Silk Road forums

Support => Feature requests => Topic started by: james brown on April 27, 2012, 08:28 am

Title: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on April 27, 2012, 08:28 am
It needs to be done to save your investment SR.... and to save our fun....
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: Ay Dr Bud Lover on April 27, 2012, 10:53 am
great idea!? But I dont think it wud prevent a scammer inviting themselves
need to start charging for new buyer accounts... I dont even mind paying but it wud take
The piss .. Us who av been n heard of silkroad for nearly a year will of found it like most of us
And then theres people tht heard by propaganda news... Papers
Propaganda mouth across the road they all spread the wrong info
Iv heard people say silkroad sells cp ... The only reason that was is becos of newspapers
These people the propaganda followrrs they need to pay for thier freedom as thats theway
They like it ... Uhhuhuhuhu
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: randomOVDB#2 on April 27, 2012, 11:24 am
Everybody wants invite only AFTER they got in  ;)

hxxp://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=20235.msg209002#msg209002

Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on April 28, 2012, 01:07 am
i have been around from the start of SR. I don't beleive it would have been in the websites best intrests back then but now SR is huge, it would stop unwanted press if they couldn't simply log in.

Last night a current affair show screened a story about SR and simpy had screen shots etc, they even spoke about the 420 sale and the forum. We are being watched by every agency. The one thing driving them to shut us down will be public pressure if we lurk in the shadows it's out of sight out of mind....
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: somahaoma on April 28, 2012, 01:30 am
I am thinking by referral only.. I am sure SR has a huge clientele. And maybe even a active account clause like one purchase a month or something along those lines IMO
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on April 28, 2012, 08:09 am
active accounts could work, but yeah referral is the go 4 sure... something needs to be done
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: fsgr on April 28, 2012, 09:09 am
I dont have the answer, but unless open registration is gone very soon, like the next month or so, I dont see SR lasting muck longer than another 6 months.

Maybe even a moratorium of 6 months and close registrations to stabilise SR.

Then only let in a certain number per month and vett new users in batches.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on April 28, 2012, 09:19 am
i agree with fsgr!!!! come on SR protect your investment
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: dkmonk on April 28, 2012, 09:53 am
Closing registrations is like putting a net around us, and we are a bunch of fish with a few sharks and no new fish coming in. It will be easier to see who is who and what is going on with each person and who to focus on without all the disruption from new vendors and buyers coming in and out. It will be a stagnet controlled environment where LE can focus and pick off who they want way easier than a bunch of people coming in and out.

They will also be able to get in deeper with the community and blend in better while making themselves look like a trusted member where as with an open door they are just another good buyer and forum poster.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: JimPooley on April 28, 2012, 10:10 am
It's been operating for well over a year now, letting anyone clever enough to find it become a member. TFM closed it's doors to new members and required invites for prospective buyers, now TFM is in the pit of shit and SR flourishes with new buyers and vendors...

just saying is all...
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: Yoshitoshi on May 03, 2012, 11:07 am
Bit off-topic, but my head nearly fell off looking at the AppStore page for the new iOS Tor Browser the other day. The first review says something like "OMG, running it now and totally getting SR on my iPhone already!!! Yay!!!"

Discretion is never optional.

SR needs a banner on all it's pages, stating the First Rule of SR.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: greek on May 03, 2012, 02:58 pm
speaking from my experience i used a website back in the day of the 1st MOMs but it ended up in national news papers so it shut down for afew months and changed over to a private server and became invite only and run perfect for over 5years but they then decided to open the public site again and within 6months both sites were nearly fucked atleast 50percent of orders have bein getting seized even with complete new packaging so i would say YES silkroad needs to go private ASAP
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: klaaat21 on May 03, 2012, 03:14 pm
At the end of the day we are all just looking for a safe reliable place.
I love SR but I would prefer to belong to a much smaller discrete group.
If SR were  private I imagine there would have to be a minimum criteria for current members.  Something like  reviewing buyer history, vendor history, activity in the forums, etc.   
Maybe Silkroad could exits in its current form but DPR could have a seperate Silkroad Gold that was some sort of private paid membership of extremely trusted buyers and sellers.
As expensive as drugs are, at the end of the day I would rather pay for my security up front rather than pay a lawyer for my trial
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on May 05, 2012, 07:04 am
klaat has the idea, open a gold class site and invite only ppl with high stats big orders etc to begin and then let them give invites to ppl they know. security is paramount
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: pachang on May 07, 2012, 11:15 am
I can understand the desire to make SR more safe, more "underground" and less visible.
Why? Because you want sellers and buyers to be somehow accountable and trustable.
However an invite-only system only gives you the illusion of this. This is still internet anonymity and you never know what's going on behind an online handle. Could be someone turned by LE, could be a guy who just bought an invite from someone.

