Silk Road forums

Watching the forums over the last few days and seeing its previous cultural form disintegrate with the influx of, well, however you'd describe the argumentative mob that appeared, I decided to have a little look around.

And sure enough, if you start Googleing their forum username and then cross reference some of the things this influx have said, you end up with the FULL NAME, MUGSHOT and even LOCATION of said Silk Road users.

If you have done this - EDIT/DELETE YOUR POSTS AND/OR CHANGE YOUR ACCOUNT NAMES. NOW.

If you have done this - YOU ARE A RISK TO YOURSELF AND TO US. PROCEED NO FURTHER THAN THE SECURITY SECTION AND STAY THERE UNTIL YOU FEEL YOU CAN ADEQUATELY EXPLAIN RISK TO A RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONER.

This is basic stuff. Yet, you all feel the need to drag your identity, your ego, your story into the equation, because of the cool factor. You are part of SR, and it is part of you, the worlds largest underground illegal drug sales and smuggling site. Wow. Shine on you crazy diamond. You must really be cool if you are on there. Let me grant you all the shiny feelings your bullshit enclosed sense of social standing demands from the world.

If you want this place to keep going, separate your digital identities and insulate them. Stop talking about Fight Club.

(Oh, but doesn't it feel so good to talk about things you shouldn't? If you are swayed by this statement significantly, then perhaps you are also taking drugs purely because the law is telling you you shouldn't. This is rebellion for rebellions sake. You are dangerous because you are so caught up in the emotion of it, even if you wouldn't describe it as such, and you HAVE to express it. You are probably still in school. Actually, I know for a fact that some of you are from the photos.)

I say this publicly in the hope that some of the demanding new peeps will actually start to think about what they are doing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: complacency is one of your biggest enemies.

Follow secure procedure each and every time you don't need to, and it won't be a ball ache when you do need to.

Sort it out.

I wonder how much coffee DPR has gone through in the last 5 days.

Quote from: danconia on November 12, 2012, 08:12 pm

I don't think there are even enough LE people who would know how to access (let alone use) this site for half of these conspiracy theories to even be conceivable.

Those who underestimate their enemies are naive fools.

Most likely a new set of servers with better load balancing and separate databases are in order, hopefully along with a redundant system for compromise or failure. If that kind of build-out is taking place, DPR couldn't telegraph it because the activity in the physical world and the Internet routing world could tip off LE or at least give clues or leave traces to be followed.

I think another slowdown occurred and DPR said enough is enough and pulled the plug to move over to a new setup that had been in the works for some time. Now when you undertake such a thing, coordinating the combination of facility, IP, hardware, software and data ain't no small thing. Add to that secrecy's need for minimization of hands on deck, uncharted territories of equipment and controls, and Murphy's Law (things WILL go wrong), and you have a VERY busy DPR who knows that once everything is back up and running, hopefully smoother than before, he will be a hero again and any rumblings of mutiny will be quickly forgotten.

All I have to say to DPR and the mods, admins and other assorted angels is:  Go get 'em tigers!