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Isn’t that the definition of gullible?
No it's the definition of 'agreeableness'.
Bot or no bot, someone programmed that content and therefore it represents a perfectly valid idea. The problem is not the ideas expressed by bots but rather their prevalence and that is ONLY a problem if your view of the world is based on prevalence, which of course almost everyone's view of the world is. It's the 'system one' versus 'system two' heuristic, which we are all prone to.
If you train yourself to operate more in system two, then the prevalence of otherwise minority or automated bot ideas is neither here nor there.
I thought everyone on here, but me, was a bot, and I still need some convincing that they're not.
I thought everyone on here, but me, was a bot, and I still need some convincing that they’re not.
I can fix that for you 
Ah found ‘that’ thread - well interesting, it was doing pretty good 🙂
Am I a bot? I just don’t know anymore. Who thinks house prices are going to crash soon? Asking for a friend.
therefore it represents a perfectly valid idea.
Not all ideas are perfectly valid. If I keep spouting a plainly bollocks idea for all you debaters to tell me I’m wrong, someone is going to agree with me, and your constant interaction with me is giving me a platform, until lots of people agree with me.
Eg:
Flat earth
Brexit
QAnon
Racism/sexism doesn’t exist.
Wasn't this also about the 6th thread in as many months on that exact topic? Started by "someone" with zero input on the near identical threads. "Someone" who could have answered their question quicker by reading said identical threads than by typing out the initial post?
I appreciate all of that probably only serves to make it look more genuine.
What is the point, and unless something similar is posted like a bazillion times across loads of different platforms there isn’t a chance in hell that any population group are going to actually have their way of thinking altered.
I know virtually nothing about computer AI, but was under the impression (from news reports) that, where Russian bots and the Trump election/Brexit debate were concerned, changing the views of populations were exactly the point. People tend to like to fit in, and if there are a lot of 'people' seemingly expressing a similar view you may be more liable to change your own to conform.
I gather that there's a 'machine learning' aspect to AI too, it learns from 'experience'. Just out of interest, will an AI bot that's been programmed to promote a point of view, always 'learn' to be more adept and human like at pushing that point of view, or is it theoretically possibly turn a bot and change its 'mind'?
I thought everyone on here, but me, was a bot, and I still need some convincing that they’re not.
Maybe not everyone, but in "Alien" fashion, I think that we could have some interesting discussions trying to work out which of the long term forum regulars is actually the robot.
This is like The Thing STW forum edition.
To paraphrase what has been said on the scam bike sale thread, they’re not as dumb as you think they are, you’re probably exactly as dumb as they think you are.
You are correct of course. Even though I don't know of any way to connect me to a premium rate number by typing a number on my phone that doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. It also wouldn't match how I know this scam works but that doesn't mean that it hasn't changed. Don't engage is the only rule 🙁
Bot or no bot, someone programmed that content and therefore it represents a perfectly valid idea.
It really it doesn’t.
They also don’t have to programme the content. They can generate content based on searching forums, media posts and other sources.
It pretty much is being gullible, I’d say look it up however the word was removed from the dictionary.
I was suspicious of Mr Teacake from the start, and Googled some of his initial text without finding it. I didn't spot him as a bot - but now I look back at 'his' responses, it's obvious. So posting here may have helped the bot refine its posts, but it's also helped me spot bots in future.
I'm 50/50 on whether the purpose of the bot posting is to develop itself or to generally create a feeling of unease and doom among the population, which would suit some political purpose quite well.
This is all very weird, and a bit scary if I'm honest.
I have more questions.
1) Why would a bot post about house prices crashing, who benefits?
2) As the bot's are all over social media. Does that mean when somebody posts something negative about this gov't and it's Rwanda plan for instance, and there's a reply saying something like, 'what else are we supposed to do?' It's a bot posting that reply?
Ah, thank you greybeard
It’s less about changing opinions on the surface bit more about creating a new larger foundation for a perspective that once seemed fringe…. Building a new monolith from the ground up needs momentum and substance.
Thay have just been sent out into the wild to learn and grow early days I suppose.
Genuine question how long would it take a program to scan singletracks posts/activity to form an well rounded bot that could interact?
Would it drive a t6 and have a pizza oven?
Genuine question how long would it take a program to scan singletracks posts/activity to form an well rounded bot that could interact?
Does it have to use the search function like rest of us?
Chewkw was v1, seems to have an upgrade to v2 recently, this was maybe v3…
Just because people cannot convince me of their views / perspective they have to consider me as a bot. Life is too short to dwell on that or argue back tbh. Bot, no, but zombie maggot like everyone else, yes.
program to scan singletracks posts/activity to form an well rounded bot that could interact?