I say the current situation is much better. Many of the problems you try to solve with the elite-idea (be it invite only or a gold-version) are already solved in the current SR implementation: escrow is here so you dont have to trust blindly; you can create hidden listings and invite people to them privately

The only problem remaining is the visibility of SR as a whole. You want to belong to some super-secret private circle nobody knows about. That's understandable but not cool. I come here so I don't have to try to converse awkwardly with some highschool dropout dealer 10 years younger than me. A lot of people here pay a premium for their drugs just to get them delivered to their home without having to hang around in dirty apartments in that part of town. And there are a lot of more people who would use this service if they knew about it. So why be scared of them? There is a demand. There will be a supply. Dealers can earn a lot of cash here and the risk is considerably lower than selling on the streets or in their flat. They also will earn a lot more if they supply good quality for an extended period of time. So a minority of transactions are a scam? Same as IRL dealing. There is a chance to get busted by LE? Same as IRL dealing. No reason to change the very principles SR is founded upon.

Self regulation works.
Anarchy works.
Elitism and closed circles breeds corruption and inefficiency.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: LainOfTheWired1984 on May 10, 2012, 02:28 am
It's been operating for well over a year now, letting anyone clever enough to find it become a member. TFM closed it's doors to new members and required invites for prospective buyers, now TFM is in the pit of shit and SR flourishes with new buyers and vendors...

just saying is all...

Yeah, I agree.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: smokeweed420 on May 10, 2012, 08:26 am
im with jamesbrown on this one. i joined this site 8 months ago, and it was much different than, everyone who belonged to this site was very smart, and there was always a sense of love and trust in the community. i have watched this site grow, and with that growth came tons of scams, and stupid ignorant people. people who leave feedback such as this for our once beloved vendors "1/5" two of the pills came crushed, and the package was shipped out a day later than he said" ---aakovens page (ecstasy pills). when this site was in its younger days no vendor made his costumers finalize early, and there were never any scams, or witch hunts, or forum trolling/conspiracies. now when you type in "silk" in google the first thing that pops up is a easy step by step guide of how to get onto this website, and with all the publicity from tv shows/internet/etc it brought a whole new crowd on here who dont appreciate how amazing this service is. they will be the end of this website. i believe that there should be a price to join the road, as well as a minimum amount spent every month (150$)? that would deter scammers, and retards from joining and fucking up our beloved community. but at the end of the day im just a buyer, not a mod, not dpr, not anyone important. it is up to them how they want to run the site, and whatever they choose to do i greatly appreciate it, and have the highest level of respect for them. but i do believe that this websites days are becoming more and more numbered with the current wave of new buyers.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: james brown on May 11, 2012, 05:35 am
im with jamesbrown on this one. i joined this site 8 months ago, and it was much different than, everyone who belonged to this site was very smart, and there was always a sense of love and trust in the community. i have watched this site grow, and with that growth came tons of scams, and stupid ignorant people. people who leave feedback such as this for our once beloved vendors "1/5" two of the pills came crushed, and the package was shipped out a day later than he said" ---aakovens page (ecstasy pills). when this site was in its younger days no vendor made his costumers finalize early, and there were never any scams, or witch hunts, or forum trolling/conspiracies. now when you type in "silk" in google the first thing that pops up is a easy step by step guide of how to get onto this website, and with all the publicity from tv shows/internet/etc it brought a whole new crowd on here who dont appreciate how amazing this service is. they will be the end of this website. i believe that there should be a price to join the road, as well as a minimum amount spent every month (150$)? that would deter scammers, and retards from joining and fucking up our beloved community. but at the end of the day im just a buyer, not a mod, not dpr, not anyone important. it is up to them how they want to run the site, and whatever they choose to do i greatly appreciate it, and have the highest level of respect for them. but i do believe that this websites days are becoming more and more numbered with the current wave of new buyers.

