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0 pointsImustaskforhelp14d ago0 comments

Yes! This is really great feature, at the very least there being some proper Hackernews guidelines about it.

In my observation, recently there are quite many new AI generated comments in general. Like not even trying to hide with full em-dashes and everything.

I do feel like people are gonna get sneaky in future but there are going to be multiple discussions about that within this thread.

But I find it pretty cool that HN takes a stance about it. HN rules essentially saying Bots need not comment is pretty great imo.

It's a bit of a cat and a mouse problem but so is buying upvotes in places like reddit but HN with its track record of decades might have one or two suspicious or actions but long term, it feels robust. I hope the same robustness applies in this case well hopefully.

Wishing moderation luck that bad actors don't try to take it as a challenge and leave our human community to ourselves :]

Another point I'd like to say is that, if successful, then we can also stop saying, "did you write your comment by LLM" and the remarks as well which I also say time to time when I see someone clearly using AI but it seems that some false-positives happen as well (they have happened sometimes with me and see it happen with others as well) and they also de-rail the discussion. So HN being a place for humans, by humans can fix that issue too.

Knowing dang and tomhow, I feel somewhat optimistic!

0 comments

altairprime14d ago

Posting accusations of guidelines violations as comments — specifically, “did you write your comment by LLM” — is already prohibited by the guidelines, and should be emailed to the mods instead using the footer contact links. It’s been less than a week since the last time I reported “this seems poorly written and/or AI written” to the mods and iirc they killed the post and account within a couple hours.

Similarly: If you see people making accusations of guidelines violations in a discussion, email the thread link to the mods with a subject like “Accusations in post discussion” and ask them to evaluate them for mod response; they’re always happy to do so and I’m easily clocking in a couple hundred emails a year of that sort to them.

It doesn’t take much to make HN better! And it only takes a moment to point out an overlooked corner of threads for mod review. No need to present a full legal case, just “FYI this seems to violate guideline xyz” is at minimum still helpful.

bakugo14d ago

The problem is, even if you do send an email and the mods eventually read it and take action, by the time that happens, it's likely that bunch of users will have already wasted their time unknowingly arguing with a bot. In my view, commenting something like "this is a bot account" is done primarily to inform other users that might not notice, not the moderators.

Even if you believe that prohibiting this is necessary to avoid what one might consider "AI witchhunting", bots are so prevalent now that being expected to communicate the existence of each one via email is unrealistic, for both the reporting users and the moderators. I think it's finally time to consider some sort of on-site report system.

altairprime14d ago

> even if you do send an email and the mods eventually read it and take action, by the time that happens, it's likely that bunch of users will have already wasted their time unknowingly

That’s certainly a consequence of how the site operators choose to accept user reports to by mods, yes, but it’s sometimes treated as an excuse not to write the emails to the mods. They can flag off the thread, autocollapse it so it doesn’t take up discussion space for future readers (such as those at work offline for a 3-day IT shift in a secure bunker or whatever), et cetera.

> commenting something like "this is a bot account" is done primarily to inform other users that might not notice

It’s a nice sentiment, but that’s also expressly forbidden by the guidelines/faq (“Please don't post insinuations”, which I’ll suggest to them should be extended to include AI something or other), and I tend to report those accusations as the ‘opening’ guidelines violation so that mods can step in before mobthink kicks in and make their own mod judgment about the matter. A repeated pattern of accusations of guidelines violations in comments is eventually going to attract mod censure, and so I advise against it, no matter how kindly the intent.

> it's finally time to consider some sort of on-site report system

I do agree that it’s clumsy and I make a point of saying that to them about every year or so. Perhaps your email to them about it will be the one that persuades them! I remain ever optimistic.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsImustaskforhelp14d ago0 comments

Yes! This is really great feature, at the very least there being some proper Hackernews guidelines about it.

In my observation, recently there are quite many new AI generated comments in general. Like not even trying to hide with full em-dashes and everything.

I do feel like people are gonna get sneaky in future but there are going to be multiple discussions about that within this thread.

But I find it pretty cool that HN takes a stance about it. HN rules essentially saying Bots need not comment is pretty great imo.

Wishing moderation luck that bad actors don't try to take it as a challenge and leave our human community to ourselves :]

Knowing dang and tomhow, I feel somewhat optimistic!

0 comments

altairprime14d ago

bakugo14d ago

altairprime14d ago

> even if you do send an email and the mods eventually read it and take action, by the time that happens, it's likely that bunch of users will have already wasted their time unknowingly

> commenting something like "this is a bot account" is done primarily to inform other users that might not notice

> it's finally time to consider some sort of on-site report system

I do agree that it’s clumsy and I make a point of saying that to them about every year or so. Perhaps your email to them about it will be the one that persuades them! I remain ever optimistic.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse