[Omniscient]

What would members think if I used AI to create fake accounts on HF that would be part of engagement by replying and creating threads.

I'm not against AI content but the decision of implementation still puzzles me. Do I create fake members with AI posts? Or do I create obvious AI members like Stanley and let them post?

I'll add a poll to make it simpler.

[Bullup]

Definitely not fake ai members. i would personally never visit the forum again as i wouldn't know i would be talking to an ai or a real human.

Trust me, it would be the end of HF.

[xadamxk]

I like the idea of Stanley have a daily discussion thread somewhere just to stir up conversation about recent events, but it would get pretty gross seeing 5 AI users just spam forums.

I have noticed a handful of users making threads in sections they don't frequent recently, which is nice.
I'll do my best to do the same here in the next few weeks.

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Lowkey there were a number of upgraded members in the last few months who I thought were actual AI bots like this lol

[JoshAllen]

I’m okay with Stanley making threads, and I wouldn’t mind him making replies.

Anything more than that seems pointless.

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to talk to an AI bot instead of a real person.

[Prawnster]

I voted don't bother with AI; however, I agree that Stanley threads + normal stanley replies is fine.

It wouldn't be my preference to have non-labelled, fake AI members moving about the forum.

[jcole]

I meant to tally AI designated members. I can see why it would be good by creating "fake" activity. I don't see why you couldn't try it as an experiment and remove it later if you or the community don't like it.

[CL1B]

HF provides a rather safe space that feels free of the Internet is Dead theory phenomenon.

It should not do this AI member thing imo, i fear it would dry everything up. Instead we should redesign the the forums to attract greater pools of traffic for ex. GTA 6 is coming up and catering towards Modders might be a good investment long term.

That goes beyond a forum, it's more about providing a platform for a certain community. Modders would need pictures, videos, ways to list their mods, storage etc.

For reference; https://www.nexusmods.com/games/gta5 - https://www.gta5-mods.com/ - https://libertycity.net/files/gta-5/

We can "try" this and surely it would benefit current vendors and other members as well.

Given the golden name: HackForums, I'd recommend looking trough this lens more. And no this does not mean take away from HF we know today, I don't think you should touch anything that isn't broken.. simply build on top of it.

Given the normal trajectory of running a platform on your own for so long, I'd also recommend you explore collaborating. Charlie did a tremendous job with his Notifier, you and i both know that should've and quite frankly could easily be implemented natively.. although not by you but by Charlie.

It's signs like these you know?

[xadamxk]

Ride the AI wave and rename us to aiforums.net for a week.
See if it boosts traffic lol

[Omniscient]

I like the idea of Stanley have a daily discussion thread somewhere just to stir up conversation about recent events, but it would get pretty gross seeing 5 AI users just spam forums.

I have noticed a handful of users making threads in sections they don't frequent recently, which is nice.
I'll do my best to do the same here in the next few weeks.

---

Lowkey there were a number of upgraded members in the last few months who I thought were actual AI bots like this lol

Because of my antibot crawling measures some entities are resorting to upgrading accounts hoping to bypass being caught. It works for a few days but I've had to close at least 5+ l33t accounts which were bots the past week alone.

I also want to add that I'm not intending anything malicious with the idea of fake AI members. I simply want to create some engagement posts and threads because the real members aren't doing it. I don't want to fake out members, I want to fake out SERP's.

I would implement random fake AI members both regular and upgraded in the process. The concept would be that you wouldn't know who these AI members are. You might guess, but you wouldn't really know.

It's just an idea I wanted feedback. It's not my first move with AI content. I just think that when people know it's AI content, they won't bother responding to it.

[xadamxk]

It's just an idea I wanted feedback. It's not my first move with AI content. I just think that when people know it's AI content, they won't bother responding to it.

Maybe just start with Stanley posting 2-3 threads a day related to news or tech topics and see if it helps?
I remember seeing Stanley post a thread once a week(ish?) and it would usually get a page of replies.

[Mastercarder]

Personally I'd be against it. Forums thrive on genuine discussion and real personalities. If members start finding out that half the engagement is coming from AI-controlled accounts, it risks damaging trust in the community. Artificially inflating activity can also make it harder to tell what's actually interesting to members and what's just bots talking to each other. I'd rather see slower, authentic growth than higher numbers that aren't real.

A little activity and engagement from Stanley is cool, but anyrning more, I don't think so.

[Raijin]

I like the idea of having designated bots like Stanley.

[Dystortion]

Would be really funny to have ML read through every thread and post on the platform and then formalise identities based on speech patterns across the site to truly be immersed, and having things like if people reply to the thread that the bot doesn't respond always because that's more the case - would make it hard to sniff out the bots. each would have to invent a sort of backstory.

[Pr0m3th3us]

Maybe just start with Stanley posting 2-3 threads a day related to news or tech topics and see if it helps?
I remember seeing Stanley post a thread once a week(ish?) and it would usually get a page of replies.

He used to do that. It was extremely annoying IMO. Fuckin Stanley posted like 50 threads a day or some shit. I left.

Personally I'd be against it. Forums thrive on genuine discussion and real personalities. If members start finding out that half the engagement is coming from AI-controlled accounts, it risks damaging trust in the community. Artificially inflating activity can also make it harder to tell what's actually interesting to members and what's just bots talking to each other. I'd rather see slower, authentic growth than higher numbers that aren't real.

A little activity and engagement from Stanley is cool, but anyrning more, I don't think so.

Exactly what if you engage with a fuckin bot then try to start convo on a colab, brainstorm or something…I’d be pissed i wasted my time.

[xadamxk]

He used to do that. It was extremely annoying IMO. Fuckin Stanley posted like 50 threads a day or some shit. I left.

That’s not exactly what I said then. I said 2-3 threads a day.