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1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

gwern.net

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Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#51

Post by WalterGR »

chm wrote: post #48
ez123 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just FYI, MDMA is ecstasy.

I don't do MDMA personally but I have some friends who like going to raves with some chemical supplies. On the streets, some make it a point of honor to sell/buy only "MDMA" because "ecstasy" is "crap". The only precise name is MDMA. In my opinion the name users give to what they're ingesting is inconsequential. Most users have no idea what MDMA means anyway, nor would they know how to chemically identify if what the…

    The only precise name is MDMA.
There's also "Molly," which is the street name for pure MDMA. (Though: most terms are tied to a specific geography.)

    ...nor would they know how to chemically identify if what they
    bought might contain MDMA.
True, but that's not unique to MDMA users. cf. the heroin in the Netherlands that was being sold as cocaine, and which lead to several deaths.

Organizations such as Dance Safe have existed for decades (in the U.S. at least) to let people test their drugs to make sure they're ingesting what they intend to ingest.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#52

Post by WalterGR »

jmduke wrote: post #25
branchless wrote: post #17

This is why I love the internet. This article has given me a fascinating glimpse into a world I have no idea about. Author: thank you so much for taking the time to document this.

Unrelated to the darknet, but this Twitter account evoked a very similar feeling in me (random snippets from userboards in the 80's and early 90's): https://twitter.com/wwwtxt

"I heard about the Apple Watch recently and was going to check it out—but not now. It can't even transmit or input data. ☯93JAN"

Prescient.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#53

Post by njloof »

fineman wrote: post #7
curiousg wrote: post #3

What amazing work! I am very interested in doing research with Tor and a dataset like this could make my job a heck of a lot easier. I have a legal question though: Are your scrapes text only? Before I work with this dataset, I want to make sure that there's no possibility it contains illegal images (child porn).

How about ascii art? Actually, this is an interesting topic. Poisoning a dataset. CP would work for private security investigators, and to poison against government investigators you could use leaked classified secrets. Could you work around this by operating on the files on VPS you don't own, streaming a very low-res ('Basilisk'-proof - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLIT_(short_story) ) remote desktop image.

Does ASCII art have victims? Other than its audience, I mean.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#54

Post by pluma »

userbinator wrote: post #47
gwern wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are generally not text only. I feel that images are useful to allow browsing the markets as they were and may be highly valuable in their own right as research material, so I tried to collects images where applicable. (The forums usually did not support any kind of image upload other than avatars, so this is more relevant to the markets than forum scrapes.) As far as CP goes, there should be essentially zero CP…

DNM users almost universally loathe CP, and no market has ever dared to permit sales. These users are willing to do so many other illegal things, but the thought of being known as a pedophile or supporting pedophilia in any way, is completely abhorrent to them? Interesting datapoint.

Morality is not binary. That someone is fine with some things that are illegal does not mean that they are fine with everything that is illegal.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#55

Post by davidgerard »

userbinator wrote: post #47
gwern wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are generally not text only. I feel that images are useful to allow browsing the markets as they were and may be highly valuable in their own right as research material, so I tried to collects images where applicable. (The forums usually did not support any kind of image upload other than avatars, so this is more relevant to the markets than forum scrapes.) As far as CP goes, there should be essentially zero CP…

DNM users almost universally loathe CP, and no market has ever dared to permit sales. These users are willing to do so many other illegal things, but the thought of being known as a pedophile or supporting pedophilia in any way, is completely abhorrent to them? Interesting datapoint.

It's quite usual for career criminals to have a detailed and complicated worked-out ethical system, where that is a victimless crime but that is reprehensible.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#56

Post by davidgerard »

smeyer wrote: post #11
ryanlol wrote: post #9

>collating and creating these scrapes has absorbed an enormous amount of my time & energy due to the need to solve CAPTCHAs,... Have you considered automating this?

The whole point of CAPTCHAs is to be difficult to automate. Or are you suggesting automating farming out the CAPTCHA solutions to cheap workers?

The main problem is that most CAPTCHAs are terrible, and do a better job of keeping humans out than robots.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#57

Post by user_0001 »

WalterGR wrote: post #51
chm wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't do MDMA personally but I have some friends who like going to raves with some chemical supplies. On the streets, some make it a point of honor to sell/buy only "MDMA" because "ecstasy" is "crap". The only precise name is MDMA. In my opinion the name users give to what they're ingesting is inconsequential. Most users have no idea what MDMA means anyway, nor would they know how to chemically identify if what the…

The only precise name is MDMA. There's also "Molly," which is the street name for pure MDMA. (Though: most terms are tied to a specific geography.) ...nor would they know how to chemically identify if what they bought might contain MDMA. True, but that's not unique to MDMA users. cf. the heroin in the Netherlands that was being sold as cocaine, and which lead to several deaths. Organizations such as Dance Safe have e…

"Molly" is the US term for what should be (but usually isn't - very often some mixture of random RCs methylone, mdvp and other alphabet drugs) MDMA.

The UK term is "Mandy" "mud" or MD.

Ecstacy (which I have never ever heard used) refers to what should be MDMA in pill form along with some binders and is usually referred to in the UK as "pills" or "Es". I believe the US prefers the terms "rolls"

>the heroin in the Netherlands that was being sold as cocaine, and which lead to several deaths. How on earth can you buy coke and get heroin? No one buys coke and then rakes up a monster line, everyone does a dab test (lick finger, stick it in the powder and taste it)

Heroin tastes nothing like coke. Heroin sells for more so why mix it in?

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#58

Post by user_0001 »

davidgerard wrote: post #55
userbinator wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DNM users almost universally loathe CP, and no market has ever dared to permit sales. These users are willing to do so many other illegal things, but the thought of being known as a pedophile or supporting pedophilia in any way, is completely abhorrent to them? Interesting datapoint.

It's quite usual for career criminals to have a detailed and complicated worked-out ethical system, where that is a victimless crime but that is reprehensible.

>It's quite usual for career criminals to have a detailed and complicated worked-out ethical system

Not even that complicated, pretty much summed up by "no women no children"

I think you will find, that apart from the paedophiles themselves, they are universally loathed. Probably more so by criminals.

The last place a paedophile wants to be is locked up in prison.

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#59

Post by timboslice »

smeyer wrote: post #11
ryanlol wrote: post #9

>collating and creating these scrapes has absorbed an enormous amount of my time & energy due to the need to solve CAPTCHAs,... Have you considered automating this?

The whole point of CAPTCHAs is to be difficult to automate. Or are you suggesting automating farming out the CAPTCHA solutions to cheap workers?

Yes. Quick list of providers I've worked with, in no particular order:

http://www.imagetyperz.com/

http://expertdecoders.com/

http://www.deathbycaptcha.com/user/login

https://de-captcher.com/

http://bypasscaptcha.com/

Re: 1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes

#60

Post by ocb »

davidgerard wrote: post #55
userbinator wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DNM users almost universally loathe CP, and no market has ever dared to permit sales. These users are willing to do so many other illegal things, but the thought of being known as a pedophile or supporting pedophilia in any way, is completely abhorrent to them? Interesting datapoint.

It's quite usual for career criminals to have a detailed and complicated worked-out ethical system, where that is a victimless crime but that is reprehensible.

The largest use of DNMs is for the sale of illegal recreational drugs. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, I hope that it's clear that crimes like that fall into a different ethical category than child pornography.
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