@dzimbeck - Thank for the help, I got the client working. The only thing i did differently was run the exe file as an Administrator. It's syncing, at 40% after a two days... I'm looking forward to seeing the client marketplace in action, but glad you guys are working are developing the web market, as I think that's going to be where it's at in terms of mass adoption. Not a lot of people I know (even the really slightly techy ones) are going to be willing to wait for the client to sync after installing and then keep it running all the time just to keep everything up to date, especially if they are only trying to buy something or browse the market occasionally... Overall, Bitbay has a very bright future considering the power of the free, trustless market and the dynamic peg combined. Looking forward to seeing everything come together and beginning to be used.
A few questions I did have: On the client there is a warning: "Do not post illegal content to the market or you may get blocked."
I can understand Bitbay not wanting to turn into a decentralized, trustless silk road-type dark market, but who is the authority that gets to determine what constitutes "illegal content". Bitbay is a global decentralized market, so how can any local standards be applied to determine what is illegal and what isn't when each country/state/county/etc... has completely different standards? Technically, isn't whoever determines whether content is legal or not and does the blocking a central authority? Who is that authority for Bitbay? How can anything truly be considered decentralize with a central authority involved?
The users are the ones who self-moderate (they can flag orders) and they can share a moderation key. It's their own responsibility to respect the request. Because it is peer to peer and decentralized similar to the internet, it's not really possible to know what is going on in every corner of the internet. If users didn't respect the request it would have made the job of development harder. However there isn't really an authority. Instead users themselves can volunteer to try and keep the markets they are aware of within the community guidelines. And you are correct in saying laws vary from place to place and thus it's up to the peer to be aware of this and perhaps even reflect this in their offer (only taking clients from X country).
Also to respond to your other point that nobody wants to sync to use markets. The markets are based on Bitmessage so there is no syncing per se. However there is a delay for seeing orders. Also because this is a tool without servers and resistant to censorship, this will be relevant to anyone who is hard core about having their sovereignty and privacy which is something that I think web based markets won't be as good at doing even if the servers are somewhat decentralized. It will always be here as long as there is internet and open source even in 100 years as a tool to defend basic human liberties.