AMEN
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: SR_Seller_Accounts on May 11, 2012, 05:41 am
Yea this worked so well over at the farmers market ...you're a fucking idiot and so is everyone who agrees with you.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: IKR on May 11, 2012, 10:58 am
Quote
...an invite-only system only gives you the illusion of this. This is still internet anonymity and you never know what's going on behind an online handle. Could be someone turned by LE, could be a guy who just bought an invite from someone.

This. An invite system or a 'gold' version of SR would not protect you from scammers or LE - if anything, it just gives you a false sense of security. Scammers/LE can (and currently do) build trust over time, then screw you over.

Besides, you can already choose to only conduct private sales with vendors/buyers you trust.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: Chuck Schumer - Democrat on May 11, 2012, 06:03 pm
Everybody wants invite only AFTER they got in  ;)

Well said.

James Brown, what makes you are so special that it should now be closed now that you are here?  That's the elitist bullshit mentality that is the antithesis of SR, in my opinion.  SR should be open to any and all who want to be here.  Period.  Keep SR open for the world.  Don't close it down for a bunch of people because the "got here first."  Sorry, but , fuck that.

Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: JimPooley on May 11, 2012, 11:12 pm
Yeah, I don't think exclusivity will make us any more secure...

I think a bigger threat to the sanctity and security of SR, is administrator sanctioned (that means the bosses are ok with it) media coverage!
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: Chuck Schumer - Democrat on May 12, 2012, 07:07 am

I think a bigger threat to the sanctity and security of SR, is administrator sanctioned (that means the bosses are ok with it) media coverage!

How is media coverage a threat?!?
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: hyruleantoker on May 12, 2012, 09:01 am
I found this site from a friend, and I agree completely that SR needs to be invite only. However, to encourage the growth of the community through trusted members, provide a small bonus for inviting friends who are active.

Like when someone you invited makes a purchase, or even goes to become a vendor, you could get some tiny reward for it. Bitcoins or rep or something, idk.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: oscarzululondon on May 13, 2012, 08:58 pm
Looking at history including other types of websites such as torrent sites the following will be true if SR goes invite only:

A) Going invite only doesn't remove any 'heat', infact quite the opposite.

B) A business will start up in selling invites.

C) Authorities will begin to work on shutting down the website as watching in shadows is preferable to them rather than not being able to watch.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: novocaine on May 13, 2012, 10:19 pm
I will give up my invitation if I can take 10 others from SR with me.
Its a sacrifice I am willing to take to thin out some fuckers ;)
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐ on May 14, 2012, 02:29 am
im with jamesbrown on this one. i joined this site 8 months ago, and it was much different than, everyone who belonged to this site was very smart, and there was always a sense of love and trust in the community
lol ya then people strated actually using drugs

open forums forever! yay!
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: dasbooot on May 14, 2012, 03:34 am
Invitation only is a really stupid idea for a competitive marketplace. I don't think SR thinks turning away customers is a good business model at this point.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: jpinkman on May 14, 2012, 07:16 am
It's hard to believe anyone actually thinks going invite only is a good idea. All the reasons why have already been mentioned.

It's a horrible idea for vendors. Why would any vendor want to limit growth to a tiny fraction of what it could be? They want as much turnover as possible in the least amount of time. Invite only places a ceiling on profits while offering a mythical tradeoff of more security. As the Stacey Litz case has shown, anyone can be turned. More security how?

