Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Dread Pirate Roberts on March 12, 2013, 05:06 pm

Title: Forum downtime
Post by: Dread Pirate Roberts on March 12, 2013, 05:06 pm
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Dear Silk Road community,

A combination of bad luck, bad timing and lack of preparation has led to our forums being down over the last 72 hours or so.  I am terribly sorry for any trouble this has caused you.  The main market is equipped with a semi-automated backup and redeploy system to minimize this kind of down-time, but I hadn't gotten around to setting the forum up in that way, and this is the consequence.

The cause of the downtime was not security related, nor was it caused by a malicious party.  Sometimes technology just breaks, and because of the constraints from the nature of our business, it can take time to recover if proper precautions haven't been taken, or don't work as expected.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so hopefully we can enjoy each other's company even more now that we've had some time apart.

- -DPR

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Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: kmfkewm on March 12, 2013, 05:12 pm
Keeping a site running 24/7 is a real challenge, especially when it is being run by a single person, and even more so when they need to access the server via Tor (typing in SSH commands five ahead of what you see on the screen is never any fun) and are running an illegal site that isn't their full time job. Keep that in mind before bitching about down time :).
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: scout on March 12, 2013, 05:12 pm
It was down for me since Thursday, so it was more than 72 hours ... trust me, my forum withdrawals were kicking in pretty damn hard.  ;)

Glad to see everything back up and running, and to know it was simply a tech problem.

Welcome back, DPR, Forums, and Community!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Stray Cat on March 12, 2013, 05:21 pm
I appreciate your candor, DPR, thank you.  Was starting to get a littttle bit worried ... all is well now...
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: PrincessHIGH on March 12, 2013, 05:24 pm
Yay! Thank-you DPR and admin team. My withdrawals were kicking in too scout lol! The forums downtime brings a lot of truth to the saying 'you never know what you have until it's gone' I've missed this place so much and I'm thrilled it's back :)
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: califreshcannabis on March 12, 2013, 05:25 pm
Glad to hear all is well! Thanks DPR :)
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: whowhatwhere on March 12, 2013, 05:28 pm
W00t!!

I know y'all were hitting that refresh button every 5 minutes for the last few days like I was....  ;)

Thanks for addressing it, DPR!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: MDUK on March 12, 2013, 05:31 pm
Wooohooo!

Now if only I could get a connection to SR itself everything would be perfect  :P
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: MC Haberdasher on March 12, 2013, 05:34 pm
It's all good, dog..


 8)
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: sysco88 on March 12, 2013, 05:34 pm
Hell yeah, welcome back forums, I hate shopping without them.  Plus I was starting to have some withdrawals :)   Thanks DPR
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: LionwareTradingCo on March 12, 2013, 05:48 pm
Thanks to DPR!  ;D
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Scream on March 12, 2013, 05:54 pm
Good to see the forum back online. Was pissed tbh, after spending a hour spamming to get 50 post (Can't see the point of it, then the following day not being able to login.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: beefy on March 12, 2013, 05:55 pm
Oh Thank god. I was wondering why it wasn't showing up. I thought something was wrong with my browser. Because i was trying some new settings, and i was able to come on the board, But then i changed some settings and i couldn't come on the board. So i thought i fucked something up. But thank you for getting it back up in a reasonable time. I know it must be a lot of stress running this whole thing. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Rent0n on March 12, 2013, 06:26 pm
thanks for keeping us all updated! im glad were back up and chatting : )
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: SteelMerc on March 12, 2013, 06:29 pm
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Dear Silk Road community,

A combination of bad luck, bad timing and lack of preparation has led to our forums being down over the last 72 hours or so.  I am terribly sorry for any trouble this has caused you.  The main market is equipped with a semi-automated backup and redeploy system to minimize this kind of down-time, but I hadn't gotten around to setting the forum up in that way, and this is the consequence.

