Go on... rape her... she won't report it... [UniLad magazine article]

[Firky]

But obviously the person behind the company / software would be aware of their best selling lines - and did not act upon it because it was a money maker.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'm confused. Does the computer generate phrases and they all get displayed, even the vast majority that will be crap, or the computer generates phrases, and someone chooses which ones to put up for sale?

If it's the latter, then trashpony's right - it's no different from writing it yourself.

ETA: or is it that people can generate their own on the website? The article isn't clear about that. But even then, someone has to physically make and deliver it, as tp says.

 

[butchersapron]

"This has been immediately deleted as it was and had been automatically generated using a scripted computer process running against hundreds of thousands of dictionary words."

There are about 250 000 english words. So that's all of them pretty much included in your process. Why was nothing using the word evasion used in your productions? Because there was a quality control person at some point. Who thought this/these were ok.

 

[trashpony]

Someone decided which ones to put up. There were about 10 with violence against women on Amazon and none with violence against men. That isn't random.

 

[Firky]

I'm confused. Does the computer generate phrases and they all get displayed, even the vast majority that will be crap, or the computer generates phrases, and someone chooses which ones to put up for sale?

Someone would have wrote software which inserts the appropriate noun into the phrase, then over time as people browsed, clicked and bought tshirts - Amazon's ranking system (again automated) would put the most viewed and bought tshirts to the top. That is generally the way CMS for online stores work.

Of course there's someone behind all that rubbing their hands with glee.

Also I think it's important to remember that this tshirt would not be the forefront of the list of choices if it were not for people buying them. The machine gives us what "we" want - a black mirror if you will (urgh! I just used a Brooker phrase).

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Ok, I see. Someone inspired by Dawkins' 'meme' idea, perhaps. A decent illustration of how that is such a crap idea.

 

[butchersapron]

Someone would have wrote software which inserts the appropriate noun into the phrase, then over time as people browsed, clicked and bought tshirts - Amazon's ranking system (again automated) would put the most viewed and bought tshirts to the top. That is generally the way CMS for online stores work.

Of course there's someone behind all that rubbing their hands with glee.

Also I think it's important to remember that this tshirt would not be the forefront of the list of choices if it were not for people buying them. The machine gives us what "we" want - a black mirror if you will (urgh! I just used a Brooker phrase).

wtf are you talking about? They were produced as 'goers' before any large scale production. People didn't type "rape t-shirt" into amazon.

This script or whatever doesn't exist anyway. A person came up with them then others thought that they was a good idea.

 

[Firky]

Amazon sells all kinds of horrible stuff through their resellers:

 

[Firky]

people didn't type "rape t-shirt" into amazon.

Of course they didn't.

This script or whatever doesn't exist anyway.

Scripts like that do exist, they've been around for ages, as long as the internet. They most often used to generate random phrases and text links for click through referrals. That is why you sometimes get quite bizarre recommendations in Google. The more the generated phrase is clicked on the more it will appear.

 

[8115]

People didn't type "rape t-shirt" into amazon.

I will love if it turns out that this is actually what happened and they've been mining searches. I would imagine the original intent to have been for an anti-rape t-shrt though.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Also I think it's important to remember that this tshirt would not be the forefront of the list of choices if it were not for people buying them. The machine gives us what "we" want - a black mirror if you will (urgh! I just used a Brooker phrase).

All it does is tell us what we already knew - that there are men out there with fucked-up attitudes towards women. I find it hard to imagine anyone ever wearing it, though.

 

[Firky]

All it does is tell us what we already knew - that there are men out there with fucked-up attitudes towards women. I find it hard to imagine anyone ever wearing it, though.

Exactly.

I can't imagine anyone wearing it but then again I have seen people with 1488 tattooed onto their knuckles :/

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Exactly.

I can't imagine anyone wearing it but then again I have seen people with 1488 tattooed onto their knuckles :/

I had to google that. I'd just have been puzzled seeing it.

 

[butchersapron]

Of course they didn't.



Scripts like that do exist, they've been around for ages, as long as the internet. They most often used to generate random phrases and text links for click through referrals. That is why you sometimes get quite bizarre recommendations in Google. The more the generated phrase is clicked on the more it will appear.

I know that they exist. I have been on the internet before (but i think i got away with it). They were not used here. That's an attempt at a get out.

 

[Firky]

I had to google that. I'd just have been puzzled seeing it.

American I think isn't it? The guy who I saw with the tattoo had the pompy dots too. Weird place, Portsmouth.

3 dots in a triangle formation like the predator laser. Not entirely sure what the point of them is as the only people who know what tehy mean is people from Portsmouth. Maybe that was the point.

I know that they exist. I have been on the internet before (but i think i got away with it). They were not used here. That's an attempt at a get out.

I believe the computer did generate it but I don't believe they knew nothing about it. Should have said that in the first place, much more concise

 

[ymu]

I know that they exist. I have been on the internet before (but i think i got away with it). They were not used here. That's an attempt at a get out.

