Hey Wayne ... or Paul ... or Z, or NS, or DD, or ???

[KFC911]

Hey guys ... this place has been evolving for the 25 years I've been here ... and is my only foray into "social media" theses days. It's a fantastic community .... warts and all.

Can we discuss openly how to improve it and stop some of the nonsense going on here daily? I can be FOS sometimes too imo... it happens .

Or maybe it's by design?

This is a serious question btw...

Thank you!

[Seahawk]

Please PM the PP Staff. I will also post this in the Admin Forum.

I am also happy to get your inputs via email or PM.

Best.

Edit: You input thread has been posted in the Admin Forum.

[Eric at Pelican Parts]

KC911 as I've said before over the years, you can always PM me! It's the easiest way for me to address concerns.

I've opened this thread back up though, so there's a place for people to post comments and concerns. Let's see what we can do to help improve the boards.

[KFC911]

Thank you both! I would rather post openly on the forum than PMs ... there was a recent thread regarding bots, etc. and a few ideas were tossed out by members here... a couple of ideas seemed reasonable imo ... might not be mine .

Someone suggested limiting "old thread resurrections" after a period of time ... bots do this, "might" get removed, but it still sucks 'cause of bots. If REAL person wants to revive an oldie. ... start another thread & reference the original thread.... Seahawk merges them

This would eliminate much.

Bots are easiliy spotted by a few of us regular early morning EST veterans... 99% of the time... it's easy.

Hand out a few Bot-B-Gone mod deputy badges.... reviewed by Seahawk or ???.

To be fair .... Paul was open to this awhile back .... but I don't need no stinkin' badges. ... mebbe I just need another hiatus... still

Thank you all ...

[juanbenae]

Looking at the listed Mods for this forum specifically have not visited the forums in years according to their profile pages. I don't see Paul listed which seemed odd.

[speeder]

Let me get this straight...we can openly discuss the way the forums are run here or not?

Thanks for the clarification.

[unclebilly]

What specifically is wrong with bots participating in the forum? It’s no different than some newb asking about what type of oil to run or how much oil to put in a 911 based on the dipstick…

What does it hurt?

Why does it upset you?

Bots and AI are reality. The capabilities are already astounding and getting better every day. It’s a little scary sometimes but the power is incredible. I have a ChatGPT pro account and use it everyday to save time and do some of my mundane tasks allowing me to focus my efforts on the creative problem solving that I am paid to do.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by speeder

Let me get this straight...we can openly discuss the way the forums are run here or not?

Thanks for the clarification.

I prolly shouldn't have started this thread ... oops.

UncleBilly ... you made me realize ... I hang out here because of the "real people" here ... and always have.

Thank you

[stevej37]

^^^ How do you know that we are not all bots?

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by KC911

I prolly shouldn't have started this thread ... oops.

UncleBilly ... you made me realize ... I hang out here because of the "real people" here ... and always have.

Thank you

I get that. How do bots detract from that experience?

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

I get that. How do bots detract from that experience?

It's a personal problem I have with 'em ... they are just like folks selling Amway...

...walking on my lawn

They just do

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ How do you know that we are not all bots?

Stevebots .... the forum is full of 'em!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

What specifically is wrong with bots participating in the forum? It’s no different than some newb asking about what type of oil to run or how much oil to put in a 911 based on the dipstick…

What does it hurt?

Why does it upset you?

Bots and AI are reality. The capabilities are already astounding and getting better every day. It’s a little scary sometimes but the power is incredible. I have a ChatGPT pro account and use it everyday to save time and do some of my mundane tasks allowing me to focus my efforts on the creative problem solving that I am paid to do.

Bots don't add any value. All they really do is use the forums to SPAM links to boost the search results for those links.

Bots and/or SPAMmers, find an old thread and post a useless update. They then wait a week or a month or a year, and come back and add a link to their post (after the thread has gone dormant. It's like they are getting the thread drunk so they can take advantage. It's worse that someone coming in and asking the same question that's been asked 20 times or posting something silly or funny. At least those folks are part of our community, rather than someone coming in just to use the community without any lube.

ChatGPT isn't showing up to share info, answer questions, provoke thought, etc.... rather than just calling them bots, we should be calling what KFC is talking about "SPAMBots" which are not nearly as entertaining as FemBots (I'm assuming).

[stevej37]

I saw the 'boob thread' this am and was going to comment....and then it was gone.

Nude Bots.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ How do you know that we are not all bots?

Turtles. Bots don't love turtles.

[unclebilly]

@mausram - I disagree in part. ChatGPT adds tremendous value, just not to the site in the way you envision it.

Google this thread title… I bet the thread will come up. This nearly instantaneous detection by Google is largely due to bots. It’s good for Pelican Parts bringing people to the website.

Further, ChatGPT references its information source. This also gives credit to Pelican Parts.

The internet is changing. Google and search engines are becoming passe. If you want to know about something, or understand it, ask AI. On the upside, no ads or sponsored links that are irrelevant.

Get with the times.

[KFC911]

Nope

[masraum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

@mausram - I disagree in part. ChatGPT adds tremendous value, just not to the site in the way you envision it.

Google this thread title… I bet the thread will come up. This nearly instantaneous detection by Google is largely due to bots. It’s good for Pelican Parts bringing people to the website.

Further, ChatGPT references its information source. This also gives credit to Pelican Parts.

The internet is changing. Google and search engines are becoming passe. If you want to know about something, or understand it, ask AI. On the upside, no ads or sponsored links that are irrelevant.

Get with the times.

This thread and any recent thread will come up in a search almost instantly, but that's due to Google web crawlers/spiders not SPAMBots.

What we are complaining about is not AI or ChatGPT. What we're complaining about are SPAMBots which are something else entirely.

Also, you have to be careful trusting AI implicitly. We know that there are times that if AI doesn't know the answer it will make up something that it think is our might be right. AI is a tool. But it's not the end-all. We have our own in house AI at work. It's used for coding and writing reviews or whatever.

[Billiam 911 2.8]

A spirit of civility and openness to ideas that you disagree with would be nice.

[rockfan4]

I have no problem with bots reading the forum, as long as their traffic does not interfere with the users of the forum, or unduly raise the cost of operating the forum due to their usage.

Originally Posted by unclebilly

On the upside, no ads or sponsored links that are irrelevant.

Here's where your argument falls apart. The posting bots, the bad bots, add links to scammy sites that the bots read. Put up enough of them, and the AI thinks it's a legitimate site, and may start using that information in its results.

Plus it's just annoying when a bot bumps a 5 year old thread just to add a link to the bottom of it.

This place does a great job at weeding out the spammy posts, but some do get through. Ever read the comments on a news site where 90% of the comments are "I make $5000/week working from home"? I don't want this forum to end up like that.

I do have a small ask. Could you add the link back to the parent forum to the bottom of thread pages? I enjoy browsing to the bottom of threads such as the random pictures thread, but then I have to scroll all the way back up to click the "Off Topic Discussions" link. Yes, I could click the back button, but clicking the link refreshes the view of the forum.