ROMHacking.net is shutting down after 20 years of service

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

After 2 decades of being one of the top romhacking sites on the internet, the old-school ROMHACK.net will be shutting its doors and uploading its database to Archive.org.

Full message:

Update By: Nightcrawler

It's been a good near 20 year run, but for various reasons it's time to wind things down. The site achieved almost everything it set out to do, and far exceeded it. We joined hacking and translation communities together for the first time ever. We outlasted and eclipsed ROM hacking sites that came before us. We brought ROM hacking from niche and fragmented to global and centralized. We assembled the largest force of ROM hackers on the planet. We brought learning resources and accessibility to a much wider range of people. We made major progress legitimizing and pulling ROM hacking from underground dark web type material to something much more accepted by the mainstream. We paved a much easier path for all of those that will come after us. No doubt, this site changed ROM hacking forever. It will leave behind the legacy of those accomplishments to remember.

Things sure have changed since the beginning days. I miss the times when I was able to interact with a smaller group of supportive people to collaborate with rather than the entire world. Having gone from an unknown fledgling site to an infinitely growing and globally known one made sustainability very challenging. The site became so busy with 24/7 use, endless queues, and an endless inbox. It's a very different world than it was in 2005. Copyright pressures increased dramatically with takedowns and legal burden. The site shifted from serving mostly contributing humans to bots and overzealous people abusing resources. They drowned everybody else out. The need for the site has lessened over time. There are now many options for community discussions, open source projects, and file storage across the Internet. For a while, I was looking to find a successor within the circles of site supporters. I asked several potential people, but the stars did not align.

I was finally looking to wind things down at the end of last year. I wanted to provide the site database and file archive to the general public. At that time, an internal group suddenly emerged with an offer to help continue the site. I questioned their intentions, but I thought it could prove to be a more community friendly path forward. However, it turned out to be the opposite. We had a rocky phase 1, moving the downloads into their possession. When I went to startup phase 2, I discovered a most dishonest and hate filled group. I learned that I had been dehumanized for a very long time. My personal details had been given out. Secret deceitful plots had been made to cut me out, and drop a bomb like I am a target to destroy. My family has seen this and after discussion, we are immediately ceasing all related site operations. We are cutting ties to Discord and Twitter social media outlets, and will have no further contact with these individuals. Lines were crossed. I had hoped this community especially would have learned from what happened to Near. This behavior is not OK for handling disagreements, miscommunication, anger, or anything else.

We have released the site database (sans account and/or profile information) as well as all of the files and images to the Internet Archive. In summary:

* Internet Archive of Database and Download Files
* All Submissions other than News are permanently closed.
* All sections of the site will remain up as read only.
* Downloads and images will be available for as long as DarkSol, FCAndChill Calico will allow.
* Forum will remain up
* Twitter and Discord affiliations have ended. Anything further from these outlets do NOT represent myself or ROMhacking.net.

I look forward to seeing what projects will emerge with the site data for the next generation. From what I have seen, it may be a good time to start an open source initiative for a new site. I'd love to hear about what projects you are working on!

I thank all of the many staff and community members whom kept the wheels turning and the lights on over the years. I am proud of our many accomplishments here together. I will carry forward remembering the good times, laughing about the bad times, and knowing she was right for the time, but time has a way of moving on.

This is ROMhacking.net as we knew her signing off...

End of an era, for sure.

Link

 

[Chaos Theorist]

fuck cordtroons

 

[irradiatedgooner]

None of this is confirmed yet, but according to this heavily censored thread on /vr/ (it's apparently the biggest meltdown a /vr/ janny has ever had), another romhack site with the same name (romhacking .org) which is referred to as RHDO in the leaked discord screenshots courtesy of /v/ and /vr/ has been planning this for a long time and either threatened the RHDN (original .net site) owner with doxxing or other forms of harassment. See it for yourself here. Over 100 posts deleted and still going, the ghost replies are faster on the archive are faster than the actual /vr/ thread, note that the /v/ thread as of time of writing is still ongoing just fine, but whoever is censoring those posts might have some connection with this guy who is trying to hijack romhacking.net's popularity.

Spoiler: Discord & Twitter screencaps

 

[BPD Gunt Rider]

Very sad for us emulation gamers. I know there's a lot of trannies and autistic freaks in these communities, but that site provided me many hours of joy.

 

[Epic Fail Man]

Damn, where am I gonna get my translation patches now.

 

[Seethan Ralph]

Soytendo's lolsuit threats or just maintainer growing tired or hosting this shit and pulling the plug? Either way, RIP, I loved SMW hacks when I was a kid

 

[Nambona890]

How absolutely splendid. SMW Central's pozzed monopoly is only growing more powerful.
I wish I had enough material to make a Community Watch thread on SMW romhacking. Though what I've come across with them is not so much funny as it is sad and infuriating.

