Are The Good Days Gone?
While gathering my thoughts for the post, an old joke came to my mind, according to which, two friends meet after years. After greeting each other, one asks the other: "What do you do for a living?", to which the other says: "I'm pretending to be someone else." Yes, he was an actor and acting means always playing a role, impersonating someone.
I've been thinking about this, of how many of these we have on Hive. Not actors, but impersonators, one way or another and there's something I don't understand.
There was a time, at the beginning of the legacy chain, when we had genuine users and you could make good friendships, that could even last today. You found plenty of interesting posts, commented on posts you liked, connected with people from (literally) all over the world and had a place where you could write about what you wanted.
Commenting was not really incentivized financially as not many had considerable stake, to be able to vote comments too and many times you had to pay dustbunny to save you from losing the dust value comments.
You can argue that we still have all this today, which, technically might be true, but it's not the same.
Over the years I met a lot of people on the platform. Some have left, some are still here. I'm in contact with some, and lost contact with others. I'm among the lucky ones as I get a good few comments on almost each of my posts, organically. Some of the commenters are my old friends I know for years and many are new, but even so, the result is shocking.
Yesterday I got two AI generated comments and it's not the first time. I'm sure it's not the last time either. After so many years, I can spot AI generated comments from a mile and if you're expecting me to stay silent and do nothing about these, you're wrong.
What I don't understand is, why? Why does someone need AI to write comment? You either have something to say, or you don't. It is this simple. If you don't know what to write, then the topic or the post is not for you. Move on! What are they after with this? Why do they think we're interested in conversing with a bot?
If you think a little deeper, you most likely are wondering how these people live their lives. I am. Using artificial intelligence to say something because they are not capable ... it's shocking to say the least. When you confront them with reality, the first and most obvious reaction you get is: "I didn't know it's not allowed". Seriously? Then they apologize for their mistake. Seriously? Since when is a conscious choice called mistake?
Hive is what you make it to be honestly. It can be a place to make friends, it can be your digital diary, where you share what you think you can or want to share, a digital saving wallet, or a place where you can learn a lot, literally. You can even practice your English, or learn English if you don't master it.
Yet, so many are looking for shortcuts, cheat, steal and impersonate others, lie just to make a few bucks, instead of working on learning something to be better.
Imagine these people walking on the street, meeting someone they know and after greeting them, taking out their phone and asking ChatGPT, what to tell the person they met, then the other person does the same. Is this how you want to live your life? Did you know that the less you use your brain the faster you lose your brain cells?
So again, the question is:
- What do you do on Hive?
- Pretending to be someone else?
Because using AI is not you and it will not be you, even if you copy paste whatever crap the app gives you. It doesn't make you smarter, it doesn't make you look better, on the contrary.
I miss the early days for many reasons. Yes, we have a lot of development going on and the platform is way better but ... some things are worse. We had a bunch of spammer, comment spammer the, but what I see these days is ... 🤦♀
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
- Communities Explained - Newbie Guide
- Cross Posting And Reposting Explained, Using PeakD
- Hive Is Not For Me
- How To Pump Your Reputation Fast - Newbie Guide
- Tips And Tricks & Useful Hive Tools For Newbies
- More Useful Tools On Hive - Newbie Guide
- Community List And Why It Is Important To Post In The Right Community
- Witnesses And Proposals Explained - Newbie Guide
- To Stake, Or Not To Stake - Newbie Guide
- Tags And Tagging - Newbie Guide
- Newbie Expectations And Reality
- About Dust Vote And Hive Reward Pool, by libertycrypto27
my guess is that they think that they can with AI easily grind commentrewarder payouts , others use it just to advertise their witness server , I've been here since 2017 i went away twice because i couldn't be botherd any more seeing low quality content being upvoted that high , and the second time was i had to focus on IRL stuff . Now i'm back for +/- 6 months suprised how many people did remember me at all after 2 years gone , and now we are doing a bit of moderation and curation work , the habbits didn't really change only the technic they use to do it .
back then it was all bots and upvote whales to milk the rewardpool , now they use AI .
!HUG
!BBH
I bet it's all about rewards, but commentrewarder is not stupid either, they know how to use AI checker as well.
You're right, it's better when people speak out whatever is in their mind that using AI to reply.
Agree to disagree. It's not better, it's the only way.
Interesting you bring this up. Just yesterday we were tasked what aspects of our job can be done with AI. First thought was how many of us would be needed if too many tasks get done. Its already used to write feedback and appraisals in the U.S. military. Anyways..
Hive and AI. I think its a shame some use it for comments or create most of thier content with it. Your right though some play stupid and act like they don't know its not allowed. Defintely a give away when they answer back sometimes with poor sentence structure and mistyped words, smh. I'm a be myself person not going to try to be someone I'm not. Especially an automated product!
