Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Dread Pirate Roberts on January 28, 2012, 04:42 am
-
UPDATE: everything appears as it should on our end. A traffic spike (most likely from gawker) caused the outage. we'll take a closer look at what happened and hopefully devise a solution in case this happens again. Thanks everyone for your patience.
UPDATE: we are back online. there may be intermittent outages in the immediate future as we look at the cause of the outage. Please allow at least a few hours for the system to catch up in regards to processing deposits, vendor rankings, etc.
UPDATE: all server data is intact, all backups are up-to-date, and all bitcoins are accounted for.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
hey gang,
sorry for the sudden outage. just found out about it and am looking into it. I'll keep this thread updated with any developments. sorry for the trouble.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux)
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJPI3ynAAoJEAIiQjtnt/olkQ8H/1FNI8IyZxYyV90RG9YmKVT7
RV9zdxUoLB7asOgCtezUaXR24SHokGJeJiHJ3758qsSxOpNQat9Z46f6XWFr7fhI
VQa633AjRwoPXasZ6ZvVJmESXJGT5PUihNsecsiiwAyi+CQi11PpYiMJaYk9vbfJ
5oDJkoojs1PfBCiHO0RlWaWyi1OAk4GQjMT9PocZLJU5el+zEQcx1/dG9JRJ//lZ
AL/nuDEGXuBFnwpCJ5mDlulDs30JCkKv2CT7rgGluVDn4hSaDl0yi5MRhDQ3x54e
KWoxNfxxz54mmRJ11bEsasQbDk+N4lbUpfbfk21NCxAZYh2xhly19sTRdSrTvH4=
=gR81
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-
Any idea why?
Finally something other than damned gun debates, some real news.
-
thank you for the update kind sir :)
-
If we were on facebook, Id "like" this shit!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
hey gang,
sorry for the sudden outage. just found out about it and am looking into it. I'll keep this thread updated with any developments. sorry for the trouble.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux)
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJPI3ynAAoJEAIiQjtnt/olkQ8H/1FNI8IyZxYyV90RG9YmKVT7
RV9zdxUoLB7asOgCtezUaXR24SHokGJeJiHJ3758qsSxOpNQat9Z46f6XWFr7fhI
VQa633AjRwoPXasZ6ZvVJmESXJGT5PUihNsecsiiwAyi+CQi11PpYiMJaYk9vbfJ
5oDJkoojs1PfBCiHO0RlWaWyi1OAk4GQjMT9PocZLJU5el+zEQcx1/dG9JRJ//lZ
AL/nuDEGXuBFnwpCJ5mDlulDs30JCkKv2CT7rgGluVDn4hSaDl0yi5MRhDQ3x54e
KWoxNfxxz54mmRJ11bEsasQbDk+N4lbUpfbfk21NCxAZYh2xhly19sTRdSrTvH4=
=gR81
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-
take out guns SR..your going to drive this market to the ground and we dont want that..we love it here. Please consider
-
take out guns SR..your going to drive this market to the ground and we dont want that..we love it here. Please consider
Agreed!
-
please do so SR :-(
-
Thanks for responding.....glad to know your crack staff is working on it. :-)
-
Thanks for the update!
-
+1 for removal of guns.
-
I think a voting system should be set up to vote out guns being sold on SR. Is that possible and would people be accepting to it?
I just smoke herb...I just want to come here to purchase my herb as its not legal in my state and we all know how much it sucks trying to score in the streets. NO GUNS ON SR!!
-
Thank you for the update. Hope everything is up and running soon!
-
I would like to formally disagree with the "take down the guns" people.
Guns are a part of society and we're already dealing in illegal crap anyways.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Can we at least try restrictions before outright banning them?
-
Wait a minute...
So Silkroad Administration is just now finding out the site is down?
-
Thanks very much for the update.
-
I think a voting system should be set up to vote out guns being sold on SR. Is that possible and would people be accepting to it?
