messages ยท post 01 of 7 in this channel
The WeTheNorth market inbox is not a chat app
It looks like a messaging interface, and every instinct that interface triggers is the wrong one here.
the three wethenorth market addresses
hn2paw7zfvndw3dovycegeqmvvnf4pl67b3g2p7pohjlzavloosh73id.onionhn2paw7zrgujyhnt6mgxlt2q6uhgbke4itpqitxhyfbumq3wtnckbuyd.onionhn2paw7zadwkcra3qzv5e4q547i7e5lvxm62cfxqftuqdu7moiu2ceyd.onionprinted the way they were handed over. no labels, no numbering, nothing here says which one to try first. this feed never opens them, so it has no status light, no percentage and no date of checking to give you.
what it actually is
A message box on a market server. You write, it stores, the other party reads when they next sign in. That is the whole mechanism.
There is no delivery receipt, no typing indicator, no online status, and no notification that reaches you anywhere outside the site.
the habits it triggers
Anything that looks like a chat window makes people write like they are chatting. Short bursts, several in a row, casual register, thinking out loud.
That mode is wrong for a medium where replies take a day and everything is stored. It produces long threads of half thoughts that are miserable to read and impossible to summarise.
Write like you are writing a note, not like you are talking. One message, complete, then stop.
where it is stored
On the market. Encrypted messages are stored encrypted, which is a real protection, and unencrypted ones sit there as plain text.
Either way, the storage is not yours and the deletion is not yours to guarantee. That is the fact underneath the whole channel, and the post on clearing the inbox is about what you can still do about it.
who reads it
The person you sent it to. Possibly the market, depending on how it is stored and what disputes exist. Possibly a third party from the market during a dispute, which is not a bad thing but is worth knowing when you write.
You are always writing for two readers, and the second one is a stranger reading it later in an argument.
the pace
A reply in a day is fine. A reply in several days is not unusual. Vendors sign in when they sign in, and there is no mechanism to nudge them.
The post on waiting for a reply is entirely about the stretch in between, because it is where people do the most damage.
what it is good for
Specific questions with specific answers. Clarifying a listing. Reporting a concrete problem with an order. Providing something that was asked for.
It is not good for reassurance, for chatting, or for building a relationship, and every attempt to use it that way costs you information about yourself.
The test before sending is simple. Is there a specific thing I want back from this message? If there is not, the message is doing something other than communicating, and it is worth not sending.
Most of the worst messages on any market were written to feel better rather than to get an answer.
If reassurance is what you actually need, the honest place to get it is from the listing estimate and the escrow, not from a stranger with a queue.
replies
a reader askedWill the vendor see that I read their message?
the answerNo. There are no read receipts here, in either direction, which also means nobody can tell that you have been sitting on a reply.
a reader askedCan I delete a message I sent?
the answerYou can usually delete your copy. Whether the other side's copy or the server's copy goes anywhere is not something you control.
a reader askedIs the market reading my messages?
the answerAssume messages could be read unless they are encrypted, and write accordingly. That is not an accusation, it is the only sensible default about a box on someone else's server.
what this post is not Not a claim about how any particular market stores messages. It is a description of what a message box is, so that assumptions about it are conservative rather than optimistic.