I'm not sure I see much difference either way (stupid cunts selling something shit or stupid cunts deciding to buy something shit) but how do you know they are lying about how it happened?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm suspicious of their explanation in the first place, but even if it is true at all it is a good illustration of how computer generated results are at heart human generated, and why this is a shit excuse. Somebody puts the words into the system in the first place and somebody chooses the ones that go onto Amazon (they hardly generated every possible combination of dictionary words and put them all for sale here, Amazon would have banned them for spam). Who would have thought that if you put the words "rape" and "her" into a system it would come out with "keep calm and rape her"? Inconceivable.

 

[Firky]

It is a plausible explanation if not entirely convincing. It is however a shit excuse.

 

[butchersapron]

I'm not sure I see much difference either way (stupid cunts selling something shit or stupid cunts deciding to buy something shit) but how do you know they are lying about how it happened?

Because they weren't selling anything that would back up their story.

And of course it makes a difference:
a) we have decided to sell a t-shit via rape
vs
b) we will sell a t-shirt by a script coming up with rape

are different things. Connected, related, but different.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

It is a plausible explanation if not entirely convincing. It is however a shit excuse.

The only way in which it is plausible puts just as much responsibility on the company as if they'd picked the words by hand.

 

[quimcunx]

Someone would have wrote software which inserts the appropriate noun into the phrase, then over time as people browsed, clicked and bought tshirts - Amazon's ranking system (again automated) would put the most viewed and bought tshirts to the top. That is generally the way CMS for online stores work.

Of course there's someone behind all that rubbing their hands with glee.

Also I think it's important to remember that this tshirt would not be the forefront of the list of choices if it were not for people buying them. The machine gives us what "we" want - a black mirror if you will (urgh! I just used a Brooker phrase).

I don't think all phrases possible in the english language were put up for people to browse. That would be a lot of browsing.

Oh, I see FM has already said that. What FM says.

 

[Firky]

Here's a reseller I'd rather not give publicity too, think I am gonna report this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=KSAS Supplies&index=clothing&search-type=ss

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Pr...YUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362256250&sr=8-1

 

[ymu]

x-posted with BA, but I think this works as a response to him, so editing in his post:

Because they weren't selling anything that would back up their story.

And of course it makes a difference:
a) we have decided to sell a t-shit via rape
vs
b) we will sell a t-shirt by a script coming up with rape

are different things. Connected, related, but different.

According to C4 News, few of their automatically generated T-shirt slogans make much sense. It's hard to believe any kind of quality control went into this lot.

 

[butchersapron]

x-posted with BA, but I think this works as a response to him, so editing in his post:

Ok, pretty clearly the script thing then. Which takes us a) back a step to what words were chucked in and b) who saw them? Is this really lean production?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm quite surprised that that level of auto submission didn't get picked up by Amazon, but the fact remains that if you set up a system with the words "knife", "choke", "rape" etc as verbs - and "her" as the object, I understand that there was no "rape him" version - you know what is possible for it to come out with. If you haven't thought about the possibility that says quite a lot about you.

 

[DotCommunist]

Here's a reseller I'd rather not give publicity too, think I am gonna report this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=KSAS Supplies&index=clothing&search-type=ss

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Pr...YUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362256250&sr=8-1

do amazon have a policy on the sale of Nazi tat?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Ok, pretty clearly the script thing then. Which takes us a) back a step to what words were chucked in and b) who saw them? Is this really lean production?

There are are standard lists of dictionary words which are used for text generation. There are also "clean" versions which are generally available, because there are many applications for them which need to be used in schools etc.

I could potentially buy the explanation that an "intern" used a full list instead of a clean list but two things make me suspicious - one, the limited number of nouns as objects and the fact that the verbs must have been subsetted too (there are a lot of verbs) and two, that it's just so incredibly obvious that these things need checking. The absolutely most generous possibility is that they are slipshod spamming cunts, but I suspect that they are slipshod spamming edgy cunts.

 

[ymu]

Ok, pretty clearly the script thing then. Which takes us a) back a step to what words were chucked in and b) who saw them? Is this really lean production?

It's clearly a list of verbs that is being used. Whether or not they force them to be followed by 'her', or whether there are also versions that end in 'him', 'it', 'them' or that just use the verb with no object I don't know. There are certainly a huge number of these things based on the Keep Calm and ... meme at the moment.

I don't think their lack of concern about what they were selling is any more or less telling that the choices of those who bought them. If it was a fashion brand actively promoting rape and DV I'd feel differently, but it's not, it's a group of lazy chancers with a T-shirt printing machine and no need to have a prototype for every possible variation of what they sell.

 

[stuff_it]

Here's a reseller I'd rather not give publicity too, think I am gonna report this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=KSAS Supplies&index=clothing&search-type=ss

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Pr...YUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362256250&sr=8-1

@ the reviews.... http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B005LMV812/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

And here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Pr...sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_img?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I bought these stylish budgie-on-a-swazzie shirts as my five-a-side team's new match kit, thinking they would bring some of the Special Soldiers' legendary efficiency to Striker Dave. I was most upset when none of the other teams would countenance playing any of the scheduled matches, but delighted when we were awarded the wins by default. We're now top of the league and looking to make inroads into Europe.

 

[nino_savatte]

When all else fails, blame it on the robot/computer/machine/tools.