Who is m*************3 ?

Surely trumped by:

I did find on a few occasions that there was nothing available when I clicked through to the loan page but this always seemed to be when a second or third part of the same loan had been put up for sale.  So I presumed that someone was already trying to bid for the first bit, missed out but ended up at the front of the queue for the next bit.

I didn't find this to be an issue otherwise. Was your experience more widespread?

I'm coming to a similar conclusion, as clicking as soon as something appears on the Available page often brings up a loan page showing nothing available.

Today, I had a different variation on that theme.  When I arrived at the loan page there was something still available but there was no box to tick, so I entered a number in the amount box and clicked 'Invest' (or whatever the button actually says).  I then got an error message telling me that I needed to tick the box, which hadn't been there at the time I clicked 'Invest' but had appeared by the time the page refreshed with the error message.  By then, of course,the amount available had changed to being zero, so there was no point ticking the box. 

On other occasions, when I've arrived at the loan page I've had an animated circle symbol occupying the space where the tick box would appear some number of seconds later, but watched the loan part availability go to zero while waiting for the tick box to appear.  So even if I had been given a 'pass' and not had to go through the picture quiz I still wouldn't have had any chance of buying a loan part.

My conclusion is that 'fastest finger' works appropriately only in a controlled environment where there is a level playing field.  It doesn't work fairly when there are uncontrollable variables -- such as internet connection speed, the equipment being used, etc. -- giving some participants consistent handicaps.  While the addition of the reCaptchas might have stopped bot use, it has introduced other inequities and resulted in a system that still isn't fair.

I do hope savingstream are paying attention to the deficiencies noted here, and are working on other methods of making their SM a fairer place.  I appreciate the seeming simplicity of the SS platform, but I do not like the unfairness that exists in the SM, so I'm beginning to think that SS need to develop some sort of fairer queuing system for buying SM parts.  Until that's implemented, buying parts on the SM will be a very negative experience for most SS investors and will encourage people to invest elsewhere, and that's not going to help SS at all.

They could get one which is FAIR for all, but it will not make everyone (or maybe not even anyone) HAPPY while there is a supply imbalance .. but there is, as I have oft noted, no balance mechanism, so it may just tip the other way (lots of sellers and no buyers) which would be even more distressing. Not being able to get your money out being more worrying than not being able to get it in.

Is it me or is it almost impossible to pick up loans on the SM. m***********3 seems to get a high percentage of them ,what ever time of day I try I am always to late

I think people would be a lot more willing to take that position if it wasn't for the fact that it's been a full month since the last new loan was released, and nothing in the pipeline at the moment has progressed to Stage 3 yet, and therefore there's nothing about to be released.

Not to mention that the loan was a small one and the maximum allocation anyone received -- except for our fast-fingered friend -- was £300.  You have to go back a month and a half -- to 18/Dec -- to find the last large loan to be released.