ReeGed, the founding member of ZeroSec.ws
and one the original 7 that defected from RlsLog.net nearly 18 months
ago, announced a few days ago that ZeroSec has been sold to an unnamed
buyer. More likely than not, this was the last nail in the coffin for a
release blog that’s already been struggling lately to keep up with the
scene. In addition to ReeGed, two other key ZS admins have also stepped
down - and in fact all three admins have now been locked out of the
site. It all goes downhill after that (no fault to ReeGed & Co), as
new popup ads will surely repulse even the most devout readers.
Somewhere nearby, Martin is silently smirking.
ZeroSec - The Announcement:
Source: ZeroSec Forums - 2010-01-19 @ 18:21
Regarding Recent Changes - By ReeGed:
As there has been a lot of concern recently about the ownership of ZeroSec and some of the malicious ads that have been put up on the frontpage, I hope to bring some more understanding as to how and why this has happened in this post.
First of all let me confirm that Pandaking, Untamed and I have intended to step down as admins of ZeroSec for quite some time now. A mixture of lack of time, lack of ambition for the project and excitement for other web based plans caused us to attempt to find someone interested in taking this project over.
We knew that finding someone with the same ideals for ZeroSec as us would be nearly impossible, but we saw interest in many directions. For quite some time now we’ve had plans for other projects and the only way to fully engage those plans would be to either completely end ZeroSec as a site, or pass it on to a new owner. We felt that the most reasonable solution for both our visitors and ourselves would be the latter.
Unfortunately as control of the site was passed on to the new adminship, some of the key points we asked for (such as a goodbye post) were forgotten. Our accounts have been removed and we’re currently unable to do anything about it without the approval of the new owner, which we will get in due time.
Either way, the intention of leaving the site in new hands was always to enable the rise of a new site, Project X. This is an as of yet unnamed site which we hope to develop if everything goes as planned, but will require some startup capital.
Regarding the mobile pop-up ads, we have been promised that they will be removed shortly. Also, you can expect a goodbye post from Pandaking, Untamed and myself in the coming couple of days.
Current editors were not informed beforehand of such an impending sale by ReeGed. It’s also unclear as to how much the site was sold for, but apparently ReeGed stated in a ZS sales pitch on a “private auction” (in which the site was reportedly sold on) that the site was taking in $800 a month from ads - which is very plausible considering their traffic. Anyone who knows anything about the inner workings on how to buy/sell a website can agree that generally the value of a site is normally calculated by the past 12-months revenue, which in this case would be ~$10,000. An offer much lower than this would clearly be rejected by any smart seller.
Lack of Editors…
As it stands now, ZeroSec has just six high-level editors on the site. And with ReeGed, pandaking and Untamed already having their WordPress accounts disabled it’s doubtful they’ll have the drive left to carry out what they planned: helping the new owners get to their feet, even implementing the “beta” site that was planned with a heap of new user-end features.
There’s still no word on whether or not current editors will stay on with ZS in the long haul; although most have stayed aboard while waiting to speak with the new owners in regards to the direction of the site. From what we gather, existing staff/editors have not yet been contacted by the new owners, who have chosen to remain silent at this time.
Bad Adverts…
ZeroSec readers from the U.S. may have already noticed some new & unusually treacherous advertisements on ZeroSec.ws. When the site was sold the new owners moved ZeroSec to US servers (most likely to cut costs) they also incorporated some nasty popups - something that readers of ZeroSec have never had to deal with before. It seems these popups are localized to target only American (and Filipino) visitors, at least so far. These ads are more than just annoying, but could also be dangerous - here’s a look at the page source:
Example of a typical ZeroSec popup ad:
And it gets worse. The cell phone advert (shown below) is particularly evil - users are enticed into entering a quick captcha-style code followed by their cellphone number. What many don’t realize is that what ends up happening is the user is then charged $9.99 each month for this “service”. This particular popup ad isn’t a side effect of a banner rotation, it is intentionally added through JavaScript routing with the sms_load.php file being hosted locally on the zerosec.ws domain.
Sc0rff, a popular editor for ZeroSec, started this thread to warn ZeroSec visitors about the above threat. Evidently some viewers aren’t even able to access the site without being subjected to the above cell popup, which is clearly a scam.
