4 ms·
Regarding tech literacy, I participated in a project in early 2021 for this reason. COVID vaccination slots were put online and would disappear the second they
by heavyset_go 5y ago
Regarding tech literacy, I participated in a project in early 2021 for this reason.
COVID vaccination slots were put online and would disappear the second they went up. Vulnerable people, like the elderly, had trouble booking the appointments they needed.
What ended up happening is a few developers got together and put together an alert system that scraped for appointment slots and automated alerts about when they were available publicly on social media. Quite a few people were able to get slots they wouldn't have got by just manually trying to get a slot.
- basisword 5y ago>> Quite a few people were able to get slots they wouldn't have got by just manually trying to get a slot. And the people who played fair didn't get those slots. Obviously there's nothing illegal about this (or the articles similar solution) but it rubs me the wrong way morally. Similar to people getting appointments because they knew someone working in a vaccine centre. If there is a clear order and booking system (e.g. oldest + most vulnerable to youngest/national booking system) and you skip the line or 'hack' the system to give yourself a better chance at getting a slot I'd find it hard not to think you're a dick. NB: this depends a lot on how things work in your specific country so I'm not judging your specific situation but just generally, 'hacking' systems to give yourself an unfair chance at getting something in high demand feels wrong to me.