You see them on discord, begging using broken English, and when you scroll back to their early comments, you can see they are not as good as the AI, but that doesn't bother them.
I know AI is going to take over many areas and people are going to lose their jobs, but this is a free platform, there's more to lose here if you're caught with AI, so ... I don't understand. The other thing I don't understand is why would anyone want to write academic level posts here? Shocking really.
The main problem with it is time. Some had gotten paid with little or nor effort so they keep doing it. Than stop and disappear like a fart once thier discovered. I guess they chase or think they can profit off of comments now. Sad desperate people is describing them lightly.
Unfortunately you're right and I couldn't agree more. I'm not sure where we're going to be with this in a year or two, but things are not looking good.
Well there will always be people who dont sink to there levels of cheating or using AI to profit from. Its too bad an AI check isn't done before hitting publish. Imagine they cant comment or publish content? Bye bye go some where else 👌
Nice caption of the flowers
brilliant insight into the state of the engagement levels in the hive. I wish there was an answer. It is not only AI that is fucking the system up, it is chancers looking for a quick fix too. During the recent challenge on worldmappin my posts got above the normal comments from people who now it has ended have not dropped in again, this I guess was due to comments being incentivised, they were not interested in my uploads, just commenting to "get reward points".
I no longer respond to comments on my stuff to anyone with a reputation less than 70 unless they stop by at least twice. I guess I am "tarring everyone with the same brush"
But I have gone past caring now, even in the short period I have been here I have noticed changes, and don't get me started on auto votes!
This is not new and it's been an issue since ages. You see them dropping in, posting a comment that most of the times says literally nothing, just spinning what you said or some general bullshit, just to say something.
I get a lot of these, I'm replying to them, but honestly it's sad and tiring as well. These are just spam comments, looking for attention. I'm already ignoring the non English comments and maybe not a bad idea to ignore the stupid ones too.
👍 😎
Seriously?
In every walk of my life I have met people who pretend to be something that they are not.
With letters, we got fake pen pals. With the phone, fake callers. With the Internet, fake profiles. Etc.
It's unbelievable to expect that lesser humans will not use AI for selfish reasons. Best to ignore them.
!BBH
Wow, you put that in a fascinating way, and I've read it a couple of times, because I feel something similar about #Hive and my passion for taking real photos. Because many (here even in #Hive) are using AI to process their photos and, just by looking at them (at least me) I see them a little empty, erroneous, artificial... Then, when passing them through an AI filter application, it confirms to me that they are generated or altered like that... And well, I haven't dared to tell anyone here: "That is an altered photo with AI" because in truth "I feel ashamed" because it truly seems to me an abimination for a photographer to be willing to alienate his work to share it... And regarding the AI comments and even the texts included in the publications, what you comment here, are really pathetic... It hurts me that this happens in #Hive, I don't deny it, because I arrived here just 4 years ago, but at that time it was still what you say in your post: Many people sharing interesting and real content, many sharing or commenting from their real perception and so on... There is still some of that, today On Sunday, I woke up for breakfast watching #Hive and found some really good friends and content, but there's "that" thing that distorts everything around us. I don't know if the good times are completely gone, but I know they're diminishing... However, as always, I send a round of applause to you, my friend @erikah, because as always, when you write, you give us valuable and thought-provoking opinions... Have a happy Sunday!
P.S.: Beautiful flower photos!... They're dahlias, right?...
!discovery 35
!PIZZA
Looks like people can't live without using AI these days. I mean using it is not a problem, as that's why it's been designed, but then pretending that it' your work, that's something different. The worst is that they think they are better, for getting the results using AI, which is ... not true.
I think we have to value genuine people and stick with them, filtering out the rest. We have no choice. Our time is valuable, I'm not going to waste mine with these people, that's for sure.
Thanks for the genuine and long comment on your view and opinion. I always value it, you know that.
And yes, those are Dahlias from my dad's garden.
Have a nice Sunday Jesus and thanks for the tokens!
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I was annoyed by all the photos of flowers in the post interrupting the text. I mostly ignored them because I was much more interested in the content and context of what it was you were saying. Pictures to break up text is great, but sometimes, I just wanna absorb the brain bits, and that isn't always pictures. Anyway, that's just a personal complaint, before I start to agree with you entirely on so many of your other points.
Hello. Hive is still a great place. A place that needs to very much be about the content. And yes, comments are content too. If I cast my mind back to the old "Internet" PHPBB forums that I used to hang out on (that sadly, many of which do not exist anymore) - you found a community, a niche, and you stuck with it. We had tens of thousands of posts, conversations with the same people on a myriad of different issues, and grew old(er) together.
