Evidence of the main moderator of r/trackers receiving money from FearNoPeer and removing negative posts and comments about FearNoPeer
Context and background:
The private torrent tracker FearNoPeer or FNP recently shut down permanently, with the site owner, Kami, giving users only about an hour of warning before taking the site down. Some users were effectively scammed out of their money, since the site offered users deals on "lifetime VIP" perk packages right up until the site's closure.
The main subreddit dedicated to private torrent trackers, r/trackers, is moderated predominantly by GlimpseOfTruth, who seems to be the only moderator active there most of the time. In the wake of FearNoPeer's shutdown, some evidence has emerged about the relationship between FearNoPeer and r/trackers, and specifically between Kami and GlimpseOfTruth.
The evidence:
Two days ago, GlimpseOfTruth admitted to taking money from FearNoPeer (FNP)'s owner Kami in this comment.
Over a year ago, I made this negative post about FearNoPeer. At some point, it was removed, presumably by GlimpseOfTruth since he does practically all the moderating on the sub. After I noticed it was removed and made a comment linking to a Wayback Machine archive of it, GlimpseOfTruth restored the original post. He said he didn't remember why it was removed.
Yet, 2 days ago, GlimpseOfTruth said:
>Never removed posts. Look at how fast this post about FNP caught fire - how would me removing entire FNP posts go unnoticed.
In a separate comment 2 days ago, GlimpseOfTruth also said:
>I did not remove posts - that would be so easy to see if I had. Fucking people are all over threads about FNP - look at this one.
This screenshot and this screenshot from Kami, the owner of FearNoPeer, purport to show GlimpseOfTruth (a.k.a. zakary or zakkarry, an alt through which GlimpseOfTruth has also sockpuppeted on r/trackers, and vice versa) removing the post at Kami's request.
This screenshot from Kami purports to show GlimpseOfTruth suggest to Kami that they go into business together, with GlimpseOfTruth selling seedboxes on FNP or something like that.
There are also screenshots like this one that purport to show GlimpseOfTruth encouraging Kami to keep sending him money. GlimpseOfTruth even gives Kami specific instructions on which payment method has the lowest fees and taxes.
Yet, 2 days ago, GlimpseOfTruth said:
>I helped the dude out, and he donated in a non-refundable manner to me unprompted, and unsolicited.
Screenshots like this (1), this (2), this (3), this (4), and this (5) purport to show GlimpseOfTruth deleting criticism of FearNoPeer and Kami off of the sub.
It also bears asking why GlimpseOfTruth would remove negative posts and comments about FNP and Kami given that, 2 days ago, he said:
>This dude's deranged and has been deranged for years.
If GlimpseOfTruth believes that, why did he expunge criticism of Kami and Kami's site from the subreddit?
Shortly after my post complaining about the volume of system messages that FNP sent out asking for money, FearNoPeer claimed it had a "database error" that erased all message history. In response to this, GlimpseOfTruth commented:
>Convenient timing lol?
So, GlimpseOfTruth was aware of suspicious claims made by FearNoPeer and seemed to share in the suspicion. Again, why remove negative posts and comments about FNP if he knew they had some legitimate basis?
There doesn't need to be direct evidence of an explicit quid pro quo arrangement for this to be problematic. If FearNoPeer provides money to the main moderator of r/trackers and the moderator gives FearNoPeer unusually favourable treatment on r/trackers, then it doesn't matter whether there is plausible deniability of a quid pro quo arrangement. The practice is corrupt regardless.