Talk:AXXo/Archive 3

"American computer criminals" category?

I'm not sure that aXXo should be included in this category, since it his nationality is uncertain. In fact, this could be disproven by the TorrentFreak interview in which he says:

Thank god in this country we don’t believe in copyright infringement. It’s just sharing entertainment, nothing more.

134.24.150.134 (talk) 00:05, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Agree, since we do not know of his/her/their origin, it is not appropriate. I will be removing it. --cooljuno411 04:31, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Furthermore there is a presumpion of inocence in America. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.118.192.209 (talk) 13:04, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Removed supposed interview

In another purported interview on August 4th, 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, a certain Veronica, apparently a reporter for a major, but otherwise unspecified computing magazine, learns that aXXo stands for 2 male individuals, one from Wales, the other from Poland.

Interview With aXXo
August 4th, 2008
Dublin, Ireland
The following is a short interview with the leader of the aXXo team.
Veronica is a pseudonym for a reporter working at a major computing magazine. The
interview took place in a popular pub in Dublin late in the afternoon.
THE INTERVIEW:
Veronica: First, I want to thank you for doing this interview. I know a lot of people will
be very interested in what you have to say.
aXXo: No problem.
Veronica: I am sure that readers want to know, more than anything, who you are?
aXXo: Well, the question ought to be 'who we are'.
Veronica: The photo you provided shows two people. One is obviously you. Does this
mean aXXo is actually two people?
aXXo: Yes. Well, actually, we have help from a few others. But mainly it is just the two
of us.
Veronica: I won't reveal your real names in the article for your security.
aXXo: Well, yes, as we've discussed. No names. The photo is the trade-off.
Veronica: How about your nationalities?
aXXo: Sure. That I can tell you. I am from Wales, and my partner is from Poland.
Veronica: When you say 'partners', do you mean partners in the general sense?
aXXo: Well, let's just say we are partners in more ways than one. Just a coincidence, I
suppose.
Veronica: Now, about what you do. Why are your torrents so popular?
aXXo: Consistency and compatibility. People know what they are getting, and they, you
know, have come to rely on the fact that they play in almost any DVD player or software
player.
Veronica: Can you talk about how you do it?
aXXo: Trade secrets, sorry.
Veronica: Ok, ok. You've reappeared after vanishing for a while. People really missed
you. What happened?
aXXo: Well, things were really a mess on the torrent scene.
Veronica: What do you mean?
aXXo: I'm sure you could see what was happening. When the name aXXo became
associated with fakes, spyware, trojans, etc, we just stopped. We had a good name and we
didn't want to spoil it. We care about our name and about quality.
Veronica: What about the future?
aXXo: We are back for now. Things are better out there. There are still fakes, but a lot of
torrent sites, such as btjunkie.org has a good reporting system that seem to be working.
The Domplayer scam is still a problem, but things are better than before.
Veronica: Right.
aXXo: I think people have to work together to separate the good from the bad. The best
way to do this is to read the comments left by other downloaders. That's what they're for.
Too often, people just download the file without checking. They just go by how many
seeders and leechers there are -- like sheep. Actually, my partner calls them ‘penguins’.
They just jump in because the others jumped in, without checking.
Also, torrent sites and downloaders should reject any thing that’s compressed. These rar
and zip files should be avoided automatically. There’s no good reason for compressed
files. They don't save much space, and downloaders can’t 'cherry pick' the files they
want, like in a music CD, for example. Also, .mkv, Real, and the like are just a waste of
time. There are a lot of ridiculous things out there.
Veronica: Like what else?
aXXo: Something that always amuses me is the word LIMITED on torrents. The first
time we saw that we couldn't stop laughing.
Veronica: (laughing) I never really thought about that.
aXXo: And I think for the long term, it is obvious to the well informed that working with
the community is in the best interest of all, especially the movie business. It is the, you
know, way of the future. Eventually, we may see the distributor vanish, and the producers
uploading their product with a major brand logo watermarked in the corner of the screen.
I think it is the only way it can go. Everybody makes out.
Veronica: I have to agree with you there. Which sites do you think are best?
aXXo: Well, I hate commercial sites. It defeats the purpose of torrents. I am very happy
Demonoid is back. They were the greatest of them all. Why they set up in Canada, I'll
never know. I do hope they recover, but now btjunkie.org is the biggest. They track a
couple of million torrents. It's a critical mass thing. As for my other favorites,
mininova.org, isohunt.com, onebigtorrent.org, and of course, the home of my torrents,
superfundo.org.
Veronica: Right.
aXXo: I don't have a lot of time left. As you can see, some people are waiting for me.
Veronica: Do you have any other comments?
aXXo: I don’t know. Well, happy downloading to all. Don't forget to seed. Ummmm,
long live the community. And thanks to everyone for your support. Your comments and
kind words mean a lot to us.
Veronica: Thanks again for meeting with us and good luck in the future.
aXXo: Thank you. Take care.
Veronica: Thank you.
END

