Silk Road forums

Support => Feature requests => Topic started by: watmm on February 02, 2012, 03:01 pm

Title: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: watmm on February 02, 2012, 03:01 pm
I say this with LSD in mind but the same could be applied to many drugs.
It would be nice if there was an indication on the listing pages of whether a product has been tested for the quantity/percentage of its active substance or not.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: robotzombies on February 02, 2012, 09:29 pm
It's a great idea, but, as someone pointed out in a similar thread, that doesn't stop vendors from sending a good sample to be tested, then shipping bunk to the actual buyers. I think someone even mentioned that they had witnessed that happen before.

Even so, it would still be pretty sick to know EXACTLY(or at least really really close for dosage) what dosage and purity of acid you're getting from the established vendors, and I personally think it would be worth it just for that.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: tordemon on February 03, 2012, 02:25 am
Any flag like that has no way to prevent its abuse; I don't think there's a good way to set it up. =[
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: Angelology on February 05, 2012, 10:03 pm
It's a great idea, but, as someone pointed out in a similar thread, that doesn't stop vendors from sending a good sample to be tested, then shipping bunk to the actual buyers. I think someone even mentioned that they had witnessed that happen before.

Even so, it would still be pretty sick to know EXACTLY(or at least really really close for dosage) what dosage and purity of acid you're getting from the established vendors, and I personally think it would be worth it just for that.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It would be abused, sadly.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: pine on February 10, 2012, 04:52 am
I think you're all incorrect.

It doesn't *have* to be perfect.

Imagine yourself in the position of a buyer. Now, it could be the case that the lab test flag is irrelevant for the afore mentioned reasons. But I bet that they'll feel a lot happier with some guarantee rather than no guarantee whatsoever.

If an independent 3rd party processes minute samples of all the drugs here using various testing kits, then we have some validity.

It's like this, you click on the flag and it bring you to a picture of the tested sample item in question. There would also be a disclaimer underneath the flag explaining what it signifies and that it's an imperfect judgement call.

Then you allow people to make up their own minds. Personally, I think buyers will be much happier with the effort pro sellers are putting in to validate their product (there could be a sliding scale of validation too e.g. no. of tests done and what kind).

Selling is a game of psychology. A simple thing like this could literally double your average sales. If somebody disputes the flag, then it is possible for a seller to lose their "flag stripes".

Again, it doesn't have to be perfect. Vendors are often 'googled' on the forums to ascertain whether they are legit.

That is also highly imperfect, much more so I would say, than a test such as that which we've described. Yet it is a sensible and common practice.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: Horizons on February 15, 2012, 10:06 am
I bet that they'll feel a lot happier with some guarantee rather than no guarantee whatsoever.

They might be happier, but that's a negative point. Some guarantee is better than no guarantee, but no guarantee is better than false guarantee. Lab tests can be fake, or done on a product before it's cut, or even on a product that isn't from the same batch as what's being sold. It's too easy to take advantage of such a feature to lull buyers into a false sense of security, making them less diligent in their "forum googling", or what-have-you.

Plus, I don't want my drugs to be advertised like my toothpaste. "Four out of five drug testing labs agree that Frank's LSD is better for protecting against sobriety, spiritual bleakness and bad breath!" Cut to a guy in a white lab coat saying that he only lets his kids do Frank's LSD.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: pine on February 15, 2012, 12:37 pm
I bet that they'll feel a lot happier with some guarantee rather than no guarantee whatsoever.

They might be happier, but that's a negative point. Some guarantee is better than no guarantee, but no guarantee is better than false guarantee. Lab tests can be fake, or done on a product before it's cut, or even on a product that isn't from the same batch as what's being sold. It's too easy to take advantage of such a feature to lull buyers into a false sense of security, making them less diligent in their "forum googling", or what-have-you.

Plus, I don't want my drugs to be advertised like my toothpaste. "Four out of five drug testing labs agree that Frank's LSD is better for protecting against sobriety, spiritual bleakness and bad breath!" Cut to a guy in a white lab coat saying that he only lets his kids do Frank's LSD.

I take your point, but on the other hand there is no such thing as this in the regular white market drug market either.

Big pharma uses intensive quality control and testing, goes through a 3rd party called the FDA to show some semblance of impartiality, and then serves it up to their customer base.

Obviously the FDA has some trouble working for us, so we're going to have to get creative.

One idea is to increase the lower limit on what order sizes you take, and then include a capsule sized testing kit with instructions with each package. The testing kit adds about 1 - 2 grams of weight + the instructions about .5g, so that's 2.5 gram load at the most. It's cheap though, I think you could do it for about a dollar. But you'd have to be shifting a product that has a high value per g, weed certainly wouldn't cut it. Then again, those drugs which are the most expensive like cocaine, h and meth, are precisely the ones that require most quality control/testing.

Again, you can't prove a thing. It's not impartial. But the effort required to achieve it will mean only the most devious scammers get around it.

If you have a better idea...!
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: Horizons on February 17, 2012, 11:07 am
I bet that they'll feel a lot happier with some guarantee rather than no guarantee whatsoever.

They might be happier, but that's a negative point. Some guarantee is better than no guarantee, but no guarantee is better than false guarantee. Lab tests can be fake, or done on a product before it's cut, or even on a product that isn't from the same batch as what's being sold. It's too easy to take advantage of such a feature to lull buyers into a false sense of security, making them less diligent in their "forum googling", or what-have-you.

Plus, I don't want my drugs to be advertised like my toothpaste. "Four out of five drug testing labs agree that Frank's LSD is better for protecting against sobriety, spiritual bleakness and bad breath!" Cut to a guy in a white lab coat saying that he only lets his kids do Frank's LSD.

I take your point, but on the other hand there is no such thing as this in the regular white market drug market either.

Big pharma uses intensive quality control and testing, goes through a 3rd party called the FDA to show some semblance of impartiality, and then serves it up to their customer base.

Obviously the FDA has some trouble working for us, so we're going to have to get creative.

One idea is to increase the lower limit on what order sizes you take, and then include a capsule sized testing kit with instructions with each package. The testing kit adds about 1 - 2 grams of weight + the instructions about .5g, so that's 2.5 gram load at the most. It's cheap though, I think you could do it for about a dollar. But you'd have to be shifting a product that has a high value per g, weed certainly wouldn't cut it. Then again, those drugs which are the most expensive like cocaine, h and meth, are precisely the ones that require most quality control/testing.

Again, you can't prove a thing. It's not impartial. But the effort required to achieve it will mean only the most devious scammers get around it.

If you have a better idea...!

Now, this approach I like. My problem with your other point was that I fear a "lab tested" flag would replace, rather than add to, people's normal research. People are lazy, after all. But if you're getting a lab test shipped to you together with your product, you'll probably use it... and yet, only after having done your research and made your purchase. Other people's results become part of the feedback pool, and suddenly lab tests aren't replacing anything, but rather become aggregated to the whole of information available on different products.
Title: Re: "Lab Tested" Flag
Post by: N1ghtmare on March 29, 2012, 02:48 pm
Actually, some sort of quality control would be a great idea.

Like if the vendor would be able to send stuff to SR staff for inspection and testing, and the SR staff would label them one way or another.

That, however, of course, wouldn't guarantee that the vendor won't just switch the product to a lesser quality one than the one tested by SR staff. A counter-measure to that, however, could be a random buyer (being SR staff undercover) randomly buying the product every now and then.