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Author Topic: You can't make this stuff up  (Read 7819 times)

nonattender

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Re: You can't make this stuff up
« Reply #15 on: July 24, 2008, 11:20:13 am »

That's how it seems like it ought to be, anyway - with a record of the information used to make a decision.
As I recall, there's some minimum performance threshold Prosper set to be able to take out additional loans.
(and, again, if i recall correctly, this threshold was instituted, and even bumped a bit, at behest of lenders?)

Perhaps this process serves to document compliance, via snapshot, with this minimum "credit" qualification?

-t

Taking your last sentence first, yes, that could possibly explain it. As for the rest, that may be. It might reduce confusion if snapshots of past activity are clearly labeled as such and cannot be confused with an ongoing evaluation of a borrower's interaction with Prosper.

Ok, so, you agree with me, in principle...  you can see what i see, if you tilt your head a certain way... ok, good.

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Frankly, voteforeric doesn't have 10 successful payments in his Prosper activity. He has 15, and then a few missed/late payments.

Frankly, I don't see how this is any of your, or anyone's, concern, unless the borrower is applying for a new loan, at which point I believe the up to date information would be transparent.  What you seem to be upset about is either some opportunity for "layout confusion", or that Prosper does not constantly update what amounts to an intra-Prosper "credit history" for the borrower (which you have no valid reason to have access to, given that you're not making a decision to extend credit, since you've already made that decision, based on the information which IS/was displayed).   Is that right, or am I missing something?  You know I'm not being snarky, but that's my read.

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He doesn't have one active loan out of one loan, he has two loans, in some permutation of the possible loan states. Claiming o *this* loan that he has one loan and 10 payments doesn't add information that is relevant to the loan.

What will make you happy?  A notation that it's a snapshot of the borrower's intra-Prosper payment performance at the time the loan was originated?  Because what you seem to -want- is for Prosper to openly display what's analogous to a continuously updated credit
score - which I don't see that you have either a need, or, frankly, a right to, given borrower privacy concerns, and, especially, given
that you may not be a party to both of the outstanding loans.  You can get at this information as far as it impacts you from payment history on any loan on which you are a lender... right?   And, if the borrower applies for credit in the future, the information will show.

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Compliance with the 2nd loan criteria are already documented in the listing details. That is the appropriate place for static information pertaining to his Prosper Activity at the time the listing was funded and converted into a loan.

Ok, so it's actually a potentially confusing design/layout issue?  Alright.  But you started off this thread with this:

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The data on it is all weird. This worries me. Prosper's data always seemed to be one of the most solid things about Prosper - a robust platform. But the data on  this loan is screwed up. Additionally, I've heard lots of people saying lately that if they call Prosper, discrepancies are attributed to a "display lag" or an "update lag," which seems to indicate that the Prosper platform is perhaps not keeping up on the backend with the loan administration, etc?

Which is... if you can look at it with a little distance, rather a non-generous characterization - backed up with (unrelated?) anecdote?

And now you're saying it's potentially misleading?  Well...  maybe.. I guess..  though I don't know what it would mislead one towards..

Cmon man...  I know you're capable of being rational about all of this - and I know you can call them like you see them without drama.
It's the quickness to ascribe some sort of moral intent (or immoral intent) that muddies this place up, and makes it not fun - or useful!

-t
« Last Edit: July 24, 2008, 11:22:06 am by nonattender »
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HollowOak

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Re: You can't make this stuff up
« Reply #16 on: July 24, 2008, 05:12:18 pm »

That's how it seems like it ought to be, anyway - with a record of the information used to make a decision.
As I recall, there's some minimum performance threshold Prosper set to be able to take out additional loans.
(and, again, if i recall correctly, this threshold was instituted, and even bumped a bit, at behest of lenders?)

Perhaps this process serves to document compliance, via snapshot, with this minimum "credit" qualification?

-t

Taking your last sentence first, yes, that could possibly explain it. As for the rest, that may be. It might reduce confusion if snapshots of past activity are clearly labeled as such and cannot be confused with an ongoing evaluation of a borrower's interaction with Prosper.

Ok, so, you agree with me, in principle...  you can see what i see, if you tilt your head a certain way... ok, good.

