Response from the admins

From where I'm sitting it looks like classic overconfidence. I would say keep your eyes open in the future but don't pick up the pitchforks just yet.

You know it's bad when the almost constantly unhinged 'Empress' is the one speaking sense.

I’ll translate: “I find actions of the 1337x admins disappointing. Deleting my torrents causes confusion for the user base, and these actions reflect poorly on your character, suggesting pusillanimity and insufficient discretion when selecting a sexual partner.”

I haven't had the courage to run executable code from P2P networks since the early 2000s. Even then it was probably a bad idea.

I don’t know why, but I think calling people “pathetic cowardly whores” in this specific situation is hilarious.

What, exactly, does one have to do when moderating a torrent site to earn the title of “whore”?

I see Empress is still subtle and classy as always.

Fuck Empress, however she's right on this specific matter.

Cool, then what will be the 1337x alternative?

I wouldn't trust anything from a P2P site that purports to be:

1. A cracked game / application for desktop and mobile platforms. Maybe it's legit but assume it is malware.
2. A serial number generator. If you absolutely must run one of these do it from a throwaway VM, or via WINE emulation to mitigate what it might do.
3. An encrypted archive with a README. It's a scam designed to make people sign up to other scams to release a non-existent password.
4. A movie / audio with an extension such as .scr, .wma, .com, .exe etc. It's malware.

Movies, audio & books are generally safe providing they use a recognized extension - mp3, mp4, pdf, mkv, aac, flac, epub etc. Stuff that runs under emulation like console games is generally safe. I say "generally" because an exploit could still be crafted to escape a popular media player or emulator and cause actual harm to your computer.

All the ads and 3rd party scripts should be considered malicious too and should be erased with an adblocker, or even better use Tor.

So basically use some common sense and if you really want some game or app, just buy the damned thing or wait for it to go on sale.

I hate empress but even I have to agree sometimes.

For those asking “private trackers what’s that?”

/r/trackers (on the bad site I know) has a lot of info

For those who may be interested in getting into private trackers, you should start with Myanonamouse.net in my opinion. They do an interview on the irc which is easy and you can join that way https://www.myanonamouse.net/inviteapp.php

It is a tracker for ebooks/audiobooks/comics that is easy to maintain a ratio on (via their generous bonus point system) as long as you are a decent seeder.

Once you’re on the site for a few months you can access the invite forum which can get you access to other private trackers. Think of it like a ladder.

Torrentleech (a general private tracker) occasionally has open signups throughout the year.

What evidence has been found that links the crypto-mining wallets with the 1337X admins?

It's a screenshot of a tweet so you know it's true

At the risk of asking an incredibly stupid question, but if I only ever torrent video/audio, scan everything I download with defender, and only ever use a recently updated version of vlc, what's the risk?

I remember getting viruses in ye olden days, but afaik the main problem is malware now.

I know this is probably obvious to many people, but if a charitable soul could explain to me what a miner is and why the admins are involved in it, it would be very much appreciated. Also, explain like I am 5 if possible

Was anyone under the impression that everything on the site was free of malware? Has such a torrent site ever existed?

It's one torrent that's not safe. That doesn't make the entirety of the website unsafe!