RIP ExHentai

This is a sad day. I know you guys don't follow me for my opinion necessarily, so apologies for the noncontent post, but it deserves a sendoff from all of us.

Exhentai shut down today after over a decade of operation, wiping out 50 terabytes of content, much of it not backed up or hosted anywhere else. My stuff was there. Everyone's stuff was there. It was a bastion and now it's gone. The exposure I got (piracy or no) from having my content hosted there will be missed. Many of the links buried somewhere deep in my favorites folders will be missed.

Stories conflict, but I've done a bit of research to discover the truth. Here's what happened to the best of my knowledge.

• A sudden wave of malicious/false reports were made to ex-hentai's host stating that the website hosted underage content shortly before this debacle began.
• The host contact Tenboro, the site's admin, and requested the removal of the content in question. As an important note, in the host's operating country if child pornography is discovered on a website they have only 24 hours to remove it.
• There was likely a short exchange between the host and Tenboro while he attempted to describe the difference between cartoon pornography and illegal material
• At some point Tenboro said fuck it and decided to comply with their host's demands. He was open about the fact that his leg injury made him less inclined to want to operate the site at all.

From this we can learn three things. Firstly, as a society we continue down what I feel is a dangerous path of being unable to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. There's a whole discussion to be had on this fact in and of itself, but needless to say my opinion is that cartoons are not real and shouldn't be illegal in any circumstance.

Secondly this is a lesson in the dangers of bottling up your emotions. The admin didn't want the site and suffered with it on his back for a long time. As a result what has been called the 'Alexandria Library' of hentai has been lost just because the final straw hit the camel's back. If you're suffering with something, talk about it. Share the burden with someone.

Thirdly, be aware of the dangers of misinformation. This was a complicated scenario and was never as simple as 'boo hoo my leg hurts,' or 'politicians are putting people who draw lolis in jail.' Educate yourselves. Don't take what you hear at face value if something doesn't sound right.

Rest in peace, Ex-Hentai. We'll miss you.