dear fravia+,



reason i'm writing is that i think i should let you

know that i care, not because i think my ideas are

that good or special. you should do what makes you

happy, what YOU want to do.



for me, the reason to start cracking was frustration.

about nag screens, about not having the paper manual,

etc. not the need to understand how it worked. all

that came later, when i got really interested.



your pages gave me a beginning and later on, a lot of

good info and a lot of 'where should i put a bpx to

get this for free'-crap.



what i liked about your site in the past:

-reading something, then trying myself, then coming

 back to read more.

-new essays by people i know.

-essays about stuff i'd been working on myself.

-the articles about commercials and power were fun.

-the knowledge to the people mentality.



i understand your dismal with the so called cracker

scene, these black pages with pornbanners and cracks,

warez-sites for crackers (full copies of IDA, WINICE,

etc.) these groups that post 100s of cracks each

month... so maybe it is vulgair, but it isn't evil or

wrong.

no-one who downloads 100's of cracks would even

think about buying all that stuff, and crackers make

cracks for fun, to be loved, or to belong. 

i don't see what's wrong with that.

the more a program is cracked or copied the more

it'll be known and the more they'll sell. if you have

an illegal copy of something at your home pc and want

to use it at work, you'll buy a license cause you

can't afford a lawsuit. (and maybe because you feel

that if you are making money using a program you

should pay for it) i think quake is so popular

also because it isn't protected in any way. i don't

really see the damaging part. it's like marbles,

people trading & collecting different combinations

of ones and zeros.



now if it were my site i'd find someone to weed out

the essays like someone else suggested, maybe even

try all the cracks cause some of them (like Xoanon's

cubase crack) are just not right. others are just

boring and unhelpfull.

maybe put all the deleted ones in one big zip and put

it up for download with a warning that it's all crap.

i'd keep something of a learing path, some good essays

in each difficulty.

maybe i'd put an article about ethics on the front

page, explaining my motives and what the page is there

for, and personally i'd like to make a 'make tools

yourself' section on coding and modifying tools.

(like others also suggested)



a good beginner essay doesn't have to give the target

and exact locations, but should at least list some

similar protection type programs to practice on or be

encouraging enough to go try stuff yourself. as i

explained above i'm not against listing targets.

if i'd really want to damage microsoft i'd delete ALL

the microsoft essays and provide a lot of Linux, BSD

BeOS, etc cracking essays, especially in the

beginners sections.







+SNiKkEL <snikkel@gmx.net>



PS: Why did you write the 'cracking for dummies' series? ;)