I just smoke herb...I just want to come here to purchase my herb as its not legal in my state and we all know how much it sucks trying to score in the streets. NO GUNS ON SR!!
don't be a hypocrite, I'll leave you buy your herbs as long as you don't start imposing your will to ban my guns. I'm sick of these double standards
-
Mucho gracious for the update SR, I hope everything is up and running smoothly soon, much love from my part of the states :)
-
In no way or shape or form could anyone EVER compare guns to weed. lol
SR doesnt need the extra attention selling weapons...why not just buy them elsewhere? Theres a couple other sites that allow you to do this.
-
Wait a minute...
So Silkroad Administration is just now finding out the site is down?
people are allowed to have lives outside of work, and it's not like he'd like to set up text alerts for server downtime for a goddamn illegal server, so STFU and be happy we're safe :-)
-
I think a voting system should be set up to vote out guns being sold on SR. Is that possible and would people be accepting to it?
I just smoke herb...I just want to come here to purchase my herb as its not legal in my state and we all know how much it sucks trying to score in the streets. NO GUNS ON SR!!
don't be a hypocrite, I'll leave you buy your herbs as long as you don't start imposing your will to ban my guns. I'm sick of these double standards
Noob Pwned.
-
thanks for update
-
I hope everyone is this passionate of guns being kicked the fuck out of SR when the server is up.....PLEASE BE!
-
In no way or shape or form could anyone EVER compare guns to weed. lol
SR doesnt need the extra attention selling weapons...why not just buy them elsewhere? Theres a couple other sites that allow you to do this.
Those other sites are full of scammers, take a look at Blackmarket reloaded. The people who sell "guns" on there have 0 reputation. Silk Road at least offered people a chance to buy from respected vendors with escrow
-
site appears to be up for me.....
:o :o :o
-
In no way or shape or form could anyone EVER compare guns to weed. lol
SR doesnt need the extra attention selling weapons...why not just buy them elsewhere? Theres a couple other sites that allow you to do this.
Those other sites are full of scammers, take a look at Blackmarket reloaded. The people who sell "guns" on there have 0 reputation. Silk Road at least offered people a chance to buy from respected vendors with escrow
Sounds like a personal problem. And I wasnt talking about that specific site.
And just because I don't actively post on the forums doesn't mean Im a newb. :D
-
I personally can't connect (maybe huge influx of inbound connections at this time to the server) but according to:
http://zw3crggtadila2sg.onion/downornot/index.php?url=silkroadvb5piz3r.onion
SilkRoad is up
-
site appears to be up for me.....
:o :o :o
Back up for me as well. Good looking out SR!
-
woooooooooooooo back up! ;D ;D ;D ;D
-
whew, I feared the worst for a second. MegaUpload is one thing but if SR went down too I'd have a heart attack.
-
Gentlemen... we could all have made accounts on The Farmer's Market! ;D
lolno
-
New here...have to admire the professionalism of the staff. Well done, I am so glad to be a part of the community here.
-
In no way or shape or form could anyone EVER compare guns to weed. lol
SR doesnt need the extra attention selling weapons...why not just buy them elsewhere? Theres a couple other sites that allow you to do this.
hav e
Those other sites are full of scammers, take a look at Blackmarket reloaded. The people who sell "guns" on there have 0 reputation. Silk Road at least offered people a chance to buy from respected vendors with escrow
Well, if you wanna sell guns ask about a private SR gun market, he'll prob set it up for a price. Weapons dealers setting up here are fucking it up for the rest of us. All I want, and I assume most of us want, is a safe, secure, and anonymous way to buy quality products from whoever in the world might have them. harmless products!
I live in America, so if I want a gun I can get one. If you don't or can't, well that sucks. But seriously, if it comes down to SR catering to everyone's needs, or being the drug site that works so well, I know what side I fall on.
-
still down for me. :'(
good to hear its working for some tho
-
Actually why dont we split them.
