[Dismas]

No Longer Allowing Certain Content

Due to recent events, I have decided to completely close the Compromised and Combo List sections. While I started the forum with the intention of allowing discussion of anything, the reality is that we cannot allow certain things if we want to remain online. To those of you that were here for solely for those sections, I must apologize. 

As we approach our 10th anniversary, staff and I have discussed and decided this is the best move for the forum. If someone else wants to host that content, I have no objections. My priority remains to ensure the longevity of the forum and the wellbeing of the members that visit us every day.

Long Live Sinisterly!
If you have any questions or concerns, message me or post below.

[Boudica]

Appreciate that must have been a hard decision but an important one for SL and it's community. Thank you.

[ConcernedCitizen]

It's like the AnonOps IRC / VoxAnon IRC case wherein the chat rooms were being logged by federal agents looking for easy fruit. The simplest and best way to explain it, is that, if you want to code exploits, advertise 0days and whatnot, that's public domain. Like all forums we are indexed by Google and anything posted here is free to view by anyone. If you want to sell PII, government intrusion proof of concepts, etc., there are places you can go that facilitate that on the deep web. The so called "shadow market" of access to unauthorized material doesn't exist on Sinister.ly as a shield from federal interaction. That isn't to say that I am making the claim that the FBI hasn't or isn't around looking for suspicious activity, but it was growing into an issue. It does however present a challenge because it spills into legitimate posts at times. It's a good move for the forum. Just be careful what you say because violating the rights of one person can trickle into the entire forum and eventually, that garners a lot of unwanted attention.

[Dismas]

It's like the AnonOps IRC / VoxAnon IRC case wherein the chat rooms were being logged by federal agents looking for easy fruit. The simplest and best way to explain it, is that, if you want to code exploits, advertise 0days and whatnot, that's public domain. Like all forums we are indexed by Google and anything posted here is free to view by anyone. If you want to sell PII, government intrusion proof of concepts, etc., there are places you can go that facilitate that on the deep web. The so called "shadow market" of access to unauthorized material doesn't exist on Sinister.ly as a shield from federal interaction. That isn't to say that I am making the claim that the FBI hasn't or isn't around looking for suspicious activity, but it was growing into an issue. It does however present a challenge because it spills into legitimate posts at times. It's a good move for the forum. Just be careful what you say because violating the rights of one person can trickle into the entire forum and eventually, that garners a lot of unwanted attention.

I agree. The majority of content posted was already public domain, easily accessible from other sites via a quick Google Search. However, as you mention questionable content has a habit of spilling into legitimate posts at times, and the lines do get blurred. What is already a public database from our perspective, might be considered confidential by other parties.

As you say, we are indexed by Google and essentially clearnet. There is no "shield from federal interaction" and anyone is welcome to join. I've known about federal observation before. It is beyond naïve for anyone to assume they are not being watched on forums (clearnet or otherwise). This move eliminates any confusion.

[mothered]

Good move.

The longevity of this board and the safety of our community Is of paramount Importance.

[Spooky]

Great move. Nothing of value resides in combo's anyway. Let's move on to brighter and better things.

[mothered]

Nothing of value resides in combo's anyway. Let's move on to brighter and better things.

Agreed.

Due to the huge amount of traffic In the Combo Lists forum, the majority of members used It to their advantage to purely monetize their links. Most threads only contained a single link, which did not have a positive Impact on this board In any way at all.

I'm glad It's gone for good.

[okaelmasry]

In fact, I had been working in the combo department for a year and my personal dependence was on profit from files because I do nothing in my normal life and the money I made was donated to a charitable organization and I was buying my clothes from the profit that was coming to me from visitors who came to the site Now I am not sad about the deletion of the section because it was a pleasure to meet you. It is you who credit every profit you have made through your site and I wish you always success in everything to come.

[ConcernedCitizen]

In fact, I had been working in the combo department for a year and my personal dependence was on profit from files because I do nothing in my normal life and the money I made was donated to a charitable organization and I was buying my clothes from the profit that was coming to me from visitors who came to the site Now I am not sad about the deletion of the section because it was a pleasure to meet you. It is you who credit every profit you have made through your site and I wish you always success in everything to come.

It was also predominantly foreigners that posted combo lists and I don't see anything of value in them.
It goes kind of like this:

1. Post thread with "CLICK HERE FOR NEW FRESH COMBO LISTS".
2. File is either not scanned or the user posts a scan of the archive.
3. This is not always immediately caught by mods.
4. User is infecting 1000 people a week because it's not caught.
5. Combo list was just a leech anyway from another forum.

It was made even worse when a certain forum was acting sketchy and we ended up inheriting a lot of its users around the March, maybe late February mark. It's a huge area and people were using the popularity to gain zombies and spread FUD, etc. Which is against the rules and against several laws. That puts us at an impasse. We don't like to deny or censor, and we also don't want to lose the forum for the same reasons other forums have been taken offline. You can see the better approach would be to just remove that section of the forum altogether. If there is a cancer, cut it out, or kill it. Simple as that. Appreciate the effort that a lot of users were putting into posting combos and similar lists, but it's really not as big a loss as it was presumed to be.

[PYA]

This is about the raidforums seizure isn't it. You don't want to liken it to what happened there, or draw attention to things that could put the site at risk.

Good call Oni.