Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: proxanne on August 11, 2013, 06:01 pm

Title: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: proxanne on August 11, 2013, 06:01 pm
Why do vendors that operate out of (for example) Germany, write their profile and item descriptions in English?

For example:
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/8fbe03ea77

Vendor is in Germany, ships only to Germany, but item description is in English.  What gives?  I've noticed this a lot.  Does SR auto-translate?
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: boysen on August 11, 2013, 06:13 pm
You'd probably have to ask that person why he/she wrote it in English, I don't think there are mind-readers on this forum (or anywhere).
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: cirrus on August 11, 2013, 06:19 pm
You'd be surprised how many countries speak and write English as a second or third language.  It is apparent that majority of the site and users speak English, so this is where they see the ability to maximize potential sales.  There is no translator for the site.
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: HighStandards on August 11, 2013, 08:42 pm
Thinking tourism.  BTC is international.  So if 3/4 of your country speaks a second launguage that most of the traveling world also speaks/ reads, then u rule out a few and get a whole lot of others.
 just my thoughts on it. i have no basis other than what i would do. :)
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: DigitalSS on August 11, 2013, 08:48 pm
Yeah, English is being spoken in a hell of a lot of countries now.
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: HarmReduction on August 11, 2013, 08:53 pm
There is a Russian version of Silk Road http://ramp2bombkadwvgz.onion/ - I wonder what email facility they are using  ::)
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: ananas_xpress on August 11, 2013, 09:05 pm
Tourism explains part of it, Plus I don't know any Germans that don't have a grasp of english while there would be customers in Germany looking for bud who might not speak German.
If you setup in a new country and have no contacts and don't speak the language SR can be a savior.

Second and the reason I use English even though It's not the first language in my country is LE.
Generally speaking the youth have a much better grasp of English so if the cops are going to bother to bust anyone who deals on SR in my country they will probably target ones who use the same language as 90% of the cops here speak bad or zero English and if they did I think the language they use could be a tell take sign :)

For me it's just one more layer of security among many many others but cant be a bad thing
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: brainfreeze on August 11, 2013, 09:06 pm
im sure its in the vendors terms it all has to be in english
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: HighStandards on August 11, 2013, 09:19 pm
Not that i remember seeing.
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: ananas_xpress on August 11, 2013, 09:45 pm
im sure its in the vendors terms it all has to be in english

SR the free marketplace...But only in English  :'(

Nah it' cant be, if so all my competition is breaking the rules ???
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: ondine on August 11, 2013, 10:25 pm
I've come across vendors writing their descriptions in German, Dutch, French etc.

But if you're planning on selling products internationally, as most EU vendors are, you're likely to get more business if you write your item descriptions in English. This is because while a French person may not speak German or vice-versa, chances are that he will speak some English as a second language. Like it or not, English is quickly becoming the universal international language, if it can't be considered as such already.
Title: Re: Can anyone explain this?
Post by: isallmememe on August 11, 2013, 10:34 pm
the last two letters on the end of that vendors name is a capital NL. i reckon that could stand for netherlands. possibly its a dutch firm working in germany who speak english but not german. or maybe not but that was my first impression.