Andre Yoskowitz
8 Aug 2010 14:28
TorrentReactor, one of the most popular torrent trackers on the Web, has purchased a small town in Russia and renamed it "TorrentReactor."
The site purchased the small town of Gar for $148,000 USD (4.5 million rubles).
TorrentReactor founder Alex confirmed the purchase to TF.
Gar was founded in 1958 by Russian Orthodox Church zealots and currently only has 215 inhabitants. Most are farmers.
Thanks to the purchase by the torrent site, the people of Gar will now get Internet, although there are only three computers in the whole town, with one connected to the Internet via dial-up.
"Most of it will be split among villagers and the rest will be used to re-equip the local school, repair roads, purchase agricultural equipment and machinery. Also torrentreactor.net company decided to pay for broadband Internet connection in the settlement which will result in about 900,000 rubles ($30,000) because there are no networks nearby," says Alex of TorrentReactor.
The move may seem like a marketing campaign for the site, but Alex says the TR team is trying to be humanitarians: "We realize it’s just a drop in the ocean comparing to the amount of money needed to help thousands of other villages. But we at least do something to support complete strangers. We are proud that we are able to do so and hope we will be proud of this in the future."