The cause of the downtime was not security related, nor was it caused by a malicious party.  Sometimes technology just breaks, and because of the constraints from the nature of our business, it can take time to recover if proper precautions haven't been taken, or don't work as expected.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so hopefully we can enjoy each other's company even more now that we've had some time apart.

- -DPR

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Great to hear DPR.
On a side note, THE FORUMS ARE BACK UP!  ;D
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: vcalderone on March 12, 2013, 07:14 pm
Awesome, the forums are back. I was starting to get withdraw symptoms :P
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: zerik on March 12, 2013, 07:40 pm
Yea forums are back.

It's all good. Sadly forums go down once in a while. Thanks for getting them back up and running.

Missed everyone.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Sensei on March 12, 2013, 07:58 pm
I'm so glad the forums are back! Even though I'm a new member here I've already found a place for this forum in my heart. I can't say that I've ever wanted to be so close to a forum community in a very long time as much as I would like to be apart of SR so the down time was a bit of a scare for me.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: masterblaster on March 12, 2013, 08:01 pm
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Jediknight on March 12, 2013, 08:03 pm
Once again, the pirate and his crew conquers the high seas! 
Never doubt this pirate and his crew. They are amazing at what they do.

Keep up the good work.   

Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: fingertothefbi on March 12, 2013, 08:08 pm
Glad the forums are back, the market just isn't the same without it :)

Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: masterblaster on March 12, 2013, 08:20 pm
Bunch of fucking cheerleaders
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: goblin on March 12, 2013, 08:22 pm
It was down for me since Thursday, so it was more than 72 hours ... trust me, my forum withdrawals were kicking in pretty damn hard.  ;)

Glad to see everything back up and running, and to know it was simply a tech problem.

Welcome back, DPR, Forums, and Community!
Yeah, according to my count it was more like five or six days. But since it's back, I'm glad.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: sirius on March 12, 2013, 09:42 pm
Bunch of fucking cheerleaders
Hahaha, I was just thinking that same phrase..
I'm not quite so dissatisfied as you... but yeah, they lay it on pretty thick sometimes.  ::)
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Purple_Hue000 on March 12, 2013, 10:02 pm
good, finally the forums are back!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: sourdieselman on March 12, 2013, 10:26 pm
DPR what can we all do to pitch in and help out. It seems like there have been a great deal of technical difficulties with Silk Road lately. Some difficulties like bitcoins not going to outside wallets can  drastically affect the consumer confidence in Silk Road. Is there anything that can be done to make Silk Road more transparent like the bitcoin system?
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: tango on March 12, 2013, 10:28 pm
yay the forums are back!

Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: XXXotica on March 12, 2013, 11:24 pm
Finally!!!! :) I missed you strangers, oddly.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: RaFaeL5 on March 12, 2013, 11:37 pm
Great to find my favourite forum back online!
Thx DPR & team, I love you guys for what you do!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: anonom on March 12, 2013, 11:47 pm
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.

The less technical details are published the better for all of us. When running such server, the last thing you want to tell is how you maintain it. Even though security though obscurity may be not the best, it's always better than giving all the tools to people who want to hack the forums.

On the other hand, I got to admit a small reassuring message on SR would have been nice. But as DPR says, wrong timing. Shit happens.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: SelfSovereignty on March 13, 2013, 12:19 am
What does the forum downtime have to do with SR and its resilience to such a thing -- I'm hoping that was just a bad attempt at self justification, not a slip of the tongue and that they're both on the same local network or something.  A redundant server is a redundant server.  Why is this one less important or harder than that one -- I'll tell you what *looks* like.  It *looks* like you only cared enough to make the one you actually get paid directly for turn itself back on when the cheap as fuck hardware watchdog trips and reboots it.

Redundancy is your friend.  Seriously man, a fully redundant setup you put together yourself from desktop level pieces is cheaper than half the packages I buy every other week.  Which means with all of us buying stuff every week, you could have afforded it.  Go to Best Buy and ask the fucking geek squad about or fucking something man.  Illicit businesses are still businesses.  Why give your competition an easier time of dethroning you than absolutely necessary?  At least make sure the fucking servers don't vanish mysteriously for half a week at a time.