To quote a ZS forum member who put it so eloquently, ”Are these incompetent fools even aware they are meticulously driving their recent purchase into the ground?”. Well spoken, indeed. Highly doubtful is the fact that ReeGed and crew will even get the chance to utter their “goodbye posts” on ZeroSec; we figure the “goodbye” to ZS will be much more widespread anyways.
Folks, there are plenty of other release blogs out there. If you absolutely must visit ZeroSec then use Adblock+ and NoScript add-ons for Firefox.
SpecialDark Says:
You forgot to mention the fact that there is a “Project-X” in the works.
Nailin Pailin Says:
Ah..well…all good things come to an end sooner or later..
Sad to hear it but the lack of time thing is true, posting release info takes alot more time than the avg person would believe. What goes into developing the site base cuts out even more time…
Best of luck with future endeavors y’all
lol Says:
lol zerosec has ads..i never seen them
SCAM Says:
@LOL same here,
cause peeps don’t use any kinda protection in their browser(s)
just use Hostsman and you will be fine.
peace….
DARK88FANGS Says:
sc0rff makes me hard. I wish he’d ditch 0sec and do something more useful and productive with all his knowledge and experience.
i shot jrocket Says:
scnsrc.net ad-free.
simplez.
it is a shame tho
omfg Says:
always prefered zerosec to scnsrc.net rlslog.net scenereleases.info its such a shame .. hope project x will finish asap und be up and running in no time !
btw sceneddl.net also closed ..
omfg Says:
btw sharky how about a nice little article about all those release blogs ? would be nice to find a _new home_ ..
YaSs3r37 Says:
@ omfg
gr8 idea
I only use three
ans that was one of them
sad news tbh
Justin Whitehead Says:
That tends to happen when new people move in dude.
Just A Thought Says:
Anyone else get the feeling their ”Project X” is a new torrent tracker or warez forum of sorts?
dudedr Says:
Those blogs are not good. ZS was my favorite, until it started to fall apart. Rlslog is slow/offline a lot and it has lots of crappy apps and 0day spam. Scenescrc is also quite unstable and slow on new content.
omfg Says:
duder: thats why i think we need a rls blog roundup article
zerosec was imo the fastest of those blogs and it had nice quality comments and screens and it has/had the “ihatetv” feature which is imo one of the best ideas of all time .. OF ALL TIME ! rlslog is full of useless stuff for me (ufc and tv … there’s already tvtorrents or eztv for that)
sc0rff Says:
“Current editors were not informed beforehand of such an impending sale by ReeGed.”
I would just like to say that most of the current editors were fully aware of the intent to sell the site, a couple of months ago editors (including myself) were asked how we would feel about it and if we agreed with the idea, I know that all of the higher-level staff were fine with it.
Meelu Says:
Fuck i just found out the sites been sold… wtf.
blurg Says:
@OMFG - http://filesharefreak.com/2008/12/08/release-blogs-finding-the-latest-p2p-scene-releases/
exaggeration Says:
All the editors of Zs were informed of the sale months before it took place btw.
Project X will redefine the online p2p fileshare experience…..
McArty Says:
I still remember what ReeGed did to Rlslog; something really low and dirty…
Sell OUts Says:
They sold out, they put a year and a half into a site, got the readership going, and then sold the site for a bunch of money…… no if ands or buts,(but they need the ‘capital’ to start a ‘new site’) why not make zerosec the ‘project X’? why not make it something it is…. The internet bubble of buying and selling is definately not gone in domain making… wonder how long it’ll be before they sell that site too? Or as from rlslog ‘get tired of the editors’ and start their own new site….
At least the sheep will follow you ….
Nutman Says:
Glad to see this worthless site go down in flames. Rlslog has always whooped there ass in amount of posts, content of posts, and speed of posts. Maybe Project X will be better, I doubt it though.
Lol @#17 get off Reegeds dick. It will just be another release blog clone. They all do exactly the same thing, the defining quality is in your editors, most of ZeroSec’s sucked ass, so I assume most will be following him over to Project X.
Jeth Says:
@20 Nutman
I’m sorry, but the majority of ZeroSec’s movie posts “whoop the ass” of other release blogs in terms of quality of content and information.
Take this release for instance: The.Book.of.Eli.TELESYNC.XviD-MENTiON
compare posts on ZeroSec, Rlslog and ScnSrc and you will see an obvious difference quality of content and information, ZeroSec wins for that. I’m not going to even include SceneReleases because they don’t provide ANY worthwhile quality assessments.
