RIP Vuze!

[honeyko]

....We have been working on releasing a new version update (with a bit of a delay due to the summer season kicking in) and we will have it ready to go out soon.

-- Blanket IPv6 banning while uploading/seeding is my #1 request.

[FirstPrime]

-- Blanket IPv6 banning while uploading/seeding is my #1 request.

Probably a stupid question, but why?

[DeoW]

Viva Vuze! Viva parg! Thank you vuze-dev, your message causes calm in my previously troubled heart.

[FeRDNYC]

Viva Vuze! Viva parg! Thank you vuze-dev, your message causes calm in my previously troubled heart.

 

I mean... sorta? I don't want to be the one to throw a turd in the punchbowl, but I guess I just need a little more than unproven promises from some unknown entity to reassure me. I've been burned enough in the past.

Vuze is still being actively supported and is not going anywhere.


 

That's... nice to hear, but c'mon. After an unexplained four-month inactive period, I feel like you have to give us a little more than that, when finally breaking radio silence. Heck, honestly I feel like you owe us more than that, Unspecified Ostensible Member Of Vuze Development Team.

(Seriously, let's start with why this would be posted from a previously-unheard-from forum account with exactly zero prior history. If it wasn't for the fact that the account's marked as an Administrator I'd think it was a fake. Because it's the Internet and people do that. All the time. ...Well, there's also the fact that the account's ONLY Rep points come from Vuze staffer ArronM, which is a bit weird and actually raises more questions than it answers. ArronM's account was apparently logged into on 2017-08-04, as was parg's on 2017-08-11, but it's still the case that neither of them has visibly participated in any discussions here, at least under their own name, since March and April respectively.)

We have been working on releasing a new version update (with a bit of a delay due to the summer season kicking in) and we will have it ready to go out soon.

 

You say you've "been working on" Vuze... well, forgive me, but where? The commitlog mailing list at SourceForge still shows no activity whatsoever since it suddenly died off back in April. The Vuze dev blog still shows nothing since the 5.7.5.1b10 beta-release, also back in April. If work on Vuze has been going on since then, it's been completely out of the eyes of the community, via a process that's a significant departure from the long development history.

Is Vuze even being developed as open-source software anymore? Because, if it is, and work has indeed been going on, then the "open" part appears somewhat lacking of late. You can't just handwave away a four-month silence with "Summer AMIRITE?", because summer didn't even start until two months ago!

Look, I fervently want to believe that the past four months are just a temporary blip in the process, that Vuze development will be getting back on track, and that this will eventually become something I can just chalk up to some form of "internal issues" within the dev team, as happens. I don't even need to know the details of those internal issues, though the speed at which I'm able to put the issue behind me is probably directly proportional to the amount of information I have about whatever's going on.

I'm also willing to accept that there's been some sort of sea change regarding development of the project, that market realities or outside obligations have forced those involved to make some hard choices, and that development of Vuze as an open-source software project can no longer continue. These things do happen, and there's no shame in it. But it would be nice to get a frank statement of the situation.

What I can't accept are the "move along, nothing to see here" platitudes of vuze-dev's previous (and first-ever!, let's not forget that) post to this forum. BECAUSE I HAVE EYES. Things are not business as usual, and it does not appear that the developers "have been working on" Vuze. Not in the usual fashion, at least. We already know that's not true. But it's somehow even more disturbing that someone appears interested in denying the readily-available evidence.

[Havokdan]

https://www.biglybt.com

[LuvVuze]

No one would be more pleased to hear that Vuze is not dead than I, however, I would agree with many in their skepticism.  2 months ago I was told by Parg to have patience.  How much more patience is necessary?  As far as updates go, it is obvious that there have been none since April, but, personally, I do not care if there are upgrades or not.  Vuze had been pretty perfect for my needs for quite some time.  While all the work on tags and categories no doubt mean something to many people, personally they are glitz to me.  What is MOST important to me is that, secondary to numerous BT sites being closed, the Meta Search function is virtually worthless.  As an offshoot, my subscriptions are thoroughly dead.  Presently, we all need to be going to individual sites such as RarBG, 1337x, Zooqle, EZtv, and questionable Extratorrent rip off sites to search for and to download individual torrents.  Huge waste of time since I had become accustomed to Vuze's meta search.  All the new categories and tags mean nothing to a long time user like myself if I cannot easily search for torrents.  Trying to create subscriptions from scratch is a futile endeavor for someone with no knowledge of HTML, even after trying to understand the VuzeWiki instructions.  I have for years made many attempts but have never created a functional subscription following the VuzeWiki instructions.

