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241 lines
12 KiB
Text
241 lines
12 KiB
Text
==Phrack Magazine==
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Volume Six, Issue Forty-Seven, File 20 of 22
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A Day In The Life Of A Warez Broker
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Xxxx Xxxxxxxx
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414 - Area Code
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I am a warez broker. Why, you might ask. Well because I take
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warez from one BBS to another and make credits along the way. In case
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you're not familiar with the term, "Warez" or "ELiTE", let me fill you in.
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Warez - are files that are protected by the US Government via
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copyright laws, and are not allowed to be used unless purchased. This
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would include most programs you can buy at your local Best Buy,
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CompUSA, or EggHead Software. They are files that you should _not_,
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and I repeat _not_ give to a friend, even if it is for a backup copy in case
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your house burns down, and his doesn't.
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Alias: Warezzzzzzz, PHiLES, Wares, The Motts (just kidding)
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ELiTE - is a status. Above the rest, or in this case, below the rest.
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You are ELiTE if you transfer large amounts of files over some distance,
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whether it's with a disk, or phone line, ISDN line, or Internet. Who cares
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what the medium, you just must transfer more than one program. No little
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kiddie, since you are 13 and you got a friend to give you a copy of DOS
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5.0 and Windows 3.0, you are not ELiTE, and Super Nintendo cartridges
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don't count!
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Alias: 3l33t, PRiVaTe.
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How do you become ELiTE? YOU DON'T! You are asked. I am
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so sick of people hopping on perfectly legit boards asking for ELiTE. It is
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such a pain in the ass! You aren't going to get ELiTE if you ask for it on
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an ELiTE board.
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But enough of a little background. For those of you that are still a
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little cloudy as to what exactly ELiTE is, why don't you go read the next
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section of Phrack. Let's move on......
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A day in the life of a Warez Broker is very interesting. And can be
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very exciting. Most things are time dependent. Being as credits are the
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exchange for being the first uploader, it is important to get the files first,
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clean them up first, and upload them first.
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I do not belong to a Group. There are many out there, but I have
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not joined any as being public is the best way to get caught. Instead,
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myself and a bunch of some very loyal friends all funnel their Warez
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through me. Since I am one of the only ones with a real job (8-5), I
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spend many evenings and nights uploading filez that my friends have made
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available for me on my private BBS.
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It didn't start like that though. It started as a competition
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between my friends. At some point they were no longer excited with getting
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the new Warez, and I seemed to have the most time. Now we all talk back
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and forth often, and we all have our purposes:
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(names have been changed to protect the defendants)
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>The Cringer - He takes the files off the internet. Actually both
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The Cringer and I take them off the Internet, but he seems to always come up
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with the lists of site to go to. And they normally are REALLY good.
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>Raxstallion - He tests all the games. For some reason he is really
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good at games, and can always find the bugs so we can give an honest
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report on the game. I think he's so good because he doesn't work and
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never goes to class (just look at his check book and report card)
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>Captian of The Ship - He just whines about how he never gets any
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women, and he also sez "Cool game Raxstallion" a lot.
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>Dirt Sleasel - He gets us some technical background.
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>Myself - I take care of all the uploading/downloading of files. If
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one of my boys need a new program, I get it. If they get a new file, they
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forward it to me so I can upload it.
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Now most days are as simple as just checking all the local boards and
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making sure their aren't any new files to move around. If there are new
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files, I download them, then turn around and upload them somewhere
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else. Since most of the boards in my A/C are WWIV, they all have 3:1
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upload ratios. Which means that for every meg of files I upload, I get to
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download 3 meg. It's kinda nice, because as I move files from one BBS
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to another, I am making credits. I haven't been doing this long, but for
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the length of time I have, I now have enough credits where I don't have to
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worry about too many files. Normally now-a-days I will upload big
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programs like Windows NT, or Windows 95 releases.
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Like I said before, we do a lot of internet stuff. If The Cringer
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gets a new program, he will upload it to my board, then I take it from there.
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Some nites I am up late on the internet myself, but normally I do mass
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uploads before I hit the sack. Sometimes, if it's a hot file, I will upload
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the program , and get up late to upload to another board.
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Since the file transferring is such a big part of my life, I have a
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second phone line. Maybe this isn't a big deal for someone in a major
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city, but in my A/C it is. Many people don't have 2 phone lines in their
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house unless they have a fax machine, but in the age of communications,
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it seems as though I sometimes need 3 phone lines. When someone is
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uploading, and I need to get on the modem it's a pain in the ass.
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There are quite a few extra files inside of the zip files that are used
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to compress the disks that a program is distributed on. A pretty popular
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file is the FILE_ID.DIZ file. This file contains the description of the
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compressed file. It is nice to include these files since many people don't
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type in a decent description on the description line.
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---- Example file_id.diz files (names changed to protect the defendants)
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Media Shop v1.0
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This is a 650$ program.
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You can make the best animation
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for Windows with this.
