

Announcing The End Of Blind Link Sharing - reteltech
http://blog.favo.rs/2011/05/end-of-blind-link-sharing/

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ChuckMcM
Sometimes I wonder if people take classes in game theory just so they can
'invent' new web services.

Snarky comment "Let's end double blind scientific testing so you can know
which of your test subjects really have the cure and which have the placebo!"

Perhaps less snarky comment. When you are looking to 'improve' a system, ask
yourself what knowledge you 'know' and what you 'derive' and then ask yourself
if more 'knowing' would affect the quality of what you 'derive.'

It would be great to know that some folks in your social graph are more
influential than others. However knowing that, and steering more information
through them, will change their position in your social graph (sometimes it
will instantly convert them from very influential to not forwarding anything
you send to them). Its a classic dilemma where more knowledge changes the
behavior of the actors in the system which then changes the derived knowledge
etc etc. You get a 'game' (at least for the folks who are inclined that way)
and like moths to the flame they will start tweaking to optimize. And the
optimizations may spiral out of control leading to bigger and more overt
tweaks which then can cause the whole system to implode.

Sometimes not knowing is better.

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mtogo
I'm so sick of shit like this. Can't wait until it comes out so i can make a
tool to break it.

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peterglatte
The system will probably be child's play to game, but I'm not sure what's the
point of gaming it or even using it in the first place.

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geon
That will suck when their server is down. Also, what are the privacy
implications of this?

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reteltech
Depends on whether or not it is opt-in for all parties. If it is, then it is
up to the participants.

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rangstrom
Cool idea.

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peterglatte
I don't know. I'm not sure how broadly this would be used. Why wouldn't I just
post something to HN or Reddit and get way more eyeballs that way?

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rangstrom
I don't think it would stop you from posting on HN or Reddit. I think this is
designed to accelerate the sharing of your links through social media. The
advantage of that is that a personal referral has more impact than a blind
post on HN. Of course, The devil is in the details. How it's executed will
make all the difference.

