TouchOfGrey wrote:Making the forum private does not hide the web site itself. It remains visible in web searches.
This can be easily fixed if the admin configure the site to not be cached by Google and other search engines. It is done this way:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/625 ... le-cachingI also think that is a good idea to a) remove from search engines (as suggested) and b) make it private, in a way that only registered users can see the contents. Or at least the ebook links.
This will not be good for attracting new users, but can make sure the site stays alive longer. I know one that had several links taken down (they only share movies) before doing this, and after following both suggestions this never happened again.
Besides eventually the same people who file DMCA complaints might get annoyed and decide to take action, and once a website is less visible (this way) it can get off their "radar", since only more faithful users will join. Just like private trackers.
Of course if you are going to do this please make sure new accounts can be created and that you inform an email where we can contact the admins/mods in case there's a bug in account creation, such as validation emails not being sent. I saw forums that didn't allow new registrations and there was no way to contact the admins to let them know about the issue.
Another idea is to host the site in the servers (and also countries) that allow it to stay alive and don't handle information about the owners promptly, if asked. For example, you can check with the same ones from TPB, Libgen or Slysoft (RedFox), or similar sites that managed to stay online no matter what all these powerful corporations tried to do with them.
You need to do this to avoid the same mistake from Megaupload.
In the words of Mike Mozart:
"
The actual owner and staff are in New Zealand. But you know why the United States took upon himself to carry out this action? Because they had a few leased servers in Virginia.
Oh, my God, so now they can police the entire world if any company in the world has that tiniest little presence in the United States. What does that tell you if your business is overseas?
You pull all of your goddamn business out of America. If you are on the internet you don't work with an american company, you don't use our server space, you don't use our IP registrars, or you can find yourself in an american prison for the rest of your life.
YOU REMEMBER THAT."
(Despite that comment, it's worth saying Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom was already famous when he started the site. We don't really know who's behind Libgen, RedFox and others. It's better this way, instead of painting a target on your back. They also resort to illegal spying to catch him)