Pastebin.com

{{Short description|Online text storage website}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox website | name = Pastebin | logo = Pastebin.com logo.png | logo_size = 150px | logo_alt = Pastebin.com logo | logo_caption =  | screenshot = Pastebin.com screenshot.png | collapsible =  | collapsetext =  | background =  | screenshot_size = | screenshot_alt = | caption = | url = {{URL|https://pastebin.com}} | ipv6 = Yes | commercial =  | type = Web application | registration = Optional (required for creating private pastes) | language = | num_users = 17 million (2019)<ref name=Users>{{cite web |title=What is Pastebin and Why Do Hackers Love It? |url=https://www.echosec.net/blog/what-is-pastebin-and-why-do-hackers-love-it |website=www.echosec.net |publisher=Echosec Systems |access-date=February 15, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=March 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304064212/https://www.echosec.net/blog/what-is-pastebin-and-why-do-hackers-love-it |url-status=live }}</ref> | content_license =  | programming_language = PHP | owner =  | author = Paul Dixon | editor =  | launch_date = {{start date and age|2002|9|3}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://whois.domaintools.com/pastebin.com|title=PasteBin.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools|work=WHOIS|date=|accessdate=December 3, 2016|archive-date=November 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113180619/https://whois.domaintools.com/pastebin.com|url-status=live}}</ref> | revenue = | issn =  | oclc =  | current_status = Active | footnotes = }}

'''Pastebin.com''' is a text storage site. It was created on September 3, 2002 by Paul Dixon, and reached 1 million active pastes (excluding spam and expired pastes) eight years later, in 2010.<ref name="techcrunch">{{cite web |url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/pastebin-surpasses-10-million-active-pastes/ |title=Pastebin.com Surpasses 10 Million "Active" Pastes |publisher=TechCrunch.com |date=October 26, 2011 |accessdate=October 27, 2011 |archive-date=October 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027113738/http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/pastebin-surpasses-10-million-active-pastes/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

It features syntax highlighting for a variety of programming and markup languages, as well as view counters for pastes and user profiles. Users can submit pastes as guests without registration, but an account allows managing pastes.

== History == By October 2011, the site's active pastes numbers exceeded 10 million.<ref name="techcrunch" />

* In July 2012, the owners of Pastebin.com tweeted that they had surpassed the 20 million active pastes mark.<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=220410523840286720 |user=pastebin |title=Time for cake!!! Pastebin.com now hosts more than 20 million active pastes! Stats -> pastebin.com/stats |date=July 4, 2012 |author=Pastebin }}</ref>

* On June 9, 2015, they announced they had reached 65 million active pastes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/pastebin/posts/1072434209437854|title=Pastebin on Facebook: "Pastebin reached another big milestone yesterday..."|website=Facebook|publisher=|access-date=December 3, 2016|archive-date=August 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830040029/https://www.facebook.com/pastebin/posts/1072434209437854|url-status=live}}</ref> They also mentioned that around 75% of pastes are either unlisted or private.<ref>{{Cite tweet|number=614326465551839232|user=pastebin|title=Fun fact, over 75% of all pastes created on Pastebin these days are unlisted or private.|date=June 25, 2015|author=Pastebin}}</ref>

* In December 2015, Pastebin.com reached 95 million active pastes, and more than 2 million members.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/16/pastebin-the-text-sharing-website-updates-with-an-emphasis-on-code/|title=Pastebin, The Text Sharing Website, Updates With An Emphasis On Code|first=John|last=Biggs|date=December 16, 2015|publisher=|access-date=September 7, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200923134413/https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/16/pastebin-the-text-sharing-website-updates-with-an-emphasis-on-code/|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the 2014 Venezuelan protests, Pastebin.com was blocked by the country's government as one of the sites used by activists sharing information pertaining to the protests.<ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Internet a crucial Venezuela battleground |url=http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Internet-a-crucial-Venezuela-battleground |newspaper=Jamaica Observer |location=Kingston, Jamaica |agency=Associated Press |date=February 23, 2014 |accessdate=August 20, 2014 |archive-date=November 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113103321/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Internet-a-crucial-Venezuela-battleground |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 2020, Pastebin.com removed their built-in search feature and restricted their web scraping API, including for paid lifetime subscribers of ''Pastebin Pro''. As an additional spam prevention measure, pastes from users not logged in are hidden from the list of recent pastes, visible in the site's side bar.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pastebin Made It Harder To Scrape Its Site And Researchers Are Pissed Off |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/pastebin-made-it-harder-to-scrape-its-site-and-researchers-are-pissed-off/ |website=Vice.com |date=April 16, 2020 |language=en |access-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227085334/https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3m83v/pastebin-made-it-harder-to-scrape-its-site-and-researchers-are-pissed-off |url-status=live }}</ref>

In September 2020, two new features were added to the site. Users became able to password-protect pastes from viewing and request the paste be deleted immediately once viewed.<ref>{{Cite web|last=September 2020|first=Anthony Spadafora 28|title=Pastebin may have just doomed us all|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/pastebin-may-have-just-doomed-us-all|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=TechRadar|date=September 28, 2020|language=en|archive-date=September 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929073205/https://www.techradar.com/news/pastebin-may-have-just-doomed-us-all|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=online|first=heise|title=Pastebin.com: Zwei neue Features könnten Malware-Machern in die Hände spielen|url=https://www.heise.de/news/Pastebin-com-Zwei-neue-Features-koennten-Malware-Machern-in-die-Haende-spielen-4913844.html|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=Security|language=de|archive-date=September 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930002820/https://www.heise.de/news/Pastebin-com-Zwei-neue-Features-koennten-Malware-Machern-in-die-Haende-spielen-4913844.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On October 14, 2020, the terms of service were updated and the mention that contributions were CC BY-SA was removed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pastebin.com Terms of Service UPDATED |url=https://pastebin.com/doc_terms_of_service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014191902/https://pastebin.com/doc_terms_of_service |archive-date=14 October 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pastebin.com is a popular source of .onion links that lead to the dark web.<ref>{{cite news|last=Koebler|first=Jason|title=The Closest Thing to a Map of the Dark Net: Pastebin|website=Motherboard|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-closest-thing-to-a-map-of-the-dark-net-pastebin/|access-date=July 14, 2015|date=February 23, 2015|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108163041/https://www.vice.com/en/article/9akgxy/the-closest-thing-to-a-map-of-the-dark-net-pastebin|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also == * Pastebin * Snippet (programming)

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Official website|https://pastebin.com}} * [https://github.com/lordelph/pastebin Original source code]

Category:File sharing services Category:Internet properties established in 2002