People should know the truth about "The Box" shut down!!!

It's been nothing but a Big Lie. The Box decided evidently deception was it's best option. This post is mainly for the x-Boxers that have been kept in the dark...and these are 'their' terms used..... 'on the other side' ---and are split into two sections ---the ones 'that didn't make the cut' ---and 'the chosen ones' (of course referring to themselves). Does that not have a certain cultish sound to it??? Bottom line it's a really crappy thing to do to a big part of it's community.... So everything they told us was and is a lie...a clone copy of the site was made. Users they decided were good enough for their purposes received a PM and was invited to the new 'Box' and it is a new box, just has a different name and less users, same cappers, Admin. (as far as I know) Uploaders etc. If they had been honest about this from the beginning I might not have liked it very much but understood If that's what they had to do...but they were and don't be deceived, playing both sides along with members basically caught in the middle to lie for security sake...omg Stop The Madness (ha,ha wankers)how fair is that ...even to 'the chosen' ( God I have to smile even when I write that..'The Chosen' wtf....So okay I think the following is pretty self explanatory...and those little triangle Donor Icons do seem to dominate the Home/User page, don't you think???? huh probably means nothing!!! 0.O
I say screw em and it's past time to move on to better things. But everyone deserves to know how they've been conned.


http://i40.tinypic.com/2qxpa1w.jpg

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I say this is a conspiracy. :snooty:

I'd have some sympathy for you but for the fact you decided it was a good idea to put your faith in some anonymous scofflaws in the first place.

If you really want to post a shocking story,find one where the people in charge of a torrent site are totally sane and reasonable,don't play favourites and put the concerns of their members above themselves.:mellow:

Geez you come off like the pensioner who is surprised to find out that the Nigerian prince in need of money doesn't really exist.What are you like 8 like?

And you sound like a sad vindictive a$$hole...whose pathetic existence and purpose in life is now to flame other peoples post ..where what? your suppose to be better in comparison??? It failed-you failed .. again.

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What are you like 8 like?

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ha, ha, ha LOSER

Just a simple "Yeah I'm 8" would have sufficed. I didn't require any actual proof.

I prefer to be more positive. I had many good years of downloading there, eventually got banned for helping people find a new site, and hold no grudges. The new place looks like it could supply most of my Brit needs, and there are other ways to get stuff too. And Hannibal over there is more than just a capper, like Simon Cowell is more than just a judge.

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Originally Posted by justlooking

I prefer to be more positive. I had many good years of downloading there, eventually got banned for helping people find a new site, and hold no grudges. The new place looks like it could supply most of my Brit needs, and there are other ways to get stuff too. And Hannibal over there is more than just a capper, like Simon Cowell is more than just a judge.

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So what your saying is: they were justified to ban you for helping people (they no longer wanted) find a new site to go to? hmmm dude just what would it take to piss u off a little?

I'm downright pissed. I was never a member there, so I feel like they have placed me in a third category- once again as an outsider. When will their Natzi ways end?!!1. Fukers. :fist:

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Originally Posted by imnotanaddict

So what your saying is: they were justified to ban you for helping people (they no longer wanted) find a new site to go to? hmmm dude just what would it take to piss u off a little?

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The thing is, it's just the internet, not someone trying to starve me to death. I didn't get pissed when Freenet stopped being free Usenet at full speed, because I got it free for 2 years. When Rapidshare wasn't viable anymore, I moved on to a faster host, no problem. Kazaa, Scour, and Napster used to be great, but they inevitably ended. I never went to thebox for Hannibal's goodness as a human being, just for the content, and I uploaded about twice as much as I got, so I'm satisfied.

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Originally Posted by justlooking

The thing is, it's just the internet, not someone trying to starve me to death.

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Wrong.It's like starvation of the soul!!!!So while there is no actual physical suffering or death, the angst from not being able to steal GI Joe: Retaliation, more than makes up for it.

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Originally Posted by justlooking

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Originally Posted by imnotanaddict

So what your saying is: they were justified to ban you for helping people (they no longer wanted) find a new site to go to? hmmm dude just what would it take to piss u off a little?

