WinMx and Apostasy History
WinMx History: The Glory Years 2000 - 2005
WinMx is a now-antiquated, freeware peer-to-peer network created
by Frontcode Technologies in year 2000. WinMx is still in use,
albeit only by a limited corps of die-hard Mxers. The WinMx
network quickly became among the most popular peer-to-peer networks in
the world, by 2005. Not only was WinMx popular for downloading
files, it also grew to have a robust chat room hosting functionality,
spurred on by third party software. At its peak and soon before
the crash in 2005, there were over two thousand chat rooms online at any
given time on WinMx.
WinMx History: The Crash - Sept 2005
After threats of lawsuits by the Recording Industry
Artists Association (RIAA) in early September 2005, Frontcode
Technologies shut down their peer cache servers and abandoned the
project. Within days, the WinMx community came up with "patched"
solutions for the loss of WinMx peer cache servers because of Frontcode
having left the project. Two distinct patches emerged, one from
the Vladd44 group and one from KingMacro who was affiliated with
WinMxWorld Group.
WinMx History: Patch Wars 2005 - 2008
The Vladd44 group designed a workaround (not technically
a patch) which modified the users hosts file, while KingMacro's patch
modified a WinMx dynamic link library (.dll). Both sides accused
each other of exploitation and attempting to control the beleaguered
network. Ultimately a finally "patch" was devised, integrated with
a new binary (.exe) for WinMx, which automatically connects it to
current peer cache servers.
WinMx History: Community Patch 2008
The WinMx Community Patch was authored by a developer
named Eagle, integrating the fix into a new binary (.exe) file to
install the patched version of WinMx. This version was adopted by
most factions on WinMx and continues in use to this day. To
download the patched WinMx, click
HERE
WinMx History: WinMx Attacks 2012 - 2014
An unknown entity began attacking WinMx in early 2012
and continues to do so, likely using some type of automated attack which
causes chat rooms to not list and file search results to be compromised.
A current chat room list can be found
HERE
Apostasy History: Debait is Born
I first began chatting in A ROOM FOR HERESY in
the spring of 2004, but I became bored of listening to atheists jerk
each other off and conspiracy nutters hyper-examining every possible
alleged conspiracy since the dawn of time. I was already inclined
against religion for decades, and soon found myself in the WinMx
Christian rooms arguing the prominent Christian room hosts and members,
including Kayleigh, host of Christian Chat, Vicki, host of Christian
Haven, and Pantele, host of Christian Discussion & Debate. Either
because my argumentation was too insidious or my language too profane, I
quickly became persona non grata, and was banned on sight in all the
Christian rooms on WinMx, except for Pantele's Christian Discussion &
Debate, which was also the most popular Christian room on WinMx at the
time, with over 50 members parked there daily, and chatting around the
clock. In mid-July of 2004, Pantele private messaged me while I
was haranguing his guests in my usual caustic fashion, to laugh and
encourage me further which I found surprising and reaffirming,
considering this was the only Christian chat room on WinMx that would
let me speak at all. Pantele was hardly around during that month
of July 2004, and by the last week of that month, his room disappeared
from the network without warning or explanation. Finding myself
now with no chat room to go to, to argue Christians, I decided to host
my own Christian chat room on WinMx, and took Pantele's now defunct chat
room name Christian Discussion & Debate, and modified just the last word
to "Debait". Regular members still present in 2014 still refer to
the room as "Debait", colloquially.
Christian Discussion & Debait was opened
on July 31st, 2004 by Knot4Prophet (me) on the WinMx peer-to-peer
network. At the time this room opened, there were over two
thousand chat rooms already on WinMx, many with dozens of daily members,
some with hundreds. From the vacuum of Pantele's now-defunct
Christian chat room, I hoped to gain immediate traffic and discussion
from his old members, but most of those members were very loyal and very
Christian, and boycotted my room. The hostess of Christian Chat,
Kayleigh, and Pantele himself both threatened me not to keep hosting my
room with the modified name, which only ensured that I would continue to
do so.
Since its inception Christian Discussion & Debait,
has always been a free speech chat room, the first chat room on WinMx to
offer and deliver no-holds-barred free speech. The reason I was so
adamant in making the room a free speech discussion room, was because I
had seen so many discussions in other rooms end with one of the
participants getting banned or muted by an over-zealous, sensitive
administrator. Plus, I wanted to be able to say whatever the fuck
I feel like saying, and being a true supporter of equality, I couldn't
deny others that same freedom as well. There are some drawbacks to
a free speech chat room, but the supporters have come to suffer and/or
endure the morons, in order that their own liberty, too, is secured.
Within a few months of opening Christian
Discussion & Debait, I soon realized that limitations on the medium and
limitations on people's ability to read lines of text presented a threat
for free speech to everyone: flooding/spamming. If one
person repeatedly flooded the room with the same or similar few lines of
text over and over, the room was effectively unusable, everyone's free
speech then usurped by just one user. This presented the only
exception and limitation to ever be enforced in the chat room, with that
qualification being added to the room's regular topic - FREE SPEECH ROOM
(Knot Unlimited), meaning there are no restrictions on which words you
say, only on how much you say them. The equivalent scenario in a
public setting would be one person with a bullhorn in a room full of
people all trying to talk - only the person with the bullhorn gets
heard, then. So while free speech is and should be enshrined,
access to it must be equally available and the only way to ensure equal
access to speaking freely, is limiting anyone from flooding the room
like a fucking moron.
The first person ever kicked from the room for
flooding (after numerous warnings to stop), was dr paul the colorado
movie buff, and it was limited to just five minutes. This was in
November 2004. Noski the Preacher Boy was the second person ousted
for five minutes, using the same rationale. I encouraged both the
users to not repeat the same line(s) over and over, but mostly it was
just their style of chatting, using the same few short phrases typed
quickly, repeatedly. To allow for that type of chat style, I
relented on limiting anyone's speech unless they flooded the room with
the same line of text over and over.
The room soon grew in popularity with atheist,
Christian and agnostic members. Prominent members from that first
year that are still chat in the room today include Daedalus, Barrett,
mauxfaux, Ashwing, Sprinkles, Oddball, TamiHaze and Jega.
Apostasy History: A ROOM FOR APOSTASY
Apostasy History: Room Wars
Apostasy History: The Future is Bleak
Apostasy History: The Future is Bleak
Apostasy History: The Future is Bleak