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Disk 1 of 5
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---- X X X x '95 ----
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---- The Xxxxxx Xxxxx ----
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---- End of Example of *.nfo file
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You can see how in this example. The name of the file is there and
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it also let's you know the total number of disks which helps you make sure you
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sis get all the downloads needed. These file_id.diz files can normally be
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viewed on a bbs, for example, these are the default "extended descriptions"
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for WWIV BBS's.
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The other files normally included are .NFO files. Normally named
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by group, these files advertise for a crack house, or a distribution house.
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---- Example *.nfo files (names changed to protect the defendants)
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Ŀ
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͵ Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx of Xxxxxxx Presents
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Ϳ
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Date: Oct 09, 93
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Ϳ
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Software: Sourcer 5.10 *REGISTERED 100%*
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Ĵ
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Publisher: ????
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Ĵ
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Member: SoNiC (R) -AV
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Ŀ
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Sorry... but now it's really REGISTERED...
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1st. Entpack the original SOURCER-Files
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2rd. Run SR510UTG.COM
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3nd. Run SR.EXE and enter the following serno: XXXXXXX-XXXX
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Ŀ
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-=* Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx of Xxxxxxx *=-
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Ĵ
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Members: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Ĵ
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Courier: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Ĵ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxx Xxxxxx 6 Nodes World HQ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxx Xxxxxxxx 9 Nodes Europe HQ
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xxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxx Xxxxxxx 2 Nodes West HQ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxxx Xxxxx 3 Nodes East HQ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxxxx 3 Nodes Dist Site
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xxxxxxxxxxxx ...-...-.... Xxxxxxxx 4 Nodes Dist Site
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 818-xxx-xxxx Xxxxxxxxx 1 Node Dist Site
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Ĵ
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If you want to contact us call one of these fine BBS and leave
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a mail to The Xxxxxxxx or Xxxxxxxxxx
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---- End of Example of *.nfo file
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You can see in this example how they not only name their members, but
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also the couriers. These couriers make sure that the crack house's files
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get distributed. The members help crack and get the files ready for the
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couriers.
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For example, let's say there is a group called Slimers, they might
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include a .NFO called SLIMERS.NFO. Sometimes these files give you
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a little insight on the group, but most times they say "Hi" to the people
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in their groups, and sometimes even a little about the group. Normally
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they include x'ed out phone numbers to the group's BBS.
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How do these files get out there? Well I have many theories. One is
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that someone buys the stuff and then uploads them to the group. We
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sometimes buy the programs, if they aren't out there, and then copy them
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and re-shrinkwrap the file before returning the whole program.
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Sometimes, even the makers of the games leak the program before it is
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released. This is what seems to have happened with Doom II.
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Most boards these days are running at 28.8Kbps. There are still a
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few running 14.4Kbps lines to give those that have a slower modem a
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place to call in without having to tie up the faster lines. I'm sure with
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the onslaught of CDROM's becoming more popular in the program world, the
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amount of warez piracy will diminish for a while. But some day I'm sure
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that there will be a new way to get a hold of the new programs.
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As soon as the price of CDROM-R (worm) drives come down, there
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will be more transfer of total CD programs. I guess that the 600 meg
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files will take a little longer to transfer. I think someone should redesign
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their board so that a person may download a large file, or at least part of a
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large file, so they can use their time online to download parts of the
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CDROM. We'll see, that talk is just starting to begin.
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The ELiTE Community is very secretive, and very secure. No one is
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let in, and once you're in, you're not expected to leave. There is a
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lot of trust built in The Community. The only way to get into The ELiTE
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Community is to know someone who is willing to vouch for you.
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Without someone to speak of your credibility, you will get no where.
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Once you are in and have established yourself, you can pretty much speak
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for yourself, or get a sysop to refer you.
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The nice thing about being in the ELiTE Community is you never
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really get to meet anyone in person. Heck, you might never even talk to a
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person in voice. Things are so secretive, a lot of times you don't even
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know where you are calling. If you do meet someone, though, normally people
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are so generous to their own. It's like a close family. It's nice to
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have that kind of closeness. You have students, programmers, computer
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hobbyists, newbies, kiddies, those with bedtimes, those that never go to
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bed, and still those that sit back and just take it all in.
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I have many friend that have an idea of what I do, but I will rarely
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refer a friend, even if I know they're cool. It's not a good idea for
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everyone to know. Whether I can trust a friend or not, I don't think it's a
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good idea to get them involved. Things are dangerous, and you are
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better off looking for what they want, and uploading what they give you.
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Hopefully in my next article I can give you some specifics regarding
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getting filez from the internet, or how to get in touch with the ELiTE
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Community in your A/C. Until then, remember, there are more ELiTE
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boards than there are not. For those boards that are not ELiTE, thanks for
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the distraction from the ELiTE boards, and sorry for all the heat!
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Secretly yours,
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Xxxx Xxxxxxxx
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