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This is precisely why I won't be renewing my VIP subscription (and you can remove my Executive VIP condition too). - It's a waste of time.

RichMedusa

Elite Member
Jr. Executive VIP
Jr. VIP
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Today I received this message:

1789663084019.png

One day being an Executive ViP on this forum was a reason to be proud. Nowadays it's useless, the VIP sections are totally empty, most of them have 1 post per month, others one post per year, the number of REAL users is severely decreasing. Too many naive people (like I once was) trying to rent out their signatures to make something - and very few members to buy them, because bots won't buy your services. And most of the traffic and activity on this forum nowadays are literally that: bots, low quality spammers and dangerous gangs of scammers. Once they do the math, they won't renew their subscriptions.

Legendary members like @Dopious , @xReminisce , @UnusualSubstance , @roydan (never talked to any of them in private) didn't renew their subscriptions for a reason. Others like @tazarbm , whose insightful posts I loved to read are much less active here. Really useful members are disappearing, downgrading their accounts, being banned, migrating to other forums or simply appearing once in a blue moon instead of every day like they used to.

Nowadays, @TomBelfort or @Topiano are some of the only reasons to occasionally appear on BHW, read his posts and immediately close the tab, because there is nothing else to do here. Sometimes there is some drama in dispute resolutions, but they are hiding the problems under the rug and silencing the victims.

Not to mention the unhinged number of scammers. It's completely out of control. I'm saying this as someone who once tried to open a dispute one or two years ago, they do whatever they can to avoid getting your dispute approved, but you can just see the Trade tab and you will notice that every day there are scams here. Every day.

You can try to hide the disputes under the rug by rejecting them, but there are too many scams to hide. The reputation of this forum has never been so low in over twenty years. It's not a surprise to see the amount of traffic decreasing or the amount of online users/visitors becoming lower and lower. No action is taken. The few members I'm seeing trying to do something against it are being muted, persecuted, banned much sooner than the scammers themselves. Not a surprise after what happened to Legendary members like Z, who were treated like nobodies after years of activity helping this forum. Truly heartbreaking if you care about this forum.

How about the Marketplace 2.0? Seven years of lies, they are not doing anything. Mods were banned, others left, others even died during this eternal process. There must be a good reason to avoid implementing escrow so much on this forum. It's suspicious, weird, convenient. Since I arrived, I have always heard about it, at this point, it seems like an Urban Legend, some kind of unicorn that some drunk guys said was real.

I have been quietly seeing it in the last few months, how they are hiring freelancers without any identification with this forum to be mods and make major decisions, well intentioned people (in some cases) who arrived two months ago with super powers. Unlimited powers. to silence members who are here since 2010. Meanwhile, authentic members with years of experience, or even decades of active helpful participation on BlackHatWorld are being banned, ignored, diminished, punished... there is a good reason to explain why they are all leaving.

And I'm just another one, although I'm nobody compared to some of the mentioned members, even so, I have made (or wasted) more than 4000 posts on this forum in the last few years and I feel eligible to share my honest thoughts.

And what's left? Ruins teeming with bots, scammers, AI spammers, and a few new kings to rule over these ruins. There's nothing else to do here. Once it was a source of pride to be an Executive Vip member on this forum, now I don't want my name associated with this disgraceful legacy. Sorry to BTB, I miss you badly, since you are resting, things are not the same anymore. It's simply rot and decadent.

Do whatever you want with my account, I have/had an active BST, zero problems, never dealt with any disputes, all my customers were happy, I'm just another legit seller with 2 warning points in 4 years, a model of behavior here -modesty aside, but it's pointless, feel free to silence me too, it's what constantly happens here.


If you are considering upgrading your account, think twice. Read the comments, read the posts and see who is answering or creating them. You have few customers to sell to, just daily bumps, bots asking "sample please" and the competition from scammers promoting the impossible to newbies or networks of "Bot Lords" running multiple accounts to game the system without any punishment. If you are someone legit with an individual business, you will probably end up buried in the mud.

I was quite useful for this in some ways, I have posts with tens of thousands of views coming from Google and helping BHW to get new users. You can read this post for example:

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/f...or-hiring-or-working-as-a-freelancer.1658599/

Focus on freelancing platforms instead of dead forums if you want to make more money. Good luck.
 
It is still one of the forums that survived even after having origin of 16 years before or more. They must have done something right. Regarding the problems you mentioned, I hope the admin team gives it a thought.
 
