Silk Road forums

Hey gang,

We're still getting things set up.  Nothing new to report.  Obviously I can't say much, but we are redeploying the entire system and it is taking lots of time to get all of the data properly backed up and where it needs to be, not to mention thoroughly testing the changes we are making to the system that will hopefully give us enough head room to grow multiple times again.

I'm fully aware that Silk Road isn't your only choice and that my reputation is on the line right now.  We are working on all of these issues in parallel and will be slamming the caffeine until we are up and stable.

Your next update will come no later than 5 am EST.

Cheers,
DPR

PS - I hear everyone's hopes and fears.  This is a stressful time for some of us.  I'm taking this opportunity to find a calm center as the situation whirls around me and I keep pressing forward, calm and clear.  This won't be the most challenging situation I'll face I am sure and it is good practice.  Good luck to each of you as you get through this with me

Hey everyone,

Again, really sorry for all the headache and heartache this is causing.  Just want to reiterate that everything is fine.  I apologize that I haven't given a specific time-frame, but I really want to make sure that when we reopen we aren't going to run into the same problems we were having.

My best estimate tells me we are looking at a matter of days or maybe a day before reopening, not a matter of weeks, but not a matter of hours either.  I hope that helps some of you plan.

I will keep you updated as I am able.

UPDATE (2351 UTC 11/16/2012): Registrations are open again.  Been monitoring the new set up and we are well within capacity, so we are going to open it up again (sorry to everyone left out in the cold the past few days).  Still working out a few bugs, but it looks like we are pretty much back on track folks.  I'll leave this thread pinned for now in case anything comes up in the next few days.  I hope to see all of you at movie night tonight   (https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=69283.0)

UPDATE (0225 UTC 11/16/2012): Withdrawals are up to date, so if you sent a withdrawal and it is taking much longer than usual to show up, please contact support so we can investigate.  Still a few things to iron out with the site (people getting logged off, etc), but I think we are just about there.

UPDATE (2326 UTC 11/15/2012): Might not have to take the site down after all.  I'll let you know here if we do.  A side note about withdrawals:  There have been a ton of them (understandable), so we are getting through them as fast as possible.  Please be patient if we haven't gotten to yours yet.

UPDATE (2254 UTC 11/15/2012): The site went down again and there are people claiming to be responsible for it and making threats.  I don't want to take any chances, so the site is going to come down for a bit while we investigate what is going on.  Hopefully this is short lived... what drama!  Next update will come before 0600 UTC.

UPDATE (2355 UTC): Deposits are working.  All outstanding deposits have been processed, and future deposits will be processed as usual.  If you sent a deposit before or during the outage and your account has not been credited, message support so we can investigate your issue.  Some withdrawals have been processed, but there is still a queue we are working through.  I'll update when withdrawals are back to normal.

UPDATE (2052 UTC): Current members now have full access to Silk Road.  Registrations are still closed until we are certain we can handle the additional traffic.  We are still unable to process deposits and withdrawals, but are getting very close.  I will start a new thread with some commentary on this whole situation once we are running 100%.

UPDATE(0850 UTC): Silk Road is available once again, but on a limited basis.  New user registrations are closed for the time being.  Access is limited to vendors only.  New deposits and withdrawals (and any that were sent just before or during the outage) will not be processed until some time in the next 24 hours.  Assuming all goes well, access for all current members will be made available some time in the next 24 hours.

UPDATE (0012 UTC):  Sorry I'm late on this update, won't happen again.  We're pretty much polishing and going down the final check list at this point.  I'm confident we'll make our "matter of days" estimate and this won't be drawn out into week+ territory (assuming nothing goes wrong when we reopen).  When we reopen, access will be limited to vendors only for a few hours so they can mark packages shipped that were sent but not marked before we went down.  Also, auto-finalize and auto-vacation haven't been running since Sunday, and we won't fire those back up for a couple of days after we reopen so everyone can get square first.  Can't wait till this is behind us   Next update before 1500 UTC Wednesday.

UPDATE (1113 UTC): I and the team need sleep.  Getting really close now, home stretch (hopefully).  Next update will come before 2300 UTC, Tuesday.

UPDATE (0924 UTC): I know you won't like hearing this, but we aren't quite there yet.  We are working hard and getting closer though.  Next update will come before 1600 UTC.

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Hash: SHA1

Hello everyone,

I'm alive, I'm safe.  Luck would have it that the first time I'm away for more than 24 hours, the site goes down and I'm the only one that can bring it back up.  As soon as we are sure there haven't been any security breaches and taken all of the necessary precautions, we will get back up and running.  If anyone's orders get messed up because of this (auto-finalizing, etc), we will take full responsibility and make things right, just contact support once we're back up.  I'm terribly sorry for this and all of the recent problems.  I promise it is my top priority to get things running smoothly again.

- -DPR
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very well put bowman.  It's amazing people can buy into this lie.  It's classic double speak: destruction is production.

I can't reproduce the orders page problem.  can anyone confirm that they can access their orders page?  Does it help to restart your tor browser?

ok, I think we're getting there people.  please answer the poll I just posted in this thread so I can see if what we are doing is working.  Hopefully we are on the right track and everyone will have the access they need.  THANK YOU everyone for your patience and faith.  Please show the same kindness to each other as you get back to business and catch up on everything.

For those skeptical about the reason for the problems (too many users, not enough resources), there is an explanation for it, but you didn't guess it and I won't be telling 

Also, great ideas around rationing systems.  I will definitely be looking into something like that so if we run up against a barrier again, it won't be such a mess.

PS - In writing this post, I found myself erasing cuss words and rephrasing to be more polite.  So, I just want to apologize if I come off as stiff sometimes.  I'm just trying to be responsible for the Silk Road image and not let my personality get in the way.  It's also safer to make my writing style bland so it is less identifiable.

cast your votes!

Nobody should be our next president

Nobody should be our ruler

I wonder how many people would vote "nobody" if it was an option right there on the ballot?