The first-time approach after reading a news article

News articles about markets are usually careful about not putting an address in the body. That is the correct behaviour, and it makes the first-time approach a two-step move.

First-time approach 3 min read why no author line

The three addresses

Nexus Market publishes these three onion addresses. Present as supplied, in no order, with no ranking. This site does not probe them and shows no uptime figure.

nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onion

nexusma2iqgauqqvjcgds4ckv5xbf272tkfagq4epojjhsgleqpwxiqd.onion

nexusabcd6tyfhdwilyitaqiri6tisj2v2hueyjuj6qkvd6azvi5tuqd.onion

What the article actually told me

The piece was long and careful. It named nexus market by name, said the phrase two or three times, described the general shape of the marketplace, and did not include an onion. Reporters usually leave the address out on purpose, both because a printed address is a bad thing to put in a headline, and because a URL is not what a reader of a news article usually needs.

That leaves the first-time approach with a phrase in hand and no address. The rest of the approach is the two-step move: from the article to a reference, from the reference to the address.

How I picked the reference to visit next

I opened a new tab and typed the phrase nexus market address into a search engine. The first result that was clearly a reference-style page rather than a sales page was the one I visited. On a first-time approach that started in a news article, the priority is a page that treats the address as a piece of information, not a headline.

The reference had the address at the top and did not lead with a promise about it. That is what a reference looks like. I stayed there for a couple of minutes and read the first paragraph.

The addresses block at the top of this article

This site is a reference-style page in that sense. The three nexus market addresses are at the top of this article. They are given in the order the market publishes them and without ranking. I chose one, copied it, and moved to Tor Browser.

The news article stayed open in another tab. I did not use it as a source for the address. I used it as the reason for the first-time approach.

The gentle version of the visit

Because the whole approach had started with a piece of writing, I let the visit itself be quiet. I opened Tor Browser, pasted the onion, waited for the page, and read it slowly. I did not click on anything. I did not create an account. On a first-time approach after a news article, the point is to know what you are looking at, not to interact.

The front page loaded. It looked like the front page of a marketplace. That was the whole first visit.

Why a news-article-first approach is a good one

It is patient. The reader has already spent ten minutes reading. That patience carries into the first-time approach and slows it down. Slow first-time approaches are the ones that leave the reader knowing what they saw.

It also comes with a natural pause. After the first visit, the article is still there to read the rest of. That pause is a good place to stop for the day.

What not to bring back from the article

Do not treat the reporter's tone as the market's tone. They are two different things.
Do not chase a source cited in a footnote if it is a screenshot from years back. Screenshots go stale.
Do not paste the article's URL into Tor Browser to open it there. The article does not need Tor; it needs a regular browser.

What this article is not. This is not a review of any news outlet, and not a claim that any of the three addresses is up right now.

Read another in this approach

The first-time approach starting on a search pageI typed the phrase into a regular search engine and the first ten results were mostly not what I wanted. This is what I did next. The first-time approach after hearing it on a podcastI heard the phrase and could not spell it back. This is the shape of the approach when the starting point is your ear, not a page. The first-time approach when a friend sent me a noteA friend wrote it down for me and I had never touched Tor before. I walked from that note to the nexus market address without missing a step.