It's official, h4x0r now worse than CH

[totte1015]

Didn't think I would ever bring myself to say it, but between the half-working useless DRM to the new ADWARE including footers, popups, etc now being included with every trainer, h4x0r has officially crossed over into realm of uselessness. I'd rather just pay for a CH membership than have to deal with all the crap that comes along with a supposed "free" trainer by h4x0r. There's no telling what kind of stuff is now residing on my PC after running these things. Every AV I use threw up red flags all over the place. The worse part is that GCW continues to host this crap and promote stuff like this. This place continues to go further and further downhill.

[Joe Forster/STA]

And a nice day to you, too!

Originally Posted by totte1015

Every AV I use threw up red flags all over the place.

Namely? Let me guess: you're using none of the virus scanners we recommend. Have you checked them on VirusTotal?

Originally Posted by totte1015

The worse part is that GCW continues to host this crap and promote stuff like this. This place continues to go further and further downhill.

I'm open to suggestions and even criticism but this is outrageous. What you obviously don't understand is that GCW doesn't take sides and, therefore, hosts everything that visitors - not you; others! - may find useful. (This has been pointed out several times already but you must've missed all of them. Are you a write-only user?) If you don't like some stuff then don't download it. You're free to complain about non-working or annoying stuff, because that's what this forum is for, but this kind of abuse against a site that has been around for a decade and a half, providing free stuff all the time, is not acceptable. Adjust your attitude or you'll be shown the exit very soon!

[totte1015]

The last time I checked, GCW refuses to post PROMO trainers from CH, but they are happy to post ADWARE and DRM FILLED trainers by h4x0r. Not exactly what I would call "not taking sides".

Also, aren't you supposed to be looking out for your end users? Allowing people to post trainers FILLED with adware and who knows what else solely for their monetary gain isn't exactly what I would call being user friendly.

See the attached screenshot. There's a reason that your traffic graph looks like the U.S. stock market. The quality of your files has dropped significantly and thus so have your visitors. I'm just trying to point something out, not try and start some kind of flame war.

[phadeb]

I'm afraid I must agree with the OP. You never would have seen stuff like this posted on GCW several years ago. I just tried h4x0r's latest trainer for Borderlands 2 that I downloaded from here and I encountered 2 popup ads plus some weird footer ad that took up my whole screen, and that's before the trainer even started up and asked me to login to it. Shameful, really.

[Joe Forster/STA]

totte1015, now you're making a point. (Although you still owe me actual virus scanner reports about h4x0r's supposedly infected or, at least, suspicious files.) I forwarded it into our internal forum although, let me remind you again, GCW doesn't filter uploads by principle so, if this policy changes at all, that's not gonna be easy.

And, yes, you're rgith, no filtering except for CheatHappens' promo trainers. They uploaded (probably real) trainers with h4x0r-abusing filenames as well as fake trainers, some in h4x0r's name. This is also something that couldn't have happened "on GCW several years ago" and they were banned subsequently. No, not right after the war - I cried several times for permanent ban at once (more about prejudice below) but Empire refused and continued to accept their promo trainers until he got fed up. This is not taking sides, this is a reaction to actual abuse of service. This has also been pointed out in one of our announcements but, apparently, you missed that, too.

Saying that traffic is the only indicator of the success of a site is bullshit.
- What ratio of the traffic do you think is trainers, taking into account their average size and the average interest in using them? A fraction of a percent? Or are cracks, the vast majority of traffic, "going down", too?
- It was part of the submission policy to refuse Steam cracks. Now, did the traffic increase or decrease because of this? None of us know - maybe, even Empire doesn't. The policy has changed recently. Will traffic increase or decrease? Does this have to do with Steam cracks raising the average quality of cracks or only with the simple fact that there's more stuff available, not trying to sway people's decisions with our own prejudice?
- When I became a moderator on this forum, I rewrote the rules with much clearer text, I checked posts thoroughly and punished offences against the rules consistently. Now most of the forum is dead, with the exception of CD/DVD conversions. I once thought I killed it but then the others explained that, no, it's just that people migrated to forums where warez talk, unlike here, is allowed. (So, yeah, I killed the forum but not the way I thought.) Now, are we preferring quality over quantity or vice versa on the forum?!

