On 13th January 2011, two of the Internet’s largest adult entertainment BitTorrent trackers confirmed that they would permanently shut down.
It was a significant event – PureTNA had in excess of 1,329,500 members, a tally equaled by Empornium. The reasons for their shutdown remain unconfirmed.
While their members were understandably disappointed, they knew that with a flick of the wrist they would soon be enjoying themselves again on an alternative site. One of the top choices at the time – Cheggit.net.
Cheggit was created back in 2006 by ex-staff and users from Empornium who were disappointed with a controversial takeover by advertising outfit TargetPoint. Cheggit lived on until just a few days ago, when it disappeared. Now it’s back, but the news isn’t good – the end is here for Cheggit.
“Back in December ’11, when I embarked on a ‘bold new vision’ for the site, I thought we could change the site and make everything just work,” says Cheggit’s admin. “But as time went on, it just wasn’t feasible to do that and be in compliance.”
The site’s operator says that taking the decision to close the site wasn’t easy and took several weeks. But unlike some sites that simply close up, say nothing, and leave their communities high and dry, Cheggit’s admin told site members that the tracker is bowing out with an orderly exit for their benefit.
“I wanted to give the community a chance to exchange info and keep hooked up if you wanted to. That’s right….regardless of what you might think, this was done for the community.”
“Best decision? Who knows. But I do know that it isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. I’ve been at this far longer than I care to admit, and it would have sucked to just lop it off,” he notes adding, “As much as this may suck, it doesn’t suck near as much as just going away.”
Cheggit’s admin also assures its users that the shutdown has nothing to do with the FBI, MPAA or ICE, and isn’t a veiled attempt at “a ponzi scheme to relaunch Megaupload.”
It’s been a hard 12 months for adult torrent sites. In April 2011, Pornolab, the world’s largest porn tracker, had its servers seized by Ukranian authorities, but eventually made a comeback.