Just in Time For 4/20: 341 Free Seeds, 17 Winners, 1 Bad-Ass Gorilla!

[Gorilla Seeds]

If you haven't entered yet, please click the link on the first page & do so.

The number of entries we get could help me get more comps for the forum - and a lack of entries could mean the company concentrates on other sites.

Just a heads up because I love you guys - not sure if I'll get my hand slapped for transparency or not ....

Sherry

 

[hydro1000]

I'm in on this, FREE SEEDS, Who wouldn't want a chance at this. Thanks Gorilla Seeds for putting these up for grabs!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Nice!

But... Do you have a website that ISN'T being run on a server that's located in the United States and which DOESN'T attempt to run a script (cloudflare) from the same group of people who proudly set up one of the more notable "honeypot" operations for the US federal government (and who then announced that they can't wait to do something even bigger and better for old Uncle Sam)?

If you don't, please consider setting one up. I know that things have become somewhat relaxed (to one degree or other) in many (US) states - but in others, there are still people going to prison with multi-year sentences for activities that some would consider minor (and what others would consider to not be a crime in the first place). So putting a little effort into locating your website on neutral ground could get you more customers.

Just a suggestion. In any event, thanks for the giveaway.

 

[Gorilla Seeds]

Nice!

But... Do you have a website that ISN'T being run on a server that's located in the United States and which DOESN'T attempt to run a script (cloudflare) from the same group of people who proudly set up one of the more notable "honeypot" operations for the US federal government (and who then announced that they can't wait to do something even bigger and better for old Uncle Sam)?

If you don't, please consider setting one up. I know that things have become somewhat relaxed (to one degree or other) in many (US) states - but in others, there are still people going to prison with multi-year sentences for activities that some would consider minor (and what others would consider to not be a crime in the first place). So putting a little effort into locating your website on neutral ground could get you more customers.

Just a suggestion. In any event, thanks for the giveaway.

Are you talking about our retail site?

I don't do IT for the company, but I was pretty sure it was hosted in the UK.

If you can tell me if it's our main URL or the URL for the contest, I'll be sure to let the owner & our IT people know about your concerns.
It would be a concern for them too.

By the way, I live in the US, in an illegal state, so I know exactly what you mean.

Sherry

 

[TorturedSoul]

Hi, Sherry.

First, I'd like to be clear that I meant NO disrespect to you or your company. I had been away for a while, so I was not active when you became a sponsor. But from what I can tell, you appear to have a good reputation here. I am always happy to see someone decide to become a sponsor at 420Magazine, because I have a special place in my heart for the forum (and have much respect for its owner). But, in addition to that, it is nice to see someone take that extra step and actually participate here instead of "merely" writing a check. I am not currently in a position to give your company my custom because, well, I'm so poor that I can barely pay attention - but if I could afford to, I would certainly look favorably upon you when it was time to do my shopping.

Second, had I been thinking, I probably would have contacted you by PM instead of posting in your thread (my apologies!). However... After the fact, considering the number of "likes" that my post received - and the PM I was sent by a curious member - it seems that it might be worthwhile to publicly discuss my concerns. As both the author of this thread and a site sponsor, if you disagree you can choose to have 420 or another staff member delete my posts, if you wish, and I won't get upset.

I should also apologize in advance. I have been known to ramble a little and write what some have called novels. You have been warned, lol.

Are you talking about our retail site?

I am talking about the link that is in your .SIG in your posts, the one that ends in the suffix of ".co.uk." That suffix would tend to lead many people to think that it is being hosted in the UK. But, according to what I have been able to determine, it is either directly hosted in the United States or, at the very least, the hosting company is located in - and, therefore, bound by the laws of - the US. Specifically, it appears to be in the San Francisco, CA area. See:
Geotool

It may only be in reference to the hosting company. But this lookup service has been remarkably accurate in the past, so I give it credence. I'm willing to admit that, due to the way that Cloudflare is set up, it's possible that your server is in a different location - but the hosting company's main headquarters isn't (and, therefore, it is in the US jurisdiction).

BtW, the owner of our (this) forum has chosen to have it hosted on a server that is physically located in another country. Was he in imminent danger of prosecution - or were the members - before he made that decision? <SHRUGS> Probably not. But it provides that extra layer of security.

