This forum is a prime example of how modern government censorship works.

[Kayaker]

@everyone Be pragmatic, useful, and straight to the point. Come on.

That doesn't work here. Go back to Discord.

 

[Kayaker]

If that was the case, it would be old members, who previously posted quality content, suddenly posting nonsense and arguing with each other.

But this is not what is happening.

What is happening is that old members are disappearing, and new accounts (mostly created 2020-2021) are posting nonsense and starting arguments.

It's called abandoning old accounts and creating new ones. You have yet to post an example of what this nonsense is. Again, hypocrisy. I don't think there's a single bot who uses this forum.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Yeah I have a bunch of them on ignore, makes the forum seem more the way it used to be.

How do you "ignore" them?

 

[LuMonty]

How do you "ignore" them?

Hover your mouse over the person's name (where it says member, joined, etc). You should see a button to click that says ignore. You can also click the name to go to that person's profile and find the same button there.

 

[looking2grow96]

Pretty much every forum related to health has taken a hit over the last ~5 or so years. It has nothing to do with bots, it's just the explosion of lonely, maladjusted young men ruining every space on the internet. People from "Lookism" boards have been creeping into every corner on the internet, asking questions like "HOW DO I GIGACHADMAXX SO TYRONE STOPS ******* MY IMAGINARY GIRLFRIEND" or some similar schizoaffective rant. I'll admit, I don't really have a leg to stand on here because I started my account asking a question on growing taller, but I like to think I've shown a bit more decorum than your average incel mouthbreather.

 

[Drareg]

Many people said this forum is "not what it used to be" and "it died down". It is true but not for the reasons you think.

It is quite obvious why some government agencies might not like this forum. But straight out banning / blocking access to the website doesn't work. It only makes people more interested. And they will always find ways to access it.

So they make a bunch of fake accounts, and then they post tons of dumb and nonsensical posts to dilute the quality content. They provoke fights, they subtly insult other members to make this place as unpleasant as possible and to prevent any meaningful discussion.

The quality posters will slowly leave, because there is no point in talking to AI that was trained to be as stupid, provocative and nagging as possible. And only the bots remain, talking nonsense to each other.

The war is won without firing a single shot.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

charlie please never let the old discussions disappear, they are the most valuable content ever posted anywhere. They are beautiful reminder of how internet looked before the advent of advanced discussion bots.

Microsoft have exclusive use of this now-
"Microsoft announced on September 22, 2020, that it had licensed "exclusive" use of GPT-3; others can still use the public API to receive output, but only Microsoft has access to GPT-3's underlying model"

This isn’t good in there hands, the thing is people are becoming more verbose and addicted to verbosity, walls of text from wokists is the norm, the woke will spend hours arguing with one of these bots, I imagine the militant new woke left types as @LeeLemonoil mentioned have spent countless hours engaged in arguing with advanced bots

Ever notice how there hasn’t been a huge regular information campaign on programs like GPT-3 to inform the public, well why would you when you can create what appears to be legions of the far right or whatever you choose to torment the public, it can be controlled by a few people.

What I suggest is using GPT-3 on here to see how it behaves, we will mark the accounts so we all know, we will learn it’s language and logic/deduction pattern and recognize it if it correlates with future accounts on here. We can also see what it digs out of the peat world and could discuss it in threads it starts, "the true method of knowledge is experience" @charlie

 

[yerrag]

Not only bots, but government bots. Seems oddly specific when you can't identify a single bot account. Why are they government bots and not Pfizer bots or Glaxo bots? Are they HHS bots? Postal Service?

You see it all the time in online discussion; Person A is righteously combating Person B's subjectively distasteful opinion, and when Person A runs out of rational arguments, they call the Person B a bot. In 2015 they were a "troll", in 2018 they were a "shill", now they're a "bot." It's the ad hominem du jour.

The forum has gotten too political? The political height of the forum was the 2016 election. I'm completely non-partisan and I remember being afraid to comment on politics for fear of getting banned. I like to make fun of both sides, but it's not worth making dissenting political posts if I might lose access to the health side of the forum.

When was the forum ever free of "conspiracies"? That must have been before I got here in 2015 because I always remember the forum being full of those kinds of posts. "Conspiracy" is usually just a word used to dispense with people/ideas that you don't want to contend with.

I know that bots are real, but they're on social media and they make one or two liner comments that come off as low effort and barely make sense. It shouldn't be too difficult to spot on a forum like this where people regularly post walls of texts. I really want to see a bot account. Literally anyone, show me a bot account and let's discuss it. Don't worry, we'll be nice to the bot.

Very good observations.

I'm less concerned about bots as much as a member's online persona being taken over.

I suspected Tara's identity was taken over. I wonder what happened to the real Tara.

