view the rest of the comments
news
Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.
Rules:
-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --
-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --
-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --
-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --
-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--
-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--
-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --
-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --
There was one market that packed up and left gracefully without exit scamming: Agora.
The administrators announced it was shutting down in 2015, I recall their reasoning was they found a security vulnerability and decided maintaining the place wasn't worth the risk. They gave everyone a couple weeks to withdraw all funds before going offline for good, and that was that. Absolute legend of a market, probably the best there ever was. It kind of boggles my mind that someone in the position of those administrators running an illegal drug market would do this out of the kindness of their hearts when they could have just as easily taken the money and ran.
I smoked weed for my very first time after buying it from a vendor on Agora before my state legalized. I'll never forget it.
Tbh it seemed like the writing was on the wall at the time that weed is going to be legalized in what used to be the biggest underground market for it. I bet they thought it was the perfect time to cash out and be set for life right when the feds might stop caring about what you did forever. Make no enemies on the way out and then live a life of comfort relatively worry free.
Important to note here that Agora wasn't just a weed market, it also had vendors selling meth, heroin, coke, and fentanyl just like any other DNM. That makes it all the more surreal how they shut down so gracefully.
They’re all exit scams eventually, but this one is wild lol. Genuinely so funny the way this feels so unhinged compared to just disappearing one day with all of the user data/money. Tbh I think it’s a great ploy though. It really serves its purpose to make users think those behind the site are crazy/stupid enough to actually go and act in good faith regarding the extortion payment instead of acting in their own best interest and just hiding.
They’ll probably squeeze another few million out of the user/seller base and then turn the data over as obvious self-incrimination to the feds if they haven’t already.
pgp’s pretty good
pretty good for privacy