Interview is not reliable. Veronica is a pseudonym for a reporter working at a major computing magazine.???? If it was a real interview why all the secrecy? It also suspiciously mentions a number of sites almost like an advertisement. -- Esemono (talk) 13:04, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Descriptions like purported and apparently were used in the statement, and with that the information is as reliable as the other interview, since that can also not be verified by any other sources. Admittedly, the TorrentFreak.com article on Wikipedia gives those guys some credibility, compared with that isohunt download anyway. But still, as it says in the aXXo article, others have benefited from the popularity of the subject in some shape or form before - why not TorrentFreak - think about the mozza that can be made with the ad-clicks from all those by-passer on their quest for aXXo. I am not suggesting, I am only playing Devil's advocate. Our whole article is, after all, only dependent on what is out there on the net, and with so little information being out there in the first place, other than people thanking aXXo, putting in silly requests , and other, sometimes semi-religious Kaffufle. I see the quoting of a dodgy interview with two guys from Poland and Wales as an opportunity to further demystify the whole aXXo phenomenon for the valued reader by pointing out one more time that the identity attracts a lot of nonsens. That's my 10 cents. Appreciate that you have put the deleted bits on the discussion page, though. :) Dr-Victor-von-Doom 09:04, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

OK on second thought you make a good point -- Esemono (talk) 01:56, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Identities

An Duc Do

This is the http://hubpages.com/hub/aXXo An Duc Do hoax article but its blacklisted. Need to find another article linking the An Duc Do to the aXXo name. So we can put the below back into the article-- Esemono (talk) 23:12, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

One such example is the An Duc Do hoax in which a news article clip claiming to be from The New York Times suggested that aXXo was arrested as part of Operation D-Elite, a Federal Bureau of Investigation operation. In the article, dated November 12, 2007, aXXo is named as "An Duc Do", then aged 25, of Orlando, Florida. The article claims that Do "pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on a two-count felony. He is charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement (which brings a penalty of) up to 10 years in prison coupled with a fine of $500,000. He will be sentenced on February 27th, 2008." While Judge Legrome D. Davis is an actual judge on the Eastern District and Operation D-Elite did take place, the scanned clipping shown on the website is a fake template commonly used in hoax stories.

John Burningham

In another supposed The New York Times article that used the same hoax clipping image it was claimed that aXXo, aka John Burningham, was killed in a traffic accident on the Interstate 95.[1] The sources of those hoaxes are unknown.

Veroncia interview

In another interview on August 4, 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, a person named "Veronica", supposedly a reporter for a major but unspecified computing magazine, learns that aXXo consists of two male individuals, one from Wales, the other from Poland.ISO PDF

Do you have any source for that info? 86.45.96.102 (talk) 12:11, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

The interview is actually shown further up on the talk page. -- Esemono (talk) 15:03, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Removing other names

The above have been removed because of lack of eliable sources as per WP:RS. Initially I had also removed them but I thought Dr-Victor-von-Doom made a valid point:

I see the quoting of a dodgy interview with two guys from Poland and Wales as an opportunity to further demystify the whole aXXo phenomenon for the valued reader by pointing out one more time that the identity attracts a lot of nonsens. That's my 10 cents. Appreciate that you have put the deleted bits on the discussion page, though. :) Dr-Victor-von-Doom 09:04, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

