quote:
basrah posted:
If response times are bad then AS must calculate how many seconds it should add so that the bid gets there in the user-prescribed time. Eg. User sets 8 seconds, system is slow by 10 seconds, AS sends snipe at 18 seconds, snipe arrives at 8 seconds, users sees nothing different.
You're saying that AS will only add 2-5 seconds no matter what. As the robot on Lost in Space would say: 'That does not compute'!
Basrah, first of all I sincerely doubt that the AS program is all that sophisticated...don't get me wrong, it does a tremendous job(!), I'm just saying that I doubt it drags too many variables into the equation so as to adjust each user's snipes individually.
I would take an educated guess that if it is detecting a slower response time, it is adding a few more seconds to everybody's snipes and not even taking into account the number of seconds that the sniper has preset.
Then (again, I would guess) it most likely reevaluates eBay response times before putting in another batch of snipes...now, of course, all of this is being done in lightning fast time.
If it were taking the time to evaluate each of our snipes individually and adjust accordingly...well, I don't think that AS could afford the hardware and software that would be necessary to pull off such a feat...and
our rates would go up!Bottom line is...they are adjusting just a little to ensure that most of the snipes will make it in time. A few will slip through the cracks and that is probably an acceptable error rate...as opposed to the number of complaints they'd get from 'seasoned snipers' who had fine-tuned their snipes to just the right amount of seconds...only to have AS add 10 seconds to it, submit it, and then be outsniped by somebody with a higher bid that sniped at 4 seconds. Does that make sense?!?
But, anyway, your type of logic supports your claim that you are an engineer/programmer type.
(please don't take offense to that, I just know a lot of engineers and they do think that way!! That's probably why they're good at what they do!)WarriorNun
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning"