Hi Fravia,

                 I think that the new organization of your site is the natural evolution

                 of the old one.

                 It's obvious, everyone tries to spread his own interest;  on the other

                 hand, the argument of your site is "reverse engineering",  and

                 discussing only about software protection is undoubtely limitating.

                 I'm a (very) beginner cracker, and so the contents of this mail can be

                 only personal, not techinical.

                 My interest in cracking has begun a few months ago. Before I didn't

                 have much time to spend in  "recreational" activities, and I didn't

                 know the cracking at all; but few months ago, because of a hangliding

                 accident, this situation was suddenly altered.

                 The changes was, essentially:



                 a) an external metallic frame, screwed in my right omerus by means of

                 four shafts;



                 b) no working at all



                 c) a lot of time



                 d) others (absolutely not interesting for you, I guess)



                 So I had the opportunity to know cracking, to learn and read Assembly,

                 to understand the basis of reverse engineering, and so on; your site

                 has been one (the main) source of my (poor) knowledge.

                 Now my time is reduced again, because I've been "unscrewed" on July 31,

                 and I had to go back to my job; but my interest in cracking doesn't

                 stop.



                 So I felt terribly disappointed when I read about your intention.



                 We all know that newborn babies aren't capable to walk; but someone,

                 growing older, become an athlete. He can run.

                 Now, I'm a newborn, and you're an athlete, and  teaching to a child to

                 walk can bore an athlete to death; and if it is so for you, I

                 understand. 



                 I, or better still, we, will go on on our own.



                 But I wish to talk about another argument, even if it will sound very

                 stupid.

                 I think that cracking is the most fascinating aspect of reverse

                 engineering, but not in order to stealing appz or damaging shareware

                 programmers. 

                 No.

                 It's the competition. It's the fight.



                 From my point of view, fighting against the winds in hangliding,

                 fighting against an opponent in karate point, fighting aginst myself if

                 I'm tired during a strenous physical exercise, or fighting against

                 protectionists is exactly  the same thing.



                 But moreover the fight against protectionists can assume further

                 meanings, because sometimes the protectionists represent a whole

                 reality that is opposite to us; and that is opposite to you too,

                 Fravia. In fact  "some your pages are seriously MSIE hostile". 



                 And then

                  "we (at least we old crackers) crack AGAINST society, and OPPOSING

                 laws and conventions. ..............We could not care less of the

                 commercial value of a given program, not to mention the holy work of

                 the ethical programmers... we program ourselves, but only because we

                 LIKE it... if somebody does something only in order to gain money, he

                 does not deserve anything. It's the mind challenge that counts, NEVER

                 the profit!.......

                 This is an indispensable attitude! Only a non-mercantile mind can leap

                 forward to the ìsatoriî knowledge that you desperately need if you want

                 to crack quickly and elegantly huge iperbloated monstruosities that

                 somebody else wrote and protected, or if you want to gain access to

                 some hidden information, data that you would like to snoop but that

                 somebody declared ìoff limitsî, coz a stupid government, or useless

                 industry sector, or money oriented programmer or dirty lobby of

                 interest decided it.

                 If you do accept the society where we are compelled to live, its

                 awfully egoistic way of life and its dirty ìprofitî values, you may

                 eventually learn how to disable some simple protections, but you'll

                 never be able to crack in the ìrightî way. You must learn to despise

                 money, governments, televisions, trends, opinion-makers, public

                 opinion, newspapers and all this preposterous, asinine shit if you want

                 to grasp the noble art, coz in order to be emphatic with the code you

                 must be free from all trivial and petty conventions, strange as it may

                 sound. So you better take a good look around you... you'll find plenty

                 of reasons to hate society and act against it, plenty of sparks to

                 crackle programs in the right way... " 



                 do you remember +ORC's words, +Fravia?  

                 I hope you remember.



                 Perhaps, the authors of the essays on your site had worked with this in

                 mind; and you  diminish their works,  considering them like trivial

                 patches.





                 And so for four months, an idiot with a metallic frame pierced in his

                 arm, was thinking, while was sitting in presence of a stupid monitor,

                 that few persons could join together becoming a moltitude by means of

                 the Web and of the cracking.

                 A senseless idea, after all. 

                 And for a senseless idea, a four months life is enough.  



                 But, in spite of this, I think that your new site will be amazing, and

                 very interesting. Nevertheless.



                 With best regards



                 Freeman