But I also see that getting this article legit, involves cutting away all this internet rumor. Even though aXXo is just that internet rumor. -- Esemono (talk) 01:55, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah. It's a bit painful cutting back all that information, but if we can start from scratch with only reliable sources, then this article is better off. Gary King (talk) 02:56, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I am rooting for you to do it! —Mattisse (Talk) 21:46, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Criticism Section - Unsourced material moved from article to here - when it is referenced it can be moved back to article

--Criticisms--

aXXo is not a scene releaser and/or scene release group

None of his/their rips ever manage to find themselves on scene release sites or sites that announce scene releases

aXXo takes scene releases from reputable groups that have been around and have built up a name for themselves and he/they re-encode them so that either the video bitrate and/or audio bitrate is different so to not be real obvious

aXXo does not follow scene standards, an example would be the fact that aXXo releases use CBR audio and not VBR, they take VBR audio and transcode it to AC3, doesnt follow mod16 resolution guidelines, or size parameter in many releases, they should be either 1, 2 or 3 CD releases, not some that are 900MBs

aXXo does encodes from scene release DVD5s, which is a no no, rules state a rip must be from a DVD9 untouched source, and aXXo will typically take 2 CD releases and re-encode them down to 1 CD

There have been instances where people have problems with aXXo releases with media players with built-in codecs, this is because of re-encoding

Basically, aXXo is the poor mans acceptable rate of quality to those who dont know about scene release sites, only use public sites, dont know about releaselog, vcdquality, or NFOdump, ect ect. Or just dont care enough about the quality they get, because if you compare an aXXo release to a scene release, its fairly obvious which has the better quality

• Note: It the above material is rewritten so as to follow WP:MoS and is given reference sources per WP:V and WP:RS, it can be moved back into article. —Mattisse (Talk) 14:30, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
• If any reliable sources talk about the critism aXXo receives because of scene releases etc, then you can add the section. Otherwise its your own research and opinion. -- Esemono (talk) 03:44, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Is it really OK to say in an encyclopedia article "aXXo does encodes from scene release DVD5s, which is a no no"?!? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.30.176.201 (talk) 13:29, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

No it's not OK which is why is removed. -- Esemono (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Right

Should we state the exact type of software aXXo uses, or would that be too vague, in the article? Because the current states:

This quality results from aXXo's reliable synchronization using codec encoding programs to encode digital files.^[6]

Should we change this? I think it is a little too vague... LOTRrules (talk · contribs · email) 23:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't care for it the way it is now because it really doesn't help out anyone who isn't a computer geek. If you can rewrite it using the exact software or method, that would probably be more useful. Good idea. ^Law _shoot! 14:56, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Right according to my sources there is only one method that aXXo uses. But under the circumstances would it be legal to actually post it here? LOTRrules (talk · contribs · email) 23:12, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

What I mean is can I get "done in" for revealing such a source? There are instructions out there from a fan of aXXo's who was angered for not getting responses back from him and demanded his "trade secrets" as aXXo put it. When he found out he released instructions on one of the torrent sites. LOTRrules (talk · contribs · email) 23:24, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Hello LOTR. Of course we want to avoid being a how-to guide - that's something people don't really need to know about and certainly promotes piracy. One of the sources(used in the article) says that aXXo has high quality rips because of the use of X program, coupled with X encoder. I don't think that is telling anyone how to rip a DVD - as long as we are using it to further the clarity of the article. Like DVD43, we could simply find consensus to add that material, if people think it makes the article better, or if people feel like we are making it a guide to piracy, we can leave it out. I don't know about trade secrets because even simple rippers allow you to set the file size and compression so it can fit on a CD-R.

If you are giving away trade secrets, say the original key that broke DVD encoding, yeah, I would say you aren't going to get 'done in' but you would be, in a sense, making something available to the public that WP is not better for having done. By saying that aXXo uses Nero and FF decoder, I don't think it poses a problem. It's a difficult issue, and I'm glad you have given it so much thought. Like I said, one of the article sources mentions how it's done, and it could replace reliable synchronization using codec encoding programs - which does little for a casual reader. Let's have respect for WP as far as it not being a haven for piracy, and leave out the specifics. If people want to rip DVDs, I would say let them google it. Make sense? I'd rather be on the cautious side with this issue. Any ideas? ^Law _shoot! 03:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