There are a significant number of states that allow the consumption of cannabis (primarily for medicinal reasons, but there are some now that allow it for recreational use, too), and California is one of those. But receiving seeds is rather a gray area still... I say "gray area" because people have had their shipments confiscated by Customs (and then received an empty package with a letter that basically stated if they wished to dispute the confiscation, to feel free to stop by for a little chat :rolleyes3 ) and, to the best of my knowledge, those people were not busted because of it. And, as far as it goes, if I were a judge and a LEO asked me to issue a search warrant based solely on the fact that such a package had been confiscated, I would refuse - to be honest, I'd have to say, "This isn't evidence of a cannabis grow, lol, it's - at best - circumstantial evidence that they would have grown... but you've just made that impossible by not allowing them to receive their seeds. So have a day, and close the door as you leave." (I guess I'd be a smart-*** regardless of what I did for a living.) But I'd also point out that paranoids probably wouldn't have such things sent to their own home and almost certainly not if they were planning to grow there. But, be that as it may, there is probably a federal statute (or ten) dealing with the shipment of cannabis seeds. And when things go through the postal system OR cross state boundaries, the federal government may choose to step in. I actually think it's reasonably unlikely that much effort would ever get expended to catch ONE grower in this fashion. But if little effort could be expended to catch lots of growers, that could - at least in theory - be a different story. Alternatively, if it proved easy to hassle the owner's and/or customers of a seed shop, I would not be surprised at all if at least one person in the US federal monster I mean bureaucracy thought, "Hey, wouldn't that be pretty fun?"

I have been told that circumstantial BS carries more weight when there is a whole pile of it. So if someone is caught ordering cannabis seeds, their electricity and water go through periodic high-use cycles, and they are too dumb to dispose of their General Hydroponics bottles, leaving the empties on the porch... So anything that a person can do to... lessen such a pile seems like a great idea in my book.

I don't wish to see anyone get busted, hassled, or even Officially Frowned Upon over anything having to do with cannabis. Especially by the federal government, since their only (very, very treacherous (IMHO)) ground to stand on is that it is a "schedule one substance" when, in fact, it has NO LEGAL basis for placing it there in the first place! According to their own rules, to be classified thusly, a substance must be (all three of) one that has a high potential for abuse (ironically, some countries have recognized its utility as a tool to help combat the abuse of real noxious substances), it must currently have no accepted medical use for treatment in the US (the residents of 20+ states and the District of Columbia - and many, many doctors/nurses/health care workers/scientists/researchers/etc strongly disagree because the facts show otherwise), and there must be a lack of accepted safety for use of the substance under medical supervision. That last one is only even (debatable) a thing because our government chose to make it impossible (both in our country and elsewhere on the planet) for many decades for qualified medical personnel to prescribe or even research cannabis(!) - and, in any event, the substance must fit ALL THREE of those requirements. So... Well, even if I hadn't had a lifelong appreciation of cannabis, I would still defend your right to do business in my country; I'm not a fan (at all!) of ChinaMart, but if the goobers in DC decided to railroad them out of business based on premises that just weren't true, I'd feel the same way. But I digress...

According to the web page that I linked above, your company's website is hosted by Cloudflare. I can understand the reasons - that entity is pretty huge in its field and can more or less make guarantees as far as service and uptime are concerned. This is, naturally, important to any retailer who does business via the Internet. However...

I am "a bit" paranoid when it comes to Cloudflare. It was created by Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway, and Michelle Zatlyn. Those names might be familiar to some; Matthew Prince (et al) created something before he went on to create Cloudflare. It was called Project Honey Pot. In a nutshell:

Project Honey Pot is the first and only distributed system for identifying spammers and the spambots they use to scrape addresses from your website. Using the Project Honey Pot system you can install addresses that are custom-tagged to the time and IP address of a visitor to your site. If one of these addresses begins receiving email we not only can tell that the messages are spam, but also the exact moment when the address was harvested and the IP address that gathered it.

To participate in Project Honey Pot, webmasters need only install the Project Honey Pot software somewhere on their website. We handle the rest — automatically distributing addresses and receiving the mail they generate. As a result, we anticipate installing Project Honey Pot should not increase the traffic or load to your website.

We collate, process, and share the data generated by your site with you. We also work with law enforcement authorities to track down and prosecute spammers.

I believe someone once told me that there is another name for a honey pot. That name is... entrapment.

