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Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#771

Post by dang »

zahlman wrote: post #431
dang wrote: post #386

The rule has been around for years, but only in case law, i.e. moderation comments ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ). What's new is that we promoted it to the guidelines. Fortunately I found some things we could cut as well, so https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html actually got shorter. --- Edit: here are the bits I cut: Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pic…

I suppose I should put my comment here instead of at top level. Exactly when was this point added? It seems somehow not new , but on the other hand it was missing from an archive.today snapshot I found from last July. (I cannot get archive.org to give me anything useful here.) Edit: > Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. > If you flag, please don't also c…

Do you mean when did we add "please don't post generated comments" to the guidelines? A couple days ago IIRC.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#772

Post by dang »

1718627440 wrote: post #490
dang wrote: post #386

The rule has been around for years, but only in case law, i.e. moderation comments ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ). What's new is that we promoted it to the guidelines. Fortunately I found some things we could cut as well, so https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html actually got shorter. --- Edit: here are the bits I cut: Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pic…

Does that mean that is now ok to e.g. comment that you did flag something?

That is one of those enjoyable questions that is best answered by first generalizing it.

Does the absence of a rule against X mean that it's ok to do X? Absolutely not.

It's impossible to list all the things that people shouldn't do. Fortunately we've never walked into that trap.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#773

Post by dang »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #518
dang wrote: post #386

The rule has been around for years, but only in case law, i.e. moderation comments ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ). What's new is that we promoted it to the guidelines. Fortunately I found some things we could cut as well, so https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html actually got shorter. --- Edit: here are the bits I cut: Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pic…

Is there a distinction between AI generated and AI edited? I wanted to share some context that might be helpful: I am autistic, and I have often received feedback that my communication is snarky, rude, or tone-deaf. At work, I've found it helpful to run some of my communications through an AI tool to make my messages more accessible to non-autistic colleagues, and this approach has been working well for me.

userbinator put it somewhat dramatically but has the point. We'd rather hear you in your own voice, even at a cost of misunderstanding your intent sometimes. If you're using HN in good faith—and you are, because otherwise you'd not be worrying about this—then over time it's possible to learn to lessen such misunderstanding, and not only possible but well worth doing.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#774

Post by duskdozer »

uni_baconcat wrote: post #754

For quite a while, I like use LLM to refine and fix my grammar issue, but my colleagues and professors reminds me that it was way too obvious. They said they can tolerate some mistakes in my words, but no tolerance for AI generated content.

Even if you make mistakes, it often can still be understood. 100% I would rather read your own words, even if they're messy, and ask clarifying questions for what I don't understand

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#775

Post by dang »

minimaxir wrote: post #427
dang wrote: post #386

The rule has been around for years, but only in case law, i.e. moderation comments ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ). What's new is that we promoted it to the guidelines. Fortunately I found some things we could cut as well, so https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html actually got shorter. --- Edit: here are the bits I cut: Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pic…

...Hacker News could use some more cute animal pictures, though.

Coming up on 20 years and we clearly went too far the other way.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#776

Post by tredre3 »

saym wrote: post #633
nkh wrote: post #286

What a welcome post. The whole reason I come here is to get thoughtful input from smart people, and not what I could get myself from an LLM. While we are at it; Think your own thoughts as well :) I know how easy it is to "let it come up with a first draft" and not spend the real effort of thinking for yourself on questions, but you'll find it's a road to perdition if you let yourself slip into the habit. Thanks to al…

I try to "think my own thoughts" but then I see them elsewhere all the time. My twitter bio has been "Thoughts expressed here are probably those of someone else." for over half a decade.

That's right, very few of us have unique or interesting opinions! But now filter our thoughts through a machine and it's even less of us that are worth reading.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#777

Post by duskdozer »

Supermancho wrote: post #716

I use AI for the elements I feel are weak or unclear in the transcription. Sometimes I copy-paste a paragraph into ChatGPT or whatever, to ensure my (aging) thoughts are being communicated in a crystal clear manner. I cannot always point out why I think they are unclear or jumbled. I don't feel this is an imposition on others. I think it's the opposite. It enhances signal by reducing nitpicking, spelling/grammar erro…

I just wrote a similar comment elsewhere, but I would much rather just read your jumbled or unclear writing than whatever's output from an LLM. At least I know you meant at one point the words that are written. It's not a grammar test in English class or an academic paper; if you use a few fragments or run-ons, it's not a big deal.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#778

Post by sam345 »

Good addition but to be fair HN guidelines have become so quaint particularly as they are now rarely enforced or even acknowledged. E.g. "Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. " And " Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. " These are violated every day without consequence.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#780

Post by ninjagoo »

caditinpiscinam wrote: post #745

We've all heard the phrase "the sum of all human knowledge". I've been feeling more and more that generative AI represents the average of all human knowledge. Which has its place. But a future in which all thought and creativity is averaged away is a bleak one. It's the heat death of thought.

> I've been feeling more and more that generative AI represents the average of all human knowledge.

Have you tried the paid versions of frontier models? They certainly do not feel like they spew the average of all human knowledge. It's not uncommon for them to find and interpret the cutting edge of papers in any of the domains that I've asked them questions about.

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