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? ;)