Sandman Says:
LOL, I didn’t know they had ads like others have mentioned yet alone some kind of cellphone malware tool. I guess I have Firefox, Noscript, WOT, Adblocker, and Ghostery to thank for that.
Too bad, Zerosec was my favorite out of Scenesrc and Scenereleases.info. They were usually quicker than those guys but here lately they have been lacking. Now we all know why. Anyway, I guess I will take it off my bookmarks. No use keeping a malware ridden site on my bookmarks even if it doesn’t bother me. It is the principle of it.
tojam Says:
Zerosec was always way ahead of both rlslog and scene source for quality of posts and post times. It’’s a pity that the article here was so full of errors and unsubstantiated rumors also!
REDiR Says:
that*
XFX Says:
i was a previous editor of zerosec and definetly the site was going down since january 09 or before ,being an editor in zs was not fun and they dont allow to have your own links ….
my personal opinion,if you want to have a good release blog
Pre Scene Bot + Custom WP Theme + Acces to Scene TopSites + XLDR + SEO + KATZ = in less than 1 year you wil be on the top of release blogs
mropinion Says:
Don’t forget Scenesource.net made by ex rlslog editors Shiny and Lee before zerosec started, its never had any ads and never will. We are usually quicker posting than either rlslog or zerosec and were the first to start our own preDB etc.
Griff Says:
Check out GetTheNew.com - we’re new, and still recruiting writers, but the review quality is unrivaled, and we don’t have ads.
BraaK Says:
#26 (mropinion): lol, your site sucks ass, slow, unstable most of the time, fastest to post? well how hard would it be to add simple wordpress post with no information at all? except the automated poster and some fake bitrate info, fucking retarded moron.
eXam Says:
@28
What are you talking about..? What are any of the other sites providing that we are not? aspect ratio for a tv show? Please….. Go take a look at zerosux and rlslag and scnsrc.net and see who has the most recent posts, and doesn’t have ads? You’ll only find one of the sites that does that…. All of those sites are unstable to some extent…. so not going to argue something that hits all the sites….and something that one can not control….
Boglt Says:
Hey guys you should totall check out http://ddlda.net its a new website with like 200 new releases per day, pretty amazing, and they also upload to MU,RS,HF,DF and UP kinda amazing
Justin Whitehead Says:
OK looks like they have a lot to bring to the table dude.
Jess
http://www.online-privacy.int.tc
bigmouth Says:
@29 I must say scenesource is a crap site!
You guys are NOT faster at nothing and post mostly just the crapy films!!
No ad’s bigdeal i just block all the ip’s of ad’s anyways!
The site always has this bright gray that come’s up for the first 2 or 3 mins
that hurts my eyes!!!
That just what i think for what it’s worth!!
2bereal Says:
i use filenest.com to download my shit. i dont care about realease blogs
Dirk Diggler Says:
scnsrc.net is pretty damn good, from what I’ve seen zerosec always stole ideas from them to and now they’ve gone and sold out in the same way that rlslog did, bunch of hypocrites making excuses as to why they can’t run a site that practically runs itself.
I don’t know what you mean about it being slow bigmouth, seems to load up just fine for me.
Linda Says:
Very sad news but at least there are these guys left:
http://www.torrentavi.com
http://www.scnsrc.net
and of course http:/www.rlslog.net
We will be ok.
carvin Says:
Scene Source is way too slow to post and their editors don’t know enough about the releases when they do post. I will be looking for a much better alternative aside from rlslog and scnsrc.
tom Says:
for tv i use
http://www.thepirateblog.net/
its new but way more complete than any of the other sites
Lee Says:
Haha Tom, who are you trying to kid, way more complete?
By complete you must mean link dump and nothing else…
tom Says:
yeah i mean they post more releases not that they have more info about the releases
Jeth Says:
Love these comments…
“My e-penor is bigger than their e-penor”
So lets keep it going, ZeroSec’s reviews of the QUALITY, particularly of movie release from non-retail sources are far superior than other “release blogs” because at least one of their editors knows exactly what they are talking about, you go to scnsrc and its like “here is a ts, its quite bad”, or rlslog its like “here ts by scene, bad, good i cant speak english waaaa”.
Nostradamus Says:
Why anyone buys a site without the manpower to maintain the level of quality is astonish. Maybe a good deal for the seller but for the buyer is doubfull. The quickest way to make some dough is of course with xxx
Lee Says:
Jeth: What more info do you want then whether the quality of the movie is good or bad?
