The Day After

I just want to remind the community that we are still here and we are working through a pretty big transition. We've been through hell this week. This has consumed the mod team since last Thursday. We were largely focused on gathering facts and presenting them to the community. And obviously news broke on Monday and since then its been nonstop speculation, anger, praise, every emotion.

We are keenly aware that there are complaints about the sub and the direction. Direction doesn't change overnight, if it does change. But the bottom line is we can't solve everything today.

We have been presented with a number of challenges: a big scandal, the loss of 2 mods which are truly being felt, an explosion of posts that require mod attention - all leading to overworked and tired mods.

The first order of business is to get above water. Waste has graciously offered his mod services for us, at least temporarily (hopefully more). He will be fanatastic - he's done this before, he's respected in the community, and we're excited to have him on the team.

There are things to discuss. There are no doubts about that. I believe the best way to move forward is first allow us to get our bearings with our modified team. This was just thrown on us over the past couple of days. I understand there is distrust, concerns, and the like. These can and will be discussed in due time.

I love this place. I love the people, the community, and the drugs I suppose is a good part as well. I'm asking for the community's patience while we regroup. If you are anger, we get it. We'd like if we could hold those discussions for another time - soon for sure. But as it currently stands, we are having the same argument over and over and over. I've spoken with MLP a bit on some ideas/guidelines that I'll share with teh mod team to hopefully help reduce the chances of something like this happening again. We are hard at work. The problem is, when a mod is having to remove inappropriate threads, spend time arguing semantics, or arguing over policy, that's less time left to get things rolling. We are all invested in this community. We are in the process of rebuilding. There is no sense arguing about the fixtures if we hadn't rebuilt foundation yet. The time will come.

Every single mod is tired, frustrated and as one put it, "numb." I agree. BUT, they are still here. They are still here kicking ass, doing work, getting things in order. You'll never know the efforts that go into this until you do it yourself. But trust me, its a challenge all on its own - not even dealing with the major issues we recently had.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that we will get re-situated. We will find our footing again. This is our (as in the community's) home. This is our place to talk about the things we talk about. The community is nothing without a vibrant membership. Let's work on getting things inline and getting things back to normal - once back to normal, we can start exploring ways to do things better.


Comments


[34 Points] None:

honestly, i only come here for one thing. Who's got the dank, who's scamming, and funny/witty posts that have me thinking while laughing to myself, tips on LE avoidance. That's it. The rest is superfluous and I respect the hard work that goes into it. For instance, if not for DNM sub, how would I know the message I got from support on my Alphabay account was a phishing email? It looked legit. Thanks to this sub, I know it was false. That's like money for me. I respect the knowledge you guys keep me in the loop and if we could just focus on the dank, it will all be alright.


[14 Points] ExNihil:

I'm new here. What happened?


[7 Points] BrlingtonCOATfactory:

Well said.


[6 Points] CocaineNose:

Honestly haven't even noticed a difference, so I think that means you guys are doing a pretty good job. AutoMod's been working overtime


[2 Points] druggieslut:

I nominate /u/vendor_bbmc and /u/groovybrewski as the replacement mods.


[4 Points] samwhiskey:

Whatever you need, I'm here.


[2 Points] BBMC_EMOTICON:

Some other obvious choices for mods:

/u/TopGearSupport or /u/Vendor_Hiniguel (representing Her Majesty's Finest)
/u/RosyPalm (representing the disagreeable everyredditor)
/u/QuantikXanax (representing the northside, C to the Anda)
/u/thomascheer (representing the Orientals)

And we need a market admin, so maybe /u/DS-AB or /u/OutlawAdmin

That covers every possible combination. That'll keep this sub straight. And will make many emoticons from this satisfied little guy, who prefers to remain out of the spotlight.

(◍•ᴗ•◍)❤


[5 Points] noseybast:

Who's head mod? I need to know who to blame should anything computer related ever go wrong in my life


[4 Points] None:

[deleted]


[2 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

This HAS been an unprecedented week of challenges, the like of which we may never see again. The moderation team will be judged entirely by how it responded to these events.

I'm not talking about some petty storm in a teacup forum politics about 13 poxy bitcoins, Bruce and lobeli keeping silent, then Bruce getting pissed off over his flare and not receiving the moderator position he deserved in return for his silence.

The mods here will be judged entirely on their response to TWO MAJOR MARKETPLACE EXIT SCAMS IN THE SAME WEEK

As one of the british vendors who usually chases the stolen bitcoin whilst getting trolled (from SheepMarketplace. the SR2 escrow right through to Evolution in March), I know that the thief is caught or escapes in the first week, even though they don't get arrested until a year later.

Marketplace exits never come at a convenient time. If you are a vendor, they always coincide with you being broke and looking for a new marketplace. Nevertheless, if there is one vendor you can guarantee will be all over the Abraxas megathread and Middle Earth megathread, its me. Usually. Ive been biting my lip and turning blue in the face.

Not this time though. The next exit scam was always going to be the one that US vendors and the current mod team cut their teeth on. We are fed up of it always being us. We agreed to be available to give advice, and to step in if we saw you going wrong.

"I don't remember you saying that", our disgraced mod team are about to reply, "where did you tell us that?"

Remember when Uncle_Unicorn set up the boxing match called "An Open Letter to Vendor_BBMC?"

This was back in the heady days. The moderators and members of their "private sub" were the only fight club back then, running riot through the "main sub", laughing like hyenas as they dragged down another victim with "shenanigans".

