Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
1–10 of 137 posts
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#2I've always wondered a software simulator wouldn't work? Like a bunch of phone VMs behind a proxy.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#3That's how they perpetuate "Made in China"===(Fake|Crap)
I was wondering why is obscure, crappy apps in apple store get so many positive reviews.
Apple/AMZN need to up their game in reviews/ratings domains.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#4That's how they perpetuate "Made in China"===(Fake|Crap) I was wondering why is obscure, crappy apps in apple store get so many positive reviews. Apple/AMZN need to up their game in reviews/ratings domains.
Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#5I've always wondered a software simulator wouldn't work? Like a bunch of phone VMs behind a proxy.
Very hard to detect a fake click when it’s actually done by a person manually.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#6i wonder if there will be a possibility in the future where the OS runs app telemetry, looks at things like how long a user spends on an app, parts of the app that the user clicks on, looks at, the text and non-text elements of the app, and then applies a statistical model to determine quality and hence rating of the app. that could obviate the need for "human rating" which is inherently gamable.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#7There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss:
"Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy."
I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (say, 1996 or so) I'd call up spammers and politely ask them to stop. Quite a number of people were just confused or oblivious; they would often take my suggestions to heart. But a lot of them were in some sort of scarcity panic like this guy is. They had bills to pay, mouths to feed! If what they did harmed other people, well, they weren't going to think too hard about that.
One of the real tragedies of this is how circular it is, how self-sustaining. Why is this person so desperate? Often it's because a) other desperate people are doing shitty things to them, or b) entirely non-desperate people have rigged things so that there are enough desperate people harnessed to make sure those on top get and stay rich.
We can divide all economic activity into value creation and wealth extraction. Things like click farming do extract wealth, but they increase systemic waste, meaning less value can be produced. That in turn increases the amount of desperation, making people more likely to join them in doing something exploitative just to survive.
It all seems so pathological. I wish we were better at breaking these cycles.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#8i wonder if there will be a possibility in the future where the OS runs app telemetry, looks at things like how long a user spends on an app, parts of the app that the user clicks on, looks at, the text and non-text elements of the app, and then applies a statistical model to determine quality and hence rating of the app. that could obviate the need for "human rating" which is inherently gamable.
Not sure why you think that isn't game-able as well, they already use massive racks of real phones.
Ill sit out being spyed on even more intensively in the name of "telemetry" thanks.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#9i wonder if there will be a possibility in the future where the OS runs app telemetry, looks at things like how long a user spends on an app, parts of the app that the user clicks on, looks at, the text and non-text elements of the app, and then applies a statistical model to determine quality and hence rating of the app. that could obviate the need for "human rating" which is inherently gamable.
I feel like this approach would eventually become gamed since you could still have human participants act as engaged users.
Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China
#10There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss: "Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy." I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (…
The 3rd verse in this song articulates your perception of what a spammer is: http://ytcracker.com/music/spamtec%20-%20what%20is%20spam.mp...