Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: miraex on November 04, 2012, 09:31 pm

Title: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: miraex on November 04, 2012, 09:31 pm
To me this seems like a good idea to introduce an invite system to prevent "ghost" accounts and FDA agents from gaining access to our holy grail. Each existing member would have to opportunity to invite 1 new person to our community every 3 months or something like that... anyone like this idea??
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: berry13 on November 04, 2012, 09:34 pm
What about LE already registered here? What about startup vendors?
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: miraex on November 04, 2012, 09:39 pm
with new vendors comes potential scammers  :P

it would also prevent shill accounts to build feedback/LE/etc.

idk, I could sit here and think of a substantial amount of positives this would bring but there are probably equal number of negatives.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: berry13 on November 04, 2012, 09:42 pm
with new vendors comes potential scammers  :P

it would also prevent shill accounts to build feedback/LE/etc.

idk, I could sit here and think of a substantial amount of positives this would bring but there are probably equal number of negatives.

Very true, but i believe this contradicts the philosophy behind SR of making drugs safely accessible.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: WinterMoon on November 04, 2012, 10:49 pm
Not that I have any say in the matter but I would much rather see some sort of entrance exam for new members...

On another thread, someone suggested there be a requirement for new members to deposit a bitcoin into their new account because that would cut down on the number of drive-bys, gawkers, kids and other reckless types looking for instant gratification. 

My idea would expand upon the depositing of the BTC by adding another layer of education:  After the BTC has been deposited, the new member must then request a password or passphrase by sending an encrypted PM to SR admin. The password or passphrase would be delivered via another encrypted PM requiring decryption.   Viola!  The new member is familiar with BTC and with encryption and hopefully they will have spent time on the Forums learning other stuff.

There's no way to root out, or keep out LE, but I think a person should have to earn their way onto buy side of SR by demonstrating basic knowledge of what keeps us all safe, eh?  Have new peeps start on the Forum where they do the BTC & PGP drills.  Once they learn crypto, then they get to buy drugs.

 [Is moon about to be flamed into negative territory?  She hopes not, she really is just trying to be helpful and add something to the conversation, she wants SR to be around for a long, long time].

Cheers
 :-*

Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: danknugsdun on November 04, 2012, 11:28 pm
Not that I have any say in the matter but I would much rather see some sort of entrance exam for new members...

On another thread, someone suggested there be a requirement for new members to deposit a bitcoin into their new account because that would cut down on the number of drive-bys, gawkers, kids and other reckless types looking for instant gratification. 

My idea would expand upon the depositing of the BTC by adding another layer of education:  After the BTC has been deposited, the new member must then request a password or passphrase by sending an encrypted PM to SR admin. The password or passphrase would be delivered via another encrypted PM requiring decryption.   Viola!  The new member is familiar with BTC and with encryption and hopefully they will have spent time on the Forums learning other stuff.

There's no way to root out, or keep out LE, but I think a person should have to earn their way onto buy side of SR by demonstrating basic knowledge of what keeps us all safe, eh?  Have new peeps start on the Forum where they do the BTC & PGP drills.  Once they learn crypto, then they get to buy drugs.

 [Is moon about to be flamed into negative territory?  She hopes not, she really is just trying to be helpful and add something to the conversation, she wants SR to be around for a long, long time].

Cheers
 :-*

My only criticism on this point is that it would make more customers scarce of even trying to get to Silk Road.

Think about it. Most of us knew nothing about PGP before registering here. Before depositing any money most of us learnt how to get good maildrops and how to get bitcoins anonymously.

Dank
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: mat82 on November 05, 2012, 12:14 am
This is an awful idea. You should assume that there are already plenty of LE on SR and on the forums. If you believe otherwise, or believe some arbitrary step would remove them from the site you are simply deluding yourself.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: WinterMoon on November 05, 2012, 12:50 am
My only criticism on this point is that it would make more customers scarce of even trying to get to Silk Road.

Think about it. Most of us knew nothing about PGP before registering here. Before depositing any money most of us learnt how to get good maildrops and how to get bitcoins anonymously.

