Why are Warez Boards declining?

[Katzenfreund]

It’s a phenomenon all over the web that affects all kinds of boards, many of which are closing down due to lack of participation interest.

Warez boards are no exception. Many have already closed, while others have a drastically reduced activity. I fondly remember the good old times with lively discussions in boards buzzing with life. Even the occasional disputes now seem nostalgic. Particular for me were:
ProjectW, ForumW & BayW

They were thriving and seemed destined to last for ever. Yet all closed because of bad management. But was that the only reason? If so why weren’t they replaced by new ones?

More recently, the revival of BayW under new administration was taking off quite nicely, with old members returning and declaring their joy at having found their “home away from home” again. Yet, in a few months time they started staying away. Those persevering were finding no response and eventually also gave up. Now only a handful of hardcore members are still around on a regular basis.

A combination of factors, legal-financial-social, seem to be the cause of the decline. Can we identify the main ones? Which is/are the most important in your opinion?

 

[MFW]

I think it has a lot to die with social media websites. Like you said, it's not just warez boards declining it's all message boards. Forums used to be the place to go to meet new people and interact. All warez birds have come to it 100k posts of downloads and maybe one or two people who actually want to have discussions. Maybe one day we'll see an incline in activity again, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

I blame ppd file hosts for some of this, the amount of warez sites blew up (majority of them are shit) just to earn a dollar. There are very few people who share to just share. I truly miss the days when forums like this had active members posting in non-warez sections. The days where you had to re-upload something every 7-10 days because the file host automatically deleted files off their servers. Can't remember the names though.

 

[Oldone3pp]

It's a deadly concoction of PPD, Autoposting & Greed

Plus with places like twitter & facebook I believe they have all taken away a lot of the chatter we all experienced in the early days.....Will it return?

 

[kiwi1960]

Yes, agreed. I have noticed this with my websites over the past few years, they decline, yet, FaceBook thrives, so much so that my 'websites" do better on FaceBook than they do in the wild.

BUT... it is the popularity of smart phones and tablets now that are also having an affect, if your site (like this one) cannot adapt to fit on a smart phone screen as well as for computer screens, then right there you lose half your potential audience.

But as far as piracy goes, there must be other factors, because some warez sites are actually thriving... I can name one right off the bat... IGG games!

But warez sites are slightly different. What is hastening their decline is fear!

In the old days, no one could touch us... then, it started with Loki Torrents, taken down and the owner fined millions (but he made a deal)

Members of that site felt ... betrayed... Loki asked for donations for a fighting fund to fight the charges... then he made a deal.

Other sites fell the same way, then of course, we had the infamous ProjectW and the equally bad BayW... not for anything the members did, but the owners.

People have given up supporting sites like this, either from fear or discouragement.

A special mention for that little faggot Ch0 or whatever his name was, he destroyed people because he thought.... well, he was a very narcissistic person. Lets leave it there.

The Piratebay seems to have survived, why, because no matter what they do to try and close it down, there is is... still there.

So... we destroyed ourselves by putting our faith in the wrong people... meanwhile... the Bay proves piracy will survive.

 

[bum4evr]

I think we are the minority among WareZ users, those who socialize with others on a forum, I think most people don't ever bother to chat or post, they just come here to download. And then there are those who don't speak English so we can't expect them to post much. Back when I was new to the world of WareZ, forums were all I used, now I never use them. Torrents and direct download sites are so much easier.. heck I don't think I have ever downloaded anything from this board, I just come here to chat.

Back when I was a mod over at Mecho, I noticed that many uploaders just never learn that there is a better way so they end up posting a movie cut up in 15 to 20 parts so members have to download each part and then extract it all and hope one of the parts is not corrupted, and lets not forget the poor mods that have to check the links. I can't remember the last time I downloaded a movie or TV show that was more then one link, ya know why? Because its no longer necessary! Those days are gone, except for people stuck in the past who were never taught how to do it right. Perhaps we should teach them how to convert a movie to one 700 meg link in 720p and upload it to a filehost.. because perhaps the reason forums are not as popular anymore is because people no longer download from forums anymore for the same reason I no longer do, because once people get past being "new" to wareZ and they learn the ropes, then they move on to an easier way to download... torrents or sites that only post "one link" downloads. and then sites like this become pointless for those of us "in the know"

Just my 2 cents.....

 

[kiwi1960]

What you say is true, B4E ... and there is no easy fix.

Maybe this site should have a Facebook page, not for chatting... but advertising.