Lastly, 5 fucking words from someone, anyone -- doesn't even have to be you -- goes a long fucking way.  "Forums are down, working on it, sorry guys.  Buying drugs still works though.  Enjoy."  Short.  (hopefully) honest.  Keeps everyone feeling in the loop, even though obviously we aren't and don't need to be -- and whether you care about that or not, it helps customers trust your service.  Two hard drives, a 50 dollar box to plug them into, a shitty first-gen pentium running Linux as a router, two 200 dollar desktops, and you've got 100% redundancy that shouldn't ever go down unless the network does.  You really look like you're just shrugging your shoulders and saying "fuck it, who cares," when you let things go down for half a week.  Don't confuse gratitude for the service with indifference for the mounting problems it faces.

If it was something other than hardware failure, obviously my statements are undeserved.  But I doubt that's the case.  I love your ideals, DPR, but goddamn man... do you actually still give a fuck?


... it's been a very bad day for me.  For totally unrelated reasons.  I have no doubt I've taken out some of that in this post; apologies for that.  Overlook it or not, it doesn't really matter... I'd just consider it insincere not to point out half the venom in me right now has nothing to do with you.  For some stupid reason I give a fuck about things like sincerity.  Not that there's any good reason to, really... but that's another matter entirely.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: sirius on March 13, 2013, 02:28 am
What does the forum downtime have to do with SR and its resilience to such a thing -- I'm hoping that was just a bad attempt at self justification, not a slip of the tongue and that they're both on the same local network or something.  A redundant server is a redundant server.  Why is this one less important or harder than that one -- I'll tell you what *looks* like.  It *looks* like you only cared enough to make the one you actually get paid directly for turn itself back on when the cheap as fuck hardware watchdog trips and reboots it.

Redundancy is your friend.  Seriously man, a fully redundant setup you put together yourself from desktop level pieces is cheaper than half the packages I buy every other week.  Which means with all of us buying stuff every week, you could have afforded it.  Go to Best Buy and ask the fucking geek squad about or fucking something man.  Illicit businesses are still businesses.  Why give your competition an easier time of dethroning you than absolutely necessary?  At least make sure the fucking servers don't vanish mysteriously for half a week at a time.

Lastly, 5 fucking words from someone, anyone -- doesn't even have to be you -- goes a long fucking way.  "Forums are down, working on it, sorry guys.  Buying drugs still works though.  Enjoy."  Short.  (hopefully) honest.  Keeps everyone feeling in the loop, even though obviously we aren't and don't need to be -- and whether you care about that or not, it helps customers trust your service.  Two hard drives, a 50 dollar box to plug them into, a shitty first-gen pentium running Linux as a router, two 200 dollar desktops, and you've got 100% redundancy that shouldn't ever go down unless the network does.  You really look like you're just shrugging your shoulders and saying "fuck it, who cares," when you let things go down for half a week.  Don't confuse gratitude for the service with indifference for the mounting problems it faces.

If it was something other than hardware failure, obviously my statements are undeserved.  But I doubt that's the case.  I love your ideals, DPR, but goddamn man... do you actually still give a fuck?