Just had a read and only found out @BassTrackerBoats sadly passed :(

As for your statements I don't disagree with a lot of what you said, it's become quite bad but it is the longest running forum, its beaten WarriorForum and others who died after being sold to big corps, it feels like the most communtiy driven one, just needs to fix the AI issues
 
It is still one of the forums that survived even after having origin of 16 years before or more. They must have done something right. Regarding the problems you mentioned, I hope the admin team gives it a thought.
It's like an apple that hasn't been eaten by worms but is rotten on the inside, at least it still exists.

Just had a read and only found out @BassTrackerBoats sadly passed :(

As for your statements I don't disagree with a lot of what you said, it's become quite bad but it is the longest running forum, its beaten WarriorForum and others who died after being sold to big corps, it feels like the most communtiy driven one, just needs to fix the AI issues
We are not allowed to discuss or mention other forums here, they might even worse or the same level, but what I care about is BHW and this place is much worse than it used to be.

That's because this geniuses decided to lock buyers behind a 15 post count restriction
Of course people just leave and do their business elsewhere
NO CLIENTS = NO MONEY = NO VIP = NO REASON TO BE HERE ANYMORE
It was a bad decision, but use your real profile.
 
nothing will change here
unfortunately
In fact.
They just moved this thread to Suggestions because they will have the right to eventually close this thread, the mod will have the last word and they will say whatever they want as the final word, exchange likes between them instead of a democratic lounge thread.
 
In fact.
They just moved this thread to Suggestions because they will have the right to eventually close this thread, the mod will have the last word and they will say whatever they want as the final word, exchange likes between them instead of a democratic lounge thread.
This is the feedback section. That's why it's been moved here. We don't close threads in here until the discussion has reached a natural end. There's no conspiracy here, everyone has access to this thread in this section.
 
What are your suggested solutions. I was once a seller here but just almost all method died with Google updates and AI so it's only normal for SEO forums to struggle.
 
This is the feedback section. That's why it's been moved here. We don't close threads in here until the discussion has reached a natural end. There's no conspiracy here, everyone has access to this thread in this section.
Every thread on this section is ended with a final word by a mod. Whoever ends this post, you or someone else, will have the final word, probably a "happy ending" style of message to convey the idea that something will change, or moderators are working hard to change things, or "use the report button" type of message.
 
Few days ago I noticed some fishy stuff going on - I stood up and made argumented comment on that thread, guess what happened? The comment got deleted... It is waayyy different here compared how it was before.. What are all these new mods anyways?
 
I spent nearly half of my life on this forum, registered when I was 15 years old, and I am almost 30 now. The number of hours, lessons, ups and downs on this forum is something I can not replace with anything anywhere else. But I must agree with a lot of stuff you posted on here, especially the part where some anon guys became mods out of the blue... I am not saying they are good or bad, but I do say that most of them are not here long enough to know the LORE, the background, the community well enough. Feels like they are just there as a job title, hired by Damien or whatever it might be, and I think that Administration should also have some hardcore BHWers, with years on the forum, someone "from the crowd" that understands better, and not following STRICTLY RULES without looking deep into the problem. For example (I forgot the mod who gave me warning, and it isn't really important), I reported my own post inside a private chat and said "Please remove this, I mixed things,"(something like that really), and I got a WARNING for Inappropriate Behaviour, I messaged support team explaining that I was just CALLING MYSELF ****** (not publicly but rather in support system) and I got warning for that? And support team removed it, no hard feelings towards the mod, but at that particular moment I figured out that some mods are working by the RULE BOOK only, without looking out the bigger picture of the problem and what it might be... And I know that mods have shitloads of stuff to do on daily basics, and mistakes like mine can happen, and that is the reason why I think it wasn't the big deal, but let's be human, let's look at the bigger picture before slamming bans, warnings etc where it's not needed...

Also when it comes to stopping AI slop, scammers, having escrow etc...

We live in 2026, where you can vibe code WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT within seconds, for peanuts... There are ways to battle both scammers, make escrow, and remove slop.

Forums in general are becoming less and less popular because of AI, because majority of the questions you can just ask LLM and it will tell you... Natural way of working.
But there is also a way to change that, with inovation, with new types of posts, new rankings, tiers, incentives.

