---
license: cc-by-sa-4.0
pretty_name: Dread Crime Forum
language:
  - en
size_categories:
  - 1M<n<10M
task_categories:
  - text-classification
  - text-generation
  - token-classification
tags:
  - darknet
  - forum
  - social-media
  - tor
  - dread
  - pgp
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: posts
        path: data/posts-*.parquet
      - split: comments
        path: data/comments-*.parquet
      - split: users
        path: data/users-*.parquet
---

# Dread Forum Archive

A near-complete capture of public content from **Dread**, a Reddit-style discussion forum hosted as a Tor hidden service. Dread is one of the longest-running darknet community forums and a primary site for discussion of darknet markets, operational security, cryptocurrency, and related topics.

The archive covers content posted between **April 2018 and September 2025** and is structured as three Parquet-backed splits: posts, comments, and users (with parsed PGP key metadata).

## Dataset Statistics

| Split            | Rows        | Description                                                    |
|------------------|-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| `posts`          | 715,877     | All discoverable posts across 2,272 subdreads                  |
| `comments`       | 3,702,685   | All comments on captured posts                                 |
| `users`          | 258,848     | All users observed as post or comment authors                  |

**Coverage notes:**
- Subdreads scraped: 2,271 / 2,272 (one excluded, see scraper notes)
- Posts with full body captured: 714,841. The remaining 1,036 are flagged unreachable in the source data and appear in the dump with `body_html` and `body_text` set to `null`.
- Distinct comment authors: 209,359
- Distinct post authors: 24,726

**PGP keys** (parsed from each user's `/u/<name>/pgp` page):
- Users with a published, ownership-verified PGP key: **25,449**
- Users without a published key: **233,399**

Every user with `has_key = true` is also marked `ownership_verified = true` - Dread only displays an armored key block on a profile after the user proves possession of the corresponding private key.

## File Schemas

### `posts`

| Field           | Type     | Notes                                                       |
|-----------------|----------|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| `post_key`      | string   | Stable Dread identifier; primary key                         |
| `title`         | string   | Post title                                                   |
| `author`        | string   | Username of the original poster                              |
| `subdread`      | string   | Subdread (community) name, without the `d/` prefix           |
| `url`           | string   | Path on Dread (e.g. `/post/<post_key>`)                      |
| `comment_count` | integer  | Comment count as displayed on the listing                    |
| `vote_count`    | integer  | Net vote count as displayed                                  |
| `posted_text`   | string   | Human-readable timestamp as displayed (e.g. `3 days ago`)    |
| `posted_date`   | string   | Resolved date string when available                          |
| `body_html`     | string   | Raw HTML of the post body (null if body was not captured)    |
| `body_text`     | string   | Plain-text rendering of the body (null if not captured)      |

### `comments`

| Field                | Type           | Notes                                                                                |
|----------------------|----------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `comment_key`        | string         | Stable identifier; primary key                                                       |
| `post_key`           | string         | Foreign key to `posts.post_key`                                                      |
| `parent_comment_key` | string / null  | Foreign key to the parent comment, or `null` for top-level replies (children of the post itself). Use this together with `post_key` to reconstruct the full reply tree. |
| `author`             | string         | Commenter's username                                                                  |
| `vote_count`         | integer        | Net vote count                                                                       |
| `posted_date`        | string         | Resolved date string                                                                 |
| `body_html`          | string         | Raw HTML of the comment body                                                         |
| `body_text`          | string         | Plain-text rendering                                                                 |
| `depth`              | integer        | Reply depth in the thread (0 = top-level reply to the post)                          |

In this dump, only 96 comments (~0.003% of the total) have `depth > 0` with `parent_comment_key = null` - these are orphans whose position in the tree could not be confirmed against the live thread page. Every other non-top-level comment links to a parent.

### `users`

| Field                | Type           | Notes                                                              |
|----------------------|----------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `username`           | string         | Dread username; primary key                                         |
| `has_key`            | bool / null    | Whether a PGP key block was published on the user's profile        |
| `ownership_verified` | bool / null    | Whether Dread displays the "Ownership of this key has been verified" badge |
| `pgp_key`            | string / null  | The full ASCII-armored OpenPGP public key, exactly as published    |
| `fingerprint`        | string / null  | Primary key fingerprint                                             |
| `primary_key_id`     | string / null  | OpenPGP long key ID for the primary key                             |
| `key_algorithm`      | string / null  | OpenPGP algorithm code (e.g. `1` = RSA, `22` = EdDSA)              |
| `key_bits`           | integer / null | Key length in bits where applicable                                |
| `key_created`        | string / null  | ISO-8601 creation timestamp                                        |
| `key_expires`        | string / null  | ISO-8601 expiry timestamp, if set                                  |
| `user_ids`           | array / null   | Parsed UID records: `{raw, name, comment, email}`                  |
| `names`              | array / null   | Distinct names extracted from UIDs                                 |
| `emails`             | array / null   | Distinct emails extracted from UIDs                                |
| `fingerprints`       | array / null   | All fingerprints (primary plus subkeys)                            |
| `key_ids`            | array / null   | All long key IDs (primary plus subkeys)                            |

For users without a published key, all PGP-related fields are `null`.

## How the Data Was Collected

Pages were fetched directly over Tor from `dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion` using a SOCKS5 connector with per-stream circuit isolation. Only public, server-rendered content is included. Drafts, private messages, and any account-only views are not present.

## Considerations for Using the Data

Dread is a darknet community forum. The corpus contains substantial discussion of illicit topics including drug markets, vendor reviews, fraud, and operational security, alongside ordinary social conversation. Researchers should expect:

- Strong language, slurs, and harassment
- Detailed descriptions of illegal activity
- Discussion of vendors, marketplaces, and substances
- Personally selected pseudonyms; some users link real names or contact addresses in their PGP UIDs

PGP UIDs frequently contain self-published email addresses and names - these are included verbatim because they are part of the public key as Dread served it. Treat them as user-published metadata, not as verified identities.

## License

This dataset is released under **Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)**.

You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit and distribute any derivative works under the same license.

## Citation

If you use this dataset in academic or other published work, please cite:

```bibtex
@misc{kelly2026dread,
  author       = {Kelly, Trent},
  title        = {Dread Crime Forum},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Hugging Face},
  howpublished = {\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/trentmkelly/dread-crime-forum}}
}
```