Jump to content

A few notes on the upcoming changes to the BitTorrent Client


DanB

Recommended Posts

Soon, we will release a new version of BitTorrent. This update includes improvements and changes that we think you are going to like. We always appreciate our forum users for their dedication, feedback and candor. We want to keep investing in to this community by keeping an open and honest channel of communication.

Moving on:

First, we added bug fixes, performance enhancements and user-requested features. Torrents with many files load faster and magnet links preload content in the add-torrent dialogue. We also improved the speed of torrents over network shares and added several improvements to streaming playback. There’s plenty more and you can read the full change-log at the usual spot.

The next major change you will see is a fresh approach to creating a no-nonsense and free torrenting experience. You are all very familiar with how we have paid the bills so far. These new changes mark our next step towards finding that difficult balance between keeping our lights on and providing a positive user experience. This new build will display a featured torrent at the top of your torrent list. This featured torrent space will be used to offer a variety of different types of content. We are working towards bringing you offers that are relevant to you. This means films, games, music, software...basically anything that you will find interesting. We may not get it right on the first try but we will continue to improve our efforts based on your feedback.

We are also leveraging these offers to directly benefit the artist community including filmmakers, recording artists, game developers and more. We are going to show the world what all of you here already know: that torrenting can be used for good.

Let us know your comments and thoughts in this thread. We are listening, and we value your feedback.

The BitTorrent Team

PS: We have included an FAQ below that will hopefully answer a few questions you might have:

BitTorrent Offers Q&A

What is changing with BitTorrent offers?

- One additional offer location: A narrow rectangle just below the toolbar within the BitTorrent UI will present relevant offers to users.

- Better-targeted offer types: We will pursue making offers that are targeted and interesting to our users.

What type of offers will you show?

- The first offer type will inform users of our own new products, features and services.

- The second offer type will come from our offer partners, whose offerings include things such as games, security products and privacy services.

- The final offer type will feature independent artists, such as musicians and film makers.

Can I turn in-client offers off?

Currently you’ll be able to skip offers of no interest to you by clicking an x within the ad, which will advance you to the next offer. There is no way to turn in-client offers off*. We will pay attention to feedback, and may change this in the future.

*Note that users of BitTorrent Plus will not be served offers in the client. We are looking into other offer-free alternatives for users as well.

Why are you making this change?

1. It starts with our business model which is familiar to everyone: We provide our users with free software from which they get outstanding value, and we keep our lights on through advertising.

2. Given this, we want to make sure our offers are more relevant and valuable to you, our users.

How does this change my privacy?

It doesn’t affect your privacy. Of course, you’ll want to confirm this for yourself. We encourage you to view all client-to-server communication via a program like wireshark. Like any software, BitTorrent has always communicated to a server to check for software updates; now it will also check for offer updates. No personally identifiable information is passed during this communication.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

I just wanted you to know that I reluctantly updated to the new version...couldn't get anything to d/l...after new update. Luckily, I was able to get the last version reinstalled.Ans so, everything is okay gain but it's ashame that I cannot take advantage of your newest improvement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Can I turn in-client offers off?

Currently you’ll be able to skip offers of no interest to you by clicking an x within the ad, which will advance you to the next offer. There is no way to turn in-client offers off*. We will pay attention to feedback, and may change this in the future.

*Note that users of BitTorrent Plus will not be served offers in the client. We are looking into other offer-free alternatives for users as well.

That's nice but how many times should I click the X to make one particular spam ad disappear?

5? 10? 20?

I have clicked more than 30 times and the same spam ad is still there.

Will I receive financial compensation when my mouse gets worn out from needlessly and repeatedly clicking so many times?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, I registered on the forum just to post this:

I just updated to 7.7.2 and I was shocked to see an ads bar taking more than 10% of my screen real estate (on 1920x1080) when windowed at 600 height. The main list of torrent windows is now compressed by this new ads bar.

Could you considering moving the offer bar somewhere else such as the status bar at the bottom left of the client?

Also I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that this fine client has finally turned into an adware. I do appreciate the effort that goes into the development of the client and the need to pay bills etc, however could you please not take such a high profile approach to display the ads. I started searching for alternative client to migrate to as soon as I see that ads bar this morning and I believe that I won't be the last person to do so.

Thanks for making this great app and I hope my feed back is useful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's nice but how many times should I click the X to make one particular spam ad disappear?

5? 10? 20?

I have clicked more than 30 times and the same spam ad is still there.

Will I receive financial compensation when my mouse gets worn out from needlessly and repeatedly clicking so many times?

Now the X is gone. I can't click away the offers at all anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I started searching for alternative client to migrate to as soon as I see that ads bar this morning and I believe that I won't be the last person to do so.

I don't understand, how this AD business works. Are there people who are really opening these ADs? Or the click counter works on [X] button, too?

I wanted to ask for some cosmetic corrections (still existing veeery old ones, taken over the uTorrent UI Settings), but as I see from this topic, it doesn't matter for me anymore.

I disabled "Check for updates automatically". I'm staying on BT 7.6 and I'm happy. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...