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Nika

Do you trust Product Hunt discussions?

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For the last few months, I have struggled to differentiate who is real in discussions (like commenters) or who creates a real conversation (contributor). 🙈🙈🙈 That usually results in the fact that I do not reply to everyone, just people I can see there from the "pre-AI" era. How do those "fake" accounts influence your attitude towards PH users who participated in discussions? Is there anything that would change your perception?
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Rajiv Ayyangar
📌
Thanks @busmark_w_nika for calling this out. It's something we've been working on pretty intently. You'll start to see forums looking quite different in the next few days - let us know what you think!
Elena Mira
I've been on Product Hunt for quite a while, actually every day. Because of this, I’ve learned to spot different types of bots by their avatar, name, and discussion topics in most cases. So, if I believe a discussion is being led by a bot, I just don't participate in it.
Nika
@elenat I somehow reckon who is real and who is not real, but it is not easy. It is tough each day :/
Ash Grover
@elenat This! same here.
Yuri Mosh
I feel the same way about Product Hunt votes. Badges like '1st product of the day' don’t seem valuable anymore because we can't trust the votes. A 'Featured by Product Hunt' badge would make more sense, in my opinion.
Nika
@tymoxx Yes. Upvoting system is more about "popularity" of makers or their ability to ask for upvotes of friends, family, LI contacts but not based so much on the usefulness of the product.
Yuri Mosh
Speaking about the comments, it is a big problem on many social platforms today. AI-generated comments make it hard to know who’s real. Maybe a voting system, like Reddit, could prioritise the most insightfull comments, but even that votes can be faked. Maybe verified accounts like on X... 🤔.
Nika
@tymoxx Verified accounts are happening now – they will roll it out to more users in the future.
Gerome Elassaad
I know that bot accounts are all over the internet on all platforms like never before there is nothing anyone can really do to stop it and the problem is as AI gets better so will the accounts then we really wont be able to tell whats real and what isnt
Nika
@gerome24 There is internal joke that photo with Avatar is a real person and the photo with a real person is a bot...
Aleksandar Blazhev
Oh yes, honestly, it’s such an annoying problem. I’m so tired of these AI-generated comments. At this point, I just want to communicate with real people, not with some AI generated templates. And those templates are especially boring—at least if they were interesting or exciting, it would be something. But no, they’re just plain dull. As for how I spot them—it’s all about the depth of the response. If the typical words used by ChatGPT appear, it’s obvious it’s an AI-generated response. But if the person on the other side—the user—has put in some thought, depth, or shared interesting facts and stats that AI wouldn’t generate, then I allow myself to engage with that person. However, if it’s just filled with clichés like "deep," "delve," "ever-evolving," and similar AI template phrases, I’d rather not reply at all. I am real! xDDD
Nika
@byalexai I am pretty sure you are real because I had a video call with you. But I cannot say it about 95% users of this platform because even when the photo looks real, the content is so AI :D
Konrad S.
Yes, AI accounts are a big problem, hope PH soon finishes verification of all the human accounts, and that this will be reliable...
Nika
@konrad_sx I hope that someone will not misuse it... they should be done with some frequency.
Dan Gower
I hadn't even thought about this. I have definitely seen a lot of AI responses to HARO and HAB2BW queries from people who are using spammy tactics to try to get backlinks. It didn't occur to me that people might be using bots to try to gain kitty coins. Seems extra silly.
Nika
@dan_gower what are the most significant signs of AI bots?
Dan Gower
@busmark_w_nika It's easier to tell when there are a lot of them, because you can notice that a bunch of accounts are leaving the same comment (or very similar).
Nika
@dan_gower + they create many comments in a very short time.
Emily Willis
I just ignore the obvious fake/odd comments - but I agree, it impacts the quality of discussions for sure
Nika
@emily_willis1 Definitely. You are less likely to answer such comments and at the first glance, it looks like you do not care about the discussion. So bot comments are painful.