consider contacting one of the admins and check if it allowed to be posted. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 03/10/2009 15:24
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Title: Magical
| After receiving an email, I have removed the discussion and links regarding Magical. Rightly or wrongly, this show is still new and the audio is sought after. This isn`t the kind of attention we would like from official sources. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 03/10/2009 04:02
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Title: Back from WDW
Both Dajatje and myself are now home from Orlando. Personally I have 32 hours of HD footage for lots of future projects and I know Dajatje has a lot of HD too.
And I`m glad to say the new TM300 worked a treat too! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 17/09/2009 14:15
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Title: Away
Martin and I will be away for the next two weeks, trying to have fun in Walt Disney World and Orlando.
I will be dropping in every now and then, so behave!
Dajatje |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/07/2009 12:09
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Title: Server migration postponed
I have decided to postpone the server move.
Though the new server is up and running great, I am running into trouble with making sure the torrents already downloaded from this site will work with the new one. Even though the URL is the same, some software changes are resulting in an issue where users would have to either re-download torrents or edit the announce URL for each of them.
Also, as luck would have it, the software developer's website for this tracker has been down for two days! Since I can't troubleshoot the issue well right now, I think it's best to put it off.
In the meantime, this site will remain as usual but still without torrent uploading. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 29/06/2009 18:23
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Title: Server move on July 1st
Okay! Everything is ready to go!
We are going to complete the server move on July 1st.
In preparation for this move, uploading of new torrents has been disabled. We don't want fresh torrents trying to seed just as we take the site down to move it.
There will be one huge change about the site... and you probably won't even notice it. Our back end tracker software will no longer run on PHP but will instead run as a much more efficient executable program. This will eliminate the service bottleneck experienced with the current solution.
The old PHP tracker software will remain available for all those torrents that have already been downloaded. Newly downloaded torrents will use the more efficient software. Uploaders can expect to receive more information about this change.
Service will be disrupted for all of July 1st as this migration occurs. Due to the unique nature of this site, it must be taken down during this time to maintain continuity. MouseBits and the tracker will remain available for use up until July 1st, and service will automatically resume at the same address (www.mousebits.com).
Remember, with live stats disabled right now, the only way your account can be uploaded with your stats is if you properly close your BitTorrent client. If you don't do this regularly, be sure to do this before the end of June 30th in order to capture your recent activity.
For more information and to discuss this move, please visit this forum thread.
For those of you who have stuck around through our previous moves, I am confident that this one will go through much more smoothly. Nonetheless, I appreciate everyone's patience as we make room for our growing community. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 22/06/2009 18:27
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Title: Warning to recent torrents not working
If you downloaded a torrent between June 20th and June 22nd, you may find that it's not working. That is because I accidentially configured settings intended for our new web server without realizing that the software on there apparently forwarded me back to this, the live site! So I made changes and then spent a day trying to figure out why they're not working.
What can I say, the two sites look identical.
I have fixed this issue. If the announce URL includes the port number 2710 in it, then you are affected. Either re-download the torrent or manually change the announce URL to http://www.mousebits.com/announce.php
Sorry!  |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 21/06/2009 15:27
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Title: Paper model Tower of Terror
Check out this great looking paper model built by PL-7764.
I understand it took quite a lot of time and effort to build this intricate model. Nice work! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 15/06/2009 14:04
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Title: Another server update
Well, I am still working on the server transition. My goal is to complete a practice transfer privately to make sure I have all the kinks ironed out before going ahead and taking down this site to make the real switch. This will minimize downtime and allow me extra time to weigh options.
Progress is slow, since I have much to learn about Linux servers. I reiterate that I will provide at least a few days notice before taking down the site for the big move.
|
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 25/05/2009 17:24
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Title: Dedicated Server Update
I have obtained full control of our new server, but was too busy this past weekend to work much on it. I hope to make substantial progress this week.
Prior to our change-over to this new server, you can expect prior warning via this news feed. Stay tuned! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/05/2009 15:56
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Title: Server move pending
Good news! We have found a suitable dedicated server host, which we will be migrating to shortly.
With lots to learn and not being too optimistic, I suspect that this change will take over a couple weeks to complete. In the meantime, live stats have been disabled in order to reduce server load. Note that this means if your BitTorrent client crashes after completing a torrent, it won't show up in our stats database as complete. Also, many BitTorrent clients fail to report stats properly when in this mode. It's not a big deal, though.
This change is a long time coming and very good for us. We will be much more equipped to meet present and future needs as well as provide higher quality and expanded services. We appreciate your patience throughout this ordeal, but I promise, it'll be back to normal real soon.
|
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 17/05/2009 12:11
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Title: Tracker has been restored
Our BitTorrent tracker has been re-enabled. Everyone is invited to restore their torrents.
However, please check your torrents out tomorrow (Monday, May 18th) and consider disabling some of them. If the torrent is more than two weeks old, then it only needs a couple seeders to keep it alive. Please consider dropping your seeding support for these torrents.
Additionally, don't be surprised if some of your torrents refuse to work, as we intend to take this opportunity to clean through the torrent database and remove some items that we feel may borderline violate our policy of not hosting commercially available material.
We are looking into moving to a dedicated server, and thanks to your help, we have found some affordable options. We will do our best to make this change happen.
|
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 16/05/2009 11:21
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Title: Further information
I want to expand on what dajatje has already said.
Our little site was suspended because it's too big! The server activity is too much for our host, and we were asked to reign it in.
Torrent tracking has been disabled for now. There is not an immediate need to disable your torrents, as they are being ignored anyway.
We will take a couple steps to immediately reduce the server load:
Purge the user database of old accounts
Remove dead torrents, but only after allowing some time for everyone to restore their BitTorrent clients.
The next step will require some help from all of you. A great thing about our community is the enormous seeder pool we always have. However, tracking all those people and their torrents in what is taking up all the server resources. Some time after the site is back to normal, please take a look at how many other seeders there are on the torrents you are seeding. If there are more than 2 or 3 people on an older torrent, and more than about 10 seeders on a newer torrent, please consider removing yourself from the seeder pool by removing or disabling the torrent. This will do a great to reduce the server load.
BitTorrent tracking remains disabled until I can make some changes, but the forum and everything else is back in full service. Thanks for your patience! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 16/05/2009 04:28
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Title: Back online
Hi all,
Because of system load issues with our host, all our torrents have been disabled (not deleted). This might seem drastic, but that is the only way to get back online.
You as a member can help us get back on our feet, by removing all torrents from your client. This will prevent the scrape calls to our tracker and therefore load.
We allow no posting of new torrents at this time.
Please be patient, we will get back to you all on how we will continue our beloved community.
Cheers,
The Admins |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 07/05/2009 00:05
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Title: Posting duplicate content
Just a note based on popular discussion as of late:
Please try to avoid reposting old content that is still being seeded. Every time this happens, it fragments apart who is participating in the seeds, and encourages them both to run thin and die off.
If you have something to share that you think might still be seeded in an older torrent, even if it's really old, please do no post it.
On the other hand, if the old torrent is dead (ie. no one is seeding it anymore) then you probably have a good reason to post it again.
Thanks! |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 18/04/2009 06:31
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Title: A REMINDER
Please remember Mousebits is purely for non-commercial and fan made theme park audio and video. Anything that is available to buy as a download, CD or DVD or anything similar will NOT be available here and nor should any such material be discussed, traded, linked to or swapped in the forums.
Breech of this golden rule will result in a friendly warning. Persistant offenders will be banned. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 21/02/2009 12:13
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Title: Horizons Ultimate Tribute
| I just want to say thank you - my Horizons Ullimate Tribute has now been downloaded ONE THOUSAND times! |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 16/02/2009 10:45
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Title: It's official .. I'm leaving Germany
Hi folks
it's official now I'm moving out to Vancouver/Canada, beginning a new life on the other side of the globe.
This means that I'll loose my super highspeed internet line. I don't know what isp's will be over there in Canada and what their torrent policies are.
The IRC and torrent servers will be offline from 4.4.2009, so grab your stuff while it's still there.
Wish me luck.
Just to clear up any confusion... Mousebits will continue just how it is now once Dolby leaves (and hopefully he comes back soon) |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/02/2009 01:01
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Title: Forum access fixed
I just applied a wide-spread fix to correct accounts that could not properly view the forums. Apparently there were 3000 accounts affected by this (wow!)
So, check out the forums on the left - you may see something new! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 07/02/2009 13:58
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Title: Site updates pending
Update: The below mentioned update has been applied.
We are about to update the site's software to the latest version. This will correct various issues, particularly the problem regarding new users not gaining forum access after validation.