Simply put, if the Meta Search issue is not addressed in the alleged new version, nothing else will matter because Vuze will no longer have anything else unique to offer.

[LuvVuze]

....We have been working on releasing a new version update (with a bit of a delay due to the summer season kicking in) and we will have it ready to go out soon.

-- Blanket IPv6 banning while uploading/seeding is my #1 request.

 


 

Honeyko,
IPv6 is certainly an issue, mostly because it discourages anonymity, but blanket banning is most often addressed with a VPN provider.  If you do not use a VPN, you will find much greater issues than whether Vuze bans IPv6.  If you do use a VPN, check to see if you can ban IPv6 through its interface.  If your VPN does not offer that function, find another VPN that does, such as PureVPN.  There are others as well.

Another option is to go into the properties of your network setting on your computer by starting in Network and Sharing in the Control Panel.  Find your Network Adapter (usually have to click on Ethernet at this point)> Properties > Internet Protocol Version 6, and uncheck it.  Without the IPv6 protocol enabled, nothing should be downloaded or uploaded using IPv6.

In any case, I am not sure that adding blanket banning for IPv6 is a major issue and might be better addressed once other issues are addressed.  Additionally, your suggestion might be better placed in the  "Suggest a New Feature" under Help in the program.  We are dealing with problems with the development of the existing program here, not suggesting new features.

Hope this helps.

[FeRDNYC]

Simply put, if the Meta Search issue is not addressed in the alleged new version, nothing else will matter because Vuze will no longer have anything else unique to offer.
 

Well, that's the thing. Vuze is unlikely to ever have bundled Meta Search templates for the torrent sites that you want to search on. They might include a template for some site like linuxtracker.org (which indexes Linux distribution torrents), but none of the sites you mentioned, or any like them, are going to be part of the official Vuze Meta Search universe, for hopefully obvious reasons.

Meta Search was made extensible for exactly this reason, and templates for those sites are meant to come from either the user community, or the sites themselves. The real problem is that nobody in the community is creating those templates.

(As I mentioned either earlier in this thread or in a different one, I took a run at it once — even though I don't use Meta Search, or any of the other features not present in the Classic interface ­— just to get an idea of how all that worked. I failed to get any useful idea of how all that worked, and after bashing my head against indecipherable file formats and cryptic pseudo-documentation for a bit I decided life is too short to be spending it on that kind of thing, so I just gave up.)

[LuvVuze]

Ferdnyc,
Thanks for your views.  I am well aware of search template issues and have explained in various post to others exactly what you have stated in your post.  At one time, Vuze DID include search templates in their program, such as KickAss, but due to legal concerns pulled it without notice in an update.  Kickass is basically defunct, so the issue is moot for Kickass.  In numerous posts in the last 6 months, I have requested other users to help with search templates who are familiar with HTML without any response.  While Vuze cannot include such templates, other users can create them and make them available on torrent sites without Vuze's direct participation.  I cannot even begin to suggest other alternatives that Vuze could use to address this issue, but they have been quite responsive and CREATIVE in the PAST.  Maybe they can create something that will address the need AND keep the program protected.  If the issue is not brought up, no one will address it.  So whether it is Vuze or other users, I am continuing to raise the issue.

Searching for Meta Search Templates on any torrent site yields results from 2013 and older, which, in the BT world is like saying 50 years ago.  Most of the sites in the downloaded torrents are either defunct or they have changed their domain, making the templates worthless.  How hard would it be for someone with HTML experience to simply change the torrent domains to their new address and repost them on a torrent site?  I have tried doing that myself following VuzeWiki instructions without success.  Maybe the task to do that is more difficult than I realize, so I am just making the suggestion in a search for solutions to the issue.

[FeRDNYC]

In numerous posts in the last 6 months, I have requested other users to help with search templates who are familiar with HTML without any response.  While Vuze cannot include such templates, other users can create them and make them available on torrent sites without Vuze's direct participation. 
 

That's the thing, familiarity with HTML won't help you. No external knowledge will help with creating Vuze Meta Search templates, because they have invented something completely new and different, that is based on their own confusing data structures, and can only be understood by... well, strike that, can only be attempted to understand using the (poor) explantion on the Vuze Wiki, or by reading the Java source code for the meta search engine. And even then, it'd probably help a lot to be the person who wrote it.