I do not know everything about him or his various projects. I do know that he made statements about how much he enjoyed working with various law enforcement and government entities. I also read that, at one point, he was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security (which should be listed in Webster's dictionary, under the term "oxymoron") because, apparently, those folk are big fans who really appreciate it when someone makes their job a lot easier. I've also read that he'd be happy to work with LEO/government again. IIRC, his relationship with the government (etc.) was so cordial that he expressed hopes that he could work with them on another project in the future. His next major project... was Cloudflare. I'm just sayin'.

I may have mentioned - and you, being obviously equipped with a pulse, may have noticed - that I am just a bit of a paranoid. ("Yes, junior - but are you paranoid... enough?" ) I do things that other people might not recommend (I might have supplemented my diet this past Winter <COUGH>once or twice<COUGH> by exploring dumpsters after the restaurants closed (because hey, I can't pull bags of cat food for the two abused cats that I broke down and rescued... and I'm just a big a fan of eating solid food as they are), for example). But where certain other things are concerned, no one who knows me in real life has ever looked at me and thought, "Wow, he's got kind of a reckless attitude," lol. And not many people ever end up staying at a government resort because they were too paranoid (there was my cousin's friend, but he took off running across all four lanes of a busy Interstate because a cop stopped and asked if he needed a jump start - and he was dumber than the box that the box of rocks came in anyway). What I'm getting at is that it is within the realm of possibility that I am more worried than I actually have to be. Then again, Tommy Chong went to jail for nine(?) months... just for selling a new, never-used bong. So, you know... Life doesn't exactly have to make sense to bend you over the nearest piece of furniture and show you a little, err, tough love.

I shy away from any website that is hosted by Cloudflare and I definitely would never allow my web browser's script-blocker to allow said websites to run a Cloudflare script on my computer. And I'm the guy that used to amuse himself as a teenager by playing that game where you squat on the rear bumper of a pickup truck, holding onto the tailgate, while the driver turns donuts faster and faster on a blacktop parking lot to see who is dumb I mean talented enough to hold on the longest (turns out if the tailgate pops open and you roll 75', they tell you that you won that round... when you wake up).

Again, I'm sure your company's webmaster has her/his reasons for having the website hosted by Cloudflare. But I wish they'd decide to have it hosted by another company (which was based in another country). Many US-based companies keep logs (and, IIRC, that is a requirement in much of Europe?). There are bound to be hosts/countries who do not retain logs for even a second. That would make things difficult for the various LEOs ("You have a warrant for all our logs? We don't have any.") I'm guessing that Cloudflare... isn't one of those companies.

By the way, I live in

If it were me, I'd go back and remove that information. NOT because I don't trust 420 - I do (he was once kind enough to save my life - which I'll never forget, brother). But... Paranoid, remember?

Again, I have respect for you, both for choosing to be in the profession that you are in and for helping out my favorite website, and I sincerely wish that I could afford to show my appreciation right now by making a little pre-4/20 order. I'd also like to enter and win your current contest - I have only had the pleasure of enjoying strains from one of the three companies in your giveaway. Alas....

Regards,
~TS~

Regards,

 

[Gorilla Seeds]

I didn't take anything you said as being disrespectful - and thanks for the lesson.

I'll see what I can find out. I had assumed that we were hosting the site on a server that was owned by the consultant who developed our software package because it can be dog slow at some times.

Here's a lesson for you about seeds & customs (excuse me if you already know) - even if cannabis seeds were legal on a federal basis here, customs could still take them unless they're accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. They're treated just like any other plant material.

 

[kelticBlue]

i cannot remember if i already entered or not.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Here's a lesson for you about seeds & customs (excuse me if you already know) - even if cannabis seeds were legal on a federal basis here, customs could still take them unless they're accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. They're treated just like any other plant material.

That must be why there were reports years ago of, err, care packages from the Netherlands getting irradiated in transit, lol.

I'll have to be sure and recommend you to my friends living in more pleasant (political) climates.

i cannot remember if i already entered or not.

Harvest a good sativa last time?

Regards,

 

[Smokeater]

It would be cool to win! I'll take a shot!!

 

[Joshuawinc2]

Thanks for the chance.


Sent from my iPhone using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[Stage]

High folks. Late to the party. My dude Shiggs said I should see Mr. G.
I bought all this popcorn with me....

 

[nuggs78]

Thank for chance and nice seed line up girrila seeds.