According to my source aXXo uses the following type of software: "DVD Decryptor" and "AutoGK". I found it on the net. Sorry I'm not descriptive but what more can I say? LOTRrules _Talk ^Contribs 12:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Only add it if it's from a reliable source. If it's just speculation, then don't add it. I'd prefer it if it was added (if it's reliable) since it's already hard to find references on aXXo. Gary King (talk) 01:28, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

That's what I was thinking. But is a download a viable option? LOTRrules _Talk ^Contribs 01:30, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually if you really wanted to know you could download one of his releases and run it through a program called "g-spot" it'll tell you the codecs, bitrates and programs he used. Being a person that Initially loathes this releaser's being I'm not gonna do it. Isakill (talk) 02:46, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

First upload

Does anyone know when, where and what aXXo's first upload was? - Shiftchange (talk) 12:38, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The Constant Gardener

It seems like there is a coordinated SPAM attack by the superfundo site. They are trying to add that aXXo is putting his torrents on superfundo, which is incorrect. aXXo only releases new movies which are new DVD releases he has never released years old movies, he also doesn't release movies for money. So please keep your eye out for these edits. Admins maybe we can get a anonymous IP ban on this article. -- Esemono (talk) 06:00, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Torrent Freak

Is TorrentFreak a reliable source? Enter any input below:

• YES - It is seen as reliable by a number of main stream outlets: CNN, Wall Street J, New York Times, BBC News, Guardian, LA Times - Esemono (talk) 02:21, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
• No, TorrentFreak is a poor quality source with zero reputation for factchecking. They are only good for stories about themselves. Nowhere else. Dynablaster (talk) 14:09, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

  Need some examples of this.--Otterathome (talk) 20:00, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

• Conditional Yes but only for torrent related things. Any articles that don't cite a source for promotional-type content should be discussed. I have noticed they rectify any mistakes in articles too.--Otterathome (talk) 20:00, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Speed.cd campaign

A whole number of single-purpose users are removing the referenced claim that speed.cd hosts a fake axxo. Now that a non-SPA also removed it, but without any justification, we should perhaps discuss it instead of reverting each other. In my opinion, it is relevant information from a relatively reliable source. Haakon (talk) 21:47, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Request for comments

There are yet more single-purpose users coming in to revert the cited information, and my pleas for calm discussion of the issue in the section above this has gone unanswered. It would be helpful if some outsider could either slap me down, or slap the single-purpose reverters down.

To restate the issue: the sentence "Speed.cd has an administrator by the name of aXXo who regularly uploads movies, but according to TorrentFreak, he is not the real aXXo.[9]" keeps getting reverted by the SPAs, often without comment, but recently claiming that TorrentFreak is not a reliable source. To me there is no doubt about its reliability, and I think this is evident because it's widely cited across Wikipedia for file sharing topics. A quick search indicates others agree.

Thanks for any input. Haakon (talk) 00:09, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I haven't had any answers to this request for comments, so I went to #en.wikipedia @ IRC. The people there seem to agree that TorrentFreak is not a reliable source, so I will stop pursuing this matter. Haakon (talk) 18:31, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

I this case, I think they can be considered reliable. It's their core business so to speak. Also, the arguments TorrentFreak gives can be verified. The fact that IPs/users with no previous edits remove it without discussion makes it more suspicious. Just keep it up! You were doing just fine.

I consider TorrentFreak the most reliable source when it comes to this kind of stuff. They publish their other articles on FreakBits. --Ondertitel (talk) 01:43, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

No, I was not doing fine. I was engaged in a revert war, essentially. If I am on the right side, then this article needs to be semi-protected to keep the single-edit campaigners out. Until that can happen (and it could take a long time, considering the slow pace of this talk page), please help out yourself. I can't just "keep it up" -- if I'm the only one, I look like the bad guy. I do very much agree with your reasoning about TorrentFreak, thanks. Haakon (talk) 08:52, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