Dank

Would it be more palatable to term the whole process a  SR Driving License or SR Buyers Permit?  Anywhere I've ever been - U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Europe & Asia, permits are required to drive on a road.  SR is a road - put a positive spin on it and require a permit to use The Road.  Maybe donate the "license fee" to Tor or give it to the Mods putting a further positive spin on it. 

I've only been here a few months and in that short amount of time there's been a real influx of stupidity: Peeps looking to score instantly, not caring about the consequences and not taking any precautions whatsoever making the SR dangerous for everyone.  I agree with everyone who says there is no way to block LE,  so forget about them.  I'm talking about  educating buyers and keeping morons out of the buy side of SR;  limit their access to the Forums until they pony up a fee and demonstrate that they know what they're doing  :D
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: drganja on November 05, 2012, 02:07 am
I think there should be a 200$+ nonrefundable fee to join up. this would weed out people who arent serious buyers
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: kissbang on November 05, 2012, 02:11 am
I think there should be a 200$+ nonrefundable fee to join up. this would weed out people who arent serious buyers

And how will vendors cash out anonymously?

How will people who can't figure out how (or don't want) to buy BTC any other way manage to fund that account?

Pearls... Swine... All that jazz...
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: shitwassocash on November 05, 2012, 02:39 am
I think there should be a 200$+ nonrefundable fee to join up. this would weed out people who arent serious buyers

And how will vendors cash out anonymously?

How will people who can't figure out how (or don't want) to buy BTC any other way manage to fund that account?

Pearls... Swine... All that jazz...


People who can't figure out how to get BTC shouldn't have an account here. I'm not seeing how this method would affect vendors being able to cash out anonymously.. let me know if I'm missing something.

Arbitrarily closing off membership is too random - there's no way to determine who we're letting in. (LE, serious buyers, shill accounts, etc etc)


Having a BTC buyer account fee seems like the best option.


EDIT: ahh, I think I see what you mean.Vendors who use other vendors to convert their BTC? There are other ways to cash out, and one buyer account (unlinked to the vendor's account) is enough to get a good amount of cashing out done. Why does a vendor need a different buyer account everytime?
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: Zulu on November 05, 2012, 03:31 am
seems like a pretty idea now with all the new members and spammers..
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: drugfather on November 05, 2012, 07:25 am
I think personally, it worked fine for demonoid and plenty of other sites, why wouldn't it work for SR?


Or they could make a one time fee OR do like opiophile did and do MEMBERSHIPS w/ prices for a certain amount of times

and this should apply to all existing and new members.


It just makes sense.

Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: nuyt on November 05, 2012, 07:42 am
Add a captcha for starting a thread. And give forum mods the ability to batch delete spam threads, so they don't have to delete them one by one like they do now. That would go a long way to clearing up the spam problem.

And require new members to join the forums first before they're able to create buyer accounts. Require some minimal post count and educating themselves about the basics before they're able to sign up for that buyer account. That would go a long way to clear up issues of noobies letting themselves get scammed. The more members that fully engage with the forums and have read up on how to safely use SR, the less people there will be to fall for scams. The less people there are to fall for scams, the less incentive scammers will have to hang around SR. Over time we'd likely see less scammers.

But all this talk about fees or invites, I think they're all, maybe well meaning, but really unworkable, and possibly counterproductive measures. An invite system would: create a black market for SR invites, leading to just more scams, potential breaks in anonymity, and a whole host of other ills. And fees? First off, SR is a cash cow for it's owners. They don't need people paying for access. And it's a total 180 degree turn away from a founding principle of SR, which is to provide an open market place for otherwise illicit goods. And none of these would be better at alleviating the problems SR is experiencing than other, better alternatives.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: microRNA on November 05, 2012, 11:30 am
captchas are obsolete and no longer work to prevent spam

and the idea of routing all user through the forums would just serve to overload them with the same traffic issues and cause similar problems with the market on here
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: WinterMoon on November 06, 2012, 12:50 am
and the idea of routing all user through the forums would just serve to overload them with the same traffic issues and cause similar problems with the market on here

Thank you for pointing that out  :-[

...DPR & Crew will get things sorted in no time - I have every confidence. Long live SR! [raises glass]

Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: pkd1893456782 on November 06, 2012, 01:07 am
Is there a post about the registration closing?
I've only just realised (hooked a long term friend up with details and he pointed it out) the registration was down.
I'm willing to order for him in the short term but would like to see some kind of invite system so I don't need to go through all the hastle.

