Quote from: pine on September 01, 2012, 10:59 pmIn my view DPR should have staff hitting dumb vendors with temporary bans if they don't up their game. Dumb buyers are one thing, dumb vendors are another. I don't agree there should be a threshold for consumers, but there should be some kind of threshold for vendors. I mean, we've been hearing one dumbass in Austria got busted and he had all his customers records on file, addresses and all. I remember him from before, and I saw that coming a freaking mile away. By threshold, I mean some manner of exam on basic security procedures. Until then, we're going to get occurrences of vendors parceling weed up in shopping bags, half torn packaging etc.I agree with pretty much everything you've said in this post, but there's one very good reason why DPR won't be using temporary bans or other mechanisms to set even a minimum standard for vendors: it directly contravenes the agorist principles on which the site is founded. It would be, in effect, a form of regulation beyond the terms of becoming an SR vendor because in theory a minimum standard is set by the SR software (from DPR's point of view).The agorist approach is that the market will self-regulate. If one party to a contract (buyers) value the security of their information greater than the product they're purchasing then they will seek to use a different vendor. The self-regulation of the market occurs when the vendors with lax (or non-existent) security protocols lose business.This really is the best way to address the issue. Take your business to the vendor with the best business model: comprising of quality product, secure business practices, decent communication and a degree of customer service. These are the vendors that will flourish over the long term and they are also the vendors that will last for that longer term. Buyers also need to be aware that value comes from more than just the product that is delivered, but also the means by which it is delivered.Team Fuckwit, as you so eloquently put it, will go out of business. Either because they get caught from one of their fuck ups or because buyers choose to use vendors that are less likely to fuck up. It really is economic darwinism (or just economics).