Mack Says:
Unless RLSLOG provides sample links for CAMs and others. Seriously, wtf are you gonna do with a paragraph describing how the video looks when you can just download the 6 mb sample and see for your self. No wonder ZS has gone into shit. They work so hard on their posts at the end of the day 30% is useless information. Talk about very little apps. RLSLOG is far superior because of its wide variety of releases. Sure, it needs adblock and the comments section are in a state of anarchy, but beats the hell out of other sites.
PlanetMaster Says:
I have the largest e-penis of all.
RLSHIT Says:
Rlslog is a huge crack of shit. It’s the crappiest site dealing with releases. The best is obviously ZS, and even now, that it’s gone to the toilet, it’s still better than that shitty rlslog. I’m speaking from a user’s point of view, I’ve got no contact with each of the site’s staff. Fuck you rlslog, suck my big fat ballz, and go ZeroSec.
Randy Says:
Zerosec is still miles ahead of the other sites despite this article and many of the operators of competing sites posting in the comments here using other names and aliases.
There are a lot of outright errors and misrepresentations in the article too, I went to the Zerosec forums and read a few threads to get independent information. Whoever posted the original article here should have really done a lot more work because a lot of what was written was just simply not true. Quite a few of the Zerosec editors have publicly stated that they were told about the sale months in advance and have based their decisions to be a part of the new project X because of this.
Shizzamn Says:
So editors were told but the ‘millions’ or ‘hundreds of thousands’ or whatever number of unique visitors weren’t told that the site they ‘enjoyed’ was selling out, and going to be a useless webpage? lol
Is that supposed to be a ‘vote of confidence’ to individuals to go to another site they are going to create, make it ‘big’ and then sell out on as well…..
As anyone that creates/manages/etc.. a website will tell you that of course whatever you want your website to be is of your own volition and if individuals choose to visit it, they should deal with ‘how it is’ but visitors do shape how a website is to look and act as well. The ‘old owners’ (that left rlslog the same way) slapped all those ‘unique visitors’ in the face by the way they acted. They knew they were selling it, they knew they were leaving it, they ‘knew they took the site as far as they could’. But why tell anyone when that would drive the price of the site down. They don’t care about the visitors they cared about the $$$$ (which is fine) as long as they don’t hide behind a bunch of smoke and mirrors of how they ‘did it for fun’ or ‘they care about the people that visit the site.’ THEY DIDN’T, they cared about the $$$ and thats it, bottom line, don’t be so pretentious to think (or in their case act) otherwise.
@46 You read plenty of ‘comments’ from the ‘administrators/editors of the site’ stating they can no longer ‘do or say anything within the forums/site’ but somehow can ‘lock a thread’ and ‘don’t have any time to write a ‘good-bye remark’ to the ppl that made the site (the site is useless without ppl visiting it, and I think the editors forgot about that) they hide behind the inability to do anything, but do what they want when it suits them. They complain about ‘conspiracy theories’ and ‘go back and watch FOX news,’ please its rather a simple conclusion to see that you sold the site, and then soon thereafter you stopped caring about the site. There are only 2 editors on the site that post on an irregular basis.
The old owners should be ashamed that they could so quickly dump a site they claim to love and create and was according to them, no small task for 17 months.They sold the site for money, then have the audacity to try to claim to some ‘higher authority’ of taking the site as far as possible, no longer have time, excuse after excuse after excuse….
*end rant*
sc0rff Says:
@47 Shizzamn: They still have admin rights on the forums yes, but its a place very few people (compared to the main sites overall traffic) visit. They have absolutely no access to the word-press site any more or the servers either are now hosted on. As they have reiterated over and over, they had a plan to issue an official statement, but the new owners had shut them out without allowing them to, but they did make a statement on the forums as soon as ReeGed got home and slept off his jet lag.
Sure in retrospect he could have wrote something for me to publish to the site with my own account, but that didn’t occur to me, or anyone else for that matter, at the time.
Shizzamn Says:
@48/SC0RFF
Don’t take this the wrong way if NO ONE BELEIVES YOU… again its excuse after excuse….
