Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Crazy Eights on November 10, 2012, 02:46 am
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I understand the site is going through growing pains. I know SilkRoad isn't run by 2 guys an idea and a dog in a garage. It's complex and worldwide meaning multi timezones and utilizes digital currency with unique challenges.
To net it out;
You need to identify where the largest problem is.. new membership, more daily transactional activity, under performing hardware, human error, limited resources, etc.. Knowledge is knowing and I think you all know that... If it requires a new membership shut it down fine.. It's a 20+ Millon dollar business. Maybe when you've amped up resources let 500 newbies a day, if it's transactional, increase the fees, lastly if human - pull a Donald and "say you are fired" Don't say we're having growing pains when there's alot of behind the scene things going on.
Sorry, I have to pile on so.. I don't think anyone appreciated the way our largest MDMA & Flake vendor got off by just fading to black after all the lemmings had FE'd,,,early because of their earlier successful transactions. I feel we the community got taken advantage of because the resolution, guy gal, team whoever should have had clear vision to that shit show falling apart & not a single thing was done as escrow %'s monies were collected.
I'm a seller and I pay for the right to do so in an upfront fee & an escrow fee per transaction. I'm dismayed that there is not an escalation team assembled to address the downtime.
I believe we all appreciate the foundation that has been built by the Silkroad team but customers not being able to order, or finalize, or message, avoid finalization hurts Silkroad business concept.
ce
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+1 SR has a responsability to its users, sellers especially. We deserve notification of downtown, it's cause and expected time of resolution.
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I've tried logging on all day, spent at least about 90 times reloading the page, was only successful twice.
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Considering SR has grown a 20 + mill business in less than 2 years with only one other major shutdown glitch that occurred in the summer of 2011 is a testament to the owners of SR.
People get used to their ipads, iphones, what have you working flawlessly and when an interuption occurs all hell breaks loose. Keep in mind what this site is all about, it's not a right, it's an experiment.
SilkRoad will either upgrade at their capability or will shut this whole shooting match down. It's not like they are going to loose much.
They can always regroup and open a new SilkRoad, DrugRoad or whatever and start fresh now that they have the growth stats to go by.
The current vendors will lose out, but there will always be vendors & buyers.
I've been here since the begining and the main thing I have learned is paitence during these and previous trying times. Otherwise I'll be registering at the new site when it comes on line.
Bikerbum
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Opinions are like heads - everyone has one.. Trick is what you chose to do with it - early adopters do not have the ability to allow a "Do Not Disturb" sign posted to the Silkroard online website
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Then wait for the official statement, it'll be here any day now.
But I do agree with you that vendors should have first priority, they could put it on the wiki for you or get on SILC and ask directly.
For the lowly buyers like me, not so important, unless your jonesing.
bb
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I agree!
Vendors should have priority, because they are the lifeblood, after that come the customers with the money itself.
There are any number of reasons for SR to be down. Just be patient, and don't die of anticipation until they bring it on back up.
- The Consultant
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I agree!
Vendors should have priority, because they are the lifeblood, after that come the customers with the money itself.
There are any number of reasons for SR to be down. Just be patient, and don't die of anticipation until they bring it on back up.
- The Consultant
+1 on that brother
bb
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As a businessman, I am equally frustrated with the downtime. I mean, I may be a new vendor but I lurked the website for 3 months prior to vending, and it's so ironic that just when I start building a reputation and finalizing transactions, the site starts having these problems.
However, as a human being, I am amazed and have to applaud the people running SR. You may not appreciate it, but we are living history right now. In 10 or 20 years they will have sections in history books about the first global online black market. People will talk about how they remember SR when it was first getting it's feet on the ground, just like people talk about where they were on September 11, 2011. It is incredible that a website like SR has even managed to survive this long, and over 90% of transactions are finalized to the satisfaction of both the buyer and seller. Think about that for a second! We are using crypto-currency to buy and sell illegal goods online anonymously, and the majority of the time everything goes smoothly!
Think about the logistics of operating and maintaining this website. Do you think they just paid for server space on GoDaddy.com and set up a forwarding URL? Do you think they just put a bunch of computers in their bedroom and connected them through Comcast, running God knows how much bandwidth per day? Obviously the servers are offshores, and most likely, multiple locations. I would guess that each server has a capped bandwidth capacity so that the servers can't be located physically by analyzing traffic. The site has grown rapidly and will continue to grow...and the only way for this whole thing to stay together is for the people running it to be careful in protecting the location and capacity of the servers. Actually, careful is an understatement, there isn't even a word in the English language that describes how careful they have to be.
You talk as though they can just throw 100 more servers into a room and plug em into the wall. It's not that simple.
I will be patient and wait for the site to come back. I have faith in this operation and I hope you do too.
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I'm a bit of a small time vendor on here but I got to tell you that I'm getting no orders because nobody can log on to order anything. I'm not making any money and I depend on this money to live on since I don't have a job. I've been thinking about opening a clearnet site to sell my reagent tests and since I have so much free time I might as well. :(
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As a businessman, I am equally frustrated with the downtime. I mean, I may be a new vendor but I lurked the website for 3 months prior to vending, and it's so ironic that just when I start building a reputation and finalizing transactions, the site starts having these problems.
...
You talk as though they can just throw 100 more servers into a room and plug em into the wall. It's not that simple.
