TorrentFreak Turns Three

Written by Ernesto on November 12, 2008 

Exactly three years ago, November 12, 2005, TorrentFreak first saw the light of day. Since then we have published 1,788 articles, while our readers wrote 88,987 comments. It’s been a great ride so far, thanks to all of you…

When the first article was published on TorrentFreak, I never imagined that the blog would be where it is right now. One of the main purposes of TorrentFreak has always been to cover file-sharing news from the perspective of file-sharers, often to counter the misleading messages that are put into this world by anti-piracy lobbyists.

Initially, I started to write up a few ‘tips and tricks’ type articles, complemented by the occasional news item. Right from the start, TorrentFreak got some decent traffic thanks to the community on Digg.com, which was a real motivator to continue blogging. Over time, TorrentFreak developed into a more serious news outlet, more and more articles were unique and the quality of writing improved.

As the popularity of BitTorrent grew, so did TorrentFreak’s traffic, and with that came the opportunity to meet some great characters, including most of the people who run the BitTorrent sites I love to write about. A few months after TorrentFreak was born, I became we. Smaran was the first writer to join the blog, and although he stopped contributing in 2006, he played his part in the evolution of TorrentFreak.

Running a blog like TorrentFreak is an impossible talk for one person, and I was more than happy when Enigmax (Andy) joined me in early 2006. For almost two years now, Enigmax and I have been running the daily operations at TorrentFreak, and together we spend most of our free time writing articles. Unlike some people think, TorrentFreak is not a professional operation, that is, Enigmax and I both have full-time jobs aside. TorrentFreak is a hobby project, and we write because we are passionate about BitTorrent and file-sharing, not because we need to, in a job sense.

Although we would love to, it would be impossible to mention everyone who has contributed to TorrentFreak. We’ve had several guest writers and received thousands of tips from readers – they have all contributed to the site in some way or another. Besides Enigmax and myself, Ben Jones is the third regular on TorrentFreak. Although he prefers to do research instead of writing, his contributions can’t be missed.

At TorrentFreak we don’t see ourselves as journalists. We are P2P enthusiasts, who love to document how the Internet, and BitTorrent in particular, is changing how we interact with online media. We also write extensively on how the world, and the law, reacts to this (re)evolution. We write about things that interest us, and hope that others are interested in them too.

We write because it’s our passion. Cnet UK did a piece on us today, and Nate Lanxon sums us up nicely: “The rise of blogging has been fueled less by money, and more by the desire to write about subjects people truly care about. And in the world of news, that often means writing at ungodly hours, for ungodly hours on end.”

Of course, we won’t stop here and we hope to bring you many more articles in the future. Even though our time is limited, we aim to publish at least one article each and every day. In a way our limited time is also a quality check. It’s not that hard to publish 4 or 5 articles a day, but if you only have time for one, you’ll have to make sure it’s unique, and worth it. Of course we are always open to contributions from readers, or aspiring bloggers who want to help out.

We have some pretty exciting plans for the future which we will will announce soon, and a redesign is being worked on as well. Writing for TorrentFreak has been a a great endeavor thus far, most of all thanks to you, our readers We’re here to stay, and hope the next three years will be as much fun as the first.

Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent

Next: Piracy Rampant Among Finnish Youth

71 Responses

1 Nov 12, 2008 at 17:48 by Matthew Hughes

Happy Birthday!

http://www.matthewhughes.co.uk

2 Nov 12, 2008 at 17:58 by Dave

Happy Birthday :)

3 Nov 12, 2008 at 17:59 by nil80

I love torrentfreak, happy birthday!

4 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:03 by Killer Tree

Happy Birthday, let’s all download to celebrate!

5 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:05 by Signed Sealed and also quite Delivered

even though its all biased writing

oh well i still check up on the site a lot

6 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:06 by Freakfreak

Yip! Congrats to you folks! And the best wishes for the future!!!

7 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:08 by [];[;

Happy Birthday

8 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:14 by UK Resident

It’s a brilliant blog – thank you

and happy birthday.

9 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:15 by TS

Congratz!

10 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:21 by That Guy

Congrats!! Its always good to see great sites continue to grow. Hopefully one day my site can be as popular as yours.

Visit P2P Tech Time
http://www.p2ptechtime.com

11 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:22 by lada

Happy B day!! :D

12 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:25 by Roscoe

Happy Birthday TF! Three years behind, many more to come!

