Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: ValiantExplorer on October 30, 2012, 11:32 pm

Title: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ValiantExplorer on October 30, 2012, 11:32 pm
So our beloved Dread Pirate Roberts says:

Always use the escrow system! This can't be stressed enough. 99% of scams are from people who set up fake vendor accounts and ask buyers to pay them directly or release payment before their order arrives. This behavior should be reported immediately. If you do choose to do this, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud.

I don't get it: "This behavior should be reported immediately. If you do choose to do this, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud. "

"If you do choose to do this, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud. "

So........ if you report it (as we suggest you to), we WON'T help you (??!?!?!?!)

I got to be missing something :D.

P.S.: no, I am not high right now.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: PlutoPete on October 30, 2012, 11:48 pm
Wow, a newbie that actually reads the instructions :)
A rare sight :)
Welcome

P.S. I am high right now :)
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: psychedelicmind on October 30, 2012, 11:52 pm
I think what DPR means, is that if you FE, there is nothing the  SR staff can do in the even that you get scammed.

Welcome to the road.

I wish I was high :)
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ZenAndTheArt on October 30, 2012, 11:58 pm
99% of scams are from
[1] people who set up fake vendor accounts and ask buyers to pay them directly or
[2] release payment before their order arrives.

[1]This behavior should be reported immediately.
[2]If you do choose to do this, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud.

Hope that helps. :)
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ValiantExplorer on October 31, 2012, 12:12 am
@PlutoPete: LOL, congratulations :D. I wish I was high too. But, with the help of SR, perhaps soon, hehe. And yes, I did a looot of reading these days. Just sent my first PGP message to Pine (owner of that nice PGP helper thread).

@psychedelicmind: that makes sense.

@ZenAndTheArt: thanks for splitting the sentences up :D. Still a bit confusing though!

I think the phrasing could be more clear. Such as:

ORIGINAL VERSION:
...fake vendor accounts and ask buyers to pay them directly or release payment before their order arrives. This behavior should be reported immediately. If you do choose to do this, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud.

PROPOSED VERSION:
...fake vendor accounts and ask buyers to pay them directly or release payment before their order arrives. This behavior should be reported immediately. However, if you choose to release the payment, we will be completely unable to help you in the event of fraud.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: RxKing on October 31, 2012, 12:17 am
It reads perfect how it is. You really need to get high.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ValiantExplorer on October 31, 2012, 12:47 am
Haha, yeah, good one. I shall, soon. But for now, sleep-time. I had 2 evenings of absorbing info around here. Soon I'm gonna start with the (hopefully not dumb) questions.

Ah, but here's one for now: where's that thread where one speaks about one's first impression about SR? I saw it yesterday but I can't find it today after all the spam. Search doesn't reveal it either :(.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: wsg on November 02, 2012, 07:27 pm
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=25572.0 here you go. remeber to be at the home screen to do any searches
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: HardHustle on November 02, 2012, 08:06 pm
You're right it's bad form. If it is not readily clear what "this" specifies, or if "this" is referring to the wrong action (which is this case), then it's best to ditch the "this" and just write out what "this" is supposed to mean.

But fuck that, the marketplace is down. Why are we even worried about this bullshit?
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ValiantExplorer on November 02, 2012, 08:10 pm
@HardHustle: here's the explanation why the market is down, from the owner himself :).

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=64627.0

@wsg: thanks!
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: herpiusderpius on November 03, 2012, 12:05 am
You're right it's bad form. If it is not readily clear what "this" specifies, or if "this" is referring to the wrong action (which is this case), then it's best to ditch the "this" and just write out what "this" is supposed to mean.

But fuck that, the marketplace is down. Why are we even worried about this bullshit?
It's a case of an unclear antecedent.
Example:  “Breathe in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth”
"it" was intended to refer to the breath, but instead seems to refer to your nose.

"if you choose to do this" seems to refer to the nearest verb phrase which concerns reporting the behavior. The intended antecedent was two sentences back which is exceptionally bad form.

Oh and the marketplace is back up, let's get back to business
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: Wazup7 on November 03, 2012, 05:12 am
It makes sense if you understand the context of the English grammar.  A message explaining that users should not FE, and should report vendors who request it, would not conclude by saying that if you report this improper behavior you will not be helped.  It's unclear, but if you simplify the point in your head, the ambiguity goes away (turns the message into nonsense).

Oh and the marketplace is back up, let's get back to business

Get back to business, yeah, but avoid pounding the servers with new-identity/refresh requests over and over.  You're not receiving the response from the server, but you are eating resources every time you refresh, and if you don't get the page, those resources are wasted work on the SR end. 

Unless you are a vendor who needs to fulfil orders, or a buyer who needs to finalize and release funds to the vendor, PLEASE be considerate, especially if you are only browsing or trying to initiate a purchase.  The admins are working a solution, and I'm sure they will find one, but the users share that responsibility as well.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: ValiantExplorer on November 03, 2012, 09:43 am
@herpiusderpius: your example is nice, but the thing is: it's very short. It's a single sentence, separated by comas. It's easy to understand the context. In the welcome message, that's a bit harder because they're multiple sentences. For a non-native English speaker such as myself, this is (apparently) not natively-understood.
Title: Re: Is there a mistake in the Silk Road welcome message?Or am I misunderstanding it?
Post by: drugfather on November 03, 2012, 09:56 am

P.S. I am high right now :)

So irrelevant and relevant both at the same time...