 

[lilybeanz]

Thanks for the opportunity to win some great beans!!
fingers crossed!
GOODLUCK EVERYONE!!

 

[unforgiven]

in like Flynn

 

[Gorilla Seeds]

Nice!

But... Do you have a website that ISN'T being run on a server that's located in the United States and which DOESN'T attempt to run a script (cloudflare) from the same group of people who proudly set up one of the more notable "honeypot" operations for the US federal government (and who then announced that they can't wait to do something even bigger and better for old Uncle Sam)?

If you don't, please consider setting one up. I know that things have become somewhat relaxed (to one degree or other) in many (US) states - but in others, there are still people going to prison with multi-year sentences for activities that some would consider minor (and what others would consider to not be a crime in the first place). So putting a little effort into locating your website on neutral ground could get you more customers.

Just a suggestion. In any event, thanks for the giveaway.

Here's what they told me about the hosting:
Gorilla has servers hosted on Amazon in Ireland, they run through cloudflare to prevent attacks and increase speed.

That's from the IT guy - I'm sure management will discuss where we should host the site.
They were more curious about it than I thought they'd be.

 

[OlderGrower]

Been there, done that!

Been there done that gave them away, will not happen this time

 

[TorturedSoul]

Regardless of the ultimate decision that your company and webmaster arrives at in regards to my concerns, thank you, ma'am, for taking them seriously.

Assuming that you folks end up with a website that is more secure - even from its hosting company - than it is now, I would advertise that you have taken steps to make things even safer for your customers. After all, any effort/hassle put towards people's welfare ought to pay dividends tenfold! If they DO, I would not be adverse to receiving a little care package if you feel that I have helped you make your company better and stronger. (No, that is not my motivation, lol.)

Here's what they told me about the hosting:
Gorilla has servers hosted on Amazon in Ireland, they run through cloudflare to prevent attacks and increase speed.

I wondered about the combination of both Cloudflare AND Cloudfront scripts, lol.

That's from the IT guy - I'm sure management will discuss where we should host the site.
They were more curious about it than I thought they'd be.[/QUOTE]

The fact that you - and your boss - did not immediately give me the brush-off is, IMHO, a mark of a first-class outfit. Thanks again!B

BtW, I hope that you run some kind of one-day thing on April 20, even if it's just including a piece of paper with "Hope you had a blazingly fine 4/20" written on it. It is, after all, our holiday .

Regards,

 

[Gorilla Seeds]

Regardless of the ultimate decision that your company and webmaster arrives at in regards to my concerns, thank you, ma'am, for taking them seriously.

Assuming that you folks end up with a website that is more secure - even from its hosting company - than it is now, I would advertise that you have taken steps to make things even safer for your customers. After all, any effort/hassle put towards people's welfare ought to pay dividends tenfold! If they DO, I would not be adverse to receiving a little care package if you feel that I have helped you make your company better and stronger. (No, that is not my motivation, lol.)



I wondered about the combination of both Cloudflare AND Cloudfront scripts, lol.

That's from the IT guy - I'm sure management will discuss where we should host the site.
They were more curious about it than I thought they'd be.

The fact that you - and your boss - did not immediately give me the brush-off is, IMHO, a mark of a first-class outfit. Thanks again!B

BtW, I hope that you run some kind of one-day thing on April 20, even if it's just including a piece of paper with "Hope you had a blazingly fine 4/20" written on it. It is, after all, our holiday .

Regards,[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what they'll do just for 4/20 - this contest is supposed to be for 4/20 too.

The owner has told me this is a top priority to check out & I'll be in touch through PM if we can work out a care package. I never know when they will & when they won't, so I can't make any promises.

 

[W1zard]

Awesome thanks for the chance and good luck every one

happy growing

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'm not sure what they'll do just for 4/20 - this contest is supposed to be for 4/20 too.

Oh. Sorry, I hadn't thought of that ("He can be a bit dense at times..."). Of course it is, that's why you're running it in April instead of August.

work out a care package.

But I was kidding. This was the point where you'd laugh and say, "Nice try TS. But thanks for thinking of our customers and their safety." Or when I wake up from my dream . I seem to have an uncontrollable urge to be a bit of a smart-*** from time to time, and have learned to try to express it in a way that will be (hopefully) met with a chuckle or two instead of pitchforks and torches.

I don't know what to say other than offer a sincere thank you. May your act of kindness be repaid a thousand times over.