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The dual pattern is a variant on what used to be called a "Joe Job"[0]: Falsely directing the platform's harsh automated bots against your competitor or enemy.
by dreamcompiler 7y ago
The dual pattern is a variant on what used to be called a "Joe Job"[0]: Falsely directing the platform's harsh automated bots against your competitor or enemy. This has become quite prevalent on Amazon [1] and I've seen several indirect instances of it on HN recently, where an Android developer tries to defend against shadowy competitors stealing their app by putting resources in nonstandard places, which then results in Google banning the original developer rather than the true guilty party. If Google (or Amazon or anybody else) is going to use zero-tolerance bots to police itself, they need to be designed such that people can't turn them into weapons. Designing such bots is not at all easy and it requires a very high level of skill.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_job https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_job
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketplace-scams-seller-court-appeal-reinstatement https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketpl...
- darpa_escapee 7y agoAutomated bureaucracy without a means for recourse is nightmare fuel.
- sitkack 7y agoYou should read Philip K Dick.
- r-w 7y agoInteresting, seems like a worthwhile read in this context. Any particular suggestions?
- asteli 7y agoSounds more Kafkaesque to me, but the GP's comment brought to mind Autofac, a short story about an automated manufacturing and distribution system that continues producing and delivering product to humam settlements long after the apocalypse, while monopolizing resources, effectively preventing the humans from rebuilding.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoDramatized in an episode of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.
- asteli 7y agoI saw and didn't really care for the dramatization. Without giving too much away, they changed the ending significantly in a way that was particularly non-PKDian. The original has a strong theme of human struggle against a force that is vast, unstoppable, inhuman, and that gets lost in the adaptation.
- eli_gottlieb 7y agoAlso Kafka.