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AI slop is killing online communities

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Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#621

Post by dspillett »

galleywest200 wrote: post #279
smcg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems naive. As long as people are "enjoying" the AI-infested social networks, or at least not annoyed enough to leave, they will stay on them, and become further disconnected from reality. We have half of EU teenagers talking to chatbots regularly. Alienated people flock to them.

Actively seeking out a chatbot is different than wanting to talk to humans.

> Actively seeking out a chatbot is different

A lot of them aren't actively seeking them out. They are pushed at them and they just try it.

Go on, just this once, you can stop if you don't like it…

> than wanting to talk to humans.

The disaffected just want to talk. I'm sure they'd prefer humans but once the chatbots seem to be good enough in their absence they get a bit trapped there because the bots are too sycophantic and they get conditioned to want that from humans too which will not happen.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#622

Post by account42 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #559
lizknope wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that many of us have niche interests and no one local to discuss things with or get made fun of for being a nerd. I loved maps and geography as a child and still do. I've never met anyone in real life that likes it as much as me. But on the internet there are places were I can discuss it and other people share fascinating articles, pictures, etc.

This is why cities are popular for this exact type of person. For centuries. People with niche interests move to a city, which by sheer density, have others with said interest. Plenty of people have a reason why they can’t do it, but plenty do it and are happier for finding their community IRL.

Yeah except cities suck for many reasons. And for really obscure nieches where there may only be a couple hundred enthusiasts worldwide cities are not going to offer you the same forums that the internet did.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#623

Post by card_zero »

lordfrito wrote: post #614
protocolture wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It was a surprise to us how vehemently some folk defended AI content and assumed it was their right to post it within our community. People often confuse freedom of speech, with freedom to access a specific platform for speech. Its dead wrong, I dont know why people would want to be in a community where they arent wanted.

> I dont know why people would want to be in a community where they arent wanted. This is standard predatory behavior. Child abusers hanging out with kids, weirdos hanging out near the women's clothing department, etc. It's usually a clear indication of the sort of people you don't want to associate with in your online community. They bring a net negative to the table.

What is "it"? Putting the two halves together, the sort of people who want to be in a community where they aren't wanted are the sort of people you don't want in that community. I guess I can't argue with that.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#624

Post by lizknope »

vineyardmike wrote: post #559
lizknope wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that many of us have niche interests and no one local to discuss things with or get made fun of for being a nerd. I loved maps and geography as a child and still do. I've never met anyone in real life that likes it as much as me. But on the internet there are places were I can discuss it and other people share fascinating articles, pictures, etc.

This is why cities are popular for this exact type of person. For centuries. People with niche interests move to a city, which by sheer density, have others with said interest. Plenty of people have a reason why they can’t do it, but plenty do it and are happier for finding their community IRL.

I grew up in 2 towns in the 20K to 30K population. They were both super racist and not a lot of stuff to do.

I now live in an area with about 2.5 million people and there is far more to do and the people are more educated and open minded. I will never move back to a small town again.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#625

Post by Flashtoo »

Gigachad wrote: post #306
smcg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems naive. As long as people are "enjoying" the AI-infested social networks, or at least not annoyed enough to leave, they will stay on them, and become further disconnected from reality. We have half of EU teenagers talking to chatbots regularly. Alienated people flock to them.

For one point, I was a daily active user of Reddit for 10 years, I deleted my account and left the platform in January over LLM content.

Same, but recently I discussed the LLM flood on Reddit with some friends IRL and they were surprised I had left Reddit, as they simply hadn't noticed significant bot activity. Mind you, these are very AI-aware people. I have little hope that normies will catch on and actually mind enough to leave.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#626

Post by bayindirh »

dspillett wrote: post #607
bayindirh wrote: post #589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering StackOverflow is now providing a ground truth for AI training, I believe the ban is more about not poisoning the well rather than keeping the StackOverflow or StackExchange human-friendly. That ship has sailed long time ago with zealot admins and verbal harassment.

> That ship has sailed long time ago with zealot admins Where there are certainly strong examples of this, a lot of people mistake enforcing the rules as zealotry. Part of the point of SO was that if things don't change then there is a completed state for SO too - no need to ask duplicate questions like on platforms where a post is less long-lived. Unfortunately people take things like “this is a dup”, “provide more…

You're absolutely right. The problem was so small that SO only had to make a site-wide survey, make a couple of public statements, big administrative changes and a big campaign to earn hearts and minds back.

Even after that, I still feel sour about the site. Talk about burnt bridges.

Moreover, in 2025, 46% of the survey participants told that they don't feel like part of the community. That number was 44% in 2024 [1], too. Also, 2023 doesn't look better: 45.63% of participants said no [2].

Maybe the survey is rigged. Who knows?

[0]: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/stack-overflow#2-feel-l...

[1]: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/community#2-feel-like-a...

[2]: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-stack-overflow...

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#627

Post by rgblambda »

account42 wrote: post #616
rgblambda wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or applying for an account could involve sending a handwritten letter by post.

Adding that much friction is also going to loose you many genuine users. Might be worth it depending on the community but if it makes newcomers fewer than your usual churn rate its a death sentence.

True. To be fair, this was a reply to a comment about a niche community.

Though it's possible that this approach could become normalised if it's proven to work at a small scale.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#628

Post by 21asdffdsa12 »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #540
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #55

I run a niche creative community, and we outlawed AI-generated content in 2022 as it was easy to see how corrosive it would be to the community. It hasn't been easy. We ban fake AI accounts daily and shrug off around 600 AI content creator accounts monthly. It's a lot of work, extra work that wasn't needed before AI content came around, and of course, that is an extra cost. I fear losing the battle.

High quality anecdata are exactly the reason why I love HN. Thanks for posting about it. > fake AI accounts First, how do you identify them? Is it strictly admins monitoring posts/server-side logs or do users report odd behaviour? Second, what is the purpose of these accounts? Are they basically running submarine adverts, or are they just trolling (to harm the community)?

Eagerness.. you let them work through a endless labyrinth of forms. While the human drops out after the 2nd form- the ai is willing to go all the way always.

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#629

Post by 21asdffdsa12 »

mastermage wrote: post #566
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #55

I run a niche creative community, and we outlawed AI-generated content in 2022 as it was easy to see how corrosive it would be to the community. It hasn't been easy. We ban fake AI accounts daily and shrug off around 600 AI content creator accounts monthly. It's a lot of work, extra work that wasn't needed before AI content came around, and of course, that is an extra cost. I fear losing the battle.

It realy is time for a Butlerian Jihad

The trick is to work on site and pour the counter-measures right into the foundation :P

Re: AI slop is killing online communities

#630

Post by kdheiwns »

slidehero wrote: post #521
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about charging $1 or $5 for an account? Seems like you could stem the tide pretty easily with something like that.

presumably most people running these bots are doing it for some financial gain. as long gain > cost the issue won't go away. It'll stop the ones doing it for the lols, but I imagine they're a minority anyway.

Would be great to have some sort of bot trap that would just drain a dollar here and there from AI slopologists and shadowban their accounts to only interact with other AI accounts.
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