<nettime> a disaster happened today

[sebastian@rolux.org]

"The greatest music library in the world is gone."

"Saddest day of the year for music. Even Bowie and L. Cohen death can't beat 
that."

"I can't really begin to explain how much of a loss this is.
This was the biggest digital repository of music the world has ever seen. 
Spotify, iTunes, even Oink in its prime were kittens to what what.cd built.
I made this analogy in another thread, but it was the digital library of 
Alexandria for music.
It inspired me to learn about audio engineering, learn how to program, and most 
importantly, introduced me to music that changed me in ways I can't even begin 
to put into one tiny little box.
I was a part of the community for almost ten years. And it's a part of my life 
I'm going to have to look back on fondly.
And I don't regret a second of it."

"I don't think we will ever find such a carefully put together library of 
everything that is music.
Fuck me, i put my first productions on there to get feedback and keep on making 
music. I got my inspiration from there. The brilliant collages, the quality, 
the sheer size of it."

"I'm so sad man. I never realized it until now but that website shaped a large 
part of who I am."

"They are the destroyers.
They see something good that a community has buit, and in their greed and 
vileness destroy it."

"Heartbreaking. So much time, effort, and work went in to making that site, 
that collection (like nobody has ever seen), and the community...."

"Undoubtedly the largest repository of music ever built and also, in my 
opinion, the most decent, professional, kind and just generally well-run entity 
to come out the pirate/torrent scene. This is a very, very sad day for us all."

"A real tragedy. More than a torrent tracker, What.cd was a beautiful, vibrant, 
and positive community. Knowing someone in real-life who was a fellow 
What.cd'er was enough to form an immediate friendship."

"Travesty. Biggest trove of classical music lost forever. I found CD's on there 
of even local friends bands, EVERYTHING was there. My friends dads bands 
discography that they themselves lost was on there!
I made great friends from there and w.cd was a daily topic in my life amongst 
me and my friends. Sharing new music, keeping track of eachothers latest DL's 
etc. Top 10's, collages, related artists, bounties. I loved waking up and 
browsing a collage like "House music from the Congo in 1973" or something and 
going on a journey. All lost.
It's going to take forever to get out of this depression, that was my last 
community, and I've been there for a decade.
I have the WCD community to credit for who I am today as a musician and 
developer, as the community exposed me to all sorts of things when I was 
15/16ish that I probably otherwise wouldn't have discovered. I'd probably be 
working sales right now or cash at some grocery store if it wasn't for WCD.
The internet is now dead to me for anything other than work. Between this and 
all the surveillance and social media and fake news and other bullshit, it's 
just another tool to me now.
What an absolute shit day."

"Say what you want about the ethics of piracy, but this truly is a sad day. No 
where else was there such a vast collection of music nor any other community as 
passionate, knowledgeable, and collective about all things music and audio as 
what.cd. Not to mention all of the friendships made and lost on the site, it 
truly was unique.
There are literally versions of albums and other musical releases that you 
cannot buy or find anywhere else that are now lost to the sands of time."

"I see it as burning down the modern day Library of Alexandria for music and 
scattering the community that maintained it."

"Unprecedented loss to the Internet community itself. This truly might be one 
of the saddest things happening online since the inception of Internet itself."

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