I wonder about the potential of a forum-based or other stripped down market site. A site that depends less on scripting, and generating content on the fly, should have less vulnerability and lower resource use per customer / vendor served.
The markets are dominated by a couple of very popular sites. Neither site is able to keep acceptable uptime and speed, and this has been true for months. It is a source of unease in the community and turns off potential buyers and sellers both.
What do you think? Could a stripped down marketplace enter the scene successfully and usher in a new era of 1990's style ugly but functional drug bazaars?
Text based like an newgroups from years ago would be prime... very little data to load...