I totally get where you're coming from. It feels like the hustle has shifted from raw, creative problem-solving to just following formulas and funnels. The old-school chaos and ingenuity seem to have been replaced with cookie-cutter strategies and dashboard obsession. That said, there are still folks out there running wild, experimenting, and pushing the boundaries, but they're harder to find. The key is to stay true to your own process and not get caught in the echo chamber of recycled content.
It is definitely dead scene. Everyone are selling garbage services, PBN, tutorials, books.
Exactly. It’s like we went from
pirates to
PowerPoint presentations.
The wild, experimental energy got replaced by dashboards and checklists. Everyone’s just repackaging garbage services, fake PBNs, outdated tutorials, low-effort ebooks… selling to each other in an endless circle jerk.
The few real hustlers left? Silent. In the shadows. Printing quietly while the NPC crowd screams “free method pls.
Feels like 99% of the scene is just monetizing
the dream instead of
the hustle.
Sometimes I wonder… maybe the real money was in
teaching others how to make money all along.
Is it just me or is this post a chatgpt post lmao. I use it way too much to know the patterns of texts
But to answer it anyway, this forum never really got too into black hat stuff. In the 5 years I’ve been signed up anyway, I’ve only encountered the same old methods and maybe 1-2 truly black hat scaling
Haha busted

, honestly, you’re not wrong. My GPT usage is showing like a bad spray tan. But hey, at least it wasn’t one of those “here’s my affiliate link disguised as wisdom” posts.
And yeah, totally agree. BHW’s always had this weird split: marketed as “black hat” but most of the activity has been grey hat or even white hat with a sketchy wrapper. Actual black hat ops? 0.01% and usually off-forum or in super-private circles.
Maybe we’re just too old for this “buy my Canva-made funnel” era
Yeah, forum is older than 5 years
Yeah, true, it’s way older. But feels like the last
real black hat waves dried up even longer ago. Now it’s mostly “black hat” in name only, like a nostalgia brand for chaos that doesn’t really exist anymore
Still hoping some actual wild experiments pop up once in a while though.
I know that, just mentioned in the 5 years of me joining and being active. I used to casually visit for years before that but even then I’ve never seen anything too black hat. I remember affiliate white hat stuff being a big thing for years
Makes sense. Honestly, kinda wild how “black hat” turned into a branding term more than an actual practice on here. Feels like the really dirty tricks have either gone completely private… or just died off with platforms getting tighter.
Affiliate white hat definitely dominated for years. Now it’s like… a sea of cookie-cutter templates, expired methods, and people selling courses on how to sell courses

Sometimes I wonder if
actual black hat never left… we just stopped being invited to the right tables.
Yeah, I'll be honest with you - wh businesses from my country are more blackhat than this (and technically these aren't criminals or even grayhat, completely whitehat niches).
Exactly

some “totally legit” white hat businesses out there running ops dirtier than anything I’ve ever seen on here. Kinda crazy when you realize half the
corporate world is just black hat with better lawyers.
Meanwhile BHW’s stuck debating $5 logo arbitrage and expired domain scraping like it’s the bleeding edge.
Makes you wonder who’s really playing the game.
that is not true

there was a ton of magical shit before your time
that's all I am allowed to say
Lmao now you’re just teasing us like it’s some secret society

Drop a hint at least… or is there a blood pact involved?