Added a warning in the OP. I'm sorry to hear that the scammers are operating here
Be careful
It would be great if we could have more than just Max as a reliable escrow provider. I'm sure everyone agrees he is doing a brilliant job, but the amount of trades seem to grow by the day.
Naturally there's the inherent problem with trust, which makes finding a second provider quite difficult.
One solution might be, assuming someone wants to help and share Max's load, is that the escrow provider would give a fair amount of his MSC in escrow to dacoinminster. That way people trading would know that in case he tries to scam them, they are still compensated by dacoinminster from the scammer's own coins.
Having said that, nobody probably wants volunteer to do this unless there's fee per trade, unless you're really committed to this community and trust you'll get enough in tips to make it worth your while.
I'll be pleased to help. I appears that Maxmint is operating in the US/Europe time zone. I'm in NZ, so I will be online when Maxmint is taking a break. That'll make this a 24x7 exchange!
Trust:
I was one of the earlier buyers who bought 700MSC in 2 trades with Maxmint as escrow. I think we don't need to trouble JR with this. I'll be comfortable to send 5BTC to Maxmint as escrow, sort of acting as his sub contractor lol. After all, he started this valuable service. If Maxmint agrees I'll be happy to proceed.
Order book:
For starters, I've made a slightly more readable version of it here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoE8nAOEMIa7dElfTGo4UUlaRzhpTlVBa1NGbzExQmc&usp=sharing#gid=0If Maxmint or the rest likes it, it can be ported over to the original file.
Not sure how long before the distributed exchange is up. For the time being, I can make a Google Form for traders to submit and withdraw bids. That may be easier to track and does not crowd out this forum. Again, only if folks like it.