It’s always refreshing to talk about a brand new torrent tracker. It’s even more refreshing when the said tracker is a specialized, niche tracker. Merlin (or ML) is a new private torrent site that indexes movies, TV shows and music that belong to Science Fiction / Fantasy genres. ML is not just any new project launched by a bunch of beginners to the BitTorrent scene. It’s backed by an experienced crew who are responsible for running the successful ACiD tracker, one of the best and oldest community based private torrent sites in existence. Launching to the public in the first week of March, Merlin will initially be closed for public signups. However, interested members will be able to join the tracker through official IRC recruitment channel as well as by requesting for an invite via E-Mail.

Given the nature of secrecy surrounding ML project, chances are that you may never have heard about this site until now. Even after the public launch, it’s unlikely that ML will turn into a ‘public’ private tracker as it usually happens nowadays (not saying it’s a bad thing). It’s publicity policy is something similar to that employed by ACiD - posting of full tracker URL or name in public is prohibited. However it’s not one of those out of reach sites either - Although there are no open signups for now (there may be in future), members will initially be recruited via both IRC and E-mail. Just like ACiD, community will have a higher focus on ML and it won’t just be about torrents and downloading.

At the time this article was written, the public launch of ML had not occurred (but by the time you read this, it may very well have happened). However, we were able to get a sneak peak of things to come thanks to the kind SysOps of this tracker. Running on a custom tracker script, Merlin’s interface definitely looked good. The layout was well organized, uncluttered and the color selection was very easy on the eyes.

Even though it’s a brand new tracker ML already indexes 425+ active torrents. These include movies, TV shows, soundtracks all related to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Quite a few exclusive, unique torrents have also been indexed. These can be identified by ‘Menc’ or ‘ML’ tags on torrent title and are usually placed inside ‘Merlin Encodes’ category. Expect ML to build both its torrent index as well as registered users database pretty fast – they have the backing of ACiD which already has a rock solid foundation with ~20000 active members.

If you are ever to become a member of ML, you might want to read their downloading rules. Quoted from the rules page:

A Hit & Run here on ML is when you complete a torrent, stop it and do not return to seed within 24 hrs. This applies to all torrents whether they are free download torrents, ratio boosters, and special vip torrents, such as movie box sets etc... unless other wise stated by a staff member.

You need to be active on every torrent you download for a minimum of 72 hrs (3 days) or, achieve a 1:1 ratio, unless the torrent is over 20 gb's in size. This means total time downloading and seeding.

If the torrent is over 20GB's in size then we require that you be active on it for 120 hrs (5 days) or achieve a 1:1 ratio (Which ever comes first). This means total time downloading and seeding.

The above are minimum seed time requirements. Seeding beyond the minimum will net you 1.5x credit on uploads.

How to get invited to ML

Currently there are two ways to request for an invite to ML. In both cases, you will be invited (if approved) by tracker staff themselves and there is no need to worry about getting scammed.

Send an E-mail with the subject ‘Merlins Invite’ to merlins.invite@gmail.com. Be sure to include at least one screenshot (which shows your ratio on site) of a private torrent tracker that you are already a member of.

OR Login to ML invites IRC channel and request an invite there – please follow rules stated in the channel topic. Invite channel details are as follows:

Server: irc.pron.org.uk

Channel: #merlins-invites

Direct Link: irc://irc.pron.org.uk/merlins-invites

Special thanks to methods, MuddSlinger, Saavyboy and rest of ACiD/ML staff for the heads up.

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