... it's been a very bad day for me.  For totally unrelated reasons.  I have no doubt I've taken out some of that in this post; apologies for that.  Overlook it or not, it doesn't really matter... I'd just consider it insincere not to point out half the venom in me right now has nothing to do with you.  For some stupid reason I give a fuck about things like sincerity.  Not that there's any good reason to, really... but that's another matter entirely.
It's all good, some days I get all pissy as well, as long as your core points are valid. On that note I have to agree with you. There are improvements to be made, and whether we are appreciative or not there are standards that need adhered to.
Too many people pander when no praise is due.. five days of downtime followed by a return of service with no updates in between is hardly good reason for applause. DPR doesn't need the personal validation I'm sure...
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: scout on March 13, 2013, 02:35 am
samesamebutdifferent and I did ask but were told it was info available on a "need to know" basis and we didn't need to know anything other than that it was a technical issue that was being fixed.  as much as we would like to be informed/kept in the loop, i think we both understand that DPR and inigo have their reasons for not telling us, and we have to trust that they have reasons for handling things a certain way.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: SelfSovereignty on March 13, 2013, 02:41 am
you're going all over the forums on a crusade it's obvious you are upset about something unrelated.

try to be more objective and appreciative imo, DPR and his staff do a great job and if this is so easy to do, I've got news for you, the market would have already factored it in and you would see more well capitalized operations put them out of business. The fact of the matter is, DPR is very well capitalized but I think you are not taking into account the cryptic nature of his postings. What he says is happening is not necc. what is actually happening of course, as you have been trying to point out, but overall I think we mostly owe it to him to just trust his judgement and his abilities. When I read his posts it is clear he is highly intelligent and capable.

I did make two posts that were pretty similar to each other, I admit.  I didn't mean to sound like I was on the warpath or something, and I don't intend to say anything further about it.  I'm sorry that I apparently didn't gauge my response appropriately today.  If you find worth in the point, take it -- if not, ignore it.  Not every one of those 1500 posts under my name is worth reading, I'll be the first to admit...   :D
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: nomad bloodbath on March 13, 2013, 02:48 am
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.

You must not know how things work around here.
Congratulations on being the 10,000th newfag to say this exact post.
Poor child did you think your post would make it front a committee and things would change?
Awww that's so cute.

X)
nomad
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: bull3gern on March 13, 2013, 05:07 am
Hey DPR & admins, shit happens - SR & the forums are probably heavily trafficked anyway - it's all cool!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: masterblaster on March 13, 2013, 05:12 am
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.

You must not know how things work around here.
Congratulations on being the 10,000th newfag to say this exact post.
Poor child did you think your post would make it front a committee and things would change?
Awww that's so cute.

X)
nomad

Shit dude, must be good to be big gorilla on a sinking ship. I'll just stick around to watch.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: NW Nugz on March 13, 2013, 06:11 am
I'm very happy the forum is back. Withdrawals, yes, but as a new vendor my sales nearly stop when the forum is down. I'm a slacker sometimes and can understand not getting the Forum as well set up as SR at first. It has been years though? I do hope this is a wake up call that gets improvements implemented. If I am not mistaken, DPR is getting massive income from the fees vendors pay. I would expect this to be treated like more than a part-time side job as someone above suggested this was to DPR. I do appreciate the great thing we have here and agree wholeheartedly that DPR and whatever helpers deserve great respect for making it happen as well as they have.

The first days of the outage were very hard with lots of time wasted trying to get in. It has been pretty hard to get into the forum anyway - so when you really can't, It is hard to tell the difference. Once we had a message that the forum was down for maintenance, it was much less stressful. I do feel like we deserved earlier notice of the issue even if it would have had to be posted on SR. A tiny "Forum is down but will be back pretty soon" and then changed to "Forum is back up :-)" would have been very helpful.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: snailgod on March 13, 2013, 08:15 am
samesamebutdifferent and I did ask but were told it was info available on a "need to know" basis and we didn't need to know anything other than that it was a technical issue that was being fixed.  as much as we would like to be informed/kept in the loop, i think we both understand that DPR and inigo have their reasons for not telling us, and we have to trust that they have reasons for handling things a certain way.

