Unpack.cn R.I.P ????

[cachito]

In my opinion if they wanted to make the site a legend, there is no need to delete all the data too.
I am just guessing, but maybe they got an "invitation" from the government or some kind of institution to close the site. Just a guess...

[ZeNiX]

Well, let me explain more.

1. The forum was created by fly, he handed it to me and thunderwolf some years ago at a dinner.

2. There are more and more leechers, they are greedy and selfish. Some even make money at online shops from resources of UpK. This has made people not willing to share good stuffs.

3. Most of my old friends are busy with their family and jobs. They were hurt by those leechers, too.

Now, there are not many exciting knowledge or release shared at UpK.
Quality of post are going down.

As the forum is declined now, fly may feel embarrassed to talk about UpK when his old friends ask. So, he told thunderwolf to close it down before UpK is ruined or dead.
Thunderwolf and I still try to save the forum or start a new forum in the beginning.

For example, 0sec would the new name which means both [zero second] and [zero security]. And it has app for iOS and Android, which I think would be convenient.

But now, we think the golden year has gone.
So, just let it go.
We think this is also the best choice for fly who created this forum.
We close it when it is still famous and best.
It is better then watching it dying day by day.

Really painful.
I could not sleep well during the past two months.

[atom0s]

So do you plan to release a static copy of the site before closing it down so that information on it is not just lost for good? It would be very sad to see years of work that a community built just tossed in the trash because the Administration made a final call and didn't allow the community any say in the matter.

A lot of amazing communities keep dying this way, the Administration just pull the plug after all the work the community put into it. I'm not trying to sound mean but these websites are not just made amazing and legends because of the staff. The community that contributes, posts, and shares are what make a community amazing. It is really unfair to them for you guys to just make that final call without their say in the matter.

[[ID]ZE]

This is a sad news!

[TechLord]

@Zenix:

Thunderwolf and I still try to save the forum or start a new forum in the beginning.

I understand and respect you decision to close down UpK, though it is very sad, for all of us...

But in case you DO actually open a new forum in future, please do let us know here ...

[ZeNiX]

No, few seconds ago, I realized that I will NEVER open a new forum any more.
I am not ready to be blamed again if I have to close down another forum in the future.

Nobody said "Thank you" to the 10 years that we devote to unpack.cn
After 10 years, we are blamed because we are unable to continue.
That is another reason we are hurt and disappointed.

If most of people come to unpack.cn for download and no people are willing to share/devote, then unpack.cn is dead.
Before blaming us, please ask to yourself, why do you want unpack.cn to continue?

More then 1000 users have asked me to continue unpack.cn so that they can download and get useful information from unpack.cn
But 99% of them have reasonable excuses to refuse to share anything of their own. That is the reality.
Then we are blamed because we decided not to be servant for such SMART and selfish people.

Also, during the past two months, we have asked many old members and retired moderators who have had great contribution to upack.cn before.
Most of them felt it pity but agreed that unpack.cn should be closed down.

[TechLord]

I am not ready to be blamed again if I have to close down another forum in the future.

Nobody said "Thank you" to the 10 years that we devote to unpack.cn
After 10 years, we are blamed because we are unable to continue.
That is another reason we are hurt and disappointed.

Sorry @Zenix...
But I definitely am not "blaming" you, or anyone else...
I think that everyone is just upset to see something line UpK get closed down...

I am also in charge of a large website (NOT a reversing one though..) and hence I can TOTALLY understand your feelings !

More than the money involved in hosting and other things, it is VERY time-consuming to actually do daily maintenance on the site, including checking contents of posts etc !

People are also ready to come to my site and use all the resources happily, but the MOMENT something small goes wrong, they are ready to point fingers and blame...

At one point of time, I thought that I would not have anything "useful" to share on exetools , and hence was just a leecher.
Then I realized that if one worked hard, there would ALWAYS be something useful to share... And so, started sharing whatever little I know...

I was just hoping that one day, the same should not happen to EXETOOLS as well !

I can only do my part and share whatever I possibly can, on exetools, and hope that all of us would also think similarly !

[ZeNiX]

Thanks TechLord and other friends.
I know I was kind of out of control of my feeling and I apologize about it.
AND, I will keep my post there so that I can read it some day when my mood is changed.
I am also a human.

