dug 
So I get home at 23:15 last night, check my eBay listing and my bike didn’t make the reserve price. Arrrggggg, I need to sell it tonight so I can pick up the new bike tomorrow before going on holiday on Saturday. Quickly, I click on the three top bidders and send them a message.
…ah, a captcha, that’s new, probably to prevent spammers or something… Fill in the number and pow, I can’t send a message to my buyer because the auction is over. What??? how the hell am I supposed to sell the bike??? (£32 later)…
It’s getting near midnight and hallelujah, the top bidder sends me a message. He’s still very interested and wants to make a deal. OK, I click on “reply to message”, give him my details and wait… another captcha and wham! THE SAME MESSAGE AARRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!
Bloody hell, there’s a trend going on here. Big hosted apps can’t afford to monitor or consider individual circumstances. It would cost a fortune to have a human evaluate every message sent on eBay or every click sent to an Adsense server. Instead, these companies work on aggregate (kinda the same way racial prototyping works).
Basically, the way it works is that if you find yourself in a situation where on aggregate a crime takes place then you are arrested, whether or not you had any intention of committing a crime. Aggregate justice is a whole new way to say goodbye to our Eighteenth century friends. Maybe we’ll be bringing back the lash next…
Old tags:
- le mouton enragé
- making it right