Please forgive any disruptions during this time. Thanks! |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 31/12/2008 11:57
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Title: 2009
From everyone at Mousebits, we hope you all have a great mouse-media filled 2009!
    |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 18/12/2008 15:23
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Title: windows gave in
hi folks
my main pc had a major OS crash (no hardware was affected) and my XP won't startup. Right now I'm workin on a pretty bad Vista Ultimate trying to restore my XP back.
this might take till well after 28th of december because I'm in spain over the days (starting from 24th) .. I'm just letting you know where I am (mainly those few irc users)
so instead of working on a new video from paris .. I'm wokin my holidays off on my darn puter
take care and merry xmas
*edit* after some work .. i think both irc and torrent server seem to be running again |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 25/11/2008 15:45
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Title: Off to WDW
Hi folks,
I will be at Walt Disney World for two weeks starting Monday December 1st. This means my servers will be down.
If you happen to run into a guy with the Mousebits logo on his back, chances are it is me
I will be dropping in every other day.
Behave and have fun!
Edit:
I am home again. Silently awaiting my jetlag. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 16/11/2008 13:04
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Title: Torrents with non out of print media
Hi folks
We had some complaints lately that some torrents on this site contain material that is still being sold.
If you spot a torrent that has mentioned material, please report this to a mod or admin. so we can take actions to remove the torrents in question
Thank you
Addenum by Martin: The recent Haunted Mansion Holiday torrent has been removed since this collection has specifically been reported from several members as fitting the above description. We are not being killjoys - you know I`m the last person to turn down park media - but the rules of the site must stand. We must continue to prove to Disney Legal that we are a collection of park media fans and not audio/video pirates. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 16/10/2008 12:24
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Title: Off to paris
Hi folks..
I'll be at DLRP this weekend.. starting from friday till sunday.. my servers will be down at that time (as always)
Maybe you spot me .. I'll wear my typical brown explorer west (with nokia logo on the back)
behave and have fun
*edit* I'm back |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 26/07/2008 12:27
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Title: Away for 2 Weeks
Hi folks
I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks so my torrent sharing and irc server are down for that time .. besides that I'll be online every day and will peek in ..
so long
*edit* I'm back |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 02/07/2008 10:14
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Title: Away
My turn; I`ll be in Orlando from July 5th to the 19th. As Daja said, behave whilst I`m away!
If anyone is around, keep an eye out for a mickey-tattoo-on-his-shoulder person with a camera stuck to his face
In the meantime, enjoy my latest Ultimate Tribute to Mexico
-Martin
Edit; I`m home! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 10/06/2008 15:38
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Title: Away
I will be at Disneyland Resort Paris from June 11th till June 14th. Please behave while I am gone
If at DLP at the same time, keep an eye out for the mousebits logo. You might spot me in my home made mousebits shirt 
I'll be back!
Dajatje
Edit by Dajatje:
I'm back. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 04/06/2008 12:34
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Title: Disney's Travel Channel shows on iTunes
Travel Channel's "Season of Disney" is now available for purchase on iTunes!
link here
Since they are now available for purchase, all of the Travel Channel specials from this package have been removed from our site. It's fairly cheap, though, so if you missed these videos then check them out! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 03/06/2008 20:31
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Title: Upgrades pending
Hey,
I'm tired of waiting for an official update, so I have prepared a Subversion release to upgrade our aging software with.
For some time, as backups are prepared, there will be some subtle interface changes. Also, for a short time at some point, there will be a service interruption. Service will return as quickly as possible once this happens.
Update: The major upgrade is complete. A bit of tweaking will take place over the next couple days. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/05/2008 21:06
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Title: Shoutbox software switched
Data transfer from the site has gone up a lot lately, and I think it's because the real-time ShoutBox applet is a relatively large download. As a test, I have switched back to the static ShoutBox, which will only refresh with a page load.
Update: I can confirm that the live shoutbox was the culprit, as bandwidth use has reduced to about 40% of that being used when the live shoutbox was enabled. I have learned there is a way to curb it's apetite, though, so the live shoutbox will return in due time. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 17/03/2008 01:31
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Title: Up up and away to China
Hi folks
In just a few hours I will be on my way to China. During that time neither torrent nor IRC server will be up and running. Altought the forecast shows some rain (DOH :'( ) I still hope I can get some footage out of DL HK without busting any equipment (again)
Until then behave folks .. I have internet on my trip so I'll might peek in sometimes
Cya later 
*edit* i'm back and all servings are back up |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/02/2008 17:53
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Title: Check out the forum options!
Since the forum is separate from the main site now, there is a separate set of user preferences available for you to customize. Click on "Profile" while in the forum and you will gain access to several options pages on the left side of the page.
One thing I commonly hear about is how the forum does not save copies of outgoing private messages. There is actually an option to toggle at the bottom of each message, but you can enable this by default in your Profile options. Click the "Personal Message options" link in your Profile to access this. I highlight this as an example, but do check out all the options so that you can get things working just as you'd like them! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 28/01/2008 19:06
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Title: Check out Extinct Attractions Radio
The folks at Extinct Attractions Radio, in response to feedback from their users, have revised their playback library to feature more music and less talk. If this sounds more like your thing then give them a visit at www.extinctattractionsradio.com! Contact ThunderStorm if you have any comments or questions.
I wonder... if an attraction is gutted to be replaced with a new one, does that make it extinct... or evolved? |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 27/01/2008 02:15
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Title: A reminder...
As a reminder for everybody, MouseBits is a sharing community, not a trading community. Please do not message fellow users offering to make a trade in order to get someone's private media. Instead, post a request in the "Requests" forum to have it posted. If it is not eligable to be posted publicly then please understand that it also should not be traded privately using MouseBits as a medium. Remember that we don't allow many items to be posted because you can still buy 'em!
Also, it is somewhat disruptive to users who receive these messages, who are not interested in making private trades, anyway.
Thanks for understanding! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 21/01/2008 17:27
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Title: Domain about to expire
| First of all, here's your last reminder that dc-torrents.com will expire soon. Switch to using http://www.mousebits.com please! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 17/01/2008 18:58
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Title: Software update
A software update was performed which should remove many of the reported bugs. In particular, I think it resolves many of the issues related to graphics not properly displaying in the Safari browser.
Hooray! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 11/01/2008 02:40
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Title: Bugs, solutions and pending changes
UPDATE: Many issues relating to being logged in and using the forums have been resolved. Users can use either mousebits.com or www.mousebits.com. If problems persist, this is because you once logged in through mousebits.com and now you are being forced to www.mousebits.com. You need to delete the old mousebits.com cookie, or simply clear all of your cookies.
Known bugs:
Upper nav bar is not shown for MacOS/Safari users - I received a single report of this but have seen no further evidence!
Poll submit button and Shoutbox emoticons and history are not drawn for Safari users
Inclusion of the Guest account in the Extra Stats page (due to a hack I use to retain data from deleted accounts).
Download graphic column of Torrents directory is blank for Safari users
Forum does not return to top of page on a new page
Resolved bugs:
Problems staying logged into forums
General odd behavior regarding attempts to log in and/or out
Improper sub-framing of forum for some users
Requested changes:
Improved color contrast in the default style
Return of multiple site styles (this was always intended but the default style will be refined and finalized before this is performed)
Return of Comments and Size columns in the Torrents directory
Restoration of site title as front-page hyperlink |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 10/01/2008 01:37
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Title: Upgrade MOSTLY complete!
The major upgrade action has been completed! All remaining activities can proceed with the site online.
Here is a highlight of the major new features:
Improved back-end efficiency (which means more space for torrents and users!);
New real-time Shoutbox;
Simple Machines Forum;
GUI in in multiple languages;
Subtle GUI improvements throughout;
Removal of several old annoying bugs;
Introduction of several new annoying bugs
The upgrade process will slowly proceed so you will observe small changes here and there. The most dramatic change will be changes to the site's color scheme, which I think I will work to appear more like the old default and lighter style.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE flood me with comments and suggestions as this is the best way for me to make sure the site is making positive changes.
HOORAY!
Edited by dajatje
Firefox users:
The integration between the tracker and the Forum (and PMs) is not working properly. On Internet Explorer it does work. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 09/01/2008 19:49
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Title: Site upgrade coming soon!
The site upgrades will proceed tonight.
This site will go down shortly. Having practiced the transition a few times, I hope the downtime will last only a few hours.
All BitTorrent connections will drop simultaneously but do not take any action, as they should restore themselves when the site's upgrade is complete.
I'll see you again soon!
P.S. it's done  |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 07/01/2008 02:56
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Title: Back up your Private Messages
As mentioned previously, the site upgrade has been suspended for a little while so that people can back up their Private Messages. As a reminder, the private messages will not be carried forward in the pending site upgrade.
