IMO the good books from authors like Shulgin and Strike, and volumes of online contributions from authors like Rhodium and Drone 342 advanced the underground more than they hurt it.
The fact of the matter is that there are so many ways to get from point A to point B. Finding, evaluating, and describing them is an incredible undertaking. Were it not for these resources many of us would still be convinced of the superiority of inferior mechanisms we found or conceived on our own, even though we could have found the "better" routes given enough time.
I'm not concerned about any more bans being of consequence. The good, direct precursors which can be banned are, for the most part, already banned. There isn't a whole lot more banning they can do without severely crippling innocent parties - which they might do, but they don't need another chemistry-oriented book to spur them to do it.
By contrast, sources like Fester and &T did the community a lot of harm.
It isn't the information itself which prompts bans. The information is already out there. The DEA chemists know what we know and follow what we follow. They can inform management of what could be used for synthesis, and they don't need our books to do it.
So far, it isn't the chemists opinions which prompt bans.
The bans start when too much cookery goes mainstream and the politicians have to do something about it. Remember, every chemical they ban or reformulate impacts innocent parties, and even cognitive fascists would prefer not to create unnecessary collateral damage and blowback.
The high science out there isn't fueling the low budget cooks - they couldn't understand it if they tried. Bees have been paranoid for years that drug warriors are out to get them, but that isn't really the case. Don't get me wrong, drug warriors would love to bust bees if they had the chance, but bees aren't the goal. The drug warriors are more concerned with the hillbilly meth cook running a lab in a Motel 6 and sending addicts out into the community to steal psuedo and NH3.
For example, I don't care how good a review of the many pathways from catechol -> MDMA or styrene -> methamphetamine becomes, the vast majority of people who even would consider doing it because they want product to sell or use can't do it. To that crowd of amateur cooks, quality science is no more useful than the nuclear weapon schematics at Wikipedia are to the general public, none of whom can get HE U-235 or Pu-239.
If the public at large were capable of running a Grignard, society wouldn't be in the state of mass ignorance required for the drug war.
Look at the (albeit work-heavy) pathways starting from OTC. They're already in a state of existence impervious to bans. What are they going to do, take away our toluene and HCl?
The only popular drug they've put beyond the reach of the typical capable chemist, from precursor bans alone, is LSD. All of us should be quite familiar with the reasons a home total synthesis is impractical. Many of us should know why neither
Claviceps culture or HBWR extraction are all that practical.
That being said, I don't think that making this information widely public does anybody any good. Anyone capable of competent underground chemistry, not cookery, already knows how to seek out that information. We don't need more Totse archives nor do we need more Fester books at The Pirate Bay. The underground chemistry community gains nothing by pandering to cooks or indulging the (typically immature) fantasy/wannabe chemists.
Private forums and private wikis are good. Much like the networks which sell us what we can't make, everything works out best for everyone on a need to know basis. The more ignorant the general public remains, the better. They have no use for the information which does exist, nor do they have any cause for "concern" as long as they don't know it exists.
The more I think about it, a private, password-protected wiki seems like a much better idea than a book, a zip archive, or anything else in an easily shared format. Let a wiki collect and distill facts created among forums. Threads are great for discussion, but they're a horrible archival and reference medium.
What makes someone worthy?
We can draw a fairly bright line at the ability to understand what is being said and the chance of figuring it out given enough time.
One group operates on science, theory, and experimental results. The other operates on instructions, recipes, and cookery. That latter group is not part of this community, nor could they carry out what is being discussed. That group had enough trouble with psuedo -> meth.
This latter group also includes all the immature fantasy chemists who think "cooking" drugs is "cool" and hang out, with no sense of purpose, just to live vicariously through others.
Since they have nothing to gain from a compilation of quality science, there is nothing for the community to gain by attempting to enlighten them.
Topic: Dateline - Strike (Read 877 times)
Other reduction methods that aren't as hazardous can be substituted, but that calls for skills and knowledge that normally take a long time to master 
Rhodium and his staff devoted more time than you can probably imagine creating that archive, and our reward was complaints 
As far as the drug warriors, they want to lock every perpetrator they can locate, whether they're rednecks or not 
The fact of the matter is that no good deed goes unpunished, and misinformation is too common 