Now, in their defense, the reason why Meta Search is difficult to understand and work with is that it's trying to do something incredibly difficult. So difficult, in fact, that it becomes questionable whether it's even a good idea. The fact that it isn't working, and hasn't been for some time, seems like a clue that it's not.

If the issue is not brought up, no one will address it.  So whether it is Vuze or other users, I am continuing to raise the issue.

Fair enough, but what I'd like to point out is that, logically, that doesn't equate to "if the issue is brought up, someone will address it". Even if it's brought up, or no matter how much it's brought up, it's still completely possible that no one will address it.

Meta Search in Vuze is not an extant feature, by any sane definition. There is nobody out there who's currently using it successfully. It was an experiment that, at least from my POV, failed. It failed at least in part because, like I said, it's an incredibly hard thing it's trying to do. And almost impossible to do in a way that's (theoretically) end-user or power-user configurable.

The fact that it was a feature unique to Vuze is also a bad thing, as it means that only a tiny, TINY percentage of bittorrent users can benefit from it... which means there's next to no incentive for torrent index site maintainers to get on board with it. Why should they care about creating templates for software that only 1% of their visitors use? And why should they care if their site changes break those templates, for those same 1% of visitors? (That's barely an exaggeration, BTW. There was a time when Azureus represented upwards of 20% of the BitTorrent client share, but more recent estimates put Vuze in the low single digit percentages. It doesn't have the clout to obtain buy-in on innovative features that require the participation of index site operators, the way Meta realistically does if it's ever going to actually work.)

There's also the problem that Vuze's Meta Search has been turned into a malware vector. Not directly, but as a way of preying on people looking for search templates. Google this phrase, with the whole thing wrapped in double-quotes, but do not click on any of the search results:

"This guide shows how to install Vuze search templates to be used in expanding the results"

Those are all attack sites. This is a very bad thing.

If Meta Search is the only reason to use Vuze, then there's no reason to use Vuze. Personally I don't see it that way, so I'm content to not care about Meta Search the same way you don't care about tags and categories and etc. But the fact is that Meta Search doesn't work, and some webmonkey flipping around a few template hostnames is not going to make it work, or keep it working. (Since part of the issue is that the templates would have to be continually maintained, as the nature of how they work means that they'll break repeatedly and often.) The fact that it once (briefly) (sorta) worked in the past... well, so did LimeWire, so did MLDonkey, so did Napster, so did...

[LuvVuze]

"
"If Meta Search is the only reason to use Vuze, then there's no reason to use Vuze."  from FeRDNYC.

Ferd, no one asked for you opinion, nor does anyone care.

Why cannot people ever just leave things alone?

i have my experience and you have yours.  I have my needs that Vuze addresses and you have yours.  Mine are not being addressed and Vuze developers have exited the building.  THAT is what we ALL should be concentrating on, not whether your needs are different than mine.  Your value judgements are not welcome when there are much bigger problems that need to be addressed.

Personally, after 6 months of nothing from the developers. I am no longer taking Vuze seriously.

[Havokdan]

New templates here: http://torfeat.logicize.co
They work in BigblyBT (a fork of Vuze), I don't have tested in the Vuze.

[LuvVuze]

New templates here: http://torfeat.logicize.co
They work in BigblyBT (a fork of Vuze), I don't have tested in the Vuze.

 

From the bottom of my heart and mustering every ounze of gratitude that I possess, I thank you Havokdan!  They work in Vuze!

I have dealt with Torfeat search templates before and have found that they are monetized, so I have never used them.  Those found at the link provided by you seem to be clean!  YAY!

[LuvVuze]

***WARNING***

I have had time to do some further research on the Torfeat templates.  Isohunt2 is not only monetized but, if you follow the verification process to finally get to the link, I greatly suspect that it caused some real problems with my computer.  I had to restore the my entire computer from a backup to solve various problems that cropped up after following the verification process.  Even then, it never got to a functioning torrent link.  The rest seem OK.

[FeRDNYC]

Ferd, no one asked for you opinion, nor does anyone care.

...You know what? This is my last visit to this forum, so never mind. With any luck we will never interact again.

BigblyBT (a fork of Vuze)

Well, that is certainly an understatement! Many thanks for the pointer, and so long Vuze! It's been real, it was fun, but it stopped being real fun.