Silk Road for drugs
and another independent site for guns.
-
In no way or shape or form could anyone EVER compare guns to weed. lol
SR doesnt need the extra attention selling weapons...why not just buy them elsewhere? Theres a couple other sites that allow you to do this.
hav e
Those other sites are full of scammers, take a look at Blackmarket reloaded. The people who sell "guns" on there have 0 reputation. Silk Road at least offered people a chance to buy from respected vendors with escrow
Well, if you wanna sell guns ask about a private SR gun market, he'll prob set it up for a price. Weapons dealers setting up here are fucking it up for the rest of us. All I want, and I assume most of us want, is a safe, secure, and anonymous way to buy quality products from whoever in the world might have them. harmless products!
I live in America, so if I want a gun I can get one. If you don't or can't, well that sucks. But seriously, if it comes down to SR catering to everyone's needs, or being the drug site that works so well, I know what side I fall on.
harmless products? You've never been to a hospital where they treat ex-drug users my friend, I've seen what it has done to some people
-
That's actually not a bad idea. Silk Road gets his vision, and when the gun portal burns down in fiery doom at the jaws of LEO, we will still be here, getting fucked up from the floor up.
-
Site just popped back up for me then dropped off again.
-
Wait a minute...
So Silkroad Administration is just now finding out the site is down?
Yeah, I'm sure the first thing they do when the site is down is sign in to the forums and talk about it for a few, then get started on getting the server back up.
Read the message, says we are back up now. Think he signed in to the forums, hit a magical reset button, and then wrote this post? The admins probably knew hours before you or I knew.
Not trying to be a dick, just think about it for a minute and read the post. It takes time to flip the switch on even a fully configured, fully backed up server. If they were just now aware, would the site be up? Just sayin.
TUS
-
Same as Anarchy. Site was back to full functionality for a measly few minutes. the admins must be attempting to solve other malfunctions, or are putting forth efforts to attempt to prevent vulnerabilities in the network, in hopes to stop whatever happened here from reoccurring
-
Yeah, unexpected IT work is not easy to deal with sometimes. And when you are troubleshooting, you don't usually turn to the SR forums for solutions. There are much more informative resources.
That being said, you had us in for quite a scare! This unexpected downtime couldn't have happened at a worse time... Glad I can at least connect to the maintenance page. I'll wait a day until the connections calm down. I suggest others do the same...
-
South eastern US here...site still isn't up at 1:07 am. Glad to hear something from the actual moderators though
-
Same as lolwut
-
Working fine now.
BTW, saying drugs are harmless is obviously incorrect. They can be somewhat harmless when used in a "responsible" manner. But it's a medical fact that over time, drug use harms the body. The more used, the longer used, the more harm.
-
Thanks for the headsup SR ... Let us know what you can...
Hopefully we can sort out this gawker issue, because even though the site is pretty secure, enough heat from your congressfucks will only make the agencies try to make us look worse...
SR had good principles when making this site, lets stick by them.
-
Working fine now.
BTW, saying drugs are harmless is obviously incorrect. They can be somewhat harmless when used in a "responsible" manner. But it's a medical fact that over time, drug use harms the body. The more used, the longer used, the more harm.
Now this will be the ONLY time I'll ever get involved in any way with one of these "arguments".
But honestly, you can say that about pretty much anything we encounter every day. If you over do it with ANYTHING, not just "illegal drugs", you'll harm yourself. It's not that the drugs are tremendously more harmful than anything else. It just comes down to self control in the end. If you can take meth in a controlled and disciplined manner, you may run a slightly higher risk in the long run of possibly suffering from some neurotoxicity or heart issues...but the guy next to you who's abstained from "hard drugs" his entire life, but has had 3 cups of coffee every morning since he was 16 could just as easily suffer from heart problems later on.
