Bill4728
Moderator
Does our member's searches for sighting cause the exchange company's computers to think there is more demand for some areas than there acutually is?? By doing searches, are we causing the areas we search to be harder to get??
JLB over on TS4Ms seems to think so. (He said I could post this here.)
JLB over on TS4Ms seems to think so. (He said I could post this here.)
JLB on TS4Ms said:I just finished a very thoughtful, interesting and instructive phone call with a person from RCI, a person I got to know because of her concern and helpfulness. I'm not sure if she still is in Customer Service, but she mentioned being involved with stuff way beyond what a Guide or Supervisor deals with.
I had emailed her about my recent strange search results for SW FL, where I can see stuff for 12/12/09, but not 12/5/09, when just a few months ago I could see both, searching with a week that has been devalued by RCI (I still have a 2007 full powered week to compare with.)
Once she realized what I was talking about, when I mentioned that I was comparing with other RCI members who also search every day, she perked up. She has just completed a project studying that, the effect of those doing EX Ops/Sightings.
It is something that will never be an official RCI position, but her study strongly speculates (and she firmly believes) that when a group of RCI members all does the same searches, the computer is reading that as false demand, even when no exchanges are confirmed. It is the searching itself, not the confirmation of exchanges, that is skewing the computer.
Wow!!! The Law of Unintended Consequences.
So, in short, she believes that Ex Ops/Sightings, by creating an artifical demand, increases the trading power needed to see those Ex Ops. Those with the strong traders (the ones doing the Ex Ops searches) still see them, but as more searches are done, and more false demand created, the lesser traders stop seeing them.
She believes it is possible that stuff I saw in May cannot now be seen by our devalued trader, because of the number of searches being done for SW FL for that timeframe, and there are a lot being done. She says it is not just the person doing the Ex Op, but all those who do the same search because of the posting.
She gave me some hints on possible ways to overcome this situation, but, because posting on the Internet appears to negate the things you post on the Internet about, I choose not to, at least not before I try them.