I will be patient and wait for the site to come back. I have faith in this operation and I hope you do too.
Oh. My. God. Thank you, for being reasonable. Someone +1 this guy for me.
Also, guys, don't think SR staff members are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses. They are just as annoyed with this as you are, considering they're loosing money as well. (much more than anyone on here complaining, mind you) I'm sure they're busy figuring this out.
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I got that plus one for him. ;)
I totally agree, though I don't think the OP's basic request was that out of line. Even though it's unrealistic to expect SR to have something like kayako (outsourced 9-5 or 24/7 tech support), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that the person(s) doing all the work behind the scenes can have a reasonably up to date "Current Issues" thread, where they could throw up quick updates in between all their furious work to get things fixed.
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IMO an update will come as soon as they have a solution, does everyone really need an update to tell them they are having trouble dealing with the exponential growth? They posted one on the third of November that is obviously the cause of this downtime.
I've got over 150 btc in Escrow, if I'm not panicking neither should the average buyer be panicking. It will work itself out, we will all know by tomorrow exactly what is going on.
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I agree!
Vendors should have priority, because they are the lifeblood, after that come the customers with the money itself.
There are any number of reasons for SR to be down. Just be patient, and don't die of anticipation until they bring it on back up.
- The Consultant
+1 on that brother
bb
Thanks man! :D
- The Consultant
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I got that plus one for him. ;)
I totally agree, though I don't think the OP's basic request was that out of line. Even though it's unrealistic to expect SR to have something like kayako (outsourced 9-5 or 24/7 tech support), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that the person(s) doing all the work behind the scenes can have a reasonably up to date "Current Issues" thread, where they could throw up quick updates in between all their furious work to get things fixed.
Thanks nuyt! I do agree it would be nice to know that the operators of SR are still alive and breathing, and even a "we know what the problem is and hope to resolve it in X amount of time"....however I also understand that the top priorities are most likely getting the site back online and maintaining secrecy...with "making sure everyone knows what's going on" probably lower on the ladder. We have no choice but to be patient I suppose :)
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Opinions are like heads - everyone has one.. Trick is what you chose to do with it - early adopters do not have the ability to allow a "Do Not Disturb" sign posted to the Silkroard online website
There you go, now close this nonsense. http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=70572.0
BB
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Y'all got to stop tonguing arse. This is a commercial enterprise funded by vendors and buyers alike, The owner (probably) gets paid handsomely for.all the work Be it illegal or not is complettly irrelevant. The proprietors would set there price based on risk for earnings., and wouldn't be taking any less than what they feel they deserve.
The irony of this site is hilarious, a free market for illegal goods makes me laugh, The owners, you and me all take a risk and could all be jailed for illegal activity. The owners for running a continuing criminal enterprise and us for supply and use of prohibited drugs. We are all taking risks here and all get paid for it as we see fit. The owners get a comission (even from scams) The vendors get their profit and the users get high. Don't become delusional and think that some he/she/they has gone on a personal crusade to make the world a better place. They wouldn't do it for free. Site owners,Vendors and Buyers owe each other nothing more than what we decided to pay for with our own free will in a marketplace..
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If you bought a magazine subscription and didn't get your goods for a few months due to a problem with the printing press you would all be fucken crying and so would the advertisers. same goes for the publishers. Lost revenue is a killer.
It is what it is. Good business practice shows us that service is key to prosperity. It would be good to be informed of system failures and the reasons but due to the nature of the service it won't happen. It's like a utility company ringing you up to inform you why you got no power. Haha
Downtimes will happen and people will make their own minds up. If service becomes dismal then there will be an exodus. and SR will become untenable. It's up to rhe owner how big they want to make it. If ya don't like it then fuck off. That's what being a capitalist is all about.
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I am tryig out the BMR http://5onwnspjvuk7cwvk.onion/index.php an it all works fine, slighly different here and there but I just fulfilled my first order and sure hope to do more. Competition is good voor de market, but when the market gets competitioon herself they start lockiing topic ans removing posts… Check out tde BMR, do’t bet everything on the ranch, these guys need to come of their high horses and come clean with the peole that made them a success… I’m focusing on setting up shop at the BMR, and you can just ask for a sellers account if oyu want… fees are 4% fixed rate… so what’s stopping you?
(I excppect this to be erased by one of them, they sure got time for that)
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I am tryig out the BMR http://5onwnspjvuk7cwvk.onion/index.php an it all works fine, slighly different here and there but I just fulfilled my first order and sure hope to do more. Competition is good voor de market, but when the market gets competitioon herself they start lockiing topic ans removing posts… Check out tde BMR, do’t bet everything on the ranch, these guys need to come of their high horses and come clean with the peole that made them a success… I’m focusing on setting up shop at the BMR, and you can just ask for a sellers account if oyu want… fees are 4% fixed rate… so what’s stopping you?
(I excppect this to be erased by one of them, they sure got time for that)
well, thanks for taking the time to talk about it - heard mentions of BMR in a few places now but your comments actually motivate me to try them out... or at least i'll go over and see if i'm satisfied with their security. what annoyed me the most about this outage is vendors not making any effort to keep things going while SR is down. the exchanges are not rocket science, trading could easily continue between trusted buyers and vendors by using messaging and direct bitcoin payments but everyone seems to be stuck in this "we can't do anything without SR" mentality :(
edit: unfortunately no oz vendors selling weed at BMR yet :(