Unfortunately for some that don’t know, and fortunate for those that do, this isn’t the first time that a large sum of the editors left one site and ‘joined/created/made*insert catchy word here*” another site. (yes yes there is no ‘new site now, nor any ‘exact future date’ on the other’ but editors as per the forums were made aware MONTHS in advance that the site was going up for sale (none could preemptively write a good-bye letter or whatever you guys claim you ‘wanted to do before access was taken away.’ I mean that would’ve been something to do (perhaps yes????) and I only say this to individuals that again claim that they made the site what it is, claim that they ‘care about the user base’ etc.. etc.. etc…
And SC0RFF before you start writing a reply to this, I just want to point out why I think ‘no one believes you,’ (again no conspiracy theory, no I’m watching FOX news) go to the forums (the place where their accounts are NOT disabled), go find where there is one good bye message by the editors of the site (I found one line from ReeGed, ONE LINE, unless an ‘explanation as to what is going on is a goodbye letter then I stand corrected’ but that seems like a letter someone writes after people start complaining about shitty customer service… “its not our fault, its someone elses fault, we were going to do this that and the other thing, we still could…. but meh” ). Definitely an explanation as to WHY the site was going to shit, what they PLANNED (past) to do, but no ‘good bye letter.’ They had ample time, they just didn’t care, and AGAIN, thats fine I write this not caring (lol some may or may not believe me ha ha), just don’t PRETEND TO CARE…. You insult the smart people, although the less intelligent are of course ‘blaming the new owners.’
Again, its an insult to the user base of the site…. and again I want to make it perfectly clear, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MAKING MONEY, but don’t hide behind a facade of ‘we did everything we could for the site and took it as far as possible’ for old owners or editors that took a site and put so much into it, to just watch it get shit on (and by that I mean turning into the ‘old’ site they LEFT) is I guess ironic…..
Now time to listen to a bit of Alanis Morissette… Its like TWO THOUSAND SPOONS, WHEN ALL YOU NEED IS A KNIFE!!!!!
lol…..
Jack Says:
Hi, is there a release site that also covers BRRips?
Dont Care Anymore Says:
It is all an old story. Seen many times in old western TV shows. You take the money, then you get outta Dodge. Fast as you can!
Nothing complex about that. Nothing personal, just business. Oh, and don’t stop to kiss babies on the way out of town.
Anonymous Says:
ZeroSec is all but dead. They have like 2 active editors and if/when releases are posted they are hours if not days late. Everything that made ZeroSec one of the best sites no longer exists - fast release posting is gone, predb is down, no nfo links any more, etc. Plus it’s almost a month after the sale and we still haven’t heard from the new owners - it’s obvious they are a pathetic bunch of noob retards who only care about making money with lame spam advertising.
R.I.P ZeroSec
Jeth Says:
@50 Jack, I hope not, BRRips are the epitome of the p2p world! So I imagine scenereleases would cover them.
where now Says:
Which are the best ones then guys. Opinions?
eXam Says:
SCNSRC.net
Nothing but
mental theo Says:
Anything but rlslog!
Anonymous Says:
LOL at this “Project X” bullshit. Why can’t the admins or Reeged himself tell us what “Project X” is without using generic buzzwords like “under development” and “revolutionary site”? Here’s why: it doesn’t exist. Reeged has no intention of starting another site - he just wanted money from the sale. Saying that the new owners screwed everyone over is just a convenient excuse so he doesn’t have to explain himself.
Project X = Reeged laughing at everyone while using the money from the sale to buy coke and hookers.
omfg Says:
see the actual auction : http://flippa.com/auctions/75893/Release-Site-and-Forums-450000-Uniques-per-month-and-Dedicated-Userbase
lol :p “http://flippa.com/auctions/75893/Release-Site-and-Forums-450000-Uniques-per-month-and-Dedicated-Userbase” thats a sell out !
Someone Says:
As some one who visited the site for a few years, I’m honestly quite confused by all hate towards every other site and excessive love for ZS. Sorry, but ZS started sucking before it was sold. That “fastest” junk hadn’t been true for a while. ZS was routinely behind other release sites in updates.
Also, quite frankly, the excessive commentary and reviews weren’t all that helpful in most cases. All I ever did myself was scan user comments before grabbing whatever it was off usenet. Thou I guess maybe I can sorta see how it might be useful to the kinds of people dumb enough to be using web links (just try and finish before it’s all removed after finally finding a fileset that wasn’t fake) and torrents (just give all your info to the authorities) to download.
Don’t get me wrong, it still sucks it’s dead as a release site, since more is always better then less, but quite frankly, it’s no big loss.