A script for generating a page for backup can be found here:
http://www.mousebits.com/messages_export.php
Doing this is completely optional. But here it is in case you want it. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 05/01/2008 19:05
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Title: Pending upgrades
UPDATE: This upgrade has been postponed as I have been asked to provide a means to export private messages before the upgrade.
* * * * *
Some major site upgrades are pending for MouseBits. There will be some significant downtime of several hours, or possibly even a day or two. Please be patient and understand that this downtime is deliberate and MouseBits will return as soon as possible.
Note that, as part of this upgrade, user's Private Messages (in the mailbox) will be lost. Please retreive any imporant information you have there if deemed necessary. Note that all other important databases, including the user base, torrents and forum posts, will be retained.
These updates will begin tonight and should be concluded by tonight but may extend until tomorrow.
Thanks for your understanding! |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 31/12/2007 10:25
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Title: Thanks and Happy 2008
Happy 2008 to all our members! Here`s to another year of sharing the best non commercial park media available.
-Your newest Admin,
Martin |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 30/12/2007 14:25
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Title: Welcome to our newest admin
| Finally Martin (marni) was elevated to the rank of Admin on this site. We welcome him to the club of "half-gods" |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 26/12/2007 11:50
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Title: "mousebits.com" works now!
| For a long time, people couldn't use "mousebits.com", excluding the www part, to connect to the site without getting problems. This has been resolved, so use this if you'd like! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 28/11/2007 17:08
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Title: Please reduce the number of seeders!
As we coninue to make use of this relatively small virtual server, we need to limit the number of concurrent connections to the site.
The best way to do that is to reduce the number of seeders. Right now we have 34 seeders for every 1 leecher! To this end, please consider discontinuing seeding of older torrents which currently have a large base of people seeding.
If you are seeding a torrent that has 3 or more other people also seeding it and you have been seeding it for awhile, please stop the process for that file. This will help prevent MySQL errors. Thanks! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 26/11/2007 17:24
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Title: dc-torrents.com domain expiry
The www.dc-torrents.com domain is set to expire in January. It is my feeling that I shouldn't renew it so that everyone gets used to using the proper domain (www.mousebits.com) sooner rather than later.
So, for those of you used to using your old bookmarks, please update them to direct to http://www.mousebits.com so that you don't get cut off. Thanks!
UPDATE: Some users experience problems when typing the address as "mousebits.com", omitting the www part. This will cause many graphics to not show. For now, please use www.mousebits.com to avoid that. Thanks! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 23/11/2007 18:47
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Title: After months of neglect...
...I have updated the site's software to version 1.4.6. There aren't any spectacular new features, it's just better... somehow.
As always, please let me know if you find something that isn't workthing. Thanks! |
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Posted by: TheBeets
Date posted: 09/10/2007 07:18
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Title: New stuff
Maybe it sounds crazy that I ask to keep it to one video per week (per uploader), but the site has overloaded due to too many torrents before. This site just can't handle the same traffic as the bigger torrent sites out there.
All these new videos are very popular, so keep it up, but give them at least 3 - 4 days to seed and to give people a chance to see the new torrents. |
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Posted by: marni1971
Date posted: 28/09/2007 05:59
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Title: Away as well
Just to add to dajatje, I`ll be away also from the 29th until the 14th. I hope to bring back a LOT of footage!
Martin |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 21/09/2007 15:38
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Title: Away
Hi all,
I will be away from 9/22 till 10/6 staying at Walt Disney World. I will be checking in every now and then but I will not be seeding.
I will also attend Celebration 25 at Epcot on 10/1 and hope to bump into some of you
Behave while I am gone and please direct any questions to the other Admins.
Dajatje |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/09/2007 15:29
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Title: Congradulations!
At long last, the MouseBits Logo Contest is over! The winner, by popular vote, is imagineer99. His design shall be incorporated into the design perminately.
Since Sully96's image defeated TTJohn12's image in the semi-final round before being beaten by imagineer99's, in can be determined without another poll that sully96's image has won second place and will receive the second place gift basket.
Also, let's not forget the Slogan Contest! nelsonj3 originally proposed "Bring Disneyland Home - One Bit at a Time" before it was eventually conditioned by the community to become our current slogan and was selected as the winner in its own contest.
So, um - hooray! Expect to see the banner art change soon. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 10/09/2007 21:40
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Title: Final round re-vote now available
The re-vote of the MouseBits Logo Contest final round is now live!
Remember that, this time, users who registered after September 2nd are not elligable to vote. I hope everyone who is affected by this understands.
Everyone else, I encourage you to vote! Despite the issues last time, the vote was still very very close so every vote counts! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 09/09/2007 16:44
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Title: Logo Contest issues
Something unfortunate has happened during the final round of the MouseBits Logo Contest.
One user violated the rules by registering 12 extra user accounts in addition to his or her own account in order to submit a total of 13 votes all for one of the final contestants.
This obviously disrupts the legitimacy of the results of these polls. This is especially so as the final results were so close. Therefore, the results of the final round of voting are void.
We will hold a re-vote again in the near future. However, to protect from such action again, users who joined the site after September 2nd, the start date of the final round of polling, will be excluded from voting.
It is important to note and understand that neither of the contestants had any involvement in this attempt to artificially manipulate the vote. They are both victims of this action just like all the legitimate voters are. Thus, neither shall be subject to penalties by MouseBits and, similarly, everyone will be encouraged to vote again as they would regardless of these events.
I apologize to everyone and, in particular, Sully96 and Imagineer99. I know this is all very disappointing. However, we'll do our best to make things right. |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 01/09/2007 10:00
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Title: EPCOT 25
Unfortunately an incorrect version of EPCOT 25 is posted. Martin and I are correcting this ASAP, but it won't be corrected today.
I deleted the wrong post. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Dajatje.
Edit September 3rd; the full and final version should be available later today (for those in the west) or tomorrow (Europe) - my mistake was to upload an early version of the set, not the latest one I`d received. Apologies.
-Martin
Edit September 4th; the full and final version is available now thanks to Martin. Not sure what has changed, so my advise is to download the whole set again when you downloaded the previous version.
-Dajatje |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 31/08/2007 00:01
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Title: "Back to the Future" is in the Past
Back to the Future in Universal Hollywood is set to close this Monday (September 3, 2007). If you live nearby and feel like seeing it one last time, make sure you do!
Oh, and also, videotape it like crazy!!! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/08/2007 10:44
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Title: It's about freakin' time...
|
Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 05/08/2007 12:01
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Title: MouseBits Logo Contest is LIVE!
The MouseBits Logo Contest has begun! Please vote using the link on the right side of the page.
Please vote for your preferred image of each pair. A new round will begin every week, where you can vote amongst the previous week's winners.
Good luck, everyone! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 26/07/2007 18:21
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Title: Showcase Showdown
The MouseBits Logo Contest will enter into its voting stage this weekend.
The prizes for first place and runner up have been decided!
Both first place and second place will receive two books:
-101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland by Kevin Yee and Jason Schultz
-101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World by Kevin Yee
In addition to the above, the first place winner will also receive:
-[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Treasures:_Wave_Three#Tomorrow_Land]Walt Disney Treasures: Tomorrowland[/url]. This is a new copy!
-[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Treasures:_Wave_Three]Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland, USA[/url]. This is a used copy, but it has been out of production for 6 years!
So I hope this adds some genuine excitement to the contest. Remember, you can still submit new entries even if you haven't yet, or revise already submitted ones. Just click the link at the top of the page! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/07/2007 18:59
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Title: Logo Contest update
It's almost time!
The software is all done, but one thing remains: SURPRISE PRIZES!
That's right, the winner and runner-up will each receive a few prizes for winning. Which ones? I don't know! That's because my last round of prize-gathering efforts doesn't seem to be working so well.
So, just know that there will be prizes. The prizes won't be huge, but they will be all somehow related to theme parks, mostly Disney's theme parks. There will be an *censored*ortment of smaller goodies, instead of one huge prize - that's much more fun!
The contest will begin on Saturday, August 4th. This will give everyone about two more weeks to submit entries, in case the allure of prizes is convincing enough. |
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Posted by: TheBeets
Date posted: 18/06/2007 12:47
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Title: The Forever Project
If you have ANY of the following recordings on a genuine Walt Disney World Forever CD, we are looking for YOU.