I proposed as suggestion I believe couple months ago is that we implement a feature that if some post is of quality, OP CAN include ref links etc inside of it in order to incentivize people sharing it, here is the thread: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/a...quality-tutorial-posts.1771773/#post-20089624

I love this forum, and I believe we are far from end of it if we start working on making it better together, with updates, with mods, with implementing suggestions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I spent nearly half of my life on this forum, registered when I was 15 years old, and I am almost 30 now. The number of hours, lessons, ups and downs on this forum is something I can not replace with anything anywhere else. But I must agree with a lot of stuff you posted on here, especially the part where some anon guys became mods out of the blue... I am not saying they are good or bad, but I do say that most of them are not here long enough to know the LORE, the background, the community well enough. Feels like they are just there as a job title, hired by Damien or whatever it might be, and I think that Administration should also have some hardcore BHWers, with years on the forum, someone "from the crowd" that understands better, and not following STRICTLY RULES without looking deep into the problem. For example (I forgot the mod who gave me warning, and it isn't really important), I reported my own post inside a private chat and said "Please remove this, I mixed things"(something like that really), and I got a WARNING for Inappropriate Behaviour, I messaged support team explaining that I was just CALLING MYSELF ****** (not publicly but rather in support system) and I got warning for that? And support team removed it, no hard feelings towards the mod, but at that particular moment I figured out that some mods are working by the RULE BOOK only, without looking out the bigger picture of the problem and what it might be... And I know that mods have shitloads of stuff to do on daily basics, and mistakes like mine can happen, and that is the reason why I think it wasn't the big deal, but let's be human, let's look at the bigger picture before slamming bans, warnings etc where it's not needed...

Also when it comes to stopping AI slop, scammers, having escrow etc...

We live in 2026, where you can vibe code WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT within seconds, for peanuts... There are ways to battle both scammers, make escrow, and remove slop.

Forums in general are becoming less and less popular because of AI, because majority of the questions you can just ask LLM and it will tell you... Natural way of working.
But there is also a way to change that, with inovation, with new types of posts, new rankings, tiers, incentives.

I proposed as suggestion I believe couple months ago is that we implement a feature that if some post is of quality, OP CAN include ref links etc inside of it in order to incentivize people sharing it, here is the thread: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/a...quality-tutorial-posts.1771773/#post-20089624

I love this forum, and I believe we are far from end of it if we start working on making it better together, with updates, with mods, with implementing suggestions.
it was a decent suggestion, like many on this forum, but it ends buried and forgotten, like this thread will also be on this section, eventually locked, a positive last message to transmit some hopium and nobody mentions it anymore.
 
I agree with everything you just said, exact reason why I never renewed, this place is dead and it's been going downhill for a while now. Most of the old members were banned or just left. Also the game has changed and there really isn't much you can do unless you have a serious amount of dough to invest. IM isn't for the average guy anymore like it used to be.
 
freelancers without any identification with this forum to be mods and make major decisions, well intentioned people (in some cases) who arrived two months ago with super powers. Unlimited powers. to silence members who are here since 2010.
TBH this is one of the things that bothers me the most about this forum. Hiring outsiders and giving them powers while they know nothing about the forum or members while there are respectful members/mods who have been here for years. And I think this is one of the reasons many bad decisions/rules are being made leading to the decline of the forum; treating the forum as a business first rather than a community first.
 
Losing a reputed member is always bad for our community and also Bad for BHW. The value proposition of this jr vip membership hasn't felt the same lately.
Hope BHW staff actually take member feedback from reputed member like you. RichMedusa Please don't resign from Jr Vip, We don't want to lose you, See you next week mate.
 
i probably get a warning for saying this
but once again, not even complaining, i didn't when i get the warning so yeah.
just sharing my thoughts
which probably is prohibited too lol

my entire warning history is nevermind.

that is enough for me to just not want to resub, enough for me to not wanna browse as much.
Thank you for taking the time to answer this post. Never talk to any of you guys in private, but I keep maxium respect from distance.

Members like you are or were the heart of this forum. Same applies to all the other previously mentioned members, you guys should receive the deserved recognition for years of helpful activity and content on this forum, it's a shame that they are taking the opposite direction.
 
Not a surprise after what happened to Legendary members like Z

seeing it in the last few months, how they are hiring freelancers without any identification with this forum to be mods and make major decisions

I totally agree, and I think these two issues are what caused this. It all started there, and if the admin doesn't find a solution, the forum will be dead soon. I knew it as soon as those two issues started.
 
TBH this is one of the things that bothers me the most about this forum. Hiring outsiders and giving them powers while they know nothing about the forum or members while there are respectful members/mods who have been here for years. And I think this is one of the reasons many bad decisions/rules are being made leading to the decline of the forum; treating the forum as a business first rather than a community first.
But dont they give old members moderation position aswell? I believe many mods in training and even established ones were old members of the forum. Might be mistake.
 
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