Aeonflux's view of the scene and proposals for improvement   by The Crazed Asylum (TCA)

This letter is to everyone in the scene, someone who wishes to make the scene better, and to improvise the quality of the warez being traded. I am aeonflux (A.K.A sPLiT242). Some of you know me, most of you don't. I don't claim to be 'elite' or anything like that. 'Elite' has a different meaning to me than it does to a lot of people in the scene, well i'm not going to get into it. I just want to ask all of you to listen to what I have to say, think about what i said, and then react to it. MATURELY. Basically, I have a proposal for the entire scene, anyone is welcome to join. Only exceptions are feds, and people who think they are better than god just because they were able to move 700+ megs to some big site. I have been actively involved in the scene for about a year now. Before that I was in HS, and I didn't have time for all of this (plus my 2400 baud modem, detered any wishes to download a release :o)). Now i've gone to college dropped out, and now have a full time job. Basically, seen a lot more of life, and in my opinion matured a little too fast. If any of you college kids want to be in my shoes, i will be more than happy to give up this cushy job for your final exams, and term papers. Throughout this whole time period (2 years in september). One thing has been constant. The deterioration of the scene. I've seen groups come and go, couriers start out on the bottom, and now are topping the weektops. sites make it to the top, only to get narqed just because someone got pissed about not being added or not being given leech. I've seen the number of releases/month/group sky rocket. Groups are just clamoring for warez. And a groups reputation is based now on the quantity of warez, not the quality of warez they produce every month. When I ask a courier what a certain release is, I get the same answer all of the time. "I just move it, I don't use it". I don't put the couriers down for it, I'm not putting down any release group for it. It's a problem that the entire scene has to address. To those of you who feel that the scene is just a means for them to get games or programs for free, then you might as well stop reading this. You will never understand where i'm coming from, or what I'm talking about. For the new guys to the scene reading this, I hope you make a decision maturely and wisely. The scene is one place where it doesn't matter what your peers think. This is where the true 'elite' know that what's easy is not always good, and whats good is not always easy. The difference between my definition of 'elite' and joe courier's definition is in the maturity level of the individual, and in the way the person carries himself. 700 megs to a site don't make you elite. It's how you handle yourself after the fact, when your name is plastered all over the top 10 on CWS, or any other courier rating system. I know for a fact that I am not the only one who wants to make things better for the scene. I might be the only one to have sent a scene wide plea. But you see these attempts around you all the time, you even respect them. These people have devised ways to try and make the scene better, and I ask for these people to come forward and join me in making the scene a better place. Here is my proposal. A league of a sorts for the entire scene. Where all the sites are known. A fair rating system. And a little more consistency. I want a fair way to rate sites. I don't know how CWS rates their sites, but I don't think everyone in the scene goes to #cws and does a !vote <insertsitehere> and actually does it honestly. I don't want to take a scene wide poll. Nor do I want to exclude some couriers by just asking the top couriers for their opinions. I haven't quite figured out a way yet, so I am asking all of your opinions, maybe someone out there has a way to rate them fairly. PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR THOUGHTS. Once we get the sites rated properly. I guess this would be a good time to define the different levels/ranks a site can achieve. Here is my idea: 10 - TOP 10 Sites. (DIV I) 10 - MID 10 Sites (DIV II) 10 - Bottom 10 Sites. (DIV III) Now you might say, there are more than 30 sites in the scene. To that I say yes, but we have to have a cut off point. And since this is my idea right now I decided to stay at this level right now. If you think you have a better way again, I encourage any comments from you. Think of the league as a soccer league in europe. Most of you europeans might know where I'm goin with this now. To the others this is somewhat what happens in a soccer league. BTW : Soccer = Football (in case you were confused) Lets take the example of a league in England. England has a soccer league the league has 3 Divisions. (this may or may not be true, i haven't followed soccer in ages). Division I is where the top teams of the league play. Division II is where the middle teams play. Division III is where the bottom teams play. Good thing about it all is the fact that a division III team can move up to Division II or I, and the Div I or II teams can move down the ladder as well. The criteria for moving up and down is the performance of the team in a division. This is determined by seeing how the team placed at the end of a season. Say, Team A which was in Division I finished last place, Team H which was in Division II placed first place, the two teams would switch levels. And the next season would begin with Team A being the favorite to win the title in Division title in Division II, and Team H would be a new contender in Division I. Now if we were to take the soccer model, and apply it with a twist to our site ranking system. We have our league. Where. Divisions = Our ranking System. Teams = Sites Players = Couriers. Now you may say, well Site A has noname courier affil#1, and Site H has BignamecourierAffilZ. Well then it's the problem of the affils and the site that their site is going down. One individual never made a team a championship team, neither did one courier or it's affils make a site the #1 site in the world. This is a time where we have to be carefull how we design the ranking system. My proposal is at the end of this letter. If anyone has any questions comments, suggestions or would like to help me in this effort. Feel free to e-mail me at: [email protected]. Site Ranking System ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basically, the speed at which the site gets the warez is gonna be the determining factor in it's placement.* 1. 0-9 Seconds NOT A PRE** = 4 Points/Complete release 2. 10-29 Seconds = 3 Points " 3. 30-49 Seconds = 2 Points " 4. 50-69 Seconds = 1 Point " 5. 70+ Seconds = .5 Points " * The time intervals are gonna be changed to something feasible soon. But this is what I mean. ** The reason I don't want to count PRE's is because, as many of us know, PREing is not really racing. PRE is something that starts the race. So if RiSE gets a pre to Xenosis, Xenosis does gets 0 points. But if DWH gets the release within 10 seconds then DWH gets 4 Points. *** Sites don't get a single point, until the entire release is finished. Making a directory on a site at the same time as another site that's getting a PRE does not give you a point. If a razor release is 54 disks, and you a site makes the directory at the same time as a Razor Release HQ, just because one of the couriers saw a site bot make the directory, or in a classic case of scripting, you get nothing untill the site has all 54 disks. Thats when the countdown begins. Not when the directory is made.