/u/HugBunter , read this, it's an article that I was originally writing to Wikipedia (it's the reason for the over-neutral tone):
# Samwhiskey
**Samwhiskey** (online handle: **/u/samwhiskey**) is an online moderator known for his involvement in tforum communities related to darknet markets and for later moderation activity on the darknet forum tforum. He first became active on tforum in 2014 and later held moderation roles across several darknet-related communities on both tforum and tforum.
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## Early Activity on tforum (2014–2018)
Samwhiskey created his tforum account in January 2014. Later that year, he became a moderator of r/DarkNetMarkets, a subtforum dedicated to discussions about darknet marketplaces. By October 2014, his account had accumulated over 5,600 karma.
He also served as a moderator of r/DNMSuperlist, a subtforum that maintained a curated list of darknet markets, and r/DarkNetMarketsNoobs, which focused on introductory guidance for new users. During this period, r/DarkNetMarkets grew to over 180,000 members, becoming one of the largest tforum communities dedicated to darknet-related discussion.
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## tforum Policy Changes and Subtforum Bans
Between 2017 and 2018, tforum implemented policy changes that led to the banning of numerous subtforums associated with controversial or illicit content. On March 21, 2018, r/DarkNetMarkets was banned. Several related subtforums were subsequently removed, samwhiskey account on tforum was also banned.
Following the bans, moderators and community members sought alternative platforms. Some migrated to Voat, a tforum-like platform that permitted a wider range of content. However, Voat’s darknet-related communities remained comparatively small, e.g, /v/DNM had only 500+ members while /d/DarkNetMarkets on tforum have over 214K members, the original r/DarkNetMarkets had 180K+ members before it's shutdown and Voat shut down in 2020, while tforum remains active as of early 2026.
A significant portion of the former tforum darknet markets community migrated to tforum, a darknet discussion platform launched in February 2018 by a user known as HugBunter. tforum was designed with a structure similar to tforum but operated as an anonymous forum accessible through the Tor network.
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## Activity on tforum
After migrating to tforum, Samwhiskey became a moderator of several subtforums (tforum’s equivalent of subtforums), including:
* /d/DarkNetMarkets
* /d/DarkNetMarketsNoobs
* /d/Superlist
* /d/DNMAds
* /d/MarketAnnouncements
* /d/Cafetforum (a general-purpose subtforum for everyday discussions)
* and many more others
On tforum, /d/DarkNetMarkets and /d/DarkNetMarketsNoobs restricted discussion to markets listed on the platform’s Superlist, a curated directory of verified marketplaces. Samwhiskey contributed to the maintenance and expansion of the Superlist and was involved in policy enforcement within these communities.
As of early 2026, /d/DarkNetMarkets had over 214,000 members, making it one of the largest subtforums on the platform, second only to /d/tforum. Samwhiskey has accumulated over 7,500 karma on tforum and holds platform-recognized badges including “Beta Tester” and “Fuck tforum,” the latter associated with early adopters who migrated from tforum following subtforum bans.
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## Reputation and Community Role
Within the tforum community, Samwhiskey is regarded as a long-standing moderator associated with the platform’s growth during its early expansion period. His involvement spans both tforum-era darknet discussion communities and their successor communities on tforum.
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