While I'm basically disagreeing with you, I don't want to get in to a long and ultimately pointless argument. However it is that mindset (Illegal drugs aren't safe and are all harmless no matter what) that is a big part of the reason as to why they're illegal in the first place. It's not the legality of the drug that determens whether or not you'll wind up addicted and suffer negative physical/neurological/psychological effects. If you're the type of person that has a predisposition towards being unable to control yourself with meth, you would wind up suffering physically/psychologically/neurologically whether the drug was legal or not. It all boils down to being able to set and never deviate from rules for yourself, and to being safe and smart with how much/often/etc you take whatever drug.
As long as the common people continue to view these illegal drugs as extremely more dangerous and harmful than legal drugs, there will continue to be countless, completely avoidable deaths and injuries and ruined lives. Instead of demonizing the drugs and blaming them for people's behaviors and injuries, instead the public should focus on teaching everyone how to recognize when/if they're in danger of letting the temptation override their self-control, and from there how to prevent themselves from ever falling in to addiction/harm. Of course, not everyone can perfectly practice self-control with every single substance. Some people experiment with meth or crack or cocaine or heroin for a time, and are then able to take a break or stop completely or what have you without any second thoughts. But there will always be some people who, due to unfortunately being born with a genetic/neurological predisposition, won't be able to do the same thing without external assistance. As a personal example, I know I'm prone to binging on adderall when I have it. But after a few days or so, and once I start noticing that I have to take higher and higher doses to get the same effects, I either finish or give away what I have left, then make a mental note to myself that I won't seek out adderall in any way for at least x days/weeks/months. So far, I have been able to follow this restriction with no deviation for 2 years. However, based on how much I love adderall during these binges (and it probably helps my self-control that once they're done the negative side effects are much worse then they were in the beginning, and the thought of taking adderall sounds absolutely horrible), I feel like it would be exponentially more difficult, if not entirely impossible, to implement the same or a similar type of regiment with methamphetamine. Typically, I live by the rule that I want to try pretty much every psychoactive substance in my lifetime at least once. However this rule does have it's exceptions -- some arise as I discover how I react and how my self-control is affected by similar substances, such as this adderall -- meth connection, while some arise out of either experiences which hold no value in terms of a learning experience or any positive reports at all (Datura, larger doses of DPH for example), or substances that I personally don't find the effects to be appealing to my personal tastes and/or the risks of physical harm and addiction far outweigh the possible immediate benefits (Heroin, most opiates). I don't underestimate the possibility of winding up addicted to something at some point. One of the ways I know that I'm not in danger yet is that whenever I take a substance, any substance, I always ask myself if I'm sure I want to take a chance, as well as the fact that I've yet to bend my "do not take" rules in any way. When anyone decides to take up experimenting with psychoactive substances, they sign a "contract", whether they're aware of it or not, in which they consent to the possibility of addiction and the very negative effects it has on their mental/social/physical health. One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make when they decide to explore the effects of psychoactive compounds is to foolishly think they're more powerful than the chemical and that they'll never wind up addicted.
I could go on and on with more examples and anecdotes and personal beliefs, but when it all boils down to the very center of the issue, arguably the single most important thing to practice, and I use drugs as the example here since it's the main topic of this whole thing, but honestly in all aspects of life, is moderation and self-control. I really feel like we, as a society, could avoid a tremendous amount of stress/pain/suffering, economically/emotionally/in general, if we could teach the importance and how to implement self-control/moderation instead of simply saying "don't do these drugs here because they're BAD and they're BAD for you and you'll get addicted and DIE a painfully slow and miserable death if you do them, but these drugs over here are GOOD and you should never worry about taking them because they're better than the other drugs". Of course, I unfortunately don't see this change occurring as a widespread thing any time soon. I honestly doubt I will see as much change as I want before I die. However, I feel like we're slowly starting to get on the right track, especially due to the recent wave of widespread public disgust with the legal status of marijuana, and to a smaller extent the War on Drugs. This coupled with the recent scientific interest in expanding our knowledge of what actually happens when we take drugs, and what the actual, factual effects are on our mental/neurological/physical health. At the very least, I hope that there is enough scientific knowledge to back, and at least a sizable amount of public support for, changing some, if not most and/or all, of the illogical, unsupported, and just plain wrong beliefs in the effects of currently illegal drugs and the supposed mental/physical/neurological repercussions experimenting with these drugs holds.