So would a bot suggest hammering frozen sausages into someone’s lawn?
Foreign actors influencing public opinion for their own political gain.
… or what the point is really
It’s not always going to be obvious,
Theres a war going on in which one of the weapons is Economic Sanctions. Sanctions that we in the west are funding individually through a higher cost of living. We're effectively buying war bonds with with our Utility Bills and at the petrol pump. We've all pretty much agreed to do that without actually being asked. All the thread was doing was making us question the consequences of what we're doing by shaking our faith in property. "give people something to conserve and they'll become conservatives" someone once said - people are often banking their future in the house the own - its the rock the cling to and its how they congratulate themselves for how hard they work ('I paid x for it and now its worth y'- whats really happening is your money is worth less than when you bought it) . It doesn't have to convince anyone, you don't have to believe anything - its job is just put the a question in someones thoughts that wasn't there before.
It doesn’t have to convince anyone, you don’t have to believe anything – its job is just put the a question in someones thoughts that wasn’t there before.
Or perhaps it is your/our own "bot" that are posting as an "agent" to learn the algorithm from people in order to "experiment or control" on the available sample. Yes, your/our own bot. All govts (including your own) want to control own people as much as anyone else. They have the intention (power) and objectives (no dissenting voice).
Take the example of the viewpoints/perspectives put forward by most on this forum, the moment an alternative viewpoints/perspectives are being put forward, they are immediately being "censored" or rejected with various justifications. If you put this group of people in power and in charged of all technologies, what do you think will happen? Yes, you will have one accepted viewpoint(s) only because they are "morally right", the notion of moral is now being used as the justification to suppress other perspectives (good or bad).
what do you think of the future for smelling bots?
Things didn’t end well for Cheesebot.
Yes, your/our own bot.
We really don’t need one, we have you.
We really don’t need one, we have you.
There is a different between a bot and a zombie maggot.
A bot may or may not give up in their attempts but will definitely Not call everyone a zombie maggot.
If a bot starts to call everyone a zombie maggot. The bot is broken and the person who programmed it needs to be performance reviewed.
objectives (no dissenting voice).
Property ownership is how our government seeks to quell dissent - increasing private ownership was a union-busting move. The notion that your property and the value you place in it are under threat is encouraging dissent.
Just because people cannot convince me of their views / perspective they have to consider me as a bot. Life is too short to dwell on that or argue back tbh. Bot, no, but zombie maggot like everyone else, yes.
Spoken like a true bot!
I *think* that some of the long term aim is about having as wide an influence as possible, across as many platforms as possible. This then can be used to either slowly steer opinion over time, or use all platforms at once in a ‘thunderclap’ moment of false news.
Absolutely this. Just look at how the drip-drip of stories about the 'Nasty EU' via various places over a decade or more ended up with us having Brexit. These bots are just automating and speeding up the process.
It stank from when they started the thread
Well, for me it did, but some people were still responding when it was clearly a bot & other people were saying so.
I was suspicious of Mr Teacake from the start, and Googled some of his initial text without finding it. I didn’t spot him as a bot – but now I look back at ‘his’ responses, it’s obvious. So posting here may have helped the bot refine its posts, but it’s also helped me spot bots in future.
All these ^^
I have to say I was initially perplexed/suspicious right from the start when I saw 'another' house price thread pop up on a saturday afternoon and it generate loads of replies very quickly. I had no idea it was AI, I really thought it was a journalist type person doing some sort of weird journalistic research thing for reasons I not know why. That kind of repulsed me and was pleased when a few people clearly started thinking it was suss too and started calling it out. I still had no idea it was a bot though, I still thought it was a real person.
If nothing else it's a massive distraction, we are all still talking about it 24hrs later. Kind of dead cat if you like.
As someone said above it has helped spot bots - although to be honest its hard not to be suspicious of the writing style and weird errors - I mean, who actually writes that way? And so much of it, potentially on a phone?
Absolutely this. Just look at how the drip-drip of stories about the ‘Nasty EU’ via various places over a decade or more ended up with us having Brexit. These bots are just automating and speeding up the process.
Absolutely
If nothing else it’s a massive distraction, we are all still talking about it 24hrs later.
I think it's positive that it's being talked about for what it is and we're not still contributing to the thread.
I was suspicious of Mr Teacake from the start, and Googled some of his initial text without finding it. I didn’t spot him as a bot
Same here - I thought it was some dude picking from a pre-prepared set of fairly generic paragraphs. It did become more obvious after a couple more of its posts and I decided not to help improve the algorithm.