I met many great people from that time in my life, friends, people who would be a link into employment and played a lot of games with them (because the forum was centred around video games) - but Hive, hive is different.
A lot of people are here for their own selfish, financial enrichment, and to think that they can fool others with superficial texts and not propelling their true persona and characters into the place.
This is part of the reason why, on every opportunity I have, I have to say that this place must absolutely be about content. When you think about why people go to tiktok or reddit - it is because of the content. It is because of the trend, it is because of the community, it is because those places have vibrant comment sections that are at least a little bit like the old Internet.
A free gathering place, which is something that we have lost. There is much of it on hive, but it must still be approached with caution and genuine enthusiasm, or we're just another part of the the machine.
I was really happy that my web-host rolled out a new feature that enables me to block AI-crawlers from accessing content on my domains where I publish other bits and pieces. I'll write a post about how important that is for creative sovereignty at some point, but like all things, its a double edged sword. Perhaps with many more edges.
We have to also realise, that content not on hive is worth a lot more than content on hive. For instance, the standard rate for a long-form editorial in traditional media would be about ~$800-1000 here in Australia, and if I publish the same thing on HIVE, I'd be lucky to get $30AUD or so on a good day.
But there's important distinctions along the way - the content isn't behind a paywall, it is immutable (meaning it can't be edited away at a later date) - and ... sadly, it gets devalued by being published here, because if I were to submit it to other publications, they wouldn't want something their subscribers could find for free somewhere else, because it gives people... no reason to give them money.
Not entirely sure where I went with this rant, but I agree with you, people need to be more genuinely genuine on HIVE. It is too easy to see through people's bullshit. I hate it when people aren't genuine about what they want or what they bring to the platform.
Not that it matters or would make me change my posting habits, but your complaint is noted.
Well, in a way, yes, content is what Hive should be, but not exclusively. Hive is much more than content as you have a bunch of other opportunities.
Unfortunately we have users from all over the world and a good part of them have no sense of responsibility or willingness to see the long term benefits whatsoever, they can only focus on their selfish goals and do whatever it takes for a few bucks. I'm afraid you won't change these people as a good part of that vision and sense of responsibility comes from education, something that they lack of.
Yeah, someone (I don't want to name them) once said that posting rewards are laughable on Hive and he was right, yet the highest earners (by Hive standards, of course) are often downvoted and called farmers. Let me not continue this topic as it's better.
We forked and that's how Hive was born. We could do that, because we had a strong community. The legacy chain is shite because the bunch of people they have can't be called a community. I bet if we'd have to fork again for some reason, we'd have a strong community again, but not the entire userbase. Those who have no integrity, would play both sides and would do all the shenanigans they have been doing on both chains.
And I haven't even mentioned those who are supporting certain users solely because they are coming from certain countries. It doesn't matter that they don't put any effort into their posts, they never comment/support others and no one is ever interested in reading their posts. It doesn't matter. The only thing that counts is the continent they are based one.
So yeah, there are a bunch of problems, including throwing hundreds of thousands out of the window every single year, just because those managing the funds don't what to understand that what they are doing is a waste of funds, nothing more ...
I should stop here I think.
I don't drink beer, or coffee, but I think it would be fun to have either one of these with you, on the basis of you not wanting to say further things, but I can read between the lines. I can write between them, too, sometimes.
My complaint was more sarcasm than serious - I like words a lot, but too, I like photos, I'm sure you've seen mine around the place, haven't posted any for a while, as I've been busy focusing on words and planning two exhibitions that both happen within the next month!
The thing about hive is that for all of its shortcomings, and for all the things that we can improve, the desire to improve it (and to attract a higher quality of user) is one which is constant and strong in certain people.
The underlying issue is that people like myself (who I think is a smart person - even if I refer to myself here in the third person) - have delusions that hive can be better, faster, more robust, and filled with clones of people like me who understand that the value comes from content, and that I should be OVERJOYED to need to "compete" with others for the reward pool, because if curators are given a wide range of content, and critically assess that which they vote for, they will see a wider range of stuff on chain.
But I suppose the weakness is that curators get rewarded whether they upvote good content or not. :P
We agree to disagree here, unfortunately. Those certain people are just a handful, because the vast majority of the onboarding attempt is made in countries where a dollar a day can give you a meal or two, not to mention those who are potentially interested, are coming to get the money for that meal, not to create high quality content. When the strongest argument to onboard new users is you can make money, then you know what the outcome is.
They also need spoon feeding when it comes to figuring out what Hive is or how it works and even so, it's difficult for them to understand due to limited literacy. The rest is for that conversation during a coffee or a beer (I also don't drink either of them btw).
That is correct 😎
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