Well this kind of got out of hand and veered pretty sharply off topic towards the end there. I apologize. Sleep deprivation is easily one of the trickiest and most unforgiving mental states anyone can possibly experience. But, to end back on topic -- I hope SR gets back online soon, and again, it's the belief that "illegal drugs are bad and cause harm pretty much regardless of safe decisions" that is the reason that we're on this site in the first place.
-
While I stumbled upon silk road quite some time before the original Gawker article, if it wasn't for that very article I probably wouldn't have taken the initiative to figure out how everything works and actually join (at least, definitely not when I did). So for that little push in incentive, I thank Gawker.
However, now that I'm pretty well-versed in the ins and outs of silk road, and now that I've placed many, many orders and only use sr for all of my little drug desires, I cringed and almost couldn't read the entirety of this new article. While I don't really think the publishing of this article and silk road going down today was anything but a really unfortunate and really poorly timed coincidence, the article is bound to bring at least some unnecessary and unwarranted scrutiny and press. Since I've been a buyer, I've always firmly stated that, since this market is so much smaller and much less responsible for violence than the various cartels/drug empires around the world, and since there is a pretty decent amount of security and anonymity on this site, the federal government simply won't designate the resources it would need to fully crack down on silk road and totally kill the site. Even with this most recent article (drugs are bad enough, but now people can buy GUNS online!? THINK OF THE CHILDREN) might provoke a more serious interest in silk road in the people who eventually forgot about the summers' article, I just don't think that the feds will really crack down. I mean, they might step up scanning packages and letters to try and curtail traffic, but (and I risk sounding cocky here) for every package the government intercepts, the vendors learn far too quickly how to avoid detection again than the gov't can keep up with.
Now I could be TOTALLY off here, but the way I see it is that the federal governments' attitude towards silk road is that if a vendor and/or buyer makes a careless mistake which basically screams "I buy/sell drugs! Look at how I use the USPS as my personal drug courier!", then they'll step in and put some form of pressure on the buyer/vendor. And, of course, if an illicit substance is detected when it comes across the border, they'll confiscate it, and possibly place a "double check this guy's mail" warning on the buyers deliveries. However, unless the vendor is selling massive amounts of drugs in huge quantities, or the buyer is buying massive amounts of drugs in huge quantities, the fact that a large amount of orders are of comparitively unimportant amounts (vs. the unbelievable volume of the same drugs that cross the mexican/american boarder each day, for example) makes it so that if the government tried to seriously crack down, it would wind up costing them a ridiculous amount of money. Add this to what I stated earlier about how the vendors and buyers consistently learn from the (far and few between) mistakes that are bound to happen eventually and implement newer and more discreet tactics, and it just makes it seem like, at the end of the day, silk road is just simply not worth the time, money and effort.
Personally, I don't have any ethical or moral issue with private ownership of fire arms. I've shot guns at a range before, and it can be damn fun. I would even go so far as to say that the rush from firing a 12 gauge shotgun or a .50 cal revolver at a target or at skeet rivals and in some cases surpasses the rush from some of the drugs I've taken. Politically, I consider myself to be more or less "liberal", but I'm also a die-hard supporter of the protection of our constitutional rights (I'm specifically talking about the United States constitution, so I'm sorry for those of you who aren't US citizens if this doesn't really ring any bells), and unlike many of the hypocritical "democrats" I know personally and in office who spout off the significance of civil liberties, but when the 2nd amendment comes up suddenly become vehement supporters of restrictions and, if some had their way, total illegality, I feel just as strongly about the right to bear arms as I do about the right to free speech and the right to protection against self-incrimination. I'm not trying to turn this in to a political discussion (because god knows that if I was we might as well kiss any sense of order and structure that this thread has goodbye)...but rather I'm giving background to my stance on this Guns vs. No Guns issue.
On one hand, the introduction of guns on the silk road marketplace inevitably brings with it another level of hatred. It's bad enough that the drugs bring with them a viciously negative stigma from people who will never cease to let go of their indoctrinated hatred towards anything deemed an "illegal drug"...but adding on to that the hatred and attention of the rather large number of hypocritical democratic politicians and over-protective, ill-informed stay-at-home suburban moms is just an honestly really unwise decision. Sure, you could probably make a pretty hefty sum of cash by selling guns on here. And sure, if the federal government gets enough complaints and decides to actually step in and shut down silk road for good and you are able to cash out before everything goes to shit, you could at least have an extra amount of money. But, for people like me, the longer this site remains active, and the longer we're able to avoid the full force of the Law, the better for all of us. For those like me, this site isn't about making money, it's about establishing what is basically the first real attempt at a drug trade that is set up like a legitimate business as opposed to a violent, prone-to-breaking-its-rules drug empire. The whole system of user reviews, escrow and anonymity, combined with the fact that I know if I order MDMA from DrAmsterdam, I will get nothing more than MDMA (vs on the street where I'll most likely wind up with some combination of amphetamines, caffeine, an MDMA analogue with no research and no one knows what it actually does) has very quickly led to me only buying drugs from here. The last time I actually physically went out and bought drugs from some street-vendor was so long ago that I honestly don't remember when. Although the addition of guns adds another level of scrutiny, it is by no means going to bring about the total end of silk road. It might contribute to this, but no one will ever be able to look back and say "Silk road was fine and it was never going to be shut down until those damn gun heads came to the scene" if they are really any smart at all. If the government doesn't shut down silk road, either the (highly unlikely) total legality of all drugs will, or the appearance of a newer, more secure, more stable market or markets will. The fact that the addition of guns will most likely not spell the end for silk road leads to my other viewpoint on this whole thing.
On the other hand, stemming from my complete support of private gun ownership, and due to the fact that you can already buy not only a vast majority of illegal drugs, but also porn, games, software, paraphernalia, banned books, and tutorials and equipment needed to make drugs on silk road....I don't really see the addition of a substantial "Guns" section to really be that out of place. In the public's eye, whenever guns and drugs are mentioned in the same sentence, even the same paragraph, the immediate reaction is fear and crying for the government to step in and get rid of these "gangsters". However, just as the silk road marketplace differs from the cartels in the drug trade by having a unique system which makes it operate like a legitimate and well-renowned business, I don't really think that all of a sudden just because vendors now offer guns all sense of order and legitimate business go flying out the window. Like the vendor stated in the Gawker article, he would do everything he could to ensure that the people he was selling the guns to had no intentions of using them for violence or were mentally/emotionally unstable in any way. Now of course, any vendor could say that they operate by those rules, but in reality don't care in the slightest who they're doing business with, which is the only real big and difficult to solve flaw I find in the pro-gun side. But, if this was somehow dealt with and the Guns were here to stay, the vendors would fall in line with the established system/guidelines extremely quickly. Another concern that could be brought up is the issue with why anyone might want to purchase a gun illegally rather than go through the legal process. To that, I'd say it wholly depends on where the person is located and subsequently how restrictive their government is. One thing that the vendor in the Gawker article pointed out that I found to be a very reasonable, if not totally logical, argument was how he saw himself as providing the means for the civilians of any country to procure an instrument to defend themselves as per their right to do so. As an American, I'm lucky enough to not really know what it's like to not be able to go out and purchase my own personal fire arm without too much difficulty. However, in other countries, the civilians are either extremely restricted, or outright cannot own fire arms. While the Vendor from the article said something about "citizens protecting themselves against overbearing governments", and while I do consider that a very important part to maintaining a free