I don't think anyone is really expecting to know the exact details of what happened. Simply a "technical difficulties" error like was posted a few hours before it came up would've sufficed instead of my proxy giving a connection error so that I thought it was a problem with Tor routing. It would've saved me the trouble of trying to troubleshoot it at my end.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Aurelius Venport on March 14, 2013, 06:53 am
you're going all over the forums on a crusade it's obvious you are upset about something unrelated.

try to be more objective and appreciative imo, DPR and his staff do a great job and if this is so easy to do, I've got news for you, the market would have already factored it in and you would see more well capitalized operations put them out of business. The fact of the matter is, DPR is very well capitalized but I think you are not taking into account the cryptic nature of his postings. What he says is happening is not necc. what is actually happening of course, as you have been trying to point out, but overall I think we mostly owe it to him to just trust his judgement and his abilities. When I read his posts it is clear he is highly intelligent and capable.

I did make two posts that were pretty similar to each other, I admit.  I didn't mean to sound like I was on the warpath or something, and I don't intend to say anything further about it.  I'm sorry that I apparently didn't gauge my response appropriately today.  If you find worth in the point, take it -- if not, ignore it.  Not every one of those 1500 posts under my name is worth reading, I'll be the first to admit...   :D

ME EITHER I GET NEG KARMA LIK ITS GOIN OUTTA STYLE LOL
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Aurelius Venport on March 14, 2013, 07:06 am
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.

You must not know how things work around here.
Congratulations on being the 10,000th newfag to say this exact post.
Poor child did you think your post would make it front a committee and things would change?
Awww that's so cute.

X)
nomad


pwned
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: dedhead69 on March 14, 2013, 07:37 am
OMG this has been like the worst past week of my life...
first ST's package is "lost" so i have to ask for a reship (keeping my fingers crossed)
Had a shitty exam on Monday, the fucking program kept crashing
Have 2 lab reports due in about 5 hrs and Ive been working on them for about 13 hrs and im still not halfway done, Fuck MATLAB
I have 3 3hour lecturs back to back in 4 hrs and 55mins
Knife Party plans got ruined
I need surgery on my spine
AND I spent all week, since last Fri until now without the forums (which im completely addicted to)

Soooooo happy this is back up!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Aurelius Venport on March 15, 2013, 01:28 am
^ sounds like it's time to medicate yourself accordingly.
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: sirius on March 15, 2013, 01:53 am
OMG this has been like the worst past week of my life...
first ST's package is "lost" so i have to ask for a reship (keeping my fingers crossed)
Had a shitty exam on Monday, the fucking program kept crashing
Have 2 lab reports due in about 5 hrs and Ive been working on them for about 13 hrs and im still not halfway done, Fuck MATLAB
I have 3 3hour lecturs back to back in 4 hrs and 55mins
Knife Party plans got ruined
I need surgery on my spine
AND I spent all week, since last Fri until now without the forums (which im completely addicted to)

Soooooo happy this is back up!
Well, that sounds hectic brother..
It sounds like you need to binge until all of those stupid problems go away. Put all of your drugs around you in a ritual circle and curl up in the fetal position with a tooter, pipe, and glass of water... then just pretend you are back in the womb. If you don't remember the womb just dose generously from the circle, give it a few moments then try again.. repeat until desired results are achieved.  ;D

Seriously though, I hope next week improves for you..
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: dedhead69 on March 16, 2013, 04:21 am
Come tues I will be on the beach with my friend tripping on shrooms =) thanks guys!
Title: Re: Forum downtime
Post by: Razorspyne on March 16, 2013, 06:47 am
Why are you all applauding him, he didnt even bother to put up a damn status report on SR to let people know what the hell was going on. Its not like the forums are unnecessary, you cant research vendors without it, i think we at least deserve to know whats going on when shit goes down.

You must not know how things work around here.
Congratulations on being the 10,000th newfag to say this exact post.
Poor child did you think your post would make it front a committee and things would change?
Awww that's so cute.

X)
nomad

Luuuuuulz........................ nomad........................X) O0 feisty today, Chi? ("Looks like a toy!!!"...............L U L Z............. ::) ) Lol

Piece, Love, and Fuck Haters.