I told h4x0r several times, including public posts and PM's, that he should remove DRM from his trainers. We agreed with cocodrilo, his "colleague", and he promised me to try to persuade him. He, apparently, failed. Now I'm trying to explain to CD/DVD conversion authors that DRM doesn't lead anywhere. The only long-term solution for the "digital theft" problem is that if something is really free (i.e. open source) then the words "stealing" and "theft" lose their meaning. Do people listen to me? Only some do. Now, am I trying to persuade people into preferring quality over quantity or vice versa?

You're seeing this topic black and white when it's actually grey.

Finally, let me make everyone understand perfectly: I'm not sure if this thread aims at what it seems to aim at so if it proves to be just another propaganda campaign then people will get banned. This is a very sensitive topic with severe accusations, especially from people who are yet to prove their worthiness and reliability on this forum, so I'll remain suspicious.

[EMPiRE]

I totally agree that the trainers that h4x0r is currently producing contain too much DRM/Adware crap but it is up to you, as user, if you want to use them or not. We only give you a choice. Personally I do not use them because of this, that is my own personal choice!

If any of h4x0r’s (or anyone elses) trainers contain malware/trojans/whatever crap then they will not be posted. A warning is already posted next to the download that it contains DRM + Adware, that should be enough info. It is up to you to us it or not!

I still stand by that ALL available trainers will be published (even if they turn out to be useless), that also counts for CH promo's. We have given them the change to send them in again and that they will be posted but we've yet to see them arrive. The only thing we want is that they do not abuse anyone in any way, which should not be a big deal if you really want to change! It could be intentionally but in the end it is up to CH to change, we can't and won't do anything about that!

As for traffic going down, this was totally predicted (for years already). The main reason is the digital download era and that GCW is simply not needed that often anymore then a few years back. It is too bad that this is happening but then again we are doing this for fun and everything has an EOL, I am well aware if that...
Also if you check the other sites doing/copying what we are doing you will see exactly the same trend, so nothing new there!

[Joe Forster/STA]

Oh noes, this abso-fucking-lutely cannot be possible: few visitors -> few advertisement -> few revenue -> site enters a spin. Stall warning!

[totte1015]

Thank you Empire for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your comments. I guess we will just continue to watch the self inflicted h4x0r train wreck continue.

from sicheats.com ....

Small Database problem

Published on September 30, 2012 22:43 by sicheats.com | Views: 64 | Comments (3)

We report that this afternoon we had a problem in the database and some things like users and messages have been lost, we apologize for the inconvenience.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Shit happens. (You do backup your own stuff onto multiple PC's physically far from each other often, right? If you don't, shit will eventually happen.)

[whatda45]

I'm actually surprised no one seems to attack trainer DRM the same way game DRM is confronted.

Do you have any policy against cracking h4x0r or CH trainers?

[Joe Forster/STA]

I'm actually surprised you don't see the difference: trainers use online authentication while, in the past, games used physical media copy protection. Until recently, GCW hosted no game cracks of online authentication - and, even now, the main reason is that many trainers work with such cracks only. We, of course, don't have a policy about you doing whatever you want - some technical-minded forum members already mentioned the possibility of cracking trainer DRM themselves because of their frustration; please, go ahead, it'll be fun for everyone! -, just don't try to upload or discuss it here.

[whatda45]

I'm actually surprised at the sarcasm.
I won't resurrect an old discussion then...

[Joe Forster/STA]

Originally Posted by whatda45

I won't resurrect an old discussion then...

It's not an old discussion either.

[Grumpy]

@bainbryanp

Originally Posted by EMPiRE

ALL available trainers will be published (even if they turn out to be useless), that also counts for CH promo's

[Joe Forster/STA]

@Grumpy: Don't bother, bainbryanp was (!) a spambot.