Modpost: We are going to start removing incentivized reviews.

Vendors who offer freebies in exchange for a review on /r/DarkNetMarkets are in violation of our no shilling rule.

There has been a pattern of repetitive, low quality reviews lately and they are cluttering the subreddit. We're going to begin enforcing this rule with very little mercy. If we suspect you are engaging in shilly behavior, your vendor name will end up on automod's list of words to remove on sight.

If you are a vendor that does this, don't think we don't know who you are. We all know. You'll probably be named and shamed in the comments. Consider this your heads up. If you are a buyer of one of these vendors, go warn them and maybe they'll give you a freebie for potentially saving their advertising privileges.

Kisses,

IGDS and the mod team

Edit: Some people are asking if we'll remove reviews that were done for free samples. Here's the deal, if you write a good review, like something that took more than 30 seconds to do, we're probably not going to remove it. But we're tired of seeing 1 line "reviews" of the same vendor over and over again. The mods here aren't stupid, we'll use our discretion and remove what we feel doesn't belong. And we usually leave a comment letting you know why.


Comments


[17 Points] VNDRRVWTHRWAWY:

/u/IGetDankShit Please title your posts more appropriately. You're not removing incentivized reviews, you're removing shitty, short reviews.


[12 Points] None:

[deleted]


[7 Points] alwayslookingformore:

While I totally agree with this and all, but does this include established accounts that do reviews? Ive done a review or two from free samples, and lets be real, who doesnt love free drugs?


[7 Points] None:

[deleted]


[8 Points] badgrl2:

Thank god, shouldve happened long ago when there were 5 reviews for free netflix accounts every single day.


[3 Points] bluebitcoin:

I agree! Basically they are paying for review in a way. But If they charge to ship it is that still free? I've seen free samples that really the shipping fee covers the cost of the product.. i.e. 1 stamp bag free for review must pay $25 for shipping.


[4 Points] PsycheFarmEcology:

So, if a vendor makes it clear they are offering samples for a quality review, without expectation of it being a good review, is that okay? Can we ask that it be confined to one specific thread? Trying to find some kind of middle ground that helps new vendors (potential new vendor speaking) get established without being spammy or shilling. Any thoughts, mods?


[3 Points] IntellectualEuphoria:

This subreddit is getting more corrupt with more censorship every single day.


[3 Points] VNDRRVWTHRWAWY:

I don't think the quality of the review depends on the price of the product. I got a freebie a couple of weeks ago and put up a 2-3 paragraph review... are you saying in the future you wont be allowing this?

This post should have been more focused on either 1. the low-quality reviews coming in at 3 lines of text and no pictures of product. or 2. The shilling rule.

You're saying shills are "unfairly trying to gain an advantage on honest users." But if a vendor offers free samples of something, like T.C. did with his bho/shatter, and the only purpose is to get his name out there and let people see how good his stealth is, how good the product is...etc, then I don't see a problem with it. In the absolute loosest sense you can call that taking advantage of us, but really he's trying to promote his business.

TL;DR - Shills are less of a problem w/ free stuff, but more overall. and the real issue here is shitty reviews.

EDIT: IGetDankShit - read through some of your replies. Makes more sense. Just think the post itself was kinda misleading.


[3 Points] cggreene2:

How are you going to tell who is a shill?

I remember a review that got downvoted because people were calling the guy a shill, and to be honest I bought off the same vendor and what the guy said was completely accurate, I hope you don't start censoring posts based on inaccurate evidence.


[3 Points] DnmAvenger:

I think this is pretty stupid. Why does a review have to be long to get the point across. The only info needed is what the drugs was. The price. The market. The vendor. Shipping. And how good the drug was itself. That would probably only take the average person about 30 seconds to write that. How can you tell if the drugs are free or not anyway. all they have to do is lie about it. Give us some examples of the reviews. If a vendor sends 30 orders to 30 people who write in a clear concise fashion why does anyone deserve to be punished for that? I use the same vendors a lot. Never get anything for free and I always write shorter reviews. I really think you need to rethink this. Or at least the way you worded it.


[1 Points] None:

Ooh Danky you badass. Give em hell!


[2 Points] radium_fire:

Thank you!! Those certain reviews that don't even try not to sound like pure shillery are becoming so numerous, and they're a blight on these forums.