Right, common ground is always good. I think. Something about great minds thinking alike... or was that fools that never differ?  ;)

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Frankly, voteforeric doesn't have 10 successful payments in his Prosper activity. He has 15, and then a few missed/late payments.

Frankly, I don't see how this is any of your, or anyone's, concern, unless the borrower is applying for a new loan, at which point I believe the up to date information would be transparent. 

Well, here's a "fer instance" for you about why it might be my business. I'm a note holder on a loan that voteforeric isn't paying. I'm interested in whether he is or isn't paying on this loan and another loan. I didn't scrutinize voteforeric's payment history or loan application in detail before I lent him money - remember I sad this was a standing order? There was only so many things I could concern myself with within the parameters of the standing orders as they were at that specific time.

I don't actually know whether voteforeric has one or two active loans and whether he is or isn't paying on both.

Now if you're going to tell me that knowing the above would add little to my chances for recovery of any outstanding balances, I'd have to agree with you once more. However, since it is my money at stake, I have the right to concern myself with it in any rational or non-rational way that I might want to. But read on, the discussion continues on another quote of yours.

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What you seem to be upset about is either some opportunity for "layout confusion", or that Prosper does not constantly update what amounts to an intra-Prosper "credit history" for the borrower (which you have no valid reason to have access to, given that you're not making a decision to extend credit, since you've already made that decision, based on the information which IS/was displayed).   Is that right, or am I missing something?  You know I'm not being snarky, but that's my read.

I'm looking at data. Data that are some historic snapshot of the borrower's activity on Prosper. Data that are certainly relevant in any decision to grant further credit to the borrower. But why is it on a loan details page? It has not function/role on that page. That very same data exist on the listing details page, as had been highlighted by several contributors here.

The placement of the same data on the loan detail page is confusing (or "weird") as I said before. At the very least the labeling of the data is misleading.

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He doesn't have one active loan out of one loan, he has two loans, in some permutation of the possible loan states. Claiming o *this* loan that he has one loan and 10 payments doesn't add information that is relevant to the loan.

What will make you happy?  A notation that it's a snapshot of the borrower's intra-Prosper payment performance at the time the loan was originated?  Because what you seem to -want- is for Prosper to openly display what's analogous to a continuously updated credit
score - which I don't see that you have either a need, or, frankly, a right to, given borrower privacy concerns, and, especially, given
that you may not be a party to both of the outstanding loans.  You can get at this information as far as it impacts you from payment history on any loan on which you are a lender... right?   And, if the borrower applies for credit in the future, the information will show.

What will make me happy? I almost fell for this philosophical diversionary tactic.

When I looked at that data, I was confused. I didn't understand what Prosper was providing me with.  However, I would take issue with your statement that I don't have a right to current credit information regarding a defaulting borrower. Since I am on one of his loans at this institution, I believe I have a right to know how that borrower is conducting his affairs at this institution.

I see that many of my creditors continually monitor all my financial activity by pulling my credit history from a CRA. I also know that if I have multiple relationships with a single financial institution, all my intra-institutional information is available to anyone that I interact with. I'm not sure about whether they have access to that information if I am in default of any one agreement (I've never been in that position), but I think you're on thin ice to claim that as a creditor at this institution, I don't have a right to have a current financial record of my debtor.

But hey, I'm unconfused. I'm disappointed in that Prosper finds value in expending computing resources to display data that is meaningless and irrelevant to my needs, but the best I can do is to observe and comment on it, which is what I am doing.

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Compliance with the 2nd loan criteria are already documented in the listing details. That is the appropriate place for static information pertaining to his Prosper Activity at the time the listing was funded and converted into a loan.

Ok, so it's actually a potentially confusing design/layout issue?  Alright.  But you started off this thread with this:

Quote
The data on it is all weird. This worries me. Prosper's data always seemed to be one of the most solid things about Prosper - a robust platform. But the data on  this loan is screwed up. Additionally, I've heard lots of people saying lately that if they call Prosper, discrepancies are attributed to a "display lag" or an "update lag," which seems to indicate that the Prosper platform is perhaps not keeping up on the backend with the loan administration, etc?

Which is... if you can look at it with a little distance, rather a non-generous characterization - backed up with (unrelated?) anecdote?

So I did say the data is "weird." In hindsight I might have posted the same data and asked if one of the many readers here could explain it.

