As many of you probably know by now, a good bit of how I make some semblance of a living derives from selling various things on eBay.
Now, eBay is a pretty big deal, with an estimated 180 million users. Thus, it is also a pretty big deal when you go their site, only to be met with the following, when you try to log in:
Screen shot of eBay front page, just a few minutes ago
Now, we get sort of peeved when Steemit or one of the other front ends that serves the Steem blockchain goes offline for whatever reasons... but imagine the dollar signs spinning, when a commercial venue with 180 million active users is not operational.
Regardless of whose estimates you decide to go with, eBay handles at least one BILLION transactions per day. So even thirty minutes of downtime can mean tens of millions of dollars of lost commerce.
Of course, the commerce typically isn't exactly lost, it just ends up in a sort of "suspended animation" until things start running again. For someone like me who just wanted to list a few things before heading off to bed, the primary effect is... frustration.
I'll just look at something peaceful, instead...
And there's just not much I can do. I'm reliant on this third party for a chunk of my income... thankfully, their uptime rate is pretty high, so it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over.
It just is a poignant reminder just how much we have come to be dependent on technology... and on things running, all the time.
When I contemplate that, I also realize that it would be much less of an issue if I didn't live in a world where every minute and every cent seems to count... I'd much prefer a world in which I could just shrug philosophically and say "yeah, these things happen!" without having to worry whether the outage will mean I am going to be without phone or Internet service...
Well, hope everyone had a great day!
How about YOU? Are you an eBay user? Or do you use some other commercial web site that you're "dependent" on for your income? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190612 00:31 PST
1040
I do not deal with technological hiccups in a Zen manner at all. I get frustrated immediately, and then mildly enraged. I wish I could be more circumspect about it, but it's a character flaw that I haven't managed to overcome. I try to think back to before we had all this technology and somehow we lived through that, so an outage shouldn't be that big a deal. And yet somehow it is.
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Well, I think we have all become so very dependent on the technology that anytime it is not there for us, it now feels like there is a "hole" in our lives. Which is actually a little sad... how did we ever "manage" before?
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Ouch yeah!! just tell me about outages & general blackouts in which we have to be without phone or Internet service twice a day for five hours in a row. :/
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Without a doubt, you have it worse in that respect than most... must be extraordinarily frustrating.
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Hugely frustrating indeed my friend.
It's a perpetual lottery around here, just trying to guess when and at what hours the power outages strikes.
And along with that uncertainty, we can't even know with precision when to sleep either in an attempt to be somewhat productive throughout the entire day. 🤑
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Years ago I did sell on eBay, as well as buy items to help compensate income and to get things cheaper.
Now I just buy things. No selling.
I am a frugal person and I check and double-check pricing before hitting the buy button on any site.
I have found some great deals on eBay- they even beat out amazon's prices.
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If you are willing to be really patient and take the time needed to sort through all the listings, you can sometimes find some amazing deals!
I have had my account there since May of 1998, and there have certainly been lots of changes along the way... I've been a buyer and seller, both, the entire time.
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At least you can list your stuff over there this morning. :)
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And that's pretty much what I expect I will end up doing.
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