Torrent Union
Torrent Union was a collection of Russian based torrent sites that went online in mid 1995 and went through a series of administrative changes until its collapse in 2006. it was the forerunner to such torrent community's as http://www.demonoid.com/ and the ill fated Peoples Torrent (a Chinese torrent site) it was succeeded by Torrent Federation in late August 2006. It was another Russian based torrent site (supposedly created by former Torrent Union chairman Nikolai Mihailov) which was in the same vein as Torrent Union it to suffered the same fate as its predecessor and went offline in the winter of 2007.
Innovations and impact
Torrent Union had a profound impact on the torrent community in being one of the first torrent sites to have archives of fully seeded torrents 24 hours a day 365 Days a year. It was also one of the first torrent sites to punish leechers (members who download and never upload)it also was one of the few sites that was entirely member supported via donation of a up to a dollar a day. It also allowed users to have a direct dialog with the torrent unloaders (i.e. torrent has little or no seeders)and the problem would be taken care of in at least two days if not a few hours.
Firsts
Torrent Union was known for being the pioneer of the Torrent Community with such first like:
Monitored upload download rates: users were monitored to see if their percentages of files download is comparable to the amount they uploaded.
Punishment for leechers: Users that were found to download a torrent and never help seed it would either be put on probation or banned.
Week long Membership Drives and Membership renewal: The ability for any one to join Torrent Union for free and Contribute to the massive torrent archives as well as allowing members that were banned for leeching to be allowed probational reentry with limited downloads for 1 to 2 months.
Voluntary Donations: Users were able to donate any amount of money they felt they could and were not forced to do so for member ship.
Ability to have a say in site politics: Any user had the option to bring a problem or suggestion before the Union Comintern (General site Admins) which would then discuss it with the politburo (Chief site Admins).
Constantly seeded torrents and removal of duplicate files: The site was able to guaranty that torrent would almost always be seeded because of the sites dedicated admin team and massive user pool and it also allowed users to contact an up loader and tell him or her if the file they posted is a duplicate of one all ready posted and have it removed by the up loader of a mod.
Impact on the Torrent community
Torrent Unions impact upon the torrent community can still be seen to day. Torrent sites like Demonoid,The Pirate Bay, and Snarf-It adopted many of Torrent Unions IDeaS such as fee membership with voluntary donations, punishment for leechers, monitored user upload download rates, and direct seed user feed back. The void that Torrent Union left after its demise in 2006 made it possible for smaller Torrent servers to gain publicity though many of which were very different in style and policy for Torrent Union and its successors (see the demise of bttorrents).
The Ulyanovsk era (1995-2002)
The site was build by Russian software programmer named Michael Ulyanovsk (who in the sites fictional history mock up of the Soviet Union is representative of Lenin). Under Ulyanovsk the site would flourish and fights between members and Admin would be a rare occurrence. At its peak the site would be home to almost 4 million members and hold almost 3 billion Torrents spread over its four independent servers (hence the name Torrent Union). Though just like the real world all good things must come to an end and soon after the appointments of 4 new admins to the central party (Chief Admins) is when trouble began to brew on the horizon.
Power Struggle
The 4 new admins who began calling them selves The New Guard (names Katrinka Petrova, Ivan Polanski, Joseph Stravinsky, and Jordan Tarasov) began destroying the admin hierarchy by disregarding set rules and regulations, for ex. allowing certain members on probation to download freely and ban others with out warning and over riding member ship approval by the Union Comintern. They also began blocking specific admins (The Old Guard) from logging in, though not successfully they did make it very hard for any one other than Ulyanovsk to sign in but by mid 2002 Ulyanovsk had resined the chairman position to close friend Nikolai Mihailov (representative of Nikita Khrushchev) who would eventually wrestle control of Torrent Union from the New Guard in 2004
Stravinsky era (2002-2004)
After Stravinsky took administrative control of Torrent Union following the departure of Ulyanovsk (with some Admin backing) he proceeded to revamp the site as he wished. The Stravinsky period of Torrent Union saw the site down for repair and updates on a weekly basis causing a large backlash from the prols (members) the majority of which were banned for criticizing the Admis. This was also the time of a massive attempt to wipe all the remnants of Ulyanovsk and his Old Guard from the site starting with the 2 week membership drive which became 1 day long and was often unannounced and became to only way to gain entry. It also saw the population of the site dwindle from over 4 million hits a day under Ulyanovsk to a pitiful 250,000 hits a week.
Mihailov era (2004-2006)
The few remaining members of the once massive Torrent Union were met with a puzzling message when they attempted to login on January 3 2004 "The Revolution has begun the old guard has returned to the union and we will not rest till we restore it to its former glory. Thank you for your cooperation." In a few weeks the site was back up and running with Nikolai Mihailov as chairman and he began restoring the site to its previous form under Ulyanovsk. Membership began to grow to pre-Stravinsky levels though never again attaining the 4 million hits a day level it once held. The Mihailov era also saw the return of Ulyanovsk as a Union Comintern member (for a short while any ways) Mihailov took this opportunity to start discussions with Ulyanovsk, the Union Comintern, and the politburo AbOUT a possible return for Ulyanovsk as the site chairman, to which Ulyanovsk declined and eventually resined his position as Union Comintern chairman in early 2005.
The Collapse (February 13 2006)
The torrent community was stunned on February 13 2006 when the Torrent Union home page was replaced with a picture a faded and the tatter Torrent Union flag with the caption "it finally happened" beneath it. This simple image and caption signified the end of a great era in the torrent community that would never be seen again with the same force and power.
Possible reasons for the collapse
Though it has never been stated why Torrent Union collapsed that February morning in 2006 many former members have their own theories. here are the 3 most common:
- Theory #1: The site was shut down due to copyright issues.
Possible if the site was based out of the United states but seeing as it was based out of Russia and they have very relaxed internet download laws this is very unlikely.
- Theory #2: Infighting caused Mihailov to close down the sight for fear of another new guard like coup.
This is a likely answer to the question of the collapse though most people will argue that Mihailov was not afraid to fight as proven by his coup against Stravinsky.
- Theory #3: Following Ulyanovsk withdrawal coupled with the massive bannings by Stravinsky the remaining meager populous could not support the site with their donations.
This is the most likely answer to the question seeing as Mihailov and his politburo began massive membership drives to drum up the necessary amount of donation to help keep the site up.
External links
The unofficial Successor of Torrent Union