For those people that have lost a 'loved one' to an online community, why should we not be dancing on those graves?
AI slop is killing online communities
721–730 of 781 posts
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#722Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reddit is known to fingerprint TLS and quickly shadowban accounts that don't have the fingerprints of browsers.
TLS fingerprinting and Cloudflare are easy to bypass. There are lots of libraries that do so. The application-layer stuff is harder. Each application can develop its own heuristics, and that's difficult to automate in a cross-cutting fashion. Reddit doesn't do anything about that? That seems stupid.
> TLS fingerprinting and Cloudflare are easy to bypass. There are lots of libraries that do so.
Easy for you does not mean easy for everyone. My experience is that TLS fingerprinting paired with blocking specific user agents gets a variety of majority of bot traffic.
It's the same a basic online security: You can protect against script kiddies with basic hygiene. If the threat analysis is Mossad, then yeah, you're fucked.
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#723Earlier quoted context omitted.
> in other words, extremists are violent regardless as to their political persuasions No matter where you look, the far-right kills and maims substantially much more people than the far-left does.
That may be true where you live, but some of us have to deal with 打着红旗反红旗.
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Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#724Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you find one account you can find a few dozen spam accounts by building a graph of what posts they reply to
Most of them have private profiles these days
There are alternate sources that index reddit comments, but it's really frustrating how easy it would be for Reddit to shut the most prolific bots down if they were so inclined
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#725Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a reason Google is switching to "scan this QR code on your phone with a Google-authorized TPM" kind of CAPTCHAs
I've never seen a CAPTCHA like that. What's it used for? Google Cloud services?
Aaand it's proven, only two days later. You cannot pass recaptcha if your device is degoogled. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48067119
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#726> If you were born before around 1980 you’ll know that there was the Geocities era…
It’s entirely possible to be born in the 90s and have the same experience.
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#727AI slop is hurting my community in a different way. We have an internal viva engage community for quick development how to type questions at work. More frequently, instead of asking "how to" questions to the crowd to crowdsource answers, people are reaching out to me directly to ask me why the solution AI suggested doesn't work. That people trust AI over an organizational knowledge is bad enough. I fear that AI is tu…
Do they also say you're wrong, then proceed to "prove it" by pasting more AI slop that they don't understand?
The first time that happened, I had the courtesy to point out why the slop was incorrect... I don't know what that did for my social capital. I fear/suspect people are getting attached to their pet AI to the point of taking personal offence when called out.
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#728Earlier quoted context omitted.
No I'm saying it's better that they at least killed the "good" bots, even if this didn't result in killing all the bots.
"Congratulations, sir! Your directive to eliminate all guns has been a roaring success! We've had 100% compliance amongst good, law-abiding people! All of the remaining guns are owned by outlaws! Violent crime has tripled, exactly as predicted! Everything is going according to plan!"
I'm sure Reddit moderators think they're good guys with guns. In reality the bots they pat themselves on the back for were just annoyances. Bye clankers!
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#729Government censorship killed online communities a long time before AI slop, even on HN there are some things that are just facts, and obvious, and anyone with more than two neurons can see, but talking about them gets your message removed.
Re: AI slop is killing online communities
#730Earlier quoted context omitted.
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]…
Yep, the first killer app for AI was, "hey, I'm having this problem and I'm not sure what's going on, can you help me figure it out?", and being told "sure!" instead of "this is a dupe, use the search function you idiot" or "this is not the right kind of thing to ask here". SO has always been incredibly useful and incredibly frustrating at the same time.
You have three options.
1. Ask a stupid question online and be called an idiot in your public record.
2. Go through the hassle of creating the nth throwaway account and get called an idiot in public, if you are allowed to post with a new account at all.
3. Ask ChatGPT and get told you are completely right.