Rhodium Chemistry Archive

The Hive was a website that served as an information-sharing forum for individuals and groups interested in the practical synthesis, chemistry, biology, politics, and legal aspects of mind-altering drugs.[1][2][3] Participants ranged from pure theorists to self-declared organized crime chemists (claimed to be retired but with excellent connections) as well as forensic chemists, who (much like their quarries) used the Hive to keep abreast of developments in clandestine chemistry.[4] Most members were simply curious about psychoactive chemicals and allied issues. At its peak, the Hive had thousands of participants from all over the world.

While The Hive was a public forum for asking questions and exchanging information, Rhodium.ws hosted a collection of drug synthesis information in more condensed and organized form, much of it derived from messages posted on the Hive. It also had a large collection of articles from academic journals, plus considerable general-purpose information on practical chemistry. Rhodium's site was also taken offline shortly after the Hive. Most of the archive is hosted by Erowid. Scattered across the net is more than 1.73 gigabytes of files that were once part of Rhodium's archive.

The Hive was shut down in 2004. Although the domain still exists and full copies of the message database were retained, the forum has not re-opened to the public, nor have existing archives been disseminated[citation needed] . Even before it went offline altogether, certain especially sensitive or synthetically useful threads were being hidden from the public message database[citation needed]. Around one gigabyte of user-harvested data from The Hive can still be found online, but the far greater portion remains held privately by former administrators. The failure of Hive management to share its archives after shutdown remains a bitter pill for some former contributors in light of the vast time and effort invested by members. It is possible, with the takedown of megaupload.com, that many of the Hive's remaining files have been lost, as the two major backups are now gone.