[2 Points] hdheuud:

I would like to thanks Thrills for bringing this rule change


[1 Points] None:

The mods here aren't stupid? That's surprising...


[1 Points] flash420:

i think you admins are on toooo many drugs... either that or are Russian.

lots of reports of a new product or vendor (short or long,k incentivised or not) are of great advantage to the buyer. As a long time consumer on the markets i find the reports and reviews extremely valuable. Other than cosmetic i have no idea why you would remove such a valuable asset to the DNM community.

I think your modding is moving towards censorship. Why do you think that as an adult i cannot chose for myself what i believe?


[1 Points] AKYCoolTexture:

you need to start removing yourself and the mods

you corrupt fuckers censoring silkroadreloaded and anyone else with options different than what you've been bribed to promote

you violated your own rule here so remove yourself bitch


[1 Points] BenzoBlotters:

So it sounds like this modpost is because of a few digital goods vendors that ask their customers to review their product/transaction? That's an issue with members from outside this community that don't have accounts here leaving a review because their vendor asked them and has nothing to do with shills.

Shilling and throwing up a low effort review because a vendor asked you to are very different.

Freshly reinstated /u/InfinitelyOutThere just posted what appears to be a good example of shilling.

/u/galaxyandspace provided some much needed clarification to this post by stating this was the reason for this post and the type of thing that AM would be set up to prevent. (Low quality and/or spam reviews from new accounts)


[1 Points] kharmic1979:

I've come to regard reviews as useless. I've purchased from vendors with great reviews from know quality DNM people... only to test it and discover it's not cocaine. I'm to the point that I want only facts.

I was very excited when ScrewsLoose started the energy control testing fund, but it appears he ran away with the funds. A few peeps emailed me & asked me to restart it, so I'm trying.

I've personally spent almost 700 bucks to test 5 vendors. I've invited Elmo666, CHRS1, Mickey1000 and Onion to be part of the team. Three of us have access to the funds, and funds will be spent on tests immediately so there won't be enough btc in the wallet to run away with.

If you'd like to learn more about the project, I posted on TheHub: http://thehub7gqe43miyc.onion/index.php?topic=7497.msg58044#msg58044

We're testing vendors based on forum requests and the number of sales that vendors have. We're trying to remain global by regularly testing US, Canadian, and EU vendors - and we could use an Aus team member to help us down under.

All buys are anonymous - we will not let a vendor pay us to test their stuff or a competitors stuff. Of course we can't control who donates, but if a vendor donates and then tells us about their donation, we will avoid testing them for a period of time, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

I am hoping this gets off the ground as I can't personally sustain supporting the buys and tests. Tests cost 70 bucks Canadian and often we have purchase an entire 1g to get the sample sent to EC.

If you'd like to volunteer or have suggestions - get in touch with me on The Hub, Agora (when it comes back) or Nucleus... My forum name is Guru2543.

Cheers!


[0 Points] BenzoBlotters:

This unclear "policy statment" causes us concern, coming just days after you removed our Giveaway thread, told us we had lost our ability to post such threads, and threatened to essentially ban us if we did it again, which we thought seemed a bit excessive. You acknowledged that it was, and we appreciated that you seemed to recognize that you were overly hostile and your response was inappropriate.

We asked for details about what had been done wrong and what could be done to not be treated with such hostility next time. We talked about it a bit, but the things /u/IGetDankShit was saying were vague and inconsistent, similar to the way this post appears to be. There were some clarifications made which were appreciated.

We're not a vendor that does this. We never will, because shills need a stupid audience to be effective, and we don't want to deal with stupid customers. Not only that, but we've been customers far longer than we've been a vendor and it's just wrong. We're concerned that we might be affected by it, because it's unclear, along with the things you were telling us in our conversation, what is and isn't allowed, and what will get vendors put on the /r/darknetmarkets shit list.

AFAIK, advertising is not allowed, yet giveaways and reviews are. But according to this

If you are a buyer of one of these vendors, go warn them and maybe they'll give you a freebie for potentially saving their advertising privileges.

we can advertise, as long as we give product away? I'm pretty sure that's not what you're saying, but it would be greatly appreciated if you could elaborate and explain the details behind policies that will turn AutoMod against certain users, because we've all seen how obnoxious AutoMod gets.


[-1 Points] Chronicpurple:

This gave me a huge boner and my fap goes out to multisig!