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The thing is, it's just the internet, not someone trying to starve me to death. I didn't get pissed when Freenet stopped being free Usenet at full speed, because I got it free for 2 years. When Rapidshare wasn't viable anymore, I moved on to a faster host, no problem. Kazaa, Scour, and Napster used to be great, but they inevitably ended. I never went to thebox for Hannibal's goodness as a human being, just for the content, and I uploaded about twice as much as I got, so I'm satisfied.

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It's all good-life goes on. But that doesn't mean if we are being fed a bunch of crap, lied to or being manipulated whether it's big business or government or your local shoe store...there is the principle of the thing. Unfortunately most people are just lazy or complacent and takes what ever is dished out, because they don't want to rock the boat...or feel they could never make a difference...but mostly just lack of ambition and laziness I think. Nice little cattle that likes being herded around evidently.

From what I heard they went from 80k members to 35k so it was just like a massive prune. What was the criteria for making the cut? I wonder how many made the cut but dont know it due to not logging in. edit: logging in to their account on thebox to see if they made the cut and perhaps that is why they left thebox's forums up.

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Originally Posted by anon

I say this is a conspiracy. :snooty:

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Agree and OP sounds like a looser :ermm:

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Originally Posted by smcewa11

From what I heard they went from 80k members to 35k so it was just like a massive prune. What was the criteria for making the cut? I wonder how many made the cut but dont know it due to not logging in. edit: logging in to their account on thebox to see if they made the cut and perhaps that is why they left thebox's forums up.

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Well it didn't have anything to do with a high ratio really. I had like a 1.3 and I got an invite. but then again I had been a member since '07 always in good standing. and the members online snapshot you can see there are a lot of donor icons for sure but not everyone. I never di make any donations. I always used the thanks button on everything I snatched but wasn't in the forums that much. So who knows what they went by, I sure don't know except the obvious. It really wasn't too hard to find a replacement...so things have a way of working out for the best.

Shame on thebox.

While I understand anyone's sincere desire to keep a low profile, the people at thebox have handled this very badly - In other words, in their usual capricious, self-serving fashion.

Sadly, any animosity or backlash engendered by the many deceptions on the part of thebox leadership has been well and truly earned. "Sadly" in part because of the low nature of the path they chose, and in part because of the innocent members who have now been forced to share responsibility for the fraud.

I was an 'extreme' user (well over 4.0) who did not receive an invite to the new site - though after witnessing this ridiculous and dishonest spectacle, I doubt I would have stayed with them regardless. A bridge too far.

People making comments insulting to the author of this thread are possibly doing so without really understanding the site, it's rules, it's history, or the pathetic drama of it's "closing".

It could be a difficult site at which to maintain good standing. A good ratio was evidence of a great deal of constant seeding, at the very least.

Why, one has to wonder, would they do this? Why would presumably intelligent people put on such buffoonish theater in such a public way? I think one has to look at the site's history, and the long-established character of the staff there. For what are they known? For years they have arguably been the most strict private tracker on the net; worth the trouble only because of their excellent and exclusive files. Their staff is infamous for being as patronizing and disrespectful as humanly possible when enforcing the voluminous rules of the site (pages and pages and pages of rules).

How then, when for years one has combatively pointed to those rules to answer any question... quell any debate... silence any difference of opinion... Can one suddenly abandon the compact between site and membership and still retain any credibility whatsoever? The answer, obviously, is that one cannot. They wanted to purge people - for whatever reason - but they had no tenable basis for doing so to the thousands of people that had followed their dense and arcane system of rules.

So what solution did their insular cadre of browbeaters come up with? A lie. A bad lie. A inarguably stupid lie.

I'm not sure which should be more humiliating to the brilliant minds at the helm of the H.M.S Box - The manner in which they closed it, or the justification given for same.

The justification was laughable. They claimed that recent legal developments (NFIB) had created a climate so hostile to bittorrent that they could no longer justify the risks inherent to maintaining the site. Oh, they thanked people for their participation over the years... but the thanks were clearly insincere, as respect for the membership was so low that they lied to them, flagrantly and often. The fact that their stated justification was such an obvious lie, one guaranteed to be revealed in short order, lays bare their basic disrespect for the many people that made their site a success.

They've kept the forum open for weeks after the "closing". 'Open', but with only three threads available for posting - including the 'Farewell' thread linked at the front page.

