It's textbook bullying. People try to manipulate others and force their opinion onto others by shaming them, nasty comments, trolling, etc. biggest mouth and biggest assholes get heard first at the table in real life. I often wonder how many people here are strategically posting to increase sales and protect their personal interests. If vendors wanted to be creative, they would organize a welcome wagon crew to greet noobs before they get trolled or bitten and turned into trolls. . This way, noobs get trained, coaching/support, guided into the process. Turn noobs into buying customers faster! Get them before the trolls eat them up or scare them away. I think some people don't like to share vendors with others. I think we loose a lot of potentially good brand new members because of frustrations in the beginning. Most people I talk to IRL about SR say they gave up on it because its too complicated and time consuming to scan the forums all the time for the latest scammers. So, a lot could be learned by examining noobs, and the challenges they face. Moons are a goldmine of money and information. They are a valuable resource, not a problem child. Vendors could proactively organize welcome wagons to scoop up noobs in the beginning before they get settled on a favorite vendor. If you can jump in and be their first, and not worry about it because they were screened already by the welcome wagon crew - it would be a good business move. I guess I'm saying there is an incentive there to help out noobs. It could be done fairly and methodically. Take a noob under your wing for a few days. I've done it myself and I'm no pro, just the basics with PGP and TOR and getting coins safely. I hate to see people struggle. I think a lot of discrimination to newcomers is really insecurity. Some are afraid of noobs slowing the site down even more than it is and possibly making their vendor sell out of heir favorite drug. I've seen it. It's like in real life too, where you got a street dealer surrounded by junkies who want to get in between you and the dealer somehow. It's hard to get to the dealer, friggin sea gulls and vultures. **** When I was a noob, I was recommended a vendor after a lot of research in the forums and looking at his feedback. Well, I got fake drugs sent to me. The vendor challenged me on it, because I had no stats yet. I was setup by the 'friend' I made in the forum, who steered me to this sham dealer. I discovered later that two people were the same person. You can see why I like to help noobs get started. So, there are pitfalls everywhere for noobs. Many would say its paying your dues and learning experiences. Just some thoughts from my experiences. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I'm sorry, I'm an idiot and I just like to type and hopefully se noob will read this and be wiser than I.