{"id":19249,"date":"2013-03-04T09:20:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T14:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=19249"},"modified":"2013-03-04T09:20:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T14:20:14","slug":"admit-it-you-probably-know-someone-who-would-wear-this-ironically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/03\/04\/admit-it-you-probably-know-someone-who-would-wear-this-ironically\/","title":{"rendered":"Admit it, you probably know someone who would wear this “ironically”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Amazon<\/p>\n

Pete Ashton<\/a> explains how such an item appears on the Amazon.com<\/em> website:<\/p>\n

Nobody made, or approved, the design<\/strong>. This is the headfuck moment that most people can\u2019t comprehend. There\u2019s a completely understandable assumption that someone decided it would be a great idea to sell Keep Calm t-shirts with the word Rape on them and, because they exist (which they don\u2019t, but let\u2019s assume they do) that there\u2019s a reasonable demand for them. This is because we\u2019re used to there being a cost in producing a product like a t-shirt and an economic requirement to mass-produce them in huge numbers. If there\u2019s a significant cost then a decision has to be made whether to spend it or not. We\u2019re looking to blame whoever made that decision, or lament that it was even an option.<\/p>\n

But, as we see above, there\u2019s no cost involved. The shirts don\u2019t exist. All that exists is a graphics file on a computer ready to be printed onto a shirt if an order comes through. Still, you might say, someone had to make that file, to type those words and click save. Not necessarily.<\/p>\n

The t-shirts are created by an algorithm. The word \u201calgorithm\u201d is a little scary to some people because they don\u2019t know what it means. It\u2019s basically a process automated by a computer programme, sometimes simple, sometimes complex as hell. Amazon\u2019s recommendations are powered by an algorithm. They look at what you\u2019ve been browsing and buying, find patterns in that behaviour and show you things the algorithm thinks you might like to buy. Amazon\u2019s algorithms are very complex and powerful, which is why they work. The algorithm that creates these t-shirts is not complex or powerful. This is how I expect it works.<\/p>\n

1) Start a sentence with the words KEEP CALM AND.
\n2) Pick a word from this long list of verbs. Any word will do. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m sure they\u2019re all fine.
\n3) Finish the sentence with one of the following: OFF, THEM, IT, A LOT or US.
\n4) Lay these words out in the classic Keep Calm style.
\n5) Create a mockup jpeg of a t-shirt.
\n6) Submit the design to Amazon using our boilerplate t-shirt description.
\n7) Go back to 1 and start again. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to Cory Doctorow<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pete Ashton explains how such an item appears on the Amazon.com website: Nobody made, or approved, the design. This is the headfuck moment that most people can\u2019t comprehend. There\u2019s a completely understandable assumption that someone decided it would be a great idea to sell Keep Calm t-shirts with the word Rape on them and, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,15],"tags":[833,618,92],"class_list":["post-19249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-technology","tag-amazon","tag-clothing","tag-software"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-50t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19252,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249\/revisions\/19252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}