This is a special announcement to all the members of the BakaBT/Boxtorrents Community,
As you might have read from the
announcement at the formation of BakaBT, you will know the side of the story from Malus and Jarudin's point of view. As you have long awaited, Box
gave us his side of the story (using his girlfriend's account). Now, we want you to read both sides of the story carefully, then continue reading here.
The facts, that I'm sure you can all agree on, are these:
- Box created Boxtorrents and did much for the site even during the lean years.
- There was an excess of donations (more than enough to pay monthly server bills).
- Box was not being totally transparent about the state of the donations to the site (which he admitted in his response).
- Jarudin and Malus went through the database to get an estimate of the amount of donations that went to that Paypal account based on the history of how much GB was given to users from donations.
- Based on the results of what they got from the database, they discussed long and hard about what to do about it.
- On June 16th during the "maintenance" scheduled from 19h GMT and 22h GMT, Boxtorrents was moved to become BakaBT and in the announcements/news the point of view of Malus and Jarudin was made.
- On June 17th, around 24 hours later after the move, Box made his statement on his side of the story.
Those are the facts that everyone can agree on. It is everything else, including which side is "right" that remains the point of contention. There was also the way that this entire incident played out, which we admit was a rather drastic event. Frankly, I can tell you now that the community will forever be divided no matter what "evidence" both sides decide to give out. But unfortunately for the supporters of both sides, I don't believe either side will be willing to give out any more "evidence" publicly to help you convince yourselves either way. I know you, as a community, will not be satisfied with this, and if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't be either.
However, keep in mind this: this is the type of situation that can never go beyond the "we said/they said" type of argument, because no matter what we say, only Box himself knows the real truth of how much donations there were and where it all went. We can argue until the end of time and we can never truly claim to truly know the truth because we just can't (unless of course, someone is willing to hack paypal, but let's not go there).
You don't believe my claim? Let me explain then:
If Box really did do what Jarudin and Malus claimed he did, then he won't show us the paypal records, or he'll cook them up somehow to "prove" his innocence. If Box is really innocent, he could have shown us the paypal records when he made his post, but he didn't. Why wouldn't he do this if he was innocent? One reason may be that he wanted to be gracious and forgiving of Malus and Jarudin's mistake. Another may be that he felt that it wasn't necessary to divide the community further. Or maybe he did it for some other reason. We'll never know why, if he really is innocent.
Conversely, if Malus and Jarudin really did do it for the community and not as a power trip, they could tell you how much money seemed to have been donated based on database data. But they haven't revealed that to the public and they probably won't. Understandably, we're talking about a significant amount of money, but also keep in mind that it still won't prove as solid proof. Why? Because if they really did it for the sole purpose of taking over the site, they could have cooked up the data themselves since they have direct access to the database.
So the fact is, it could be either side is lying, both sides are telling the truth and there is some mistake/miscommunication somewhere, or some mix of all of the above. Believe what you wish. The fact is that both sides can try to show "proof", but given that this is the Internet, you have to take everything with a grain of salt and it's up to you which side to believe. And thus this drama will go on forever without a clear winner, since the truth is what each person believes it to be. In fact, the loser will probably be the Boxtorrents/BakaBT community since it'll be so completely fractured by this entire incident.
But for those of you who still want to convince themselves further one way or another, and won't be satisfied, take the number of users Boxtorrents has. Take a guess at what percentage will be willing to donate each month (on average, for whatever reason)and assume each person donates $5 each (since that was the minimum, although I've seen a couple of $100 ones). Look up reasonable prices of hosting services for the main server and look up reasonable prices of getting 7 seedboxes. Do the math and convince yourself either way.
But let's stop that line of thinking and let's look at it in a different way:
Box himself has wished this site success, so for those of you who believe in Box and his character, you can be happy that Box seems to have given BakaBT his blessings. Everyone can talk about the methods used to create BakaBT and how it could have been done "better", but the fact is, what's done is done. Some of you will condemn Malus and Jarudin, and some of you will applaud their actions. Yes, Jarudin and Malus basically "stole" Boxtorrents from Box, and yes, it was basically a coup d'etat. They aren't going to sugarcoat it. You can believe they did what they thought was best or not. You can believe if they feel they were truly wrong, they'd apologize. Don't forget, that they have their own feelings of the matter and they've been made figureheads of sort in this incident. So regardless of what really is the truth, they now live with the consequences of their actions, since what's happened can't be undone.
So what happens now? Well, the now-BakaBT community will be the ones to judge their actions from now on. Whether you strengthen your belief in Jarudin and Malus, or whether you strengthen your belief in Box, it is entirely up to you and the actions of the staff of BakaBT. There will be those of you that condemn them for their choice of actions, but keep in mind that the one who had the most right to, Box, didn't. So now it's up to the staff and the community to make sure that the spirit that Boxtorrents was founded on lives on. The staff stands by Malus and Jarudin, and I know part of the community does too. For those that don't, you can leave if you wish. However, and I think that Box would agree with me here, you can stay and either prove that Malus and Jarudin did it because they wanted ownership or stay and see that they did not have evil intentions when they moved to BakaBT.
So for now, it's time to say goodbye to Boxtorrents, and say hello to BakaBT. And whether you believe or don't believe Box in this whole incident, you should at least be thankful for what Box did do and how he created Boxtorrents. It's a shame that things had to end the way they did, and no matter what you think of Malus and Jarudin, I know they feel the same. Because regardless of the dubious beginnings of BakaBT, it was because of Box, Boxtorrents and all the staff over the years which made BakaBT possible.
So for those of you who are leaving, and for those of you who are staying, on behalf of the current staff, the ex-staff, Boxtorrents, and BakaBT, we thank you for all of you've done and I hope that we continue to keep BakaBT as great a place as Boxtorrents was until the end. But now it's time to move on and keep the community and the torrents working in the proper way of doing things: not-for-profit.
Regards,
Nazo, on behalf of the BakaBT staff
