10.07
A little history
RaptorTorrents.net is the latest iteration of what began many years ago as a way to collect clips of Vince Carter and the Raptors. During the 2003-2004 season, I started a Direct Connect hub with a collection of VC clips hoping others would join and share their collection. It was really a way for me to expand my collection. On game nights, the members would wait (patiently, thanks to vertex) while I cut and encoded highlights. It wasn’t very practical but it worked.
For the next season, Courtside invited me to join his site PurpleFever.net and graciously allowed me to use it as a home to share clips while I tried to find better ways to distribute them.
It didn’t take long for people to ask for full games distributed via bittorrent. I was hesitant at first because I didn’t think bittorrent was viable for long term sharing and that remains true to this day. But I eventually relented and found the demand for Raptor games to be much greater than expected.
After a couple of seasons, I decided it was time for me to try and establish my own site and Hoopsfanforum.net was born.
HFF was never as popular as PurpleFever once was but it had a great community of hardcore Raptor fans from around the world and a friend (alysomji) who helped in many ways allowing me to devote my time to sharing the games. Getting news about the international players from their home country before the local media picked it up was one of the many reasons to read the forums.
After a couple of years during which I learned a great deal about running my own site, it became clear to me a forum wasn’t the ideal home for what is essentially a torrent link site.
Going forward
As you’ve read already, I have had help from some very kind and generous people to get to this point. People have given their time and money to keep me going and helped with the associated costs of capturing and sharing games. I feel fortunate to have finally found a host where the costs won’t be a distraction like in previous years. A handful of clicks on the ads each day will pay the hosting fees. Donations are welcome and always make me feel appreciated. I thank each and every contributor for helping me pay the bill especially with the added costs of HD.
After all these years, sharing Raptor games has become a hobby for me. It’s a hobby that allows me to combine my love for the game of basketball and the Raptors while learning new things. I don’t know what will happen to this site as Canada fights the telecom companies in their effort to control how we use the internet but I’ll keep this site going in one form or another as long as I can.
Our desire to be Raptor fans shouldn’t be limited by borders physical or digital and I hope you use this site to feel more connected with the team we all support.