and non-repressive society, the most immediate and probably biggest concern is the fact that, despite gun ownership being illegal, criminals are going to procure fire arms regardless, while the citizens are forced to rely on the effectiveness of law enforcement. If you were to ask me, if someone with a gun broke in to my house, I would grab MY gun, call the police, then defend myself if needed. Personally, as an American, I just wouldn't find the benefits of purchasing a gun from a silk road vendor to really outweigh the risks of what would happen if I was caught with an illegally owned firearm. When I turn 21, I fully intend on purchasing a hand gun, and applying for a concealed-carry permit. There's no way in hell I'm going to let some low-life junky get away with my wallet/possessions while I wait helplessly at their mercy for the police to show up. If someone tries to take my things and pulls a gun out on me, you absolutely bet that I will not hesitate to make them know that they're not the only ones with a fire arm. And of course, like I said, guns are just really, really fun when handled properly and intelligently. Plus, it's another whole new market to attract vendors and buyers...and from there, some vendors might start adopting other products when they see how diverse the playing field is. And some buyers may see something in another market that piques their interest, leading to a growth in the number of buyers in total, and subsequently leading to some vendors increasing their earnings.
Sorry about the depth and length of this message, but I just felt like it wouldn't hurt to express my personal opinion on this issue. And from what I've seen, this could be a very decisive point in Silk Road's history. I hope that something that I brought up rings true to anyone's feelings on this matter...but even if there are things with which you disagree, the only way we're going to be able to come to any sort of more-or-less majority supported decision is if we come together and try to find some sort of middle ground. If we continue to totally disagree with each other and no one on either side tries to see the other side's arguments in any accepting and understanding way, then this fight could potentially cause a very damaging rift in the community. I like to think of this community as a group of very intelligent, very rational and very realistic people who aren't completely blinded by their personal beliefs and self-righteous hatred of those of opposite or different beliefs. I like to think that we all want to see Silk Road continue to be as reliable and professionally-run as it is, and hopefully improve to levels we can't imagine in the future. I'd like to think that the people on both sides of this argument are more than capable of recognizing their emotional reasons for what they believe, but can leave these irrational feelings behind and come together and acknowledge what the other side believes and why. And hopefully, I believe that we will be able to come to a final decision which pleases as many people as possible, while alienating as few as possible. Maybe when some of us go on 4chan, or reddit, or somethingawful, or whatever forum, we'll engage in and/or spark flame wars...but on Silk Road, I really think we need to leave the flame wars to the surface web. It is pretty much an unwritten rule of the internet that, no matter how good or how well thought out your argument might be, there is no possible way to "win" an online argument.
Just my 2 cents....or more like 200 pages. But I really don't want to see silk road torn apart from the inside because no one remembered to leave the flame-war attitude back on the surface web. There's still so much potential for silk road...and the last thing I'd want is for all of it to be wasted along with the single most reliable and professionally run drug business I have ever dealt with. Come on, guys. Let's not overlook just how ridiculously lucky we are to have this service at our fingertips. We would be utterly foolish if we let this go to waste.
-
lolwut101,
This Silk Road is much more than just buying drugs or somewhat acceptable contraband on the internet. The Silk Road is actually a vehicle to advance the owners political philosophy of voluntary exchange in a black market. Guns are just one aspect of this, and this is why he keeps them. If the owner removes gun, then I believe this original philosophy will have been subverted and it will have devolved into just a place to buy drugs.
edit:
sorry about those formatting problems. I'm pretty intoxicated I guess you would say
-
not to change the topic, but is SR still down for anyone else?
-
it sometimes doesn't work but that means it's busy, mostly it works and the good news is guns are still there :)
-
Thanks for the update! :)
-
Hi - pardon my being dense here. I am utilizing TOR, entering http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion and cannot access the site.
Any advisement is appreciated.
Thx