Talk:AXXo

Add a page for FXG?

I created a page for FXG and then it got deleted immediately. I also added a link in this page to the page for FXG. The link got removed later. What is wrong? Someone answer me? --animekill (talk) 16:37, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

"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)

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)

Darkside link

I removed the link but if you can find where the admin stated that aXXo is taking a break then you can readd it. Also, to make a full circle here is a link to the darkside thread talking about the wikipedia page. So now you can look at a thread talking about them looking at us -- Esemono (talk) 05:50, 6 September 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)

Lead too short?

I was reading the article and i feel that the lead misses the point of why axxo is notable. Axxo is not notable for being a pirate, he is notable for being a pirate that is the author of dvd rips of predictable and consistent quality who are immensely popular online.83.132.161.145 (talk) 16:44, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

If you have a reference citation for that, you could add that to the lead. (Or perhaps one of the existing references contains that information, such as http://www.dv.com/columns/columns_item.php?articleId=196604239. —Mattisse (Talk) 18:09, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how this article passed GA with such a short lead section. I suggest re-listing this article unless criteria 1(b) is thoroughly checked over and fixed --Flewis^(talk) 13:28, 18 October 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)

Slate articles about aXXo

Slate's associate editor, Josh Levin, recently wrote an article about aXXo and an interview about it, which are both interesting and can be used in this article. I haven't read the whole thing so I'll leave it here for whoever wants to check them out and use as much of their information as possible:

• "AXXo You Are a God"
• Meet the World's Most Beloved Movie Stealer

Gary King (talk) 15:32, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Added the first one which suspiciously follows the same format as this article but the second article is a general interveiw about aXXo and copyrights not an actual interview with aXXo -- Esemono (talk) 09:13, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I said it was an interview about it :) I used "it", too, since I'm still not sure if it's one person or a group. Gary King (talk) 16:20, 21 November 2008 (UTC)