The Sheep Market

May 24, 2006 7:13 AM

The Sheep Market -- 10,000 sheep drawn by online workers. Or, if you prefer to be out of step.
posted by OmieWise (31 comments total)

How wierd. I drew 2 of these in March & got paid 4 cents each from amazon mechanical turk. Now I know what it was for!! Thanks for the post.

I can't find mine!!
posted by contessa at 7:27 AM on May 24, 2006

Fucking hell! They're selling the sheep for $20 a pop!
posted by contessa at 7:28 AM on May 24, 2006

To nobody.
posted by jonson at 7:37 AM on May 24, 2006

Mmmmm, sheep. Anyone for a game of Settlers?
posted by gurple at 7:38 AM on May 24, 2006

Ah, Minor Threat ... best of all the hardcore bands.

Did you know that Ian McKay & Henry Rollins worked together at Hagen Daas?
posted by Relay at 7:43 AM on May 24, 2006

How many sheep? I only counted zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzSKYNXXzzzzzzzzzzSKYNXXzzzzzzzzzzzzzzSKYNXXzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
posted by Floydd at 8:00 AM on May 24, 2006

I just went to the site and got:
An old version of the Flash plugin was detected. Please upgrade your Flash plugin to view this page properly. (You will not be able to purchase sheep without an upgrade.)

Oh no! I won't be able to purchase sheep! Whatever will I do??
posted by languagehat at 9:04 AM on May 24, 2006

I hope they are good 'online workers'.
posted by peacay at 9:14 AM on May 24, 2006

Nice one, Floydd.
posted by quite unimportant at 9:33 AM on May 24, 2006

I won't be able to purchase sheep! Whatever will I do??
posted by languagehat at 9:04 AM PST on May 24

Post about it on Metafilter and hope someone mails you a sheep they bought on your behalf.
posted by rough ashlar at 9:34 AM on May 24, 2006

This is, without question, the best website yet.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:37 AM on May 24, 2006

Why would I buy a sheep from this person when I can pay an online worker to do it for me for $0.02?
posted by vacapinta at 9:38 AM on May 24, 2006

I believe the $19.98 is for inventory costs.
posted by asterisk at 9:52 AM on May 24, 2006

I believe there's been a foot and mouth outbreak on that site. He's going to have to slaughter the lot.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:56 AM on May 24, 2006

This just in: Internet workers have little to no artistic talent! A new charity will be set up to help these poor souls, more to follow.
posted by Vindaloo at 10:09 AM on May 24, 2006

"Shear me and DIE, beeyotch"
On the far right.
posted by fuerloins at 10:19 AM on May 24, 2006

Y'know, when the project is "draw a sheep facing left" it's impressive how many people fucked this up.
posted by graventy at 10:47 AM on May 24, 2006

This is a great concept that could work well with something more meaningful than a drawing of a sheep. Like a self portrait, or a personal piece of writing. Having said that the guy will probably make money on the sheep, this URL seems to be everywhere today.
posted by fire&wings at 10:51 AM on May 24, 2006

That's some deformed lookin' sheep.
posted by IronLizard at 11:22 AM on May 24, 2006

-S'il vous plaît... dessine-moi un mouton!
-S'il vous plaît... donnez-moi premier vingt dollars.
Yes, I know.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:56 AM on May 24, 2006

They're so... plentiful.
posted by Isabeau Sahen at 12:55 PM on May 24, 2006

not loading ... spleen it to me.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:58 PM on May 24, 2006

When I see that Minor Threat cover I always think of Paris in the Springtime
posted by jessamyn at 1:02 PM on May 24, 2006

I believe the $19.98 markup covers sheeping and handling.

Good night, ladies and germs. Drive safe.
posted by bachelor#3 at 1:09 PM on May 24, 2006

jassamyn, that's a cool link I'd never seen, although the images are familiar.
posted by OmieWise at 1:40 PM on May 24, 2006

I haven't had time to look at all ten thousand yet...but are there any electric ones?
posted by kozad at 2:08 PM on May 24, 2006

Must be some. Why else would a flash plug in be necessary?
posted by Cranberry at 2:49 PM on May 24, 2006

Isn't this site a bit like a wild sheep chase?
posted by owalt1 at 5:09 PM on May 24, 2006

Wow. When I imagined what the internet could do, of all the possibilities, I never imagined a collection of sheep facing left drawn by "workers" for $0.02 and sold for $20.00. Just goes to show that there's more to heaven and earth the internets than is dreamt of in my philosophy.

(That is to say, this is neat.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:32 PM on May 24, 2006

Sheep are awesome. I am going to go buy me one right now!
posted by risk at 7:42 AM on May 25, 2006

I'm still trying to figure out if this was a piece of performance art for the web or a cool idea to make money off of people caught up in a fad. This article does open up all sorts of thoughts on uses for the mechanical turk, though.
posted by webfanatic at 11:10 PM on May 27, 2006