You waited in the latest "BBMC fights a hobo" boxing match thread, talking about your favorite pokemon characters (an inside joke about Uncle_unicorn being Umbreon_DNMteam, disgraced Evo admin and disgraced RC vendor). There was a hundred replies before I even noticed the latest Marque with my name in lights. I knew there would be a boxing ring in it, but it was 3 hours before my postal deadline and I hadn't looked at the day's meth orders.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3mmpxr/an_open_letter_to_vendor_bbmc/ Anyway, I went in, things were said, stuff happened. I nearly missed the post because I was wasting my time on a forum ABOUT DNMs instead of trading drugs. Some of the weaker hyenas had stopped laughing and were deleting their reddit accounts, turning on TheEconomist1 and shouting "We shouldn't have did this, man. You took it too far!".

Hank_Vendor and I both had to duck out and do the post (UK/US time difference) while you carried on without us, Umbreon having gone haywire, falling out of the boxing ring with sparks coming out of his eyes, rampaging through the first 3 rows of the audience.

We charitably chalked it up as a joint US / UK NATO exercise, to prepare the mod team for the "think on your feet" action of the next marketplace exit scam, which was now all theirs....

Consider this to be me stepping in. This is a forum ABOUT DARKNET MARKETPLACES, NOT ABOUT NARCISISTIC FORUM MODERATORS.

There appear to be TWO less DNMs, with millions of dollars of people's money missing than there were a week ago. If it was up to me, this is what I would do:-

  1. NOBODY RESIGNS. This isn't the time to be examining your own navel. Its not the time to go missing. Boo hoo for Bruce Campbell and the 13 bitcoin - nobody gives a shit. The mod team aren't allowed to resign until the post-Abraxas and post-MEM inquests are done, probably at Xmas.

  2. I could do it, but its traditional for the moderators to set up stickied Abraxas and Middle Earth Megathreads, to keep the unholy free-for-all of anger which follows in the wake of a marketplace exit scam under some kind of control.

  3. Get your asses in gear. These two combined are as big as Evo, and more of a shock. There was no BTVA marketplace warning to kick it all off. We had no insider information and they are both rather typical "non-aggravated" exit scams. They kind of fade in to our awareness when we realize that its not just site downtime.

  4. Anybody else who tries to distract the moderators from their job deserve a ban.


[1 Points] NASBNJ1992:

I love the mods


[1 Points] Mynanasnortsket:

Ill help out in this time of need I'm prepared to step up as the new moderator, No thanks needed 😏


[1 Points] PhriskyDingough:

Hear hear the economist speaks the truth


[1 Points] gramsadmin:

bravo


[1 Points] Skunkhunter23:

You guys work hard.. for free.. i dont get it, but thank you. Also, glad to hear waste is back to tasting this sub.. what does it taste like? My guess would be waste. He keeps trying to get out.. but they keep sucking him back in. Welcome back to the hotel california bud :D


[1 Points] TheEconomist2:

The only thing better than one Economist...is two.

#  paid for by theeconomist2 for /r/darknetmarkets moderator campaign team


[1 Points] CynicalElephant:

You're a cool guy economist. You got this.


[1 Points] Tr1pper:

You guys do a service for us all. If it were not for this reddit i would have been scammed quite a few times nor would i know who to get the dank from. just wanted to say i appreciate what you admins do. Help keep the dream alive


[1 Points] deceptivelyelevated:

yeah this is all bullshit, no one even noticed all this supposed drama...


[1 Points] rogueXleader:

Not asking to be added to the mod team necessarily but if there's any way my talents and educational background could be put to use helping to revive this sub that I love so much (literally log in here numerous times a day, spending hours on the sub) or help to dampen the blow of losing two mods, I'd be happy to help in any way I can /u/TheEconomist1 [feel free to PM me if I can help out in any way]

I don't have ulterior motives, other than to support the sub, and no connections to any vendor or marketplace to play favorites with. I get just as tired as you guys seeing some of the incredibly stupid posts that could be answered simply by using the search function or reading the side-bar. I love this community and almost all our regulars (even some that probably don't care for me nearly as much).

No need to let Lobali's bullshit bring everyone else down. Grand Wizard and BBMC (when he's not on a meth fueled rant, which don't get me wrong...I love) have strong presences on the sub as well and would make good candidates in my opinion. Maybe it wouldn't be an entirely bad thing to have mods on the sub who haven't been around so long as to be corrupted by previous markets, but around long enough to offer solid advice and to know what is and isn't an appropriate thread according to the sub rules. It's not rocket science, but I imagine it does get frustrating


[0 Points] HungaryLikeTheWolf:

Well put /u/TheEconomist1

Random question - since you're now the de facto OG of the mod team with the stepping down of Dank - do you plan to do an AMA? I can tell and see you've got the best intentions for this place. I wonder if it might be worth doing a little Q&A to get your head around the "pulse" and mindset of the community (not saying you don't already.. but ya know) since you're going to be seen as calling the shots, by virtue of tenure.


[0 Points] an_illegal_smile:

I just really want to know if it was the FBI hiring Carnegie Mellon to crack TOR anonymity that made everyone with a market run.


[-1 Points] None:

the loss of 2 mods which are truly being felt, an explosion of posts that require mod attention - all leading to overworked and tired mods.

Stop bitching and hire a few more mods we have over 75k subscribers you think your not going to be over worked? Its a free job, shit id be willing to do it only thing I do is sit at home and jerk off all day watching tentacle porn least I could do is help out the community.


[-2 Points] Lucid_Enemy:

I know the mods here are working for free but I think we should have a donate to the mods BTC address something like no more then .1 or something that the head mod controls THIS IS NOT FOR PAYING FOR ADVERTISING this is our way of giving back... currently I have .06 I am willing to send will who ever head mod please send me a wallet address to send too this should all be seen on a active blockchain.info page or a live feed (I can help code that too if need be) lets not abuse this and turn it into something it shouldnt... these people work HARD and for free... and I know they love doing it... but they deserve something so someone please PM me a addy and I will send my donation...