[Projectzomb]

My experience...

Saddly, when we were starting out, we came across xbtit. And its idea, waht it WAS, seemed perfect.... a Code FULL of customizations, and features that can be controlled and turned on and off at the push of a button. So we installed it not having to much coding knoww how, nor a team built to help us... AND the fact that Janhouse bot, we could get to work on the code. So the big issues we had, were addressed, and we were excited and willing to pay 50 pounds a year. I mean, Comes with free support for any issue, what can go wrong?.....WELP.... we pay, get the code, and shoulda ran when it came to the install.

It was a NIGHTMARE. Being so out of date, you could not just install a linux distro and go, you have to change the versions of everything because xbtit is so out dated..... Well, no worries... we got support we pay for...right? WRONG. When asking for help, he send you to the old outdated and very lack luster install instructions which were no help due to errors we kept getting....but after some time and a few others helping we got it installed. must get better, right?

Once we get it installed, and get our SSL CERT working, maany site needed features break. Donation system wont register donations. Requests can not be filled...many "hacks" or features do not work or break the site...Hit and runs do not register... Buttons on the sign up and user profile pages " CHECK BOX TO FORCE SECURE CONNECTION" which once looked in to, broke user acnts, because it would add an S to the HTTP on the url bar, doing nothing but looking like your on aa secure connection, but then your site has SSL enabled, adding a SECOND S to the address... you cant view any pages and must go in to the DB and disable this per user.

So we started to utilize our payment for support... after about 2 months, and getting a scripted reply from the "dev" ( if you want to call him that) saying " I am looking in to this" we gave up and at this point had some members join the staff that could help out. I personally removed these buttons from the code in USER CP and the signup page so no one would break their acnt, We rebuilt the request system, hit and run system, the donation page, and many other bugs out there. At this point i have befriended other users on the forums, and most had similar or the same issues. The whole time I m trying to be friendly with "KiNg CoBrA" and he is just... not a very nice person. it became apparant he was out for taking as much money from people like me and not much more. I started to help other users, and then he went as far as to tell them " if you take any help or free work from thiss user, your acnt will be banned form the help forums" Because now people we not paying him MORE money to make fixes promised to you for your subscription fee. The most usefull info i got out of himm, was to tell me, SOMETIMES, MAYBE, where the files i needed to fix my self were located... Due to the fact this code has been around so long, changed so many haands, it is held together with tape and bubble gum, and the structure is just a mess and very hard to work on. So at this point, i am helping a handful of other users under the table. when the site hits around 9k users and 70k torrents we notice it slowing way down. The DB and the site are so inefficent, that loading the torrent page on my site, slams the DB with over 500 queries... so we decide to increase the machine its on... and even with 8 coores, 32 gigs of ram, and an enterprize SSD, the sites running slower then molassas thru a tuba.

THE DEATH...

Up until this point xbtit FM has been alive for one reason.... it is the only code of its kind... but it isnt even that any more. In its hayday, it was a code you could opperate with minimal coding knowledge, and nothing else is like it. but with the update by cobra breaking so much inbitally, this is not the case any more.older versions worked far bettter, and saddly cobra seems to be the final nail in the coffin for this code. at some point in the last year, Some one figured out the KEY you get when you pay, and enter during the install... does NOTHING and you can leave the slot for the key in instalation empty, this lead coder to make his biggest changes to the code to date........putting in a REAL system to protect his "investment" and then encrypting the INDEX.PHP file to prevent users from removing it... THEN adding the ability to shut your site off with the push of a button. After the code leakes for free all over the web, this guy files all the paper work and puts his address out there with his real name which can be found with a simple search to send takedown notices to these sites and people trying to prevent them from sharing the installer for xbtit FM V3.1. He put more effort in to this in a month, then any work on the dying, dated code... and that was the final straw for most users. To help the community, before this happened, i shared all my fixed files with him to release a bug fix update, and this rookie, not checking or testing anything, takes these files and just puts out an update, which messed up some users sites due to the fact their cusomt work and the lack of proofreading files to make sure that they work on a clean version of the code, was not done.... rather then try to fix it and keep save face, he blamed me and said all the issues were my fault 110% and then shit talked the only person helping him try to help his users. A user even comes up with a MANUAL, yes, not an auto scraper, but a IMDB block for the tracker, and this fool tells the users.... you may PAY me for it NOW, or wait for it to come out in a later update.... Selling code work others have made was his forte. He tried to sell a custom " FORCE THANK YOU" feature to a user, that was made by the previiious dev for another site. I get selling custom code work, but you are the DEV, and you took someone elses work, and try to sell it as your own... come one dude.... Aftter seeing him keep a tracker down for over a month trying to revert changes he made that broke their site when he said it would be a day MAX.... this was a big NO NO for me and most of the survivng xbtit sites. It is like giving a moneky a gun and loading it and racking the round, then setting him loose in a crowded area. This was the death (IMO) of Xbtit FM.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL...

A new code is about to lauunch that will do the unique thing xbtit did, and require minimal knowledge of coding to fully work and customize your site. but that is for a different post.




CONCLUSION:

DO NOT make the same mistake as I, and many others have made. Stay away unless you want a code you need to constantly work on, is not secure, has many backdoors and vunerabilities, and will make you rip your hair out to work on and maintain. here are far better options, seeing as when your site hits a point that its growing, the site code itself can not handle it no matter your hardware. 5/10....and that is because the code itsself was GOOD, and been "alive" as long as it has, and if you want to spend time working on it, can do a fair amnt, but it is so dated and any feature you would expect from a tracker today.... is just not there.