I think the main issue is the fact you insist on using webpage that has been spamming this article for some time. People have this on their watchlist and for a while there was a coordinated SPAM attack by associates of speed.cd. So as soon as they see that someone is once again trying to add the speed.cd web address to the article the kneejerk reaction is to revert. Perhaps if you remove the spam site from the sentence you keep trying to add, as in "Sites often try to lure members to their torrent site by including a member called aXXo on their list of uploaders but according to TorrentFreak, they are not the real aXXo.[9]" Of course now that you've associated yourself with the spam site people might just see your name and revert. -- Esemono (talk) 12:08, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Those single editors seem to be people trying to censor wikipedia and I think they are involved in one way or another. I assume they try to keep a clean reputation. We won't know if they don't come to show their opinion to us. I'll be the other "bad guy" for now. If the removals don't stop, we should consider excluding the speed.cd name from the text like Esemono suggested. Semi-protecting the article might be a more effective option as I see a large amount of edits by IP users being reverted. --Ondertitel (talk) 13:43, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

aXXo is just one of those articles that brings out the vandals. There is always someone who thinks there funny and makes an unecyclopedic edit. People often don't look closely when there are reverting because there are just so many attacks on this page. -- Esemono (talk) 14:06, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

The passage has been removed by yet another single-edit IP now. Haakon (talk) 05:32, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Notability?

I don't think this individual fits the criteria for notability —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.206.48.221 (talk) 17:48, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Why? Haakon (talk) 19:02, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes he does, very much indeed. The term aXXo has over 14million hits on Google, many of them articles about aXXo from reliable sources. The first few to pop up for me were Dutch, which makes sense seeing how I am too. Examples include Bright Magazine and De Pers newspaper, both established Dutch media. Furthermore, everyone who has ever searched for a movie to download, has come across the name aXXo. Torrentsites providing movie downloads, among them those from aXXo, attracht millions of visitors per year. Hell, this article even meets good article-criteria, which is not an easy task considering the strict rules Wikigeeks have created (and justly so). In short, aXXo is an internet god noticeable enough for an article. Snikch (talk) 17:14, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

And therefore, I hereby request further response and, should my opinion be shared, deletion of this piece of discussion. Snikch (talk) 17:14, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I share your opinion. --Ondertitel (talk) 12:22, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

It is the most popular uploader. Look at all the torrent sites, they praise him. For example, Torrentz, they involve having a search home with the most tagged searches. He is right up there with the most important downloads. Look at a pirate bay, they praise him. Now for a new section maybe, I reckon that (though they ain't that popular yet, but seeing the comments on them on e.g. thepiratebay), Secretmyth and his group of (Kingdom-Release) is what I think the most popular uploader for the bluray section. Are they worth to be on wiki, or do they need to increase popularity? 86.88.86.253 (talk) 21:10, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

While I do believe that Axxo is important enough to have an article, it is clear that this article is biased and badly written by fans of him. It needs to be checked and rewritten, so it can meet npov criteria. 188.109.184.204 (talk) 09:14, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Not saying I am a fan, I do admire his work. It is true. But can you give some quotations on the things you'd like us to look at Boykes (talk) 14:58, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Comment

I've heard that "aXXo" has become synonymous with good quality in the file sharing community, is this so? --Camilo Sanchez (talk) 06:40, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Change name of article to Axxo.

As per wiki guidelines the name should be spelt Axxo because we do not stylize names. This is the same as why Ke$ha's article is Kesha. The only exception to this rule is lower case vowels before words as in iPod or eBay. Someone involved with this article please change it. Alek2407 (talk) 20:15, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

I know it's standard Wikipedia policy to not stylize article names, but I've seen it ignored before. Case in point: "Wikipedia articles may use lower case variants of personal names if they have regular and established use in reliable third-party sources (for example, k.d. lang)." [2] Additionally, there are numerous other articles that ignore the preference to not stylize the name of the article, based on how much it is used in reliable third party sources, such as Blue Öyster Cult and Motörhead, which both use unnecessary umlauts. If you have a good reason why aXXo does not fit, or any good sources that ignore the stylization, then I'm open for changing the article. -- Mike | Contrib 05:34, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't believe the name of the page should be "AXXo", this is a result of the technical limitation preventing the "A" from being lower-case and so it is presenting the wrong style. I'd rather have the page named "Axxo" (no style) than "AXXo" (incorrect style). Please note I am talking about the internal Name of the page-- not the page title. The title should remain stylized as "aXXo", (I think everyone is in agreement about that though). See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions) for more information _ morde _t ^.. 07:29, 12 February 2011 (UTC)