Plus, I don't think buyers are properly thinking this through. As the market grows and more vendors compete for profits and a loyal customer base, that should drive the price DOWN. If you prefer to pay a premium in some gay invite only space then you're going to be in the minority. Doubtful that anyone running SR is going to recognize that as a more profitable outcome.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: hyruleantoker on May 14, 2012, 05:10 pm
After a fair amount of thought, I will reverse my earlier opinion on the matter.
I think at this point, it's in everyone's best interest to keep SR open.
While this will have a number of benefits, I do foresee this possibly causing SR do close down in several months to a year.
Everyone on here, buyer or vendor, just needs to be wary of scammers, but don't just assume all newbies are scammers. It hurts new legit members, and their ability to purchase and sell products.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: cannaman on May 15, 2012, 01:23 am
I found out about here myself and wouldn't have got an invitation. If SR was invite-only, the vendors on here will miss business from people like me.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: novocaine on May 15, 2012, 04:28 am
Everyone on here, buyer or vendor, just needs to be wary of scammers, but don't just assume all newbies are scammers. It hurts new legit members, and their ability to purchase and sell products.

Seems like pretty good advise to me.
I know I am guilty of being extra suspicious when I really shouldn't be.

I found out about here myself and wouldn't have got an invitation. If SR was invite-only, the vendors on here will miss business from people like me.

it goes without saying doesnt it?!?
in a couple of months you can repeat that when this topic comes up again by some nub who finds SR and then thinks invite only is the way to go.

Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: klaw239 on May 30, 2012, 10:35 am
Perhaps making it harder to access silkroad is the answer. Instead of  hearing everyone say  "if they were clever enough to find it in the first place"  How about making it to where they must possess a certain amount of intelligence to even access it. I.E make  make access the site be done through dos/unix/ command line only. Make users have to set their browser and or  a new program such as Tor written by  a programer/security expert connected to SR  that the user must also configure him self. I have made threads about this topic and was amazed at how many people  was not in favor of limited registration and limited  amount of new members per month or quarterly.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: jpinkman on May 30, 2012, 02:08 pm
Perhaps making it harder to access silkroad is the answer. Instead of  hearing everyone say  "if they were clever enough to find it in the first place"  How about making it to where they must possess a certain amount of intelligence to even access it. I.E make  make access the site be done through dos/unix/ command line only. Make users have to set their browser and or  a new program such as Tor written by  a programer/security expert connected to SR  that the user must also configure him self. I have made threads about this topic and was amazed at how many people  was not in favor of limited registration and limited  amount of new members per month or quarterly.

Weak ideas all around. You think LE can't figure out how to use command line? No reason to think their numbers aren't reflective of the broader community where 80% use windows and small minorities use unix and osx. You'd just be severely restricting the medium not only to new members and vendors, but also current members and vendors.

Creating a SR specific anonymizer? Another totally lame idea. TOR works because of the numbers using it. It also works because it's been in development for many years by a worldwide opensource community always ready to improve the security of the code while patching any potential weaknesses. The LAST thing SR needs is to adopt a virgin, untested, anonymizing platform that would necessarily be riddled with weaknesses that they would be 100% responsible for supporting. If you're concerned about SR disappearing, you just suggested a way to guarantee that happening.

People are not in favor of it because it's been thoroughly vetted as a bad idea. If you think otherwise, then maybe you should work on countering why it's not rather than continuing to come up with poorly conceived plans on how to limit membership.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: Raoul Duke on May 30, 2012, 02:39 pm
it's not going to happen.

as has already been said in this thread - as soon as some 'holier-than-thou' n00b joins they want to shut the doors to 'just anyone'. how would you have got here if you had to be invited??

we aren't "elite", it won't stop scammers or LEO getting in either - if they make it invite only from now does that mean we're all kicked out? no, so neither will the existing scammers or LEO be, so they can just invite themselves when they want to pull another scam, or just invite their copper buddies.

how does this benefit anyone?
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: DropGuy751 on June 03, 2012, 04:24 pm
Sorry :(, I disagree SR is a forever growing community with plenty of legitimate new vendors joining all the time.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: smokeweed420 on June 07, 2012, 10:05 pm
ya i have also changed my mind on this. i do admit i enjoyed SR much more in its earlier days when you didnt have to worry about scammers, or trolls. but its just not a plausible idea. this is a free market, ever growing in size. just how DPR meant it to be. besides being how it is drives prices very low because there is so much vendor competition.
Title: Re: Invitation only SR membership
Post by: redalloverthelandguyhere on June 08, 2012, 01:26 am
It could work but might mean less vendors which means less competition.