American Adventure, 'In the Days of '76'
American Adventure, 'New Invention'
American Adventure, 'Westward'
American Adventure, 'Yosemite'
Character Grove Area Music, 'Give a Little Whistle'
Innoventions Area Music, '(We Used to) Listen to the Land'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Arcs'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Cascades'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Clockworks'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Fiber Optics'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Fountain of Nations'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Future World Past'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Global Neighborhood'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Golden Dream'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Innoventions'
Innoventions Area Music, 'Symphony of the Seed'
Innoventions Area Music, 'World on the Move'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Aquaculture'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Going Deeper'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Hornpipe'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Journey to Seabase'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Main Theme'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Silent Sentinels of the Deep'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Siren's Song'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Undersea Gardens'
Living Seas Area Music, 'Undersea Life'
Main Street USA, 'Rope Drop'
Spaceship Earth, 'Spaceship Earth - Full Show' 1 of 5
Spaceship Earth, 'Spaceship Earth - Full Show' 2 of 5
Spaceship Earth, 'Spaceship Earth - Full Show' 3 of 5
Spaceship Earth, 'Spaceship Earth - Full Show' 4 of 5
Spaceship Earth, 'Spaceship Earth - Full Show' 5 of 5
Again: if you have ANY of these recordings on an official WDW Forever CD or have knowledge that they ever appeared for sale on the WDW Forever system, please step forward... the doors will open automatically.
We already have mp3s of these tracks.
also see this thread |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 16/06/2007 22:24
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Title: Hi Ho .. Hi Ho ... and of to CA I go
Hi folks ...
In just a few hours I'll be sitting in a plane to LAX... hope it will be a great trip .. I will have internet on my vacation .. so you won't miss me that hard .. but I can't seed neither on mousebits nor on IRC for 3 weeks... just as info in case anyone wonders...
so long ... but as I said .. I will drop by
Addendum by SirLamer: I, too, will be away until June 24. I am going to Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point. Hooray for the summer!
If you require technical *censored*istance, please contact moderators other than Dolbyman and myself. Thanks! |
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Posted by: dajatje
Date posted: 25/05/2007 10:56
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Title: New members
Update from SirLamer: The issue discussed below has been resolved. Thanks, Dajatje!
The site is currently having problems accepting new members. For some reason the form keeps complaining that the two entered email addresses are not equal.
Work is in progress to fix this.
Dajatje |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/05/2007 10:53
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Title: Login problems
The auto-login feature of this site was reset by the recent upgrade. This is expected behavior. Most users will need only log in again.
If you cannot remember your p*censored*word, use the "Recover P*censored*word" feature on the right side of the upper menu bar.
Some users are reporting difficulties when logging in since the upgrade yesterday. A reported solution is to clear out your cookies, which will then permit you to log in properly.
I apologize for this complication, however it was implemented in order to enchance security so I trust you understand. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 23/05/2007 22:03
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Title: Software update complete!
YAY!
We are now running the latest version of BtitTracker. Now we are "Bringing You the Disney Magic Subtly More Secure and Modern Bit by Subtly More Secure and Modern Bit!" Hyuk hyuk!
New features:
Less hacking
Refined Shoutbox (you can send by just hitting enter now! More modern indeed!)
Added timezone offset (go to your user profile settings to set this up!) This feature is calculating the wrong time, probably because of Daylight Savings Time. I'll look into it.
Improved e-mail changing process
Less hacking
New flag icons with meaningless glossy treatment
Any other stuff I haven't found yet
Mostly less hacking
If you find any bugs, please PM me to let me know and I will address them. Thanks! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 23/05/2007 15:10
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Title: Software update soon
A software update will be implemented in the near future, most likely today. This will bring us up to date with the latest version of BtitTracker, the tracker software that MouseBits is based on.
Please expect some brief service interruptions during this time.
Thanks for your understanding! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 30/04/2007 22:56
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Title: Where the **** is the ****ing contest?
Where the honk is the glowing logo contest, you ask? I'm still workin' on it. I swear that I am pounding away at the code for it, allthewhile burning through old episodes of '24' (which is a good show, by the way). It appears that I am not an expert in PHP and I am forced to slowly learn how to program for it as I encounter a plentiful number of errors resulting from my inexperience. What can I say.
It's comin', I swear! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 25/04/2007 22:53
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Title: Unofficial CM Training
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 05/04/2007 02:48
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Title: Happy Easter
| The news flow was pretty slow these days (in contrast to the torrents ). So I use this newsbox to whish all visitors,users and staff members of mousebits a happy easter time. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 26/02/2007 15:19
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Title: Slow news day
| News on the front page has been slow as of late. So, if you like themed rollercoasters or food (or both?!?), check out this forum thread. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/01/2007 09:08
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Title: Bombardment
You probably have noticed by now that I have added another banner ad to the site. I don't intend to flood the page with ads, however I do need to find the most effective placement position for the ads I do place. The best way to do that is to try different areas and study the results - which is best compared with simultaneous pairs of advertising. So, please be patient for the next couple weeks.
The good news is ad revenue is completely covering all operational expenses. If this continues, which I think I will, I will likely remove the Donate button as this it would no longer be fair to ask for such donations.
Anyway... thank Google for their awesome ad program! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 22/01/2007 23:46
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Title: "Gag" title banner submissions!
Some people have asked me if they can submit so-called "gag" title banners to the Logo Contest, which may violate some of the requirements of the contest but are not intended to win - they are just for fun.
I of course will welcome and encourage submissions such as these! Such submissions will be allowed to break the presentation rules - there is no particular requirement to include the site's title nor the official site slogan - and also you will not be asked to provide the source files at any point, however the copyright restrictions will remain.
To make your intentions clear, please identify in the image submission dialogue that you intend the submission to be a "gag" submission, otherwise I may reject your submission with instructions on how to revise it.
Note that each user is allowed to submit up to three drawings, but remember that a maximum of two will be personally chosen by myself, if necessary, to proceed into the public polling for the winning banner graphic. So, that leaves room for most to submit a third "gag" banner if you'd like to!
I hope to incorporate the interactive features of this uploading script into the site in some fun ways, and in the future this may include a public "self-expressive" front-page rotating graphic thingie similar to the Logo Contest. So, have your way with it and we'll see where this goes! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 07/01/2007 16:36
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Title: Google Advertising
As most of you probably recall, I experimented a few months ago with the advertising service AdBrite in order to cover bandwidth costs. I was disappointed.
Since then, Google has expanded its program and now our pretty little torrent site is eligible. As such, I am going to try out Google AdSense to see how it'll work for it.
Google works quite differently in that over the next few days it will build a site profile to effectively compliment with relevant advertisements. In the meantime, the ads will be pretty much random, and slowly it will start to show things you might want to click on.
As always, any and all comments are welcome. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 26/12/2006 14:26
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Title: Recent downtime
Merry Christmas!
I'm sure most of you noticed that the site has been down for about 3 days. My webhost temporarily disabled our beloved MouseBits on the grounds of excessive network activity. Then, they left for Christmas!
Just today they enabled it again. To bring down the behind-the-scenes network activity, I have pruned both the user and torrents databases of inactive entires in order to reduce the scope of each query on these databases. Also, the minimum scrape interval has been increased to 15 minutes. Hopefully this should bring things in line for now. I will likely also take other methods to reduce server loads but I will do my best to avoid disrupting service on this site.
Thanks for your patience! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 21/12/2006 08:55
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Title: Wow! (and technical support)
I'm glad to see all these awesome entries in the Logo Contest! I rather enjoy getting to see a new title header each time the page refreshes!
If you are using Internet Explorer 6 and you are seeing a grey background on many of the images... well, it's because you are using Internet Explorer 6. Those grey areas should be transparent! My reccomended fix is to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, which is free and solves this problem in addition to offering a much improved interface. Also, you could use FireFox, which never had this problem and features the very interface that Microsoft stole to make IE7, heh. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 19/12/2006 00:01
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Title: IT BEGINS!
After delaying everything by a month, the Logo Contest has finally begun! You can submit your own entry or browse the real-time gallery of all the submissions by clicking the "logo contest" image at the top of the page.
The best part is that everyone's submissions will randomly appear as the title graphic at the top of the page! HOORAY!
Know that once you submit your image, it must be approved by a moderator (just me for now) before it appears.
Do remember to read the rules, which are more concise now.
So anyway... get to it! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 12/12/2006 00:03
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Title: Almost contest time...
The script for the Logo Contest is pretty much done, except I'm trying to use my own Javascript for the submission forms and this conflicts with the already-existing code in the software for this site. Once I come up with a solution for this problem, the system will be subjected to beta testing by the moderators for a couple days and then people can upload!
BTW, I did in fact re-write the rules to be much simpler to read. I also added a couple things, mostly to your benefit. The main changes are:
-Users can submit up to three UNIQUE images to the contest. Only two will appear in the public poll, at the discretion of myself. But at least then all three will be considered and all three will appear in the cycle at the top of the page.
-Users may submit, delete, and re-submit entries as many times as desired. In this way, users may seek out advise from others if so desired.
-Graphics are limited to a 100kB file size to keep the bandwidth use down given the large number of different title graphics we will see.
