Bots are getting good at mimicking engagement

Post by xanderlewis » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 11:40 AM UTC

mtrovo wrote: post #293

xanderlewis wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What makes it sound overly AI are the semicolon and the timing It's very disappointing that it now seems to be commonly believed that semicolons and em dashes are a sign of AI. Semicolons have been used as a useful tool for a long time; a comma here would simply be wrong.

I think the problem is the overuse compared to the times before ChatGPT. Same for furthermore, thus, delve and other words. Heck em dashes are so obscure that I doubt 1% of the population knows how to type it on their own keyboard. Those heavily exposed to media before ChatGPT feel there's a shift on the way sentences and narratives are presented. We usually don't use that many semicolons because we structure our sen…

I agree. It's just sad for those of us who've always been fans of semicolons and em dashes and now have to risk looking like we're 'AI' or — worse — unthinkingly adopting the AI tone of voice.

Post by Closi » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #45

Closi wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The counterpoint is 'Why hand your competitors data on a silver plate'? Sure you might be willing to build the bot to scrape it... but some other competitors won't go to this effort so it still means a bit of information asymmetry and stops some of your competitors poaching customers / employing various marketing tactics to exploit short term shortages or pricing charges etc.

I really don't believe we're in a situation where a company can exploit product availability and pricing data, is pushing enough volume to make it worth it, can process that information effectively, yet cannot hire someone on Fiverr to write a scraper in a few hours. > 'Why hand your competitors data on a silver plate'? To lessen the issue from the article and free up server resources for actual customers.

That depends - scrapers are currently annoying and temperamental and you have to maintain them. Also the idea of allowing some random person from Fiverr to write some code you are going to have running in your infra that has access to your webshop, ERP and the open internet isn't usually that palatable to most IT teams.

A simple and reliable API? That's different.

Re: Bots are getting good at mimicking engagement

Re: Bots are getting good at mimicking engagement