Quality Control

The Coin Recognition Industry

I have a good friend who works in the coin recognition industry. It’s a fascinating one, because as you can imagine the risk of fraud needs to be taken into account very carefully. With the available technology you can minimize fraud almost 100% by tightening up on all parameters, but this leads to the unfortunate risk of false negative readings (i.e. the rejection of legal tender) leading to lower sales etc. Purchasers of coin recognition technology need to balance the risks when deciding what technology to apply.

In public places, coin fraud is particularly common. For example, London Underground choose the more sensitive the coin recognition tolerance systems. We’ve all had a valid coin rejected there, haven’t we? On the other hand in offices and private clubs attempts at fraud are less likely so the coin acceptance systems are less stringent.

Blog Moderation

You see a similar thing with blogs. More popular blogs are at greater risk from fraudulent comments because those who oppose the blog author’s agenda want to

- reach a large audience
- reduce the influence of the author &
- can feel more anonymous on a crowded blog

That’s why most successful blog owners use moderation or other screening techniques to retain the quality and authenticity of their blogs. As for the purchasers of coin recognition technology, the moderating policy has pros and cons. Upsetting genuine visitors is one of the cons. Nevertheless, the need to take sanctions is undoubtedly a sign of success.

Growing Influence

Therefore, as a signing of my growing influence in the blogosphere, it is with pleasure that I announce that today I have decided to ban the first person from my blog. People understand that every blog author has an agenda. Mine is that I’m a Tory, pretty obvious I’d have thought. As I am not an IT geek, I don’t want to get drawn into some inane debate about tags, trackbacks and blogging ethics. Most of my readers like my blogging rules. Here they are. QED.