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 29/11/2006 09:48
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Title: Progress update
After almost a week I have fixed the bug in my code that has stumped me for many hours of trying to find it. Sadly, all I did is miss a period somewhere!
Once I have the scripts for the graphical interfaces written we'll get on with the show! I thank everyone for their patience, I know no one was expecting to have to wait this long, including myself. However, some recent and very good suggestions to offer on-site file storage and sharing has prompted me to use this temporary event as a beta test for some custom script I'll have to write, since upload management is a very sensitive subject. So, I promise that it will pay off! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 22/11/2006 14:37
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Title: Logo contest progress
I know people are itchining to get those submissions in. Right now I am working on a script to automatically handle the logo submission progress. This will allow for accurate tracking of who's submitted what and will come in handy for the polls (for which I must write more code). Plus, any of the admins will be able to approve the images for public display, just in case I stop paying attention! I mean to beta-test it with this contest so that I can add the ability for people to submit their own avatar images for storage on the site and maybe add user image galleries and what-not.
So, when I get this thing done we'll get on to it. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 20/11/2006 17:39
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Title: Two features in one day!
UPDATE: This was applied yesterday (November 20th) so I'm not the one clearing it any more! I guess some mods just find the new pop-up confirmation to be too fun to resist.
A Confirmation box for the much-hated "ShoutBox Clean" button has been added to prevent admins from accidentally clearing it in the future. I had to clear the shoutbox several times to test it until I got it working right, sorry about that!
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 20/11/2006 16:13
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Title: New functionality for Uploaders & Admins
As per several good suggestions I have received as of late, users with edit/delete privelages can now access the "Edit" and "Delete" buttons from within the torrent posting. This was added primarily to make it easier for Uploaders to find their posted torrents in their own User Profile and then make required changes. This change only affects Uploaders, Moderators and Administrators.
Remember, this came about because of a good suggestion by some of our users. If you see other similar ideas for improvement, don't hesitate to bring them up - I just might do something about them! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 18/11/2006 11:31
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Title: Proposed slogan revision!
| The slogan has been under discussion in the forums and it has been revised into an alternate version, one which most people seem to agree is stronger. Well, so as to not undermine the whole SUPER FUN voting stuff, there's one more poll! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 11/11/2006 00:50
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Title: Logo Contest rules posted!
The rules for the Logo Contest are up! They've been up for awhile but I forgot to post a news item!
Click the pretty link at the top of the page for more. Note that the slogan has not been decided yet.
P.S. It is long! I'll try to shorten it. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 06/11/2006 20:21
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Title: I'M SICK
I was going to post the rules for the logo drawing part of the contest but instead I have a head cold and can't think straight to finish writing it. Even this little bit is tough, heh.
So, I advise most everyone to hold off on making their pretty pictures until I post the rules, unless you're ok with finding your banner conflicts with of the regulations. Don't worry, everyone will have plenty of time to work on them.
OK I go sleep now ZzZzZzZz...
Dajatje:
Get well soon! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 02/11/2006 19:26
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Title: An interesting day!
Man, I love that Shoutbox.
I have observed a couple things of interest in the ShoutBox these past couple days. Well, I've observed plenty of interesting things in the ShoutBox but only a couple are going to be highlighted.
First, a member name MarsHunter broke a landmark today by having uploaded an entire TERABYTE of data. That is 1,000,000,000,000 Mouse Bytes, or 8,000,000,000,000 Mouse Bits! (har har!) MarsHunter joined the site in late March, and I think uploading that amount of data in that time is insane. Heck, I own the site and I have uploaded 155GB. Congradulations to MarsHunter for being the first to test if the "uploaded" counter rolls over to "TB" or not and hopefully his ISP doesn't hire a hitman. While I'm at it, thanks to everyone else for sharing all they can!
Second, I have heard that the great HitchhikingGhost has started up his very own podcast website! It's called "Lost in Disneyland and the URL is www.lostindisneyland.com. HitchhikingGhost is the one who created the pair of "50 Years... A Retrospective" audio set which are our most popular media offering ever. As you can imagine, the podcast is gonna be lots of fun! So check it out!
P.S. Even people without an iPod can download and listen to podcasts, just download iTunes or any other program which features podcast downloads. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 27/10/2006 16:35
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Title: Shallow self-satisfaction disabled
| The torrent Ratings feature has been removed because it appeared to be subject to the abuse of some people with low self-esteem. Besides, it serves no real practical purpose. Of course, the Comments fields remain active and available as they are actually quite useful! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/10/2006 12:59
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Title: "I want my h.263..."
Er, I guess the lyric is really "MTV", but anyway...
Hey, speaking of Money for Nothing, word on the street is that some people are complaining about the recent appearances of h.264 video on this site, better (but incorrectly) known as ".mp4" video.
h.264 is the very latest release in the MPEG-4 family of multimedia codecs. DivX and Xvid, on the other hand, are based on h.263. h.264 introduces several motion compensation features which dramatically reduce the blocking effect of the h.263 codec, thus almost always yielding higher video quality. It is therefore desirable to make use of h.264, which is usually distributed in a .mp4 interweave. h.264 video is usually accompanied by LC-CBR MPEG-4 AAC (Low complexity, constant bitrate, Advaanced Audio Codec, MPEG-4 version). This is the same audio codec used by iPod and again generally regarded as a higher quality audio format as compared to MP3, and also requires significantly less processing power to decode (hence iPods with 20 hours battery life). It is these audio and video formats which will constitute the "standard" playback formats on the upcoming high definition formats, such as BluRay and HD-DVD.
So anyway, the problem is that many people are finding that they can't play the .mp4 media. Many of these people keep har*censored*ing the authors to re-encode into DivX and also DVD-ISO.
If you want it in a different format, transcode it yourself.
But, as a better solution, why not install the apporpriate codecs? Then you can watch all the h.264 content which will be released in the future! There exists two particular solutions for Windows systems that are both excellent.
The first (and the one I reccomend) is to download a codec pack called ffdshow. This codec suite includes every codec you can think of in Active-X form. The "Active-X" form means it will play in any media player design to make use of your system's Active-X codecs, such as Windows Media Player and WinAmp. These codecs are also efficient and make relatively little use of your CPU - an important feature when trying to watch full-blown high definition video without spending $1500 on a computer that can do it, and for laptops it means longer battery life when on the go. You can find ffdshow on SourceForge. If you know if your processor supports SSE, or better yet, SSE2 algorithms (most worthwhile processors of today support SSE2) then consider downloading the appropriated version for an added performance boost.
However, some people are not comftorable with installing ffdshow because of the fact that it's open source. An option for you is to download a media player which natively comes with the codecs you need. The negative of this method is that you must use this program to watch the videos, because others such as Windows Media Player won't work. Two popular players of this type are Media Player Cl*censored*ic and VLC Media Player.
I personally reccomend the use of h.264 video and CBR LC MPEG-4 AAC audio for their optimal balance between quality and compression. So bring yourself up to date! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 20/10/2006 12:22
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Title: LIVE CHAT! HOT HOT HOT!!
MouseBits will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there are new feature requests in my inbox.
Some people might have noticed that a link titled "IRC Chat" has appeared suddenly in the main site interface. This magic link will open up a live chat link with the infamous #disney-central chat channel on the IRC network. This has come at the request of several people, who asked for a live MouseBits chat. Not wanting to destroy the community from which MouseBits has grown, I decided instead to provide easy access to the Disney Central chat channel.
The chat program will open up in its new window and thus will not disturb your activity on the MouseBits website. So please, try it out! In recent years the Disney Central community has actually expanded into two chat rooms - #disney-central-chat is dedicated to chatting it up, while the fun Disney Trivia game remains in the cl*censored*ic #disney-central channel along with the infamous Disney media servers which inspired MouseBits. You will be connected to both channels automatically, so check them both out!
The applet requires that you have Java installed - if you don't, then you should be prompted.
For those who desire more functionality, there exist many programs which can be used to connect to Disney Central, the most popular of which is mIRC. In the future, customization options shall be added to the MouseBits applet, such as the ability to define your own window dimensions and a toggle to auto-launch the chat when you join the site. But for now, 640x400 shall suffice.
MP4 Video Viewing
Since so many people are having problems with this format, this thread was made.
http://www.mousebits.com/forum.php?action=viewtopic&topicid=892 |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/09/2006 00:47
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Title: Slogan Contest!
For those who haven't checked out the Logo Contest, first we need to decide on a slogan! The weekly poll will be used to decide which slogan is everyone's favorite from a selection of those proposed by users in the forums. So, you'd better vote, 'cause you'll have to look at the winner every time you come here!
