Technology in the wider world marches on and the Forum does its best to keep up with it.
Sometimes, a new post in a thread does absolutely nothing more than express appreciation of what has gone previously. Often that's good, can be taken at face value and is appreciated. Sometimes these days, however, comments of that sort - which add absolutely nothing to the subject - need to be viewed a little more carefully. It seems that Artificial Intelligence software allows text to be produced which refers to known facts and creates the words necessary to impart a particular view of them. As a result we get posts such as the following, from different members:
- Your perspective on the value of accessing pupil lists from an eminent school for historical research, particularly in the context of Birmingham's history, is indeed thoughtful and compelling.
- It's so cool to see how schools have changed with their buildings and stuff over time. Using an old hall for gym class with those old vaulting horses and coconut mats sounds like a wild adventure. Those Interpretive Dancing classes must've been super creative and fun. Thanks for sharing your memories from Lawrence's College!
- Thank you for sharing your wonderful and nostalgic memories of King's Heath Primary School
- These pictures are truly mesmerizing
And so on. Mods suspect that occasionally we are, at best, the play area for some young geek in Eastern Europe or the American Midwest. At worst, less benign motives might lie behind this stuff and we can't be sure about that. Either way, we aren't happy about seeing it appear – at the very least, it just bungs up threads with words which, if you read them carefully, are meaningless and add nothing.
We can't spot everything. We delete anything we do see and are suspicious about. And so we should be grateful if Members could share our awareness of this new "threat" and use the Report function to bring any doubtful post to our attention. We'll then take a view and act accordingly. The last thing we want to do is remove sincere contributions when, perhaps, the pictures ARE truly mesmerising!
What we are looking for is something which is probably quite well written, is a response to something which has gone before, is bland and perhaps a bit stilted, has no spelling mistakes (although possibly with some American spelling), comes from a new or newish member, quotes relevant words from an earlier post and says, when you bother to read it carefully, absolutely nothing at all.
Thanks and let's hope that it's a trend which isn't going to accelerate.
Chris
Sometimes, a new post in a thread does absolutely nothing more than express appreciation of what has gone previously. Often that's good, can be taken at face value and is appreciated. Sometimes these days, however, comments of that sort - which add absolutely nothing to the subject - need to be viewed a little more carefully. It seems that Artificial Intelligence software allows text to be produced which refers to known facts and creates the words necessary to impart a particular view of them. As a result we get posts such as the following, from different members:
- Your perspective on the value of accessing pupil lists from an eminent school for historical research, particularly in the context of Birmingham's history, is indeed thoughtful and compelling.
- It's so cool to see how schools have changed with their buildings and stuff over time. Using an old hall for gym class with those old vaulting horses and coconut mats sounds like a wild adventure. Those Interpretive Dancing classes must've been super creative and fun. Thanks for sharing your memories from Lawrence's College!
- Thank you for sharing your wonderful and nostalgic memories of King's Heath Primary School
- These pictures are truly mesmerizing
And so on. Mods suspect that occasionally we are, at best, the play area for some young geek in Eastern Europe or the American Midwest. At worst, less benign motives might lie behind this stuff and we can't be sure about that. Either way, we aren't happy about seeing it appear – at the very least, it just bungs up threads with words which, if you read them carefully, are meaningless and add nothing.
We can't spot everything. We delete anything we do see and are suspicious about. And so we should be grateful if Members could share our awareness of this new "threat" and use the Report function to bring any doubtful post to our attention. We'll then take a view and act accordingly. The last thing we want to do is remove sincere contributions when, perhaps, the pictures ARE truly mesmerising!
What we are looking for is something which is probably quite well written, is a response to something which has gone before, is bland and perhaps a bit stilted, has no spelling mistakes (although possibly with some American spelling), comes from a new or newish member, quotes relevant words from an earlier post and says, when you bother to read it carefully, absolutely nothing at all.
Thanks and let's hope that it's a trend which isn't going to accelerate.
Chris