13 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:38 by Anonymous

nice

14 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:49 by mu57i11

happy birthday.

15 Nov 12, 2008 at 18:59 by Keith

Keep up the good work, makes interesting reading.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

16 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:03 by Mach

Keep it up ;)

17 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:04 by Ynst

Horay!

I read Torrentfreak almost from the beginning. Always very much fun.

Keep up the good work!

greetings from the Netherlands

18 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:10 by Pavan Kumar

Hearty congrats…

Almost 50 comments per post…

Really great thing…

You cover very important things related with torrents…

Very great to see you grow well and guide and update us…

All the best…

Pavan Kumar
http://www.techpavan.com

19 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:13 by Roze

Piracy is Bad

TF is Good

Happy Birthday!

Roze

20 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:20 by Ernesto

Thanks all :)

21 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:20 by Niek

Congrats :)

22 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:40 by Mr.Afghanistan

Happy Birthday TorrentFreak.

I am not visiting bbc but i always visit torrentfreak.com to update myself.

All important news on one and only TorrentFreak :)

Happy birthday once again

23 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:45 by inb4noobs

Congratulation TF, you rock!

24 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:50 by Pirate Blackthorne

Happy birthday Torrentfreak!

i love every bit of pure greatness that you have given us :)

25 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:55 by Roze

“TorrentFreak is a hobby project” – indeed, is that not a great thing? I do not think that socialism is a good economic system (or, at least, not for now), but it is quite disturbing, at least, when the greatest motivation in our culture is one of the 7 deadly sins. I wonder how TorrentFreak was when it was beginning. Perhaps it could be instructive to everyone else who wishes to maintain a blog?

It is always a positive thing whenever there is this spark of passion, wherever it is. Too much I see of apathy in this world. If only the P2P community would be as passionate. Well, hopefully, there shall be more of passion. I shall always look for more of it.

Roze
http://www.10ch.org/

26 Nov 12, 2008 at 19:58 by JT

Congrats!

27 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:03 by DevKinetic

Happy Birthday,

Torrentfreak is the first and last site I check everyday. Keep up the good work and the quality content!

http://blog.devkinetic.com

28 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:05 by come on

SEED! I’M STUCK AT 99.8% arrg!

ha, just kidding. happy birthday.

29 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:12 by Anonymous

Happy birthday and may you never grow commercial or the like.

30 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:32 by 3abBas

my first reply :D

happy BDay TF
i always read TF and i love it, it takes me away from my problems and c something refreshing, even if it was about those damned MPAA, u r really great
and i hope for alot more years of reading this blog

31 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:43 by Mr.Torrent

Congratz n’stuff

32 Nov 12, 2008 at 20:53 by Gonz

Congrats, TorrentFreak crew!

33 Nov 12, 2008 at 21:04 by Triple D

Not FIRST j/k

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TORRENTFREAK! Keep up the great work!!!

34 Nov 12, 2008 at 21:30 by Anonymous

happy birthday~ c:

35 Nov 12, 2008 at 21:32 by Mauritz

Happy Birthday!! <3

36 Nov 12, 2008 at 21:50 by MojoNojo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!

37 Nov 12, 2008 at 22:00 by NastyBedazzler

I’ve been coming here for long time.

Good site, congrats on the third anniversary.

38 Nov 12, 2008 at 22:16 by Louis Choquel

Great blog, bravo.

Et bon anniversaire TorrentFreak !

39 Nov 12, 2008 at 22:30 by Jordan

Happy birthday, Torrentfreak!

40 Nov 12, 2008 at 22:43 by laama

Happy birthday!

41 Nov 12, 2008 at 22:50 by Jasper van Weerd

Great, keep it going.

42 Nov 12, 2008 at 23:00 by Jasper van Weerd

nice interview also!

congrats

43 Nov 12, 2008 at 23:16 by :)

Grats and cheers!

44 Nov 12, 2008 at 23:28 by Drake

Keep up the great work. TF has become one of my primary news sources.

45 Nov 12, 2008 at 23:52 by daniel

congrats!

You are my first stop for big news. Great coverage.

But the tv show can go.

46 Nov 13, 2008 at 00:12 by d4rkm00n

Long time reader, first time poster.

Happy Birthday!

47 Nov 13, 2008 at 00:33 by zarathustra

Three already? :P

Happy Birthday, TF, & many, many, MANY more to come…

=]

48 Nov 13, 2008 at 01:24 by mustangx

Happy Birthday TorrentFreak and Congratulations on 3 GREAT years .