It is important that you vote for the slogan that most powerfully promotes what the MouseBits website and community means to you. Keep in mind that the slogan is the first thing that new users see when visiting our site and helps them decide whether to check it out or just leave! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 30/08/2006 20:59
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Title: Done!
THERE IS NO WEBSITE CONFIGURED AT THIS AT THIS ADDRESS.
Oh wait, there is. That's the other one.
Yes, my support desk query went through in a rediculously fast 1 hour instead of the 2 days I had expected. So it has changed ALREADY.
I apologize to all the people I undoubtedly spooked with the sudden disappearance of the site from dc-torrents.com. We're still here, no threats to our survival this time!
As a reminder, all the old torrents won't work right now. We must wait for everyone's Internet Service Providers to receive my query to have www.dc-torrents.com forward to the new domain, then they should work. If not, I'll fix 'em.
Please see below for more details.
Welcome to MouseBits! Huzzah!
UPDATE: the old dc-torrents.com domain is now forwarding properly. Also, the old torrents seem to be working properly without any adjustment, so please continue to make use of them without any need to re-download them. I encourage all users to update their bookmarks to use the new www.MouseBits.com instead of the old dc-torrents.com one. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 30/08/2006 15:39
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Title: "Aw crap NOT AGAIN"
(Note: The shoutbox is below, but this is more important right now.)
A big change is coming up for the site which will affect... well, everyone.
Awhile ago it actually occured to me that "Disney" is a copyrighted name! This a problem because "Disney" is in the site name! Oops! Disney could raise a cocern over this since I risk *censored*ociating this site with the Walt Disney Company. Of course, we are not *censored*ociated with the Walt Disney Company. By the way, so that I am absolutely clear: Disney did NOT approach me over this issue. I am just anticipating it become an issue as we grow. Just go ask Disneyland Source, Walt Disney World Magic and the original Disney Central. Erm, wait a minute...
So, in order to fix the problem rather than wait for it to pounce, we are changing the site name! I shall make no use of theatrics since I don't want to lose people during the transition as I power trip over keeping it a "surprise". The name is changing to...
MouseBits!!!:yoji:
      
Notice the excitement of the crowd. That is because the new name is hip, as is evident by the ungrammatical abscence of a space between "Mouse" and "Bits". Obviously, the name is meant to reference both Disney and BitTorrent and/or the flow of data. So it fits!
While it is not active yet, our new address will be:
www.MouseBits.com
But, there is a problem.
Changing the domain name will result in service interruptions. Our web host will have to change the domain name, which will happen at a random time which I cannot control nor predict, but it will be coming soon. At that time, www.MouseBits.com will work. Once I recieve confirmation that it has been completed (mostly by finding www.dc-torrents.com doesn't work anymore) I will issue an order to have the current domain forward to the new one automatically. This order will take about a day to propogate to all the domain name servers throughout the world. Obviously this will disrupt BitTorrent service for at least a couple days. However, as I am not sure whether or not forwarding the domain name will also forward the address to the requested file (namely, announce.php) this action may or may not perminately break all currently posted torrents. This is a risk, but it's better to do it now rather than later.
Note that the server is not physically moving or anything. All the data, everyone's user accounts and everything else shall remain intact. So no total reset this time.
I welcome any and all comments. Thanks to everyone for your patience!
Update: The blatant and vibrant changes to the site logo were made to make the upcoming change painfully clear to everyone, even those who don't read the news article. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 27/08/2006 02:15
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Title: Reminder about No New Uploaders policy
I still often receive many requests for uploading rights, presumably because we have had many new users join in the past couple months.
As a reminder, we decided to suspend issuing Uploading rights a couple months ago on account of the relatively poor organization of the Torrents database at the time. We will not be issuing uploading rights to new users until the "user guide" is all completed, in order to promote proper "education" of our policies to new Uploaders.
Now, to contradict myself: If you have something to share that is genuinely unique and awesome, then in the meantime you can still try asking. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 23/08/2006 22:58
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Title: Do not use "Transmission" client
It has been discovered that the BitTorrent client "Transmission" holds a hightened potential to corrupt server-side statistical data when used with Disney Central Torrents. I ask all users who are using Transmission to consider using a different BitTorrent client. Note that if you don't comply and your account's data becomes corrupted, it will require your traffic statistics to be reset to zero.
Thank you for your co-operation! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 23/08/2006 12:35
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Title: Back home!
| I have returned from my theme park vacationing for this summer season, and will be available for the forseeable future. I filmed some more ride videos, including all of the Fantasyland dark rides, Pirates (with the new stuff), Buzz Lightyear, and a few more. These, as well as the Universal videos I took, will get up on here eventually. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 23/08/2006 03:59
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Title: computer fixed again
Hey folks
Just wanted to inform you that my IRC server is online again. And soon new Disney Videos from Tokyo and Florida will come up from me so stay tuned |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 11/08/2006 12:49
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Title: More vacation!
As I stated previously I returned home from my trip to Universal Orlando this past Sunday. I taped for everyone Twister, Terminator 3D, ET Adventure and Spider-Man. They will appear on this site eventually, but first...
Tomorrow I leave for my road trip to Disneyland! It's a mear 1600 mile drive from my home. I will be away from now until August 23, and hopefully I shall return with some good videos for you all (I'm thinking defiantely Indiana Jones, Pirates, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Tower of Terror, of which existing videos are either out of date or of poor quality). In the meantime, please address any questions to the moderators and administrators.
See ya real soon! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/08/2006 09:34
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Title: Vacation time
I will be away on vacation starting Wednesday, August 2 as I am heading on my first of two vacation trips this summer. This year I am heading to Universal Studios in Orlando! I will try to film some of the good rides to share with everyone.
I shall return home and be available on Monday, August 7. In the meantime, please refer questions to any of the administrators or moderators, all of whom can help you out.
See ya later! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 22/07/2006 16:28
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Title: More on the advertising
Quickly after my previous news update, I decided to switch to using another advertising company. I find that this advertising is far less intrusive on the overall site experience, and that is generally the feedback I have been receiving as well.
Unlike the previous advertising company, this one offers the option to purchase advertising space specifically on this website. Check out the "Your Ad Here" link under the ads to see more. The advertising space is extremely inexpensive as compared to other websites on the same network, as I mean to offer this as a novelty item as much as a fundraising method. Absolutely any advertisment is appropriate, even ones which don't actually sell anything just to get your word up there, as long as its content is appropriate. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/07/2006 17:21
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Title: Advertising
I have decided to experiment with advertising on the website in order to offset operating expenses. While they are low right now, this sort of financial support should remain proportional to site traffic expenses as we grow, and I feel it's better to understand this stuff now while I still can afford to cut off support if need be.
Currently, this advertising exists in the form of context-sensitive banner advertising as offered by the company Clicksor. The context-senstitive part won't really start to work until their webcrawler software has had a chance to prowl our little website. Visiting the websites on the banner ads will generate revenue used to cover bandwidth expenses. So, if you see an add for something which catches your curiosity, by all means, check it out!
I purposefully have configured the advertising into what I think is one of the more annoying possible configurations, short of a pop-ups of course. I did so so that I can generate community response from what what would be a worse-case scenario. I will likely change it in the future unless I receive feedback specifically indicating that the floating banner ad is appropriate (considering that it should generate more revenues, that is.) By the way, it can be minimized or closed in the top-right corner.
I welcome any and all feedback on this change. Please participate in this week's poll so that I can understand the community response. Also, I welcome any and all comments within this forum thread and privately to myself via the PM system. |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 06/07/2006 08:27
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Title: computer down again and vacation time
Hi folks
my pc is down again (mainboard or cpu) so my IRC server is down again also I won't be able to fix it until in 2 weeks cause I'm on holiday in spain (beginning next saturday)...
maybe I build a little server in spain (have low speed broadband there) but not sure .. but behave .. I'm still watching from spain |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/06/2006 14:57
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Title: PIRATES IS THE BESTEST!!!
I suppose it comes at no surprise that Pirates of the Caribbean won our "WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST?!?" series of elimination polls. I suppose it's quite suiting, then, that the newly revised version of the cl*censored*ic attraction is due to open to the public very soon!
So, I'll lean off of the "favorite attraction" polls for awhile and do some other things. Perhaps we can do a similar elimination series for another park in the future. This week's poll is sort of a research item for me (and the rest of the media authors). Its purpose is to see which of the two currently popular video formats have the most interest. For those who aren't familiar, here is some background.
h.263: Currently, this is the most popular MPEG-4 video codec, since it has been around the longest in the market. h.263 is the MPEG-4 build used by popular codecs such as DivX and Xvid. Like I said, its strongest feature is its compatibility, especially with some specially-equipped DVD players. However, its video quality is not as good as later builds.
h.264: This is the latest build of the MPEG-4 codec, and is used more often by "propietary" codecs such as Nero Digital, QuickTime/iPod, Windows Media Video and others. It is also used by the free x264 codec. Despite the different brandings, one should expect that a video created with any one of the codecs should be compatible with all of the above listed media players and any other h.264 media players. h.264 benefits from a significant quality improvement. It has less hardware support on devices such as DVD players but it has far more support in portable devices such as iPod and Sony PSP, except such devices are likely limited in their ability to handle and process higher quality video streams.