Sometimes, I felt I would rather spend my time with family, my parents than serving those people without a thanksgiving heart.

I think only very few people understand my feeling and why I could not sleep well during the past two months. 10 Years is not a short time and unpack.cn is a major portion of my life. It is not easy to make a torrent like tuts4you as unpack.cn is a forum only. There is no download area. Also, this is not a decision that I can make by myself.

As for eXeTools, it will not be closed.
If Aaron and I are too old to maintain it, we will hand it to other people.
Also, we hope you all start to understand the reason we make new and strict forum rules this year. We want to get rid of most leechers. Also, we noticed that some members make money from the resource of eXeTools. Even some are VIP. This is not correct.

[b30wulf]

At the end, conclusion is that leechers and vultures crippling site and miss using public intellectual property for personal gain without even contributing to public or giving respect to administrators or members of value.
Bottom line is that actually now I could share your feelings,
because I was many times tempted to post something good unique and good to
this forum hence when I thanked twice I know that most of doesn't deserve the knowledge
exactly because of leeching. I don't have problems with sharing knowledge,
but if (my opinion) this represent forum of elite its contents should be kept,
not spread outside.

Anyway my dear friend, thx for explaining situation and I will support
you what evet decision you amd other administrators make

[cachito]

@Zenix
Nobody is blaming you for closing the site (al least nobody with half a brain).
I cannot imagine what it would feel like to support and mantain a website for 10 years and that all the efforts are not appreciated.

What everyone is sad about, and probably they are expressing in a wrong way, is that all the knowledge and experience shared all over those years might be lost.

If you decide (by you I mean all unpack.cn admins) to save the data on the board, I (actually my brother) can make you a script to save all attachments or something like that.

One more thing, you say that 99% of people that only leech on don't share anything. I am going to defend that 99%, because I am one of them. Most of us don't have the knowlege to develop/discover something new. It is not that we don't want to share, it is just that we don't have the means.
What I really don't agree with is the people making money of others work.

I hope nobody feels offended with my comments, it is just my opinion

[TechLord]

@Zenix:

Sometimes, I felt I would rather spend my time with family, my parents than serving those people without a thanksgiving heart.

Thank you for opening up your heart and being frank with us. Just like me, I am sure that most of us appreciate it a lot !

I think only very few people understand my feeling and why I could not sleep well during the past two months. 10 Years is not a short time and unpack.cn is a major portion of my life.

Taking a decision to shut down something that is one's LIFE'S WORK and a MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT is a VERY important one, and I can very well identify with what all feelings you must be going through !

I have also had to make similar decisions like these, in the course of my life, and it is something that really gives one a LOT of sleepless nights, just thinking about it...

It is not easy to make a torrent like tuts4you as unpack.cn is a forum only. There is no download area. Also, this is not a decision that I can make by myself.

The question would be, whether to actually CREATE such a downloadable archive of the site or not...

And secondly, whether to make such an archive ONLY containing POSTS and NOT attachments (to prevent abuse)..

And thirdly, whether to make it available to just about anybody ?

This is a question best left to the ADMINS of UpK, and whoever are the decision makers...

As long it is for a free download, NO ONE from here would refuse the archive !

Even I, have to admit that , especially in the past, had sometimes been a leecher, though it was for a variety of reasons (one of them being that I thought that I had nothing useful to share ) !

As far as CREATING the archive is concerned, I have all the necessary tools and the know-how to create one, provided I am given the necessary permission of course, to create the archive !

I am also pretty sure that there are MANY on this forum who are EQUALLY CAPABLE and willing to undertake the task as well...

Only that, in case I am entrusted with the task, I simply cannot do it in a day or two, and wwould have to balance my Job schedule as well, taking effectively as few days, assuming that the download speed of the site is pretty decent...

Hence, I would think that the final question would be, as to whether the archive SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be created in the first place , best answered by the respective in-charges !

As for eXeTools, it will not be closed.
If Aaron and I are too old to maintain it, we will hand it to other people.

It is SUCH a great relief to know this !

Also, we hope you all start to understand the reason we make new and strict forum rules this year. We want to get rid of most leechers. Also, we noticed that some members make money from the resource of eXeTools. Even some are VIP. This is not correct.