One widely accepted view of the increasing prevalence of this sort of "content" is that its purpose isn't to make you believe something but to make you believe nothing.
It’s likely to have been somewhere between the two. Mostly bot interactions, but not totally autonomous. One individual nannying many bots over multiple platforms. At least that’s how the paid for stuff works.
The thing is, this is starting to (again) question why I'm part of this online world.
How do I tell the difference between bot, zombie maggot, troll and genuine person anymore?
I came off a lot of SM, it's been good. I went back on FB to sell my car, and found I have the same concerns and frustration.
Meta, meta data, bots, personal data and all that. It's a worry.
I'm starting to wonder if we're heading into interwebz 3.0, a world where reality just isn't clear, and the cost of our digital tools (in terms of data and bot-led thinking adjustments) may be too high for me...
I need to ride my bike more with real people.
Kelvin has it.
The bot would alert if for certain replies it wouldn’t be sure of that would generate a user response before it would start again.
You see bots tag each other on facebook new pages
@bot2 look at this you like this
@bot1 think yes I do that’s interesting
I think it’s positive that it’s being talked about for what it is and we’re not still contributing to the thread.
Agreed, but at the same time we are not talking about partygate/NIP/non-doms/rwanda/brexit etc etc etc
It was amusing watching the thread develop after the initial "and why shouldn't someone join a cycling forum and make their very first post a subject that has nothing to do with cycling" defenders had replied.
Reminded me of a scene from "The Inbetweeners" where Jay asks a black kid at a nightclub to sell him some drugs. The black lad is deeply offended "you think I'm a drug dealer just 'cos I'm black????" Jay apologizes then the kid says "so do you want some drugs then?". Jay says "so you are a drug dealer then . . ."
The bot would alert if for certain replies it wouldn’t be sure of that would generate a user response before it would start again.
Ah that is interesting, I had been wondering how it might handle things like corkscrew length
I need to ride my bike more with real people.
The only line that really matters in this thread. Everyone take note.
Interesting points made on home ownership ^^^ by McC, probably not what the bot intended. I'm interested in how the housing crisis might impact on voting so maybe it's not altogether bad. When we read 'idealogical' and 'propoganda' we might assume it's a bot-free thread.
I tried to break bot sometimes when trying to call customer service online. LOL!
I do it just for the sake I can especially when the bot says please repeat the question etc. Then gave me a list of predefined options. Sort that I will have some fun with it.
I just assumed the whole point was to identify the home owning boomers of STW so they could be targeted separately and either convince them to put the surpluses millions they obviously all have into crypto, or to sign their their property over for cash and avoid the (apparently inevitable) property crash...
STW is sadly a prime target now being a hotbed of comfortably off middle-aged, middle-class people with disposable income and time...
This might ostensibly be a bicycling website but we have extensive threads on watches, coffee makers, #vanlife, Cars, etc, etc. Which just flags the forum as being rich pickings for those filthy millennial hustlers that want all your moneys!
This has taken my mind back to a forum I was on years ago to stop bots the owner made a log in /register question about the best football team in the world. The answer was his favorite football team and the clue was on the bottom of the page.
I think your all bots as no-one got my obvious war games reference 🙂
You see bots tag each other on facebook new pages
@bot2 look at this you like this
@bot1 think yes I do that’s interesting
I saw that on an Insta thread the other day, it was quite amusing as it just turned into a whole branch of bots nattering away at each other. It's now got me wondering if there is a way to hijack the conversation and get them talking (even more) total bollocks.
It was amusing watching the thread develop after the initial “and why shouldn’t someone join a cycling forum and make their very first post a subject that has nothing to do with cycling” defenders had replied.
Some "people*" are still defending it.
Makes you think.
*We only have their word to say they're people.
It’s now got me wondering if there is a way to hijack the conversation and get them talking (even more) total bollocks
Let the bots talk amongst themselves LOL! For example, Siri with Alexa etc
I glanced at the thread yesterday when it was new and didn't think anything of it. Now I've seen this and looked again at the thread it's all adding up...
A few years ago I posted a thread about pensions and finances and a financial adviser who's a member here (I still don't know his forum name) contacted me. It turns out he's a lovely bloke, I've had great advice and service from him, been for a bike ride over Cannock Chase with him and as a result of our dealings I've got a great pension scheme and - yes, you guessed - 3 rental houses as well as the one we live in.
Nothing too spooky yet, but when we went to his office one time ... it's right next to the Tunnocks Teacake factory. It all makes sense now!