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Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

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Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#161

Post by jakupovic »

jb1991 wrote: post #137
imiric wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Airbnb be to blame for this? They're providing a market that fulfills demand for low cost or privately owned accommodations, competing directly with the established hotel industry. Not everyone wants or needs to stay in a hotel, and many people prefer the tourist experience facilitated by local hosts. Long-term rentals are also a convenient way to experience a location that doesn't involve complicated paper…

> Why would Airbnb be to blame for this? Because they have pushed back hard on cities’ attempts to regulate and enforce what is happening due to the influence of their service. They have no respect for what is happening in some places and how residents are impacted. Your argument is similar to saying that Facebook is not to blame for the spread of misinformation. Tech platforms create a new world and then want nothin…

Your argument is: "we should ban sales of milk because people pollute with used containers".

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#162

Post by yreg »

withinboredom wrote: post #81
feupan wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s pedantic and not even that right. The browser is an agent, not a bot. A bot takes semi-autonomous actions after being instructed by a human, for an undetermined amount of time; A browser just does something it’s told for a few seconds (or as long as the website’s open)

By your definition would a screen reader turn the browser into a bot? If not, if a I program my own “bot” isn’t it just working as my own agent?

Maybe depends on whether you are "driving" the agent personally?

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#163

Post by qwerty456127 »

DominikPeters wrote: post #124

I see this as high-IQ software developers building systems to shut out non-high-IQ people from society. Managers look at these CAPTCHAs and think "oh I could solve these no problem, let's use them". In fact, they can only be solved by unusually smart people or by ML bots. Arkose Labs (the maker of this particular captcha) explicitly advertises that their methods can keep out "low-skilled workers" on "human fraud farm…

> In fact, they can only be solved by unusually smart people

Wut? Have you actually ever met a person who can't? I always suspected the electoral majority is not particularly bright (which sort of contradicts the idea of near-100 being an average IQ nevertheless) but if this is "unusually smart" then things feel really creepy.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#164

Post by aembleton »

smcl wrote: post #40
jazzyjackson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what does a robot do once it rents a house?

Sublet it? I mean it's possible that someone really dedicated writes a bot to reserve a room for themselves, but more likely it'd be done by someone who will list it somewhere else for an even higher fee.

Airbnb could just raise their prices by 10% if they detect a bot; that would be a way to take a cut of someone doing that. It would be really subtle too, so they wouldn't know that they'd been detected.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#165

Post by dsnr »

DominikPeters wrote: post #124

I see this as high-IQ software developers building systems to shut out non-high-IQ people from society. Managers look at these CAPTCHAs and think "oh I could solve these no problem, let's use them". In fact, they can only be solved by unusually smart people or by ML bots. Arkose Labs (the maker of this particular captcha) explicitly advertises that their methods can keep out "low-skilled workers" on "human fraud farm…

Not sure I agree with your “opressive” high-IQ developers spin, but it’s clear that whoever implements this kind of captcha (even the not-so-challenging ones) doesn’t give a shit about user experience and deserve to metaphorically-speaking, burn in hell. I think it’s just an example for how developers should not make decisions about UI or UX in general. It doesn’t really matter how hard to solve the captcha is, it shouldn’t exist in the first place, even those with: “pick all the fire hydrants”.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#166

Post by imiric »

dorchadas wrote: post #149
imiric wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Airbnb be to blame for this? They're providing a market that fulfills demand for low cost or privately owned accommodations, competing directly with the established hotel industry. Not everyone wants or needs to stay in a hotel, and many people prefer the tourist experience facilitated by local hosts. Long-term rentals are also a convenient way to experience a location that doesn't involve complicated paper…

They're providing this market by removing housing from the local people, which drives them out and drives up prices for those who stay. This, in turn, forces all the inhabitants of a city out of it, thus ruining the character those inhabitants gave it. All so some tourist can 'live like a local', at the expense of the actual locals being able to live like a local. And it's wholeheartedly AirBnB's fault and problem. N…

At a large enough scale, I agree that there's an impact to locals. But don't tourists also boost the local economy, the travel industry and introduce different cultures themselves? It's not such a clear case that this is all negative.

The lack of regulations is an issue of local governments not catching up to tech companies, as usual, not Airbnb's.

> Basically, tourists aren't locals, they should have a right to live like locals.

What if those tourists do eventually become locals after staying at an Airbnb? Are you against migrants as well?

> Especially at the expense of the locals.

The locals do benefit financially from tourism. Markets like Airbnb's simply accelerate this, which of course introduces issues, but governments should carry more of the blame for this than a company that disrupts the hotel industry.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#167

Post by jmkni »

DominikPeters wrote: post #124

I see this as high-IQ software developers building systems to shut out non-high-IQ people from society. Managers look at these CAPTCHAs and think "oh I could solve these no problem, let's use them". In fact, they can only be solved by unusually smart people or by ML bots. Arkose Labs (the maker of this particular captcha) explicitly advertises that their methods can keep out "low-skilled workers" on "human fraud farm…

I think you're flattering yourself a bit if you believe that being able to solve a CAPTCHA means you have an unusually high IQ

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#168

Post by aembleton »

feupan wrote: post #69
Brian_K_White wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A browser is a bot that interacts with the platform. It's not physically possible to use any website except by directing a tool to do it for you.

That’s pedantic and not even that right. The browser is an agent, not a bot. A bot takes semi-autonomous actions after being instructed by a human, for an undetermined amount of time; A browser just does something it’s told for a few seconds (or as long as the website’s open)

I'll just use Selenium to direct the browser then.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#169

Post by cambaceres »

sol_invictus wrote: post #158
Grustaf wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with sharing bathrooms? That's a dorm, or a youth hostel for that matter. It's totally fine. Pretty common all over the world, not just for the poorest.

Because some people (as in, a vast majority of the global population) live their lives in a low-income bracket and one could consider it a very unpleasant thought to live your entire life sharing bathrooms with strangers.

The grandfathers point was that shared bathrooms would decrease costs of building new apartments, which is good for poor people with less income. Needing to share a bathroom with someone is no problem compared to not having a place to stay.

Re: Tell HN: Airbnb just stole me 5 minutes of my time adding dices

#170

Post by Grustaf »

sol_invictus wrote: post #158
Grustaf wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with sharing bathrooms? That's a dorm, or a youth hostel for that matter. It's totally fine. Pretty common all over the world, not just for the poorest.

Because some people (as in, a vast majority of the global population) live their lives in a low-income bracket and one could consider it a very unpleasant thought to live your entire life sharing bathrooms with strangers.

Why would you be _more_ averse to sharing a bathroom if you're low income? I think it's more about American germophobia or new members of the middle class feeling that sharing bathrooms is beneath them now that they've made it.

In most places being poor doesn't mean you live in squalor, it just means you have less money. You are still doing your best to keep your place clean etc.

And obviously your neighbours won't be strangers for long.

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