Reference / the addresses
The addresses
Three strings, published as they were given, in no order and with no labels. Before you use one it is worth being precise about what a list like this is actually asserting, because it is narrower than it looks.
In circulation
Copy rather than retype. Then compare against your own saved copy before you open one.
nexusb2l73qzjn4slhyfxa3jvpolw7fomiz5sgyyefnsdhikaqgborqd.onionnexusma2iqgauqqvjcgds4ckv5xbf272tkfagq4epojjhsgleqpwxiqd.onionnexusabcdrwy7632jfmkfu3f6u7usyw2xn2mcfiljunz6zsj4p5vioqd.onionNo labels and no numbering, because calling one the main address and the rest mirrors would put a claim in front of you that nobody outside the market can support.
What a list like this claims
| It looks like it says | It actually says |
|---|---|
| These addresses work | These addresses were in circulation when the page was written |
| These addresses are safe | Nothing. Safety is not a property of a string |
| The first one is the best | Nothing. Order on a page is order on a page |
| This is all of them | Only that these are the ones here. Sets change |
A list can be completely accurate and still walk you into trouble, because a correct list of strings says nothing about who is answering on them today. Accuracy and usefulness come apart here, and most arguments about link pages are two people talking past each other across that gap.
Why there are several
Hidden services are slow to reach and easy to overload. Running one market on more than one address spreads the load, keeps something reachable while one is having a bad day, and lets an address be retired without taking everything down. The count moves over a year, and a page claiming a fixed permanent list is either freshly written or not maintained, and you cannot tell which from the page.
Keeping your own copy
- Put the set in a file you control, with the date you wrote it down beside it. Not a bookmark, because bookmarks get used without being looked at.
- Compare against a published set every few weeks. Under a minute, and that is the whole maintenance burden.
- Delete what falls off rather than archiving it. An address kept in case it comes back is one you will paste in six months.
- Do it on ordinary days, never during an outage, when sources agree less and everybody is in a hurry.
What to do when two lists disagree
This happens constantly and it usually means nothing sinister. One page was updated last week and the other in spring. The useful move is not working out which page is honest, because you cannot. It is treating the union of both as candidates and letting a signature settle which one you are actually talking to.