49 Nov 13, 2008 at 01:55 by js

fantastic site!

here’s to 10 more years :D

50 Nov 13, 2008 at 03:20 by Nokio

hey guys, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i check your site several times a day for new articles and use your site for a major point of reference for many of the goings on in the p2p community. i hope you guys are here to stay for at least another three years to come. thanks for all your hard work and dedication. if you ever need any help, let me know via http://www.cloudnyne.net

thanks again,
Nokio

51 Nov 13, 2008 at 03:45 by ju

the dark knight is your birthday present. happy birthday

52 Nov 13, 2008 at 03:57 by EightySixFilms

Way to go guys, keep up the good work!

53 Nov 13, 2008 at 05:59 by Ad

Happy birthday! Keep up the good work :)

54 Nov 13, 2008 at 06:02 by Cujothemadog

love ur stuff!!

55 Nov 13, 2008 at 06:40 by Diji1

Redesign hey?

Please DO NOT USE THE SAME BACKGROUND. WHilst teh content here is often quite good, sometimes excellet, that background is busy, distracting and just plain ugly.

That’s something I would like to see changed for certain :)

56 Nov 13, 2008 at 06:48 by Ashish choudhary

hey

Really great site cover many types of p2p news

thanks
for your great work
**** Happy Birthday ***

http://www.bugjee.com

57 Nov 13, 2008 at 06:49 by Ashish choudhary

hey

Really great site cover many types of p2p news

thanks
for your great work
**** Happy Birthday ***

Ashish Choudhary
http://www.bugjee.com

58 Nov 13, 2008 at 08:15 by Mike Dallos

Congratulations!!

59 Nov 13, 2008 at 13:07 by DK

Happy birthday TF. You have grown very well over the years!

60 Nov 13, 2008 at 14:07 by Goff

“Unlike some people think, TorrentFreak is not a professional operation, that is, Enigmax and I both have full-time jobs aside. TorrentFreak is a hobby project, and we write because we are passionate about BitTorrent and file-sharing, not because we need to, in a job sense.”
.
Based on the above passage the quality of the writing still has a long was to go.

61 Nov 13, 2008 at 14:18 by Jeff Wilder

TorrentFreak ROCKS! Happy Birthday dudes. keep em rollin!

jess
http://web-anonymity.vze.com

62 Nov 13, 2008 at 16:27 by tct

Regular visitor. Belated happy birthday o/

63 Nov 13, 2008 at 20:00 by Melted Metal Web Radio

Happy Birthday TorrentFreak!!

At the end of the day, you will be at the top of the list of fantastic interactive media that supported ’sensible’ business applications of Internet based media. In spite of the sentiments of so many major corporations, TorrentFreak is all about the ‘discovery’ of successful business models for Internet commerce. Not just the suppression of wonderful new Internet models to protect the rich few, and the utterly outdated.

Bill Wilkins, CEO
Melted Metal Web Radio
http://www.meltedmetal.com/

64 Nov 14, 2008 at 00:32 by Penguin

I love you guys. I hope you keep doing what you do for a long long time to come. :)

65 Nov 14, 2008 at 01:15 by rgb_co

Congratulations! Great Job.

66 Nov 14, 2008 at 05:30 by Ice

Happy B’day torrentfreak u give us the best p2p and torrent information out there.

67 Nov 14, 2008 at 14:14 by The Terminator T-101

Happy Birthday TorrentFreak :-)

A small error in the fourth paragraph. “….. impossible talk ….”
I think you guys meant “….. impossible task ….”

Dont worry.We all make “mistalkes”. :-P

Oh, I almost forgot

“I’LL BE BACK”

68 Nov 14, 2008 at 16:25 by 7SeVeN7

you guys rule !!!

Happy B-Day TF!

Party-on Wayne….

Party-on Garth!!!!

69 Nov 14, 2008 at 18:14 by jerk

If it is not about money, then why do you put ads everywhere?

70 Nov 15, 2008 at 23:45 by Binsy

A Very happy birthday TF. You do a great job and it is appreciated :D

Binsy

71 Nov 19, 2008 at 06:35 by aquariumfish

I know this is an old an old thread, but well done. You’ve come a very long in 3 years. To now become one of the best, if not the best P2P News site now (or should I say Blog).

So much so, that even the mighty Slyck is looking second best now.

http://www.aquariumfish.me

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