PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
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PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
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Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#2[deleted]
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#3Ooof. The idea--or reality--that humans' accounts would be hijacked by site-owners to make impersonating slop (presumably to bring in ad-revenue) is somehow both infuriating and energy-sapping-depressing.
Issues of trust and attribution have always existed for the web, but for many reasons it feels so much worse now--how bad must it get before some kind of sea-change can occur?
I'm not sure what the solution would be here.
* Does one need to establish a friggin' trademark for their own name/handle [0], just so they can threaten to sue using money they probably don't have?
* Is it finally time for PKI and everybody signs their posts with private keys and wastes CPU cycles verifying signatures to check for impersonation?
* Is there some set of implied collective expectations which need to be captured and formalized into the global patchworks of law?
[0] Ex: By establishing a small but plausible "business" selling advice and opinions under that name, and going after the impersonator for harming that brand.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#4The ShackNews forum: https://www.shacknews.com/chatty was similar - go back in time on on it and you can find posts about 9/11 unfolding.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#5I don't quite understand the issue of "back-dating" or hijacking accounts. How is this being done exactly? I came away from this article wondering if I was missing something.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#6[deleted]
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#7I don't quite understand the issue of "back-dating" or hijacking accounts. How is this being done exactly? I came away from this article wondering if I was missing something.
The last section mentions that the PhysicsForums admins are experimenting with LLM-generated responses, so I think the site owners are responsible.
> We reached out to Greg Bernhardt asking for comment on LLM usage in PhysicsForums, and he replied:
> "We have many AI tests in the works to add value to the community. I sent out a 2024 feedback form to members a few weeks ago and many members don’t want AI features. We’ll either work with members to dramatically improve them or end up removing them. We experimented with AI answers from test accounts last year but they were not meeting quality standards. If you find any test accounts we missed, please let me know. My documentation was not the best."
Why they would recycle old human accounts as AI "test accounts", I have no idea.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#8I don't quite understand the issue of "back-dating" or hijacking accounts. How is this being done exactly? I came away from this article wondering if I was missing something.
> How is this being done exactly?
Presumably it's being done by the site-owner, whether that means new-management or original management getting desperate/greedy.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#9I don't quite understand the issue of "back-dating" or hijacking accounts. How is this being done exactly? I came away from this article wondering if I was missing something.
Whoever runs the site/database is just inserting rows with fake datestamps under existing (presumably abandoned) account names.
Re: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory
#10I don't quite understand the issue of "back-dating" or hijacking accounts. How is this being done exactly? I came away from this article wondering if I was missing something.
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