(no I didn't search the forum, too slow and it's too late atm to have a proper look: sorry for being a cunt)
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: Zulu on November 06, 2012, 01:28 am
Seems like they have stopped for the time being
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: drugfather on November 06, 2012, 01:47 am
Honestly, if the forum moved away from simple machines, they might have better success in a more secure forum system haha.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: miraex on November 06, 2012, 07:43 pm
growing pains  ;D SR is on its way
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: nonuggets on November 16, 2012, 05:21 am
okay...i hear a lot of discussion on how new memberships should be issued...but i'm new and i want one now! how long do i have to wait..i'm on the blackmarket reloaded, but i want to get on sr to compare. anonuggets@tormail.org if anyone can help me...it would be much appreciated. I've signed up for gox and dwolla...just gotta go opena  new bank account for wires. i'm 99% there...i'm under the assumption that sr has a larger vendor community and maybe even better pricing, no?

anonuggets@tormail.org please help...i'll try to follow this thread, if you have any more information that would be useful, gimme the link!
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: nonuggets on November 16, 2012, 05:30 am
since i can't access sr...is this the correct link for the blackmarket? http://www.onion.to/enter.php?entryurl=J9r4gK6-UEJS6Qz4m0vFHUIrmsCyMwAAlf_xqAJGGB8S5YkVWlkkQiFiiQukq57tvTw-Rz-iKw%2C%2C

i signed up through this...just wanna make sure i'm not at some scam parallel site for noobs like me...
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: TheGoodSon on November 16, 2012, 05:31 am
Everyone wants the barn doors closed once they're inside. So:

My proposal is this:

Keep all the vendors
Exile all the new non-members (3 months or so) or who have spent like 1000BTC or something
Charge 10 BTC to get a buyer account
Guests can browse
Close 90% of the forum to non-paying members

That way, you flush all the newbies out, keep your dedicated people and profit.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: jack2324 on November 16, 2012, 05:37 am
I am very much in favor of an invite system. 

And keep all current accounts but if you have 0 purchases after like 2 months it gets auto-deleted.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: TheGoodSon on November 16, 2012, 05:41 am
I am very much in favor of an invite system. 

And keep all current accounts but if you have 0 purchases after like 2 months it gets auto-deleted.

Of course you are, you'd be one of the "haves"..

Invites form a caste system, it's stupid, you get people "selling" invites... come on people... it's fine how it is. A little disruption in service is nothing compared to what we had BEFORE silkroad.

Plus, now that BMR is more established, business would go there.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: pleks on November 16, 2012, 05:43 am
Everyone wants the barn doors closed once they're inside. So:

My proposal is this:

Keep all the vendors
Exile all the new non-members (3 months or so) or who have spent like 1000BTC or something
Charge 10 BTC to get a buyer account
Guests can browse
Close 90% of the forum to non-paying members

That way, you flush all the newbies out, keep your dedicated people and profit.

Newbies also bring profit and a bigger buyer and vendor base that doesn't have to jump through even more hoops will result in better pricing and service because of bigger competition.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: TheGoodSon on November 16, 2012, 05:46 am
Everyone wants the barn doors closed once they're inside. So:

My proposal is this:

Keep all the vendors
Exile all the new non-members (3 months or so) or who have spent like 1000BTC or something
Charge 10 BTC to get a buyer account
Guests can browse
Close 90% of the forum to non-paying members

That way, you flush all the newbies out, keep your dedicated people and profit.

Newbies also bring profit and a bigger buyer and vendor base that doesn't have to jump through even more hoops will result in better pricing and service because of bigger competition.

I forgot to tag my post #sarcastic, sorry for the confusion

IF SR was to be invite only, it should have been so from inception, it's too late now to fairly implement it.
Title: Re: close membership.... "Invites" for SR access?
Post by: nonuggets on November 16, 2012, 05:50 am
well wtf...is reg gonna open up any time soon? i wanna get on