tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post8112087017158431080..comments2024-03-28T06:07:03.667-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A WALK BEGUN BUT NOT COMPLETEDRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-16442339639246966082018-12-31T05:52:18.400-05:002018-12-31T05:52:18.400-05:00PS Your first paragraph is very instructive. Thank...PS Your first paragraph is very instructive. Thanks.Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-19765327590884333582018-12-30T05:29:26.321-05:002018-12-30T05:29:26.321-05:00If the question is "Is it fake" I would ...If the question is "Is it fake" I would guess a large part of it is:<br /><br />http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/how-much-of-the-internet-is-fake.html<br /><br /><i>How much of the internet is fake? Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years, according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot. For a period of time in 2013, the Times reported this year, a full half of YouTube traffic was “bots masquerading as people,” a portion so high that employees feared an inflection point after which YouTube’s systems for detecting fraudulent traffic would begin to regard bot traffic as real and human traffic as fake. They called this hypothetical event “the Inversion.”</i><br /><br />But it still drives business and investment anyway, since some of it is real.Grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16043590234342765836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-187577085050949312018-12-29T15:09:16.011-05:002018-12-29T15:09:16.011-05:00You say that you buy pijamas in Amazon and the nex...You say that you buy pijamas in Amazon and the next day ads for pijamas appear in the pages you click on.<br /><br />They're cleverer than that. Let's say that you have Gmail, as I do. When you write your sister that the next afternoon you're going to go shopping for pijamas, they read your Gmail and send you ads for pijamas in the mall nearest your home.<br /><br />Besides that, since they follow all your Google searches and everything you say in blogs and all your Gmails or Hotmails and all the pages you read, they compile a profile and they already know that you are the type of person in sociological and psychological terms who is likely to sleep in pijamas and in pijamas of a certain color and of a certain style. And who is likely to stop in for a beer after buying pijamas and hence, they send you an ad for a beer which fits your profile too, etc., etc.s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-9303024674221725232018-12-29T12:01:04.304-05:002018-12-29T12:01:04.304-05:00I'm not sure of the lingo but I think it works...I'm not sure of the lingo but I think it works something like this and I'm only going by the $30 ads that I've placed for my painting workshop in St. Petersburg, Fl in February. <br /><br />Let's say I write a post claiming that Bernie is the only candidate that has any chance of addressing one's material needs (for starters). The rest are establishment corporate hacks, I say. I may specifically say that Sen. Harris is a good example. She's is hypocritical in the extreme and given CA's new and improved position on Super Tuesday, it is imperative to vote for anyone other than Harris in the CA primary and preferably Bernie. Also I may list organizations that one can contribute to that support Bernie. <br /><br />That's my post. It will wind up on the "time lines" of people who "like" my facebook page and who have sought my "friendship." (I think that is how it goes but you get the idea). But I can also "boost" my post and when I do that I give FB a budget, and a length of time for the a campaign. Let's say $100 for 7 days. And then, the key part, I create a profile (people who live in CA or specific cities in CA, age, and a slew of various preferences and demographic information that FB makes available to me that helps me target specific voters). Then (and here is where I'm not sure of the lingo) they make this post available to people who fit this profile (exactly how I'm not sure) and I get data on how many people see it, how many click on it or refer it to someone else which then gives me additional data on how to boost (target my audience) the post again. Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-90330843667880896552018-12-29T11:42:49.708-05:002018-12-29T11:42:49.708-05:00I'm no expert -- I am a librarian, about which...I'm no expert -- I am a librarian, about which more to come -- but I think you're confusing personalized ad placement with the 'bot influence issue. Here's a decent story about the latter, post-'16 election: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602817/how-the-bot-y-politic-influenced-this-election/ I detect two dynamics at work: first, 'bots exemplify the maxim, "If you repeat a lie enough times, people will grow to believe it." A 'bot can spread a lie at no cost, and many people are willing to accept as fact the message they most frequently encounter. Second, 'bots can skew a conversation by promoting divisive messages that will prompt some people to cling in response to more extreme views than they might otherwise have embraced. Put another way, 'bots troll. <br /><br />As for ad placement -- here's where my being a librarian comes into play -- consider that I spend a lot of time searching for myriad topics in which I am not personally interested. I like to think that if more people engaged in this behavior, even if it isn't a function of their jobs, the algorithms for ad placement would ever so slightly derail. Even so, I do see ads related to my actual recent purchases (but why if I just purchased a screwdriver would I want to purchase another screwdriver?) and ads that I assume are a response to the demographic to which the algorithm has assigned me. For example, on occasion I'm invited to explore available Single Russian Girls. I suppose lots of American men, married (as I am) or single, and hovering around 60-years-old, might take the bait. I don't, but I assume the cost of placing the ad is worth a slim percentage of clicks.Deannoreply@blogger.com