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

Soytendo's lolsuit threats or just maintainer growing tired or hosting this shit and pulling the plug? Either way, RIP, I loved SMW hacks when I was a kid

Emuparadise is the site that got shut down due to Nintendo being a toxic thorn in their side.

This guy got taken advantage of and harassed by troons bad faith actors on Twitter and Discord, so he decided to pull the plug.

 

[ZipDisk]

Cordtroons need to kill themselves faster.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

Emuparadise is the site that got shut down due to Nintendo being a toxic thorn in their side.

Loveroms got hit with the Nintendo lawsuit. Emuparadise closed cause the owner wanted self preservation after he watched Loveroms sink so he pulled the plug. Same happened to Romulation. Vimm is the latest rom archive which got C&Ds. I was there when it happened, I watched Loveroms tank and emuparadise/romulation archives disappear live, I was looking for DS roms back then.

 

[User names must be unique]

bunch of trannies on twitter are blaming the farms for this, it appears we have a monopoly on doxing.


When this

an internal group suddenly emerged with an offer to help continue the site. I questioned their intentions, but I thought it could prove to be a more community friendly path forward. However, it turned out to be the opposite. We had a rocky phase 1, moving the downloads into their possession. When I went to startup phase 2, I discovered a most dishonest and hate filled group. I learned that I had been dehumanized for a very long time. My personal details had been given out. Secret deceitful plots had been made to cut me out, and drop a bomb like I am a target to destroy.

Sounds like textbook troon MO.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

bunch of trannies on twitter are blaming the farms for this, it appears we have a monopoly on doxing

I don't remember romhacking.net coming up much here - I know there is a small thread mostly on tcrf, but mostly it was about ongoing hack drama and I don't recall it focused on any mods on romhacking.

Does anyone know what the owner is talking about? It's the first I have ever heard of some discord drama surrounding the site.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I don't get it, why now? It can't be that simple to shut the site if it's just about discord drama.
lmao at uploading everything to archive.org, a site that doesn't actually archive anything the companies don't like, as if that's the answer. Better get ready to back up and torrent that shit when it drops, boys. This is why I never took the archival/rom communities seriously, it always comes down to something petty that then shuts down any archival progress.

 

[Afinepickle]

Well...this is deeply upsetting.

Fucking Discord trannies. Neck yourselves. All of you.

 

[Seethan Ralph]

Nazis at KiwiFarms

Fucking hell American Fourth Reich can't come soon enough, complete with Aktion T4. I'm conviced there are more left-leaning people here than on, for example, soyjak party, and most MIGAniggers/poltard rapefugees are confined to AT. Yet we are the most evil, hitler loving chuds, as if Atomwaffen, Aryan Brotherhood and other wigger nationalist turds don't exist.
I wish 41% was more than just a meme and trooncorders were successful in their ACKing attempts...

 

[30+GameOvers]

Fucking hell American Fourth Reich can't come soon enough, complete with Aktion T4. I'm conviced there are more left-leaning people here than on, for example, soyjak party, and most MIGAniggers/poltard rapefugees are confined to AT. Yet we are the most evil, hitler loving chuds, as if Atomwaffen, Aryan Brotherhood and other wigger nationalist turds don't exist.
I wish 41% was more than just a meme and trooncorders were successful in their ACKing attempts...

Oh it's worse than that, a lot of the "leftists" here used to be farther left but as the world has gone mad, they have taken more common sense policies as they got tired of antifa troons trying to groom their kids or ruin their lives. This makes these users "traitors" in their eyes, and much worse than actual nazis(read: center left)
Considering that these are the kinds of posts you're seeing right after the news dropped speaks volumes about the archival community. There really needs to be an alternative to the likes of TCRF that is 100% troon and discord free. Nearly 20 years, and what got them taken down was a troon coup attempt of all things.

 

[Pixy]

We are cutting ties to Discord and Twitter social media outlets, and will have no further contact with these individuals. Lines were crossed. I had hoped this community especially would have learned from what happened to Near.

There it is!

Strange how people want to pin this on KF when it's quite openly stated that twitter and discord harassment are the impetus for this.

 

[John Shedletsky]

bunch of trannies on twitter are blaming the farms for this, it appears we have a monopoly on doxing.View attachment 6262850View attachment 6262853View attachment 6262854


When this

Sounds like textbook troon MO.

These people seem to forget that doxxing is something anyone can do. For all we know it can either be a Discord troon or some extremely autistic Nintendo fanboy.

 

[Not a Tomato]

And another emulation community fell victim to the tranny furries’ bullshit.
Screw Groomcord and Twatter man...

 

[Baguette Child]

Huge bummer.


I've been involved in romhacking for some years now, having started back when I was translating games into my native language, and they were always a valuable place to seek documentation and learn.

Fuck whoever ruined a useful resource for the rest of us.