There was a reversal in her online persona. Not only did I detect a change in her views, but the change in views was accompanied by a mechanical stiffness in her prose that reminds me of the cadence and structure often seen with the writings of medical ghost writers.

 

[Drareg]

I feel like someone covered these type of bots in another thread on here a while back, I can’t remember if it was me or someone else, I’ve tried searching keywords but nothing is coming up, anyone recall it?

 

[PhilParma]

tara liked vaccines more than we do. She left because she got tired of being called a shill and other such names. That's the simplest explanation and that's what I believe happened.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

It's called abandoning old accounts and creating new ones. You have yet to post an example of what this nonsense is. Again, hypocrisy. I don't think there's a single bot who uses this forum.

You mean like these kind?

 

[PhilParma]

the woke will spend hours arguing with one of these bots, I imagine the militant new woke left types as @LeeLemonoil mentioned have spent countless hours engaged in arguing with advanced bots

Where does this happen? I want to see it. Reddit bots do not impress me. They come off like ESL students or a person who is borderline mentally retarded. I want to see a bot that can argue in long form and fit in on this forum. OP did post some links that I still need to look through.

 

[yerrag]

tara liked vaccines more than we do. She left because she got tired of being called a shill and other such names. That's the simplest explanation and that's what I believe happened.

Before 2020, did Tara already shown indications she was rabidly pro-vaccine? I don't know. That would support your argument.

She was an early member, and if my impression is correct, she once was an admin in this forum.

To be a rabid believer in the COVID hoax is to act outside her character.

If she left the forum on her own, how come she was stricken off the list of top posters (most posts)?

 

[JudiBlueHen]

That wasn't directed at you.

Quality control, like government regulation, eventually drains the energy out of the system and causes it to collapse.

Good observation on QC - I would say the same about risk management processes in big companies. In order to "eliminate or mitigate" risk, programs get longer and more expensive and requirements are changed. The price of finishing something simply increases until the money runs out somewhere.

 

[InChristAlone]

I had Tara on ignore because she came at me in a combative way one time and I don't tolerate that from regular posters. It doesn't surprise me she swallowed the COVID hoax.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I had Tara on ignore because she came at me in a combative way one time and I don't tolerate that from regular posters. It doesn't surprise me she swallowed the COVID hoax.

Oh I see now the ignore button on their profile! Thanks this will come in handy!

 

[Homo Consumericus]

Very good observations.

I'm less concerned about bots as much as a member's online persona being taken over.

I suspected Tara's identity was taken over. I wonder what happened to the real Tara.

There was a reversal in her online persona. Not only did I detect a change in her views, but the change in views was accompanied by a mechanical stiffness in her prose that reminds me of the cadence and structure often seen with the writings of medical ghost writers.

Ok.. my brother, you have hit upon a subject that has been near to my heart for some time: what in our Saviour's name happened to "Tara"?

She used to be an authority (based on my years of lurking prior to account creation) that spake common sense + Peatarian theory + personal experience. What the hell did she transform into post-covid? Never have I ever perceived online cognitive dissonance so strong. What could have triggered this?

Can any of you provide me with strong evidence that these mystery jabs are actually providing the 3-6 month protection for the ancient and ill that they are alleged to? Because there is sure as hell no other selling point. Is there? Why would anyone other than someone 70+ take it? In another line of questioning, why would a 70+er with a history of difficulty with disease not take it?

The answer may confirm Tara's pro-mysterycocktail efforts as sincere. But otherwise..

 

[BearWithMe]

I had Tara on ignore because she came at me in a combative way one time and I don't tolerate that from regular posters. It doesn't surprise me she swallowed the COVID hoax.

Way too many intelligent, rational and critically thinking people were brainwashed into believing the COVID hoax.

 

[Peatness]

Oh I see now the ignore button on their profile! Thanks this will come in handy!

? we're all going to be ignored

 

[PhilParma]

Before 2020, did Tara already shown indications she was rabidly pro-vaccine? I don't know. That would support your argument.

She was an early member, and if my impression is correct, she once was an admin in this forum.

To be a rabid believer in the COVID hoax is to act outside her character.

If she left the forum on her own, how come she was stricken off the list of top posters (most posts)?

She seemed entirely apolitical and the covid vaccine has an inherent political element to it. She was here to discuss health and she helped a lot of people, even if I think she was wrong on vaccines. When health and politics became so intertwined, she checked out.

She was totally done with the forum and used her admin/mod powers to nuke her account. Or she asked charlie to do it for her. These are my assumptions.

 

[Homo Consumericus]

Way too many intelligent, rational and critically thinking people were brainwashed into believing the COVID hoax.

If they were willing to switch from an "innocent until proven guilty/healthy until proven sick" system to a "sick until proven healthy/guilty until proven innocent" system.. they were NEVER "intelligent, rational, and critical."