I would like to use the h.264 codec for my upcoming video authoring work (thus creating .mp4 videos instead of .avi) but if there is a preference that I not do that, I'd like to know. So vote! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 19/06/2006 22:36
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Title: HAHAHAHA
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 14/06/2006 18:22
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Title: Dear diary...
A few things are going on, so I thought, "why not post an update?"
First, the conclusion of our on-going "WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST?!?" series of polls shall conclude next week, as the two semi-finalists go head-to-head in the ultimate battle for glory. Space Mountain shall go up against the winner of this week semi-final. And then the secretes of the universe shall be answered.
Progress on the site's user guide is very slow, but go figure. The good news is that it's because I have been planning a road trip with my friends to DISNEYLAND!!!!! Our trip will be toward the end of August, and I will film a few attractions, with bias towards the newer ones. Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't got that done yet - maybe I'll work on it tonight. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/06/2006 12:07
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Title: On Pirating Pirates
With reference to this article on MiceAge, I wish to support Disney's intentions of previewing the new Pirates of the Caribbean ride to their cast members in Disneyland despite the risks they take in revealing plot elements of the upcoming movie by means of a secretly taped ride-through video of the attraction.
Thus, let it be known that I will not permit media pertaining to the recent changes in POTC to appear on this site until after the ride has opened to the public. However, media dealing with POTC excluding the new content is still permissable. Sorry, no sneak peeks this time! |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 24/05/2006 00:46
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Title: dolbyman is back in business
ok folks .. as you can see the first of my tokyo vids is out .. soon there will be coming more ..
my pc is back in top dualcore raw power shape with updated harddisk drives .. that includes the irc server it should be on 24/7 again
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 28/04/2006 13:05
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Title: IT'S TIME FOR THE PLAYOFFS!
No I don't mean hockey, I mean something much more important. I refer to our "WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST?!?" series of favorite Disneyland ride polls.
Having completed all 8 lands in Disneyland, one ride from each park has been nominated to compete in the ladder tournament to determine which ride is everyone's favorite. The winners from the previous polls can be found in this thread. They will face each other off two at a time, and then finally the great question will be answered.
By the way, the Calgary Flames are gonna win the Stanley Cup. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 24/04/2006 23:46
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Title: New features
I have added some new code and will add more here and there over the next while. This will be documented in the news posts, so that people are aware should an error be encountered. If you encounter a problem which may be the result of a change I made, please inform me via a private message. Thanks!
2006/04/28
- P*censored*words must now be at least 6 characters in length. Users who have already registered with shorter p*censored*words will be allowed to continue to use them.
- Fixed various minor errors introduced by previous changes.
2006/04/27
- Added spelling confirmation feature for e-mail address in "change profile" fields in the User Control Panel.
- Changing the e-mail address of your account will now revert you back to "validating" status, requiring confirmation of the address to regain access to the torrent database.
2006/04/25
- Added ability for the user to manually request that the validation e-mail be re-sent through the User Control Panel.
- Corrected text-generation errors in the code in the messages generated during the registration process.
2006/04/24
- Added "confirm e-mail" field to user registration, and relevant comparison code
- Modified English language dialogue entires for improved grammar and professionalism, paticularly during the registration process |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 21/04/2006 19:45
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Title: Exams are done!
I just got home from the last of my four final exams this week. They didn't go so well (I had half a day to study for each of them!) but WHO CARES because I'm all done now.
Just like last semseter, I'll take this opportunity to spiff up the site as much as I can. Unlike last semester, though, I am off for 16 months as I work a full time position for my Internship experience. As I will have MUCH more free time than I used to, I hope to bring a lot of the technical and aesthetic changes to the site which have been suggested by many people these past few months.
So, with that in mind, if you encouter horrible script errors at random times, please excuse me as I tinker with the site. If you notice that one of these issues remains persistantly and might not be immediately obvious to me when I test things, please alert via a private message. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 17/04/2006 20:19
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Title: No more uploaders
| For the time being, we will not be responding to any further requests for uploading rights. This is because the quality of the posts has been deteriorating and this needs to be addressed. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 12/04/2006 15:46
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Title: Exam time!
I am getting lots and lots of requests to upload stuff. But, right now I am busy with school as it is exams time.
Please address your questions to any of the Administrators, which can be found through the "Members" link at the top as well as the link in this post.
Please understand that if you wish to upload things, you must only post stuff of reasonable quality that is organized in an appropriate manner. We are not looking for messy posts of 100 random low-quality MP3's.
Thanks! |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 11/04/2006 12:17
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Title: Update: Contrast style fixed
I just got info that during the tracker update the contrast style got deleted/corrupted .. if you choose this as your style (or this is your default) you can not access disney-central !!!
I hope SirLamer can fix this asap
UPDATE BY SIRLAMER: This issue has been corrected. Thanks! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 09/04/2006 22:20
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Title: New software update
A new version of BtitTracker has been released, polishing up some things. I will apply this patch this evening. Please excuse any service interruptions that may occur through this process.
UPDATE: The patch has been applied succesfully. For those who are interested, an RSS feed is now available from the following address:
http://www.dc-torrents.com/rss.php
Note that this feed is for the forum only. An RSS feed for the torrents exists but it has a fatal error. The address will be revealed upon its repair. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 06/04/2006 22:24
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Title: Upcomming content
The DVD posts which have been going up lately will be converted to DivX format by myself. Several of them I have already posted.
I discovered that many of the Disney Family Album videos I posted have significant errors in them, a consequence of the program I was using to encode them. I am in the process of re-encoding all of the episodes to get rid of any possible errors, and I have also improved on the audio quality. I apologize for this, but this will require everyone to re-download them, if you wish to keep them in the highest possible quality.
Other items will follow, using as the Magic Highway program. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 04/04/2006 23:43
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Title: Server load error
I observed a server load error just now for myself. Currently, we are only using literally 2 of an available shared 255 communication threads with the MySQL server, and such errors can and do occur naturally. It was likely the result of another website on the server executing some sort of database backup script. Still, we need to lose a lot of activity on the site, just to play it safe.
Have a look at the torrents you are seeding. With the exception of torrents which were posted recently and are still quite busy, please drop seeder support for torrents which you can see to have more than 5 seeders already supporting it. In this way, the first people to notice it will drop support, with 5 people remaining. The remaining 5 people are not obligated to continue seeding support, and may disconnect that torrent from the site at any time.
Thank you. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/04/2006 03:15
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Title: Good news!
It is time I reveal something great to you all.
Disney has been paying attention to our little site. About a week ago, a representative contacted me and said that they were interested in our little community. You might think that they would threaten to shut us down, but to the contrary, they see this as an opportunity to promote their parks, and maybe one day, their movies as well.
To that end, they offered to produce for us unique and professionally made videos, which would be available free for download from here.
For the most part, this would mean more on-ride videos of the attractions, except they will use professional camera mounts and whatnot. In addition, they may produce some behind-the-scenes videos, highlighting the technical elements of the rides. One example offered was a behind-the-scenes look at the workings of the Indiana Jones Adventure. I cautioned them against filling these videos with silly costumed characters and lame scripted stories or anything like that, and they agree that they would be best to stick to the formula which works. Also, some audio content may appear straight from them, with tracks kind of like how they were offered in the Disneyland Forever system. However, the audio content from them would be limited, since they do sell much of it on pre-packaged albums.
They also expressed their limited support of our policy of only sharing stuff which we believe to be not available for sale, apparently agreeing that it is a fair boundary. But they are cautious about this, heh. Disney's participation may require some minor changes to what is and is not offered here, but for the most part it's not a big deal.
Also, I was *censored*ured that they would support the site by offering their own webspace for us if we need it, as this will likely generate tons more interest in our little website. I get the impression that Disney's intent is to sort of study the success of this very penetrating yet nearly free method of marketing, with the possibility that they may start up their own distribution system. For now, my guess is that they want to work with the community which already exists, which is fine by me.
I was granted permission to announce this myself, but expect more official word on this later today.
Hooray!
