I already see this when googling stuff like "best router 2024 reddit" and such, a lot of reddit threads and comments are astrosurfing bots
[404 Media] AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With 'Parasite SEO'
- Thread starter --R
- Start date
Can we go back to reading glossy magazines and stapled-together fan zines? I know it was expensive, but I appreciated the effort and the quality that environment produced.
The Internet is a circle and soon we'll be back to forums being the most reliable source of communication with the least likely amount of bots, which is why I just wanted to point out a great forum called Resetera.com. It has great members, lots of conversations and I've pretty much found the answer I've been looking for every time. And best of all it's free, so why not sign up and check it out yourself?
Yep I could definitely feel over the last few months at least that the Reddit searches have been a bunch of shill sounding posts and it's difficult to look for real reviews on a new product. At this point I mostly just trust actual people I know and places like Era
I just asked Chat GPT and they agree forums are superior to Reddit and the internet at large. Case closed.
You know how you get stuck in automated phone message hell just screaming "REAL HUMAN! REAL HUMAN!" over and over until it finally connects you to an actual person?
We need that, but for search engines.
We need that, but for search engines.
I'm sorry, as an AI language model, I'm not equipped to handle this request. However, our friends over at AppleTechTips may have the information you're looking for!
Something else i found really interesting too is that as more of internet gets shittified with AI, people are abandoning traditional networks like Reddit and Twitter for "walled garden" communities like discord.
And like, how do you even search for that then? Hope that you come across a trail of someone saying "oh join my discord" and the link expired years ago? And if you do join, how do you search for your answer?
How are we even supposed to enjoy the Internet anymore? Looking up even simple information has become a chore of wading through AI-generated garbage and the communities that still exist become more and more manipulated.
Nothing matters as long as there's a monetary incentive or benefit to it - for businesses or individuals. Sucks, the Internet was - and should still be - great.
Yeah that's def becoming a problem too. A lot of resources IT people need are getting harder and harder to locate.
Kind of related but have you noticed how SEO has legitimately killed creativity on much of YouTube? The amount of commentary channels talking about the same exact trending subjects with the same exact thumbnail template is astounding, they're all fighting for a piece of the same pie. It's like we're back in the endless video reply era of YouTube.
AI has no doubt accelerated the reliance on SEO.
AI has no doubt accelerated the reliance on SEO.
But...it already is.
Pretty much only niche/time sensitive subreddits have much value now, or those with very strict posting rules. General topic stuff turned to shit horribly since volunteer mods can't keep up.
This is why I'm of two minds about TikTok as a 'search engine'. On one hand I think a lot of TikTok content is truly awful, but on the other hand at least it's actual people doing actual things. My sister recently showed me how she gets recipies from TikTok and it looked a whole lot better than trying to Google for the same thing.
I actually think this is kind of an interesting turn for tiktok which was just people just doing wacky videos, trying to ape on Vine originally (at least how I saw it)
I do the same thing on Instagram any more; i don't care about the "photos" aspect but people making reels (oftentimes reposted tiktoks) is fascinating on them showing you how to do something or easy tips for home maintenance, cooking and gardening.
I dunno. TikTok/Reels seems awfully full of content that was either not generated by a real person at all or had minimal work put into it by a real person.
If you are interested in this phenomena related to 'Enshittification' of the Internet, please read Cory Doctorow's follow up on why this is happening that was published in the Financial Times recently:
According to Doctorow, there's namely four constraints that have been eroded that have unleashed this Internet hellscape:
1. Competition being non-existent due to governments thinking monopolies, cartels, and oligarchies are good for consumers and "forgetting" how to enforce Anti-Trust laws.
2. Regulations being laughable / eroded to nothing due to regulatory capture by the industrial cartels.
3. "Consumer Self-help" (i.e., consumer evasion tactics via apps like Ad blockers) options being squashed by the cartels' overwhelming resources and collective anti-competitive actions, systematically closing any loop holes in their unfair racket of a system with IP-protected "Apps" on top of using regulatory capture to claim subversion of the laws that favor them (i.e., laws they helped craft to fix the game in their favor through regulatory capture and selective enforcement of more neutral laws). It was innovation when these cartels did it themselves. But it is stealing / piracy when you do it.
4. Labor Power being systematically dismantled / crushed though political proxies' acting on the industrial cartels' behalf to weaken labor's ability to organize and use collective action on top of executives and shareholders looking at tech workers as the next industry to commoditize as contract workers.
According to Doctorow, there's namely four constraints that have been eroded that have unleashed this Internet hellscape:
1. Competition being non-existent due to governments thinking monopolies, cartels, and oligarchies are good for consumers and "forgetting" how to enforce Anti-Trust laws.
2. Regulations being laughable / eroded to nothing due to regulatory capture by the industrial cartels.
3. "Consumer Self-help" (i.e., consumer evasion tactics via apps like Ad blockers) options being squashed by the cartels' overwhelming resources and collective anti-competitive actions, systematically closing any loop holes in their unfair racket of a system with IP-protected "Apps" on top of using regulatory capture to claim subversion of the laws that favor them (i.e., laws they helped craft to fix the game in their favor through regulatory capture and selective enforcement of more neutral laws). It was innovation when these cartels did it themselves. But it is stealing / piracy when you do it.
4. Labor Power being systematically dismantled / crushed though political proxies' acting on the industrial cartels' behalf to weaken labor's ability to organize and use collective action on top of executives and shareholders looking at tech workers as the next industry to commoditize as contract workers.
Last edited:
The internet is basically becoming AI bots searching AI generated content to provide to AI tools to uh…marketing? Or make Jesus pics!
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6EP4E0rgDN/?igsh=MXNtOGVjMDF5d3M2Yw==
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6EP4E0rgDN/?igsh=MXNtOGVjMDF5d3M2Yw==
Ok this made me chuckle given the context:
Yes, this is a much bigger indictment of how Google works than anything Reddit is doing.