One of the reasons that I PRIMARILY post only on this forum (from the time of the new rules this year) and sometimes post some special items ONLY in this forum, is because, since the new rules came into effect, no one can simply make a new account and spam !

On some other forums, I am plagued by people, who don't want to "lose face", by asking me for help on the forum, and so, simply open up new accounts there and then spam me using PM or email, asking me "crack" various programs, especially dongled ones.

Here, they can't open new accounts just like that, and hence there is some measure of sanity !

I also agree that information from this forum should NOT be used for making money, especially ILLEGALLY !

This is not to JUDGE those here on this forum who SELL software illegally, but simply because, I know a LOT of cases of Reversing Forums, who get asked by the Law Enforcement to shut the forum down due to illegal activity.

I do not want our exetools forum to be EVER shut down like that, for such reasons !

Governments and Law Enforcement Agencies get activated in most situations to close down forums like ours, when mainly, they get pressure from "wealthy" companies like Sentinel or Giants like Microsoft, when they keep reporting that illegal "cracking" and sales of programs gets done by members in these forums...

This is why, I specifically take pains, to ensure that ,at least from MY SHARING of knowledge, that no illegal selling or similar activity takes place.

Any sharing I do is for educational or learning purposes only, and this usually keeps the reversing forums safe...

EVERYBODY here know who all sell and who all don't benefit monetarily from knowledge in this forum

I even now, get at least 2-3 emails a day from members in this forum, pretending to "test" me and see if I can or cannot crack a particular (mostly dongled) software. You know who you are !

I just think, that isn't it a rather HUGE co-incidence that all the program that they ask me to crack are VERY expensive (and mostly EMBROIDERY) programs

I really think, that at least so that our forum is safe, that individuals who use knowledge from THIS forum to SELL AND MAKE MONEY should be reprimanded...
I know that those "sellers" may hate me for saying this, but sorry, this is just a frank viewpoint of mine ...

Cheers

[b30wulf]

@TechLord
Friend, I really enjoyed your last post.
Very sad truth.

[ZeNiX]

I still feel very sad because unpack.cn has been my home for 10 year.

Maybe one day, we will build a library-like website which hosts all the valuable knowledge of unpackcn.

[foosaa]

I know how hard it is to close down a site. I used to run a similar site (checksum.org, though not related to reversing, but it was on network / information security) about 16 years back along with a friend. When we decided to close down, it was a hard decision. Looking back there were no regrets at all!

There were many people who initially started to help, but over a period, we felt, it was going the other way! We had created lots of small, but niche tools to help in hacking, securing, doing forensics of windows and linux, cryptography etc., and released it as open source / freeware. Helped many university students to do their doctoral research thesis and more.

Remember the days when Phrozen Crew, Nitallica, Fravia were active? Remember Ivanopulo from DAMN.TO? Selfless contribution and mind boggling perseverance from them!! Respect!

VXers and Crackers and Reversers and Hackers!

We live! We never die! Like the Mentor's manifesto!

There were lots of information that was shared and many people used it for profit.

Sharing was more of honing one's knowledge! Being known among the community as a hacker! I call every one as a hacker, any one who goes beyond the normal rules to get the stuff done! Whatever it is! Be it reversing, cracking, hacking, vxing whatever!

We exist without boundary! without color, creed and language! If we unite, no one, nothing could ever stop us!

But alas, we are tied to be a family man! A son, a husband, a father, a teacher, a student, an uncle, a friend and what not! which ties us down from doing so! Which brings us back to reality! which prevents us from continue to do whatever we were doing!

But as rightly said, one cannot continue in an environment when there is no appreciation! Forget appreciation, collective intelligence sharing will alone make a community to live forever!

Though I don't call myself retired, I tend to visit a couple of sites to get my knowledge thirst quenched and this forum is one of'em. Though I'm not active and completely into a different job profile, I still spare some time to visit, read and update my knowledge.

During the recent years, though I have not made any significant contributions, I am working on some small snippets which I am planning to release only in exetools.

There is more to life. We all should respect the decisions taken and accept it. Knowledge never dies. Once you've earned it, it will be there till your last breath.

Thanks for reading my useless, mindless rant! Feeling relieved! At least I could just dump my random thoughts, respects and homage to my dear friends! Peace out!

Live and Let Live! Respect! Be Active! Be Healthy! Be Happy! Life is short! Talk Fast!