I've used some shorthand in posting the OP. That may have lead to confusion regarding my precise meaning and intent (something that I'm not the only practitioner of who posted in this thread). The "data lag" referral was to my confusion regarding the loan status being two/three months late. In hindsight, that has been adequately explained. I accept that even though I've not actually received any monies for three months, the borrower is only two months late.

That I commingled that issue with the issue of the relevance of other data displayed on the loan page is unfortunate.

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And now you're saying it's potentially misleading?  Well...  maybe.. I guess..  though I don't know what it would mislead one towards..
Misleading?  That came out not in the original post, but in my previous post today.

Barron's Accounting Dictionary has the following definition of "misleading."

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Pointing to an interpretation that is not factual or is unrealistic. Facts or statements that may be misstated, distorted, augmented, omitted, and arranged in such a manner as to obscure and conceal material aspects of an item are misleading. The accountant carefully prepares, based on the reliance on accepted standards of auditing practice and statement presentation, financial information to avoid misleading inferences.

So "misleading" in the sense that the data Prosper displays on my "loan details" page is not factual to the current status of the loan, is perhaps arranged in a manner to obscure or conceal material aspects of the borrower's status on Prosper.

I'm not saying this is intentional, or with the express intent to mislead note holders into wrong interpretations. I am saying (now that I understand what the data are/where the data come from) that the data are not useful n my loan detail page.

Which brings us back to a long-before conversation, where I very much care about how Prosper presents data to us. While it may be akin to arranging deckchairs, the jury is still out on whether these particular deckchairs are being arranged on the Titanic, the Marie Celeste, or the Queen Elizabeth 2. While futile in the first two instances, it is perhaps a necessary function on the latter.

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Cmon man...  I know you're capable of being rational about all of this - and I know you can call them like you see them without drama.
It's the quickness to ascribe some sort of moral intent (or immoral intent) that muddies this place up, and makes it not fun - or useful!

It was not my intent to ascribe immoral intent to the display of the data. It was my intent to ascribe frustration to my difficulty in (after more than two years on the platform) deciphering and getting information that I consider relevant from between data that don't inform.

I agree with you in many ways. Clearly this is a tempest in a teapot. Clearly the issues are trivial. With sufficient perspective, most issues are trivial. This doesn't mean that we only concern ourselves with the non-trivial. Sometimes details matter. For me, this is one instance where I care (cared?) about the details. Right now I'm not so sure I care one way or the other anymore.  The issue has resolved itself in that explanations came forth. Unsatisfactory explanations to my mind, but explanations nonetheless.

Perhaps a future note holder will read this and achieve insight into the data displayed on the note details page. If there is a soupçon of drama attached to it, forgive me - mea culpa, mea mimima culpa.
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nonattender

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Re: You can't make this stuff up
« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2008, 01:25:00 am »

Quote from: nonattender
What will make you happy?  A notation that it's a snapshot of the borrower's intra-Prosper payment performance at the time the loan was originated?

What will make me happy? I almost fell for this philosophical diversionary tactic.

Well, nicely spotted, but my implication was that what would really make you happy, in this instance, would be for the borrower to pay.
That's what seemed, to me, to be the underlying impetus for the concern...  as it usually is, with us...  and I certainly understand that.

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I agree with you in many ways. Clearly this is a tempest in a teapot. Clearly the issues are trivial. With sufficient perspective, most issues are trivial. This doesn't mean that we only concern ourselves with the non-trivial. Sometimes details matter. For me, this is one instance where I care (cared?) about the details. Right now I'm not so sure I care one way or the other anymore.  The issue has resolved itself in that explanations came forth. Unsatisfactory explanations to my mind, but explanations nonetheless.

Glad I could make you "slightly less unhappy" then - or, maybe just, "unhappy for the right reason".  :)

-t
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HollowOak

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The saga continues
« Reply #18 on: September 02, 2008, 02:04:26 am »

Just logging some changes in the Prosper data regarding this loan. There seems to be a putative payment in the works, but, since my disappointment with the 22-day pull on Deb of Ourtopia's loan, I'll make no assumptions about this actually coming to fruition.

Prosper OTOH, has neatly slotted the amounts in the relevant slots. Must be a lot of processing to reverse all those entries if it comes to naught.








I'll write more (if I remember) in a few days' time.
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