Shamelessly, they are directing now-former members to a thread in which they are encouraged to thank the owners, cappers, etc for their service. Off-topic posts are deleted... 'Give us praise, or remain silent'.

So, it isn't a 'Farewell' thread, it is a 'Last Chance for Ass-Kissing by the Dupes we're Lying to' thread.

In it, longtime members in good standing (great standing, in many cases) expressed their love for the site, and the community. They wrote long posts in order to share what the site had meant to them through the years. Some cried. Some spoke of being very far from home, expressing sorrow at the loss of the lifeline that the site had become for so many. Some spoke of the kid's shows that their children would miss. People offered to help. They offered money. They expressed solidarity with the owners of thebox, and told them that though they would miss the site a great deal, the most important thing was that the owners, staff, and their families remained safe. At last check, the 'Farewell' thread clocked in at over 160 pages; the vast majority of it's content being single comments from individual users. Hundreds of active members in good standing with excellent ratios.

Through it all, the mods and "the chosen" have known that everyone publicly pouring their hearts out were being tossed aside, and lied to about it. Sure, many of them were huge contributors, and it was in part on the strength of their bandwidth/uploads that the database of files was created - but for this, they cared not a whit.

Additionally, comments in the "Farewell" thread seeking help in finding a new home have been ignored, deleted, or edited (by staff) into oblivion. Like naughty children, people were (/are) publicly chastised for mentioning sites that have failed to respect thebox's attribution rules (despite the fact that thebox was allegedly closing), or for failing to 'properly' thank the powers that be. In scolding tone people were directed to one of two other open threads in order to try to get advice or invites - and then, apparently, people were banned for doing so. Mods directly instructed people to restrict discussion of some 'offending' sites to private message, then unceremoniously deleted the accounts of at least some of the people that did so.

The public justification - in addition to being a bald-faced lie - does not even pass muster as an excuse for the mass culling that this action proved to be. They can't be worried about the authorities, or lowering their profiles, or anything of the sort (no more than usual, at least). Obviously the authorities have/can have access to the names and business entities of those directly involved in running the site if they so desire. Moving the site will in no way inoculate the owners from scrutiny, as they are already a known quantity. If moving the site could protect them from what they claimed to be in need of protection from, culling members would make no difference.

They had to know from the outset that news of their deception would spread (which is quite a statement in itself). Depending on people who may have had friends or loved ones arbitrarily jettisoned to keep your secrets is shockingly witless at best. More likely, it's an instructive window into the thinking at work behind the scenes at thebox... 'Help maintain secrecy regarding our base betrayal of thousands of members, and we'll continue to grant you access to their files'. Their expectation of willing collusion is clear evidence of their hubris, their venality, and their lack of integrity.

Further... As their staff and most productive volunteers are constitutionally incapable of anonymous contribution, the origin of tomorrow's files will be as clearly identifiable as those of the past. To believe that files - new files created exclusively for the site - could be forever prevented from leaking out (thus revealing the ongoing nature of the endeavor), is transparently absurd.

So it goes. Rather than lowering their profile, they are more famous (/notorious) than ever. Once best known as much for excellent files as aggressive, condescending staff - now they've also attained fame as feckless liars, disloyal even to their own longtime membership.

It's remarkable what they've done; if there's any justice, this will now go down in legend as one of the most despicably dishonest site closings in the history of the torrenting net.

Having witnessed a deep and pervasive arrogance on the part of staff and 'VIP's' for years (in addition to their enabling of unofficial enforcers that clearly suffer from a variety of personality disorders), I have very little doubt that they're proud of their unscrupulous ruse, as well as the egregious manner in which it was carried out.


They shouldn't be.


[Hat tip to imnotanaddict for refusing to participate in the deception. I agree that it was a crappy thing for thebox to do.]

Edited to add:

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Originally Posted by imnotanaddict

It's all good-life goes on. But that doesn't mean if we are being fed a bunch of crap, lied to or being manipulated whether it's big business or government or your local shoe store...there is the principle of the thing...

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Right on.

tbh who gives a fuck they said they closed then moved over to a site and yes i know a place i am at said talking about them was not allowed since then so .... make of it what you will there staff were made up a lot jumped up idiots took the whole bt life like it is all they have lets see how long they last i guess wont be long

Lol, pr 0wn3d.