Update on New Site

As with so many things in life, the current project to replace MetalBits with a new and improved metal tracker has hit a variety of roadblocks.  We have a largely vanilla RC2 Gazelle site installed and some fixes done, along with some general theme ideas and content.  We are however still a distance from being ready to launch a site.

What we need is dedicated metalheads who have design and coding skills, and as a benefit anyone who has worked on a tracker in the past.  We need your knowledge and expertise to help push this project to a finishing point.

If you have skills to contribute, please visit #MetalBits on irc.p2p-network.net and wait around for someone to answer your questions.

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MetalBits.org Has Closed

February 26th has come and gone, the site is now closed.  The tracker was turned off first, backups were made of the user & torrents db then all user classes and members were removed.  You may still see a login page until the DNS expires and your cache is cleared, but no accounts exist on the site any more.

Staff will utilize the server still for working on the new project but the content and db’s have been removed so please don’t ask us why you can’t login any more.

A final thanks to all staff past & present, along with all users of the past & present.  During it’s lifetime MetalBits saw just shy of 10,000 users go through the doors which is a pretty impressive statistic.

The staff of metal-torrents.hopto.org have offered their site as a refuge for members, see the comments in the first update for news from Berzerker.  metal.iplay.ro have also opened their doors to all MetalBits users and a staff member is in IRC for those wanting an invite.

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The end of MetalBits & What’s up next!

It may or may not come to a surprise to many users, but MetalBits has struggled to survive for quite some time now and the tools to keep it alive are no longer viable. With past downtime, DNS problems, changes to Gazelle and the seemingly constant change of staff through it’s history, the site has reached a point where overhauls no longer make sense and a clean break is required.

While in recent months the site has seen some tremendous spikes in activity and participation, these are short term and a site like this simply cannot survive on that sort of activity.

When the DNS for this domain expires on February 26th, the site will cease to exist. We still feel there is a community and a niche to fill though, so we’re not going away forever. The name & brand MetalBits has survived a lot of change but the changes we have planned now simply won’t do any good under the old banner, a clean start is needed.

We will still be available on irc.p2p-network.net in #MetalBits and we have created this blog for all our faithful users to follow us on. There is no scheduled date for our return, updates will be available through these 2 locations. We’ll be gone as long as it takes to develop the #1 underground site on the Internet.

During the downtime we will be working with Gazelle RC2, some new coders & designers, and developing a new theme & tracker that will hopefully impress you all and make your return inevitable. There will be significant changes from top to bottom, the entire system is being revamped, new rules, new staff. You will barely recognize the place used to be MetalBits which is exactly why the name must change and MB must end now.

We hope you will continue to follow our blog & IRC channel during the hiatus and we’ll do our best to spread the word when our new site is available to the masses. We plan to pick many dedicated users from this site to help us beta test and prepare the new site for launch.

This site survived 3 good years through the hard work and dedication to a lot of staff and without them this site would have ended a long time ago. Thanks to Seroth, Ante, hellfairy, weeeeew and the many other staff of the past for making MetalBits a successful site for a long time.

Thanks to the many thousands of users who have called this site home at one point or another. Without users there is no site, no community, no diversity.

Stay tuned.

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