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What happened to TheNumbers.com

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Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#141

Post by deepsun »

dpoloncsak wrote: post #75
pavel_lishin wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that they could store the data in BigQuery, and point users of the site there.

Sure, but now you're moving the site from "Free data presented in a pleasant way to view" to a "pay-as-you-go database". Your audience shifts dramatically, and you lose the ability to share the data you're trying to present.

No, it's free for everyone for the data sizes they have:

Free tier: 10 GB of active storage and 1 TiB of query data processed per month.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#143

Post by fragmede »

jaredwiener wrote: post #98
Terr_ wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are already trying to make that happen, but I'm convinced it'll be a net-negative.

Rephrase: Bots SHOULDNT make purchasing decisions.

Because... ? If I'm operating a site, and I want $X to allow a bot to scrape my site, why shouldn't the bot be allowed to make the purchasing decision to scrape the site? Obviously the bot owner would have their own set of guardrails, but if it allows sites like The numbers to stay up because bots aren't going to look at ads so the old model of displaying ads isn't going to work, I have a hard time seeing that as a bad thing.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#144

Post by blurgo »

squidproquo wrote: post #134
abetusk wrote: post #8

I think people are missing one of the points of the article. It's not just that agents are hammering the site, it's that there might be lurking vulnerabilities that allow malicious usage, which is why it went down, then came back up with a fraction of the data and a reduced design. The article says (speculates?) that malicious users are trying to get privileged access for an edge in prediction market betting. From th…

If it's the case that prediction market traders were trying to front-run the market outcomes, the prediction markets should put the fix on their end by locking down trading before a market closes with some time buffer to prevent this.

[dead]

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#145

Post by CamperBob2 »

yuye wrote: post #137
CamperBob2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's sad is somebody giving you a godlike tool and watching you mope around muttering about "life without any challenges."

It's only considered "godlike" by those satisfied with mediocrity

The person I replied to is apparently very content with mediocrity.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#146

Post by ajkjk »

john_strinlai wrote: post #80
ajkjk wrote: post #71

It feels like there is fundamentally missing infrastructure here that is needed to make these problems go away. Basically bots need to be (somehow) paying for the traffic they create, or prevented from creating it, or told to go away and then fined if they violate the request. No idea how to do these or even at what level in the stack they should happen, but they need to happen eventually somehow.

we've been working on basically the same problem in the email space for a few decades (legit email vs. mass spam). its a very hard (i think impossible) problem.

Well, it is technologically not that hard to imagine a solution---the problem is social, getting everyone to agree on how to do it, figure out the policy around it, etc. And the situation is getting so bad that maybe it is time for someone (maybe someone reading this thread) to figure it out.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#147

Post by foco_tubi »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #131
podgietaru wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t be happy if those companies used my vegetables to open a Michelin star restaurant, even if I got a free McDouble out of the deal. Plant based I guess I don’t know metaphors are hard.

But the McDouble isn't an adequate comparison. Yes, the companies who opened Michelin-rated restaurants with the food they stole from your garden are giving you McDonalds'-level food for free and charging for the rest. Meanwhile, some other companies who raided your garden are giving you the plant-based equivalent of Ruth's Chris or Fogo de Chão for free. The other thing is, after they stole all that stuff from your…

The plant metaphor breaks down when you pause, take a breath, put the McDouble down and realize that intellectual property is a completely different ownership concept than physical property.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#149

Post by jaredwiener »

fragmede wrote: post #143
jaredwiener wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rephrase: Bots SHOULDNT make purchasing decisions.

Because... ? If I'm operating a site, and I want $X to allow a bot to scrape my site, why shouldn't the bot be allowed to make the purchasing decision to scrape the site? Obviously the bot owner would have their own set of guardrails, but if it allows sites like The numbers to stay up because bots aren't going to look at ads so the old model of displaying ads isn't going to work, I have a hard time seeing that as a b…

I mean it from the consumer perspective.

Re: What happened to TheNumbers.com

#150

Post by BrenBarn »

Every example of this confirms my view that we should treat the spread of these AI scrapers like we treat the proliferation of drugs. We should be seeking to bust AI rings like we seek to bust drug cartels.
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