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Everything we like is a psyop?

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Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#131

Post by ksaj »

jrecyclebin wrote: post #36

This is not true though. My two favorite bands from the past year were poorly-attended shows that I stumbled into. You can still seek out good underground, obscure artists - you just have to look for them. Not trying to be elitist - like what you like. I just really feel like little artists need the support. Plus, it feels like there is a bit more satisfying agency and fate in looking for new things rather than being…

It's not elitist to be part of a very small group. But I get what you mean.

I live in a city where the bands you speak of get pushed further and further away from the downtown core. They're literally in the 'burbs now. It's counter-productive, but it seems downtown is more concerned with restaurants than other forms of entertainment these days.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#132

Post by Rekindle8090 »

jottinger wrote: post #54

Dang, that hurt to read. I'm starting up a new news-ish site like the old TheServerSide.com, at https://bytecode.news , and I'm faced with the question of "how do I generate traffic in the face of AI and all the people willing to market, market, astroturf, market, market?" I'm not that kind of personality, I don't want to do tiktok or whatever the kids do, I'd far rather accept organic and slow growth over meteoric a…

"Dang that hurt to read, here's an advertisement!"

Why is this every 3rd comment on this site? Every single post has multiple comments that are

"I hate that, here's my solution"

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#133

Post by cpa »

jottinger wrote: post #54

Dang, that hurt to read. I'm starting up a new news-ish site like the old TheServerSide.com, at https://bytecode.news , and I'm faced with the question of "how do I generate traffic in the face of AI and all the people willing to market, market, astroturf, market, market?" I'm not that kind of personality, I don't want to do tiktok or whatever the kids do, I'd far rather accept organic and slow growth over meteoric a…

Top comment of a frontpage post, you're not doing that bad at marketing.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#134

Post by madrox »

Lots of social sites are facing this problem. It's nearly impossible to grow on Twitch without viewbotting: https://x.com/Reedjd/status/2028533060632010759 and Nikita is calling out Perplexity on X: https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2044902122995548330

The problem is that social platforms benefit from this behavior as long as it doesn't get too egregious. Bots contribute to metrics just as easily as real humans as long as investors and ad purchasers feel like it's kept to managable levels.

Nothing on social is organic anymore, and hasn't been long before AI came around, which is why I welcome the AI slop era. It will accelerate us to the endgame, which is acknowledging how bad the problem really is and to start cleaning it up.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#135

Post by dust42 »

Mikhail_Edoshin wrote: post #127

Most things you think you know is a psyop too.

I once worked for a company that bought a spot in the evening news (french TF1). It worked that way: a french minister was visiting a fair and coming to stop in front of the booth and getting a product demo. And that ended up in the evening news. Since that time I kind of watch the news with different eyes.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#136

Post by ButlerianJihad »

PufPufPuf wrote: post #129
vermilingua wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree; but the odds of that coincidence are extremely long.

If you check on average every three years, the odds of you checking the very same day the book comes out are about 1‰, which is improbable but not _extremely_. Add that together with all the probabilities of things that would make you think "wow, that's improbable" and we have pretty high odds of something improbable happening.

Okay, I squinted hard at that notation “1‰” and had Gemini explain it to me, and it appears that you made no typos, but I couldn’t let that go unexplained!

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#137

Post by Nursie »

vermilingua wrote: post #27

I had a very odd experience the other day; while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, I had a book I’d read pop into my head (Mercy of Gods, very good) and looked up when the sequel was going to release. It had come out that morning. I can’t remember seeing any marketing about the sequel, I don’t use any app or service that would have told me it was upcoming or released, and I block ads; but it feels too enormous a co…

I had almost the opposite experience a few years ago.

I (after a few beers) found myself idly wondering about an electric folk band I hadn't seen or heard of for a good ten years, and looked them up to see if they were doing a new album or tour.

They'd played a final farewell gig the week before :/

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#138

Post by ssl-3 »

jaredklewis wrote: post #115
jottinger wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to optimize content for SEO - been on the other side of that, and I think it creates content that's bland and ineffective. Humans gonna human, machines gonna machine, and I'm not paying for ads. If humans want the site to succeed, it'll succeed. Otherwise, it won't. Such is life.

I kind of see what you are saying, but it reminds me of “if you build it, they will come.” They won’t come, because they won’t even know about it. A more accurate aphorism would have been “if you build it and tell everyone about it, some of them might come.” Humans probably don’t want the site to succeed, because they mostly don’t know it exists.

Perhaps.

How much SEO happens here on HN? How much do they spend to tell everyone about it? I'm guessing: Not much; maybe zero.

But people come here, anyway.

(That doesn't mean that it's capable of independently sustaining itself, but people do show up.)

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#139

Post by TeMPOraL »

eptcyka wrote: post #130
jottinger wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to optimize content for SEO - been on the other side of that, and I think it creates content that's bland and ineffective. Humans gonna human, machines gonna machine, and I'm not paying for ads. If humans want the site to succeed, it'll succeed. Otherwise, it won't. Such is life.

This man will build a product no one uses and then complain about the world not being ready for his genius instead of using the tools that everyone else uses to give himself a chance at success.

In all honesty and writing it straight: this kind of success you're writing of would best be not achieved at all, as it's poisoning society and civilization.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#140

Post by the-mitr »

jottinger wrote: post #54

Dang, that hurt to read. I'm starting up a new news-ish site like the old TheServerSide.com, at https://bytecode.news , and I'm faced with the question of "how do I generate traffic in the face of AI and all the people willing to market, market, astroturf, market, market?" I'm not that kind of personality, I don't want to do tiktok or whatever the kids do, I'd far rather accept organic and slow growth over meteoric a…

Your comment reminds me of a quote by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher, that has helped in my lows

> How slowly one advances in a boat that does not float along with the stream in a specific direction! How much easier it is when one can connect with the work of great predecessors whose value is not doubted by anyone. A personal experiment, a construction whose foundations one must dig himself and whose walls one must erect himself, runs a real risk of becoming a humble hovel. But perhaps one prefers to live there rather than in a palace that has been built by others. (Escher on Escher – Exploring the Infinite)

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