TorrentReactor Reportedly Buys, Renames a Russian Town

baronvoncarson and a few other readers sent in the unconfirmed report that the Russian torrent site TorrentReactor had bought the Russian town of Gar for $148,000, on the condition that the town rename itself Torrentreactor.net. Torrent Freak notes circumspectly that TorrentReactor has been known in the past for — how best to put this? — publicity stunts and hoaxes. And Torrent Freak at the time of writing had no confirmation from any Russian authority that the purported cash-for-renaming deal is genuine. Here is the announcement on TorrentReactor's site, which contains this explanation of how Gar was chosen: "We've picked a few thousands of godforsaken places around the world that are close to operating nuclear reactors to make a connection to the name of our company. The list was numbered and a random number was picked by a generator. The number 377 was a lucky one for Gar village. We think it was a good choice since Gar citizens are very kind and generous people." The whole (purported) transaction is reminiscent of the dot-com boom, when in 1999 the not-yet-launched Half.com offered $100,000 to a small town, Halfway, Oregon, if it would rename itself for the company. It did. The record is vague as to whether the money was ever actually paid, as Half.com was acquired by eBay just over a year later.

Comments

Renaming towns

[captain_dope_pants]

Cool, you can buy a town and rename it ? I want to buy Fucking in Austria and name it... err... Sod it, it can stay as it is :)

Re:Renaming towns

[boxwood]

I want to buy Fucking in Austria ...

Luckily for you prostitution is legal in Austria.

Re:Renaming towns

[O Blimey]

The name of the town Fucking means nothing in particular in the local language. It is as innocent as Canterbury or Birmingham.

There is a brewery in Fucking. One of their beers is a lager with bright yellow color which they call "Bright" which in German Language is "Hell".
On the label it says: Fucking Hell
That's all there is to it.
Export business is brisk.

Re:Renaming towns

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd Canterbury her Birmingham, if you know what I mean.

Re:Renaming towns

[WillDraven]

Actually according to Der Spiegel there is no brewery in the town. Just some random company decided to name their beer after it. Either way I think it's brilliant marketing. Unfortunately I cant seem to find any way to order any, it may not have been released yet.

Re:Renaming towns

[daremonai]

I live 2 hours away from Fucking. But I've never been there.

2 hours away? Don't feel bad. That's still a lot closer to Fucking than most people on Slashdot will ever get.

Re:Umm what?

[Anonymous Coward]

If they were pretty much bankrupt it would make sense but how would the people in the town feel about having it renamed to a website name

Have you ever been in a village in Russia?

I've been there, you would understand if you would've been.

Slashdot participates in hoax

[DNS-and-BIND]

By the very act of considering this News For Nerds, and posting it on the front page where millions will see it, Slashdot has participated in this hoax. If it's not verified, and it comes from a known perpetrator of hoaxes, and it smells funny, why the heck is Slashdot or any other media outlet even paying attention to the story? It plays directly into the hands of the hoaxers!

Re:Slashdot participates in hoax

[gsslay]

Cool. If I announce on a website some place that I'm paying I billion dollars to "buy" New Zealand, on condition that it is renamed Mordor, will I get onto the front page of slashdot?

It'd all be total bollocks, you understand. I don't have a billion dollars, New Zealand isn't for sale and they haven't accepted the offer. But it's all in good fun and the rough and tumble of publicity stunts, isn't it? No-one cares about actual facts and news or stuff, do they?

Re:Slashdot participates in hoax

[Dumnezeu]

Actually, I am very happy that TFS specifically says that TR is well-known for it's past hoaxes, used as publicity stunts, so any reader should clearly take this story with a few kilograms of salt.

Re:Slashdot participates in hoax

[LucidFox]

As a Russian, I call shenanigans. The sign looks photoshopped, the only Russian news sources I could find are reprints of the TorrentFreak article. In any case you can't exactly buy a town. If they got it to change its name in exchange for their paid services, I'd expect a lot of widespread Russian publicity.

Re:Slashdot participates in hoax

[morgan_greywolf]

Yep. That photo does indeed look photoshopped. Zoom in really close and look at the pixels around the word "TOPPEHTPEAKTOP". You can see blocks of grey and white pixels above the letters that don't follow letters, but instead go straight across across the screen; in addition, the second P and first E, and maybe the K, have fade near the bottom as if someone cleaning up the sign had gotten the airbrush/clone tool, with too big of brush selected, just a little too close to the letters. Finally, there's a block of inexplicable grey and white splotches above the TO that are reminiscent of fast and sloppy clone tool editing.

Quite honestly, this looks like some of the worst photoshopping I've ever seen.

Re:Slashdot participates in hoax

[(Score.5, Interestin]

If I announce on a website some place that I'm paying I billion dollars to "buy" New Zealand, on condition that it is renamed Mordor, will I get onto the front page of slashdot?

I dunno about all of New Zealand, but I reckon for a billion you could pretty much get West Auckland, and you wouldn't need to change much to pass it off as Mordor.

I hope it's true.

[blind biker]

It would add a bit of color to this grey, lifeless IT world.

Re:Umm what?

[morgan_greywolf]

Yep. In Soviet Russia, websites rename you!

*ducking*

Gar - Pirate

[Theoboley]

Does anyone find a bit of a coincidence that torrentreactor - a pirating website - chose Gar as a town? I mean, Its obvious. Next they should look for YARGH!!!!! or Simply YAR!!!!

this WAS a hoax!

[phulegart]

First, anyone reading the TorrentFreak article would have noticed the link at the bottom of the article that brings you to a second, related article... http://torrentfreak.com/despite-confusion-village-wants-torrent-site-investment-100809/ which explains that most of the details that Torrentreactor had about Gar were wrong, and that they never did buy a town or make an offer... but in fact the people of the REAL town of Gar are very interested in the money.