OFFICIAL WORD HAS ARRIVED!: April Fools |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 28/03/2006 23:33
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Title: Stuff
Again tonight, the site is busier than it has ever been, with 195 leechers among a total of 1585 peers right now. Also, tonight we have surp*censored*ed the amount of data transfer that the old site saw in almost a year's time. Whew! A boatload of good stuff has gone up tonight, so make sure you wade through it! As a reminder, all DVD content will be re-posted as much smaller but slightly lower quality DivX video files, for those who don't care to download 4GB torrents. I myself have plenty of stuff to post, but it shall wait as the site has enough new stuff for one day.
Again, this week's poll is a tight one, so everyone make sure to participate. Remember that the winner for the Fantasyland elimination series will be nominated for the final tournament ladder between the favorite rides from each of Disneyland's 8 themed areas.
By the way, I previously mentioned implementing a "new since last visit" marker on the torrents directory. The code didn't seem to work, so I have since removed it. Oh well! |
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Posted by: dolbyman
Date posted: 17/03/2006 10:34
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Title: distro back up
the distro server is back up
for the new user data feel free to contact me
(I changed the domain name .. so the old data is not workin anymore)
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 16/03/2006 00:24
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Title: Some news
I have added a small change to the site's software. Now, torrents which you have not yet browsed will be marked with a "new" icon. This can help you keep track, especially for those of you who don't visit every half hour like I do. If you so desire, the link "mark all as read" at the top of the list will clear the icons for all torrents. I'm not actually sure that it's working, but we'll see when somebody posts something new.
Our poll to the right remains very competitive. Since its so tight, I thought I should declare an official cut-off time for the poll. The results shall be collected at midnight Central time on Thursday evening. The new poll shall go up shortly thereafter.
There are a lot more people participating in this poll that usual. Thanks everyone for joining in! If you haven't voted yet, make sure you do, 'cause this one is real close! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 14/03/2006 10:55
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Title: REAL-LIFE OLYMPIC ACTION!
This week, the poll for the first set of Fantasyland rides is really really close! I know a lot of people visit this site and don't vote, but this one actually counts, so everyone join in!
Make sure you vote for YOUR favorite, and not what everyone tells you is your favorite in the ShoutBox! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 11/03/2006 00:19
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Title: Small update
| A very small update was released for BtitTracker to fix an exploit which allowed people to grant themselves administrative rights using hacking methods. If anyone observes odd behaviors or script errors that are occuring as a result of these changes, please let me know. Thanks! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/03/2006 21:00
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Title: A milestone!
Right now our tracker is serving 1030 peers, 173 of whom are leechers. Never before have we exceeded 1000 simultaneous peers on the site. This is quite exciting! For those who recall, it took only 300 or so peers to overload our old server. We're still only using 10-15 of the available 255 MySQL data threads at a time, so it would appear that this software is much more reliable than the old version.
I'm glad everything is working out so well!
I'm sure all this traffic is due in part to the several complete DVD releases that have gone up recently. By the way, I have made it a policy of mine to convert DVD posts to DivX format, for those who can't afford the bandwidth demands or the extra storage space of the DVD ISOs. These DivX version will appear some time after the DVD ones, as I have to download them myself. I imagine that it will take about a week's time, depending on my load at school and whatnot. If the DVD authors elect to post their own DivX videos, then I won't post my own DivX rips, unless the author's DivX rips are of poor quality. I will keep doing this so long as I can keep up with the DVD posts!
Also, the "WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST!?!" poll series is rolling along. Next up shall be Fantasyland. By the way, since Fantsyland is so big, it will have to be done in 3 polls. The first two polls will feature all of the attractions between the two of them. The winner of each poll with then face each other in a head-to-head round, to decide the nomination from Fantasyland for the final poll. Everything shall be tracked from this thread, where it can also be discussed if you so desire.
Hooray! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 17/02/2006 12:44
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Title: Small changes
| I re-arranged the boarder block things in order to avoid a "crushing" effect that some people experience with lower resolutions. So it's not broken. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 16/02/2006 19:52
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Title: WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST?!?!
In the spirit of the Olympics (I guess), I have decided to start a elimination contest between rides in Disneyland.
And, the event shall be called...
WHICH ONE IS THE BESTEST!?!
The process is simple. Every Friday (or somewhere around there at least) I will cycle through a new themed land in Disneyland. Each week, everyone will have a chance to vote for their favorite ride in the list. There is no specific closing time of the poll, but at some point on Fridays I shall document the results before posting the next poll.
When all the lands in Disneyland have been covered, the winning ride from each of the previous votes will all be presented together. I might do this all in one vote, or I might create one-on-one votes for the finalists, we'll see. But anyway, in the end we will have determined which ride is the favorite of the community! Hooray!
Of course, we can go beyond there. We could potentially do this for all the parks, even the overseas one, and see which is the favorite Disney ride in the world. But we'll see whether or not we lose interest in this, heh.
Note that to keep the list within a reasonable size, this contest is restricted to currently-existing rides. So the old ones won't appear, sorry!
An "official" thread has been created here. Here, everyone may argue in favor of their favorite rides! Also, this is where the historical record of the polls will be kept. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 12/02/2006 14:57
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Title: Azureus Upgrade
I thought I would just make everyone aware of a useful feature change within Azureus that has come about with the recent upgrade to version 2.4.0.0. By the way, Azureus should automatically offer to install this upgrade when Azureus is first started. If this is not happening, consult its website: http://azureus.sourceforge.net.
You'll notice that when you open a torrent, the window is quite different. The first thing you'll have to do is identify in the middle-area of the window where to download your torrents to. This folder will be retained for the next torrents, but you can change it every time if you wish.
The most useful feature is toward the bottom of this window. It makes it very convenient to select individual files for download from a torrent with multiple files. This is most relevant to the music collections, where someone might only want a couple tracks.
Anyway, I thought I would direct everyone's attention to that so that they were aware!
UPDATE: If you wish to join in seeding something which you have already downloaded, then when Azureus prompts you with the window described above, right click the filename under "name", click change destination and point to the already downloaded file. This is especially important if the file name that you have is different from the one in the torrent. This is essentially the same requirement as the old Azureus version, it's just a little less obvious now. Thanks, TheBeets! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 08/02/2006 22:18
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Title: Lots of seeders!
Wow, it's amazing how many seeders there are hanging around! Right now there are almost 700 peers on the system, which is nearly tripple what made the old site generate errors. This rapid growth is incredible.
Perhaps I should take this opportunity to remind everyone that having idle seeders does burden the site with extra work. It's not a big deal now, but I thought I should mention it before it starts generating errors again, heh. Generally, if an older torrent (as in a few days old) has 5 - 10 or more seeders, it's pretty safe to delete the item from your BitTorrent client and let other people seed it. This keeps activity on the site down without choking the download speed rate of latecommers.
Remember that there is no tangible benefit at all to having a high share ratio, and no one in the history of this site has ever been banned for having a poor share ratio. So don't lose sleep over it. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 01/02/2006 15:19
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Title: Holy crap
| Well everything is churning along. For some reason, there is already WAY more activity on the new site than I ever saw on the old site. Right now, there are 529 peers using the tracker for seeding or leeching, whereas the old site started generating errors with less than 300 peers. I'm not sure what is the reason for that, but I'm glad the site is still busy. I think it's a good thing I optimized the background mathematics, heh. |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 30/01/2006 19:07
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Title: Donations now possible!
Several people have requested the ability to donate money toward paying for bandwidth. I have configured the donations button in the corner to be functional.
I want to be straight with everyone, so understand that right now, bandwidth currently costs about $80 USD per YEAR right now. That is not a whole lot for me to cover, but nonetheless, the option is now available as per the many requests I received.
Understand also that this account is configured for transferring donation money into my personal bank account. I pay the bandwidth fees from this account to avoid the possibility of the PayPal account running dry without my knowledge. However, I will keep a paper trail of donated funds, and will make it is allocated to operation of this site.
As a reminder for our new arrivals, please see this forum thread for information related to all the changes. If you need help with something, I would prefer that you please send me a private message through the website rather than e-mailing me.
Thanks everyone for your support! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 29/01/2006 14:17
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Title: Status update
I'm glad to see so many people already registering with the new site! I have tried to set things up to avoid having re-register in the future (the domain name being the biggest part of that), so hopefully this will be the last time.
I have restored uploading rights to the old uploaders that have registered so far. Hopefully torrents should start returning into activity soon.
UPLOADERS: The announce URL has changed to http://www.dc-torrents.com/announce.php
This is noted on the Uploads page as well.
A forum for the purpose of requests has been created within the forums. If you are looking for something in particular, you are welcome to post a request for it there! |
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Posted by: SirLamer
Date posted: 29/01/2006 00:20
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Title: We're back!
Wow, that was fast.
OKAY, our beloved community is back on its feet.
You might notice some subtle changes and ask yourself, "what the..."
Many of your questions shall be answered in this forum thread.
Welcome back! |
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