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I don't understand how you think this is responsive to the issue of fabrication. The article already considered the possibility of the human content farm and co

I don't understand how you think this is responsive to the issue of fabrication. The article already considered the possibility of the human content farm and concluded it was unlikely on the basis of information that was completely fabricated. The fact that the commenter proceeded to generalize, show a link, etc is not responsive to that. A responsive answer would be along the lines of "well, a content farm might fabricate too because _____."

thom 4y ago
"If you find that interesting, you might find this interesting" seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation for an HN comment. I think it's worth forgiving that and enjoying the broader horizons rather than treating HN threads as a way for lots of smart people to try and craft the most definitive statement about one narrow issue, while policing any deviation therefrom.
- jefftk 4y ago
  > "If you find that interesting, you might find this interesting" seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation for an HN comment. But that's not the form of the comment. It begins with "I think there’s a good chance it was ghost written by a content farm"!
  - thom 4y ago
    If I were a content farm I'd probably use text cut and pasted from text models, but I'd never heard of the Mikkelson Twins and it was interesting to learn about them.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    yes, so? can't we parse beyond the opening statement of the comment, and see the rest of its content? can't a comment not reiterate in its opening statement what the author already said (to e.g. show the commentor's aggrement)? this is too formulaic and pedantic a response
latexr 4y ago
> A responsive answer would be along the lines of "well, a content farm might fabricate too because _____." That is precisely what the original commenter did: > (…) exploring how this ghost writing works, and why it produces the kind of nonsense writing that looks like GPT-3 but is actually (…)
coldtea 4y ago
Well, it's "responsive" for me. In fact it's your comment that was off-topic and meta, the parent was perfectly on topic and responding on the issue. >A responsive answer would be along the lines of "well, a content farm might fabricate too because _____." A responsive answer doesn't need to have a particular formula, much less that one. It just needs to be relevant to the issue and provide more information and/or the commentor's own take (could be just their feelings about the issue too).
TaylorAlexander 4y ago
My rationale was that, before I had seen this very well produced video, I was not familiar with the way that content farms operated. The idea that words being fabricated means it must be GPT-3 seems spurious to me. A person in a huge hurry, with a poor grasp of the English language, could easily generate fabricated words. The video I linked is extraordinary in its level of research and quality, and interesting on its own merits. If someone is not fully aware of the extent to which content farms squeeze out content, it’s easy to assume some weird prose is GPT-3. I felt the articles dismissal of the idea of a content farm was too quick, and perhaps they or the readers might not be familiar with how they operate. And so I provided a summary as well as a link to this very high quality investigative source.

thom 4y ago

"If you find that interesting, you might find this interesting" seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation for an HN comment. I think it's worth forgiving that and enjoying the broader horizons rather than treating HN threads as a way for lots of smart people to try and craft the most definitive statement about one narrow issue, while policing any deviation therefrom.

jefftk 4y ago
> "If you find that interesting, you might find this interesting" seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation for an HN comment. But that's not the form of the comment. It begins with "I think there’s a good chance it was ghost written by a content farm"!
- thom 4y ago
  If I were a content farm I'd probably use text cut and pasted from text models, but I'd never heard of the Mikkelson Twins and it was interesting to learn about them.
- coldtea 4y ago
  yes, so? can't we parse beyond the opening statement of the comment, and see the rest of its content? can't a comment not reiterate in its opening statement what the author already said (to e.g. show the commentor's aggrement)? this is too formulaic and pedantic a response

latexr 4y ago

> A responsive answer would be along the lines of "well, a content farm might fabricate too because _____." That is precisely what the original commenter did: > (…) exploring how this ghost writing works, and why it produces the kind of nonsense writing that looks like GPT-3 but is actually (…)

coldtea 4y ago

Well, it's "responsive" for me. In fact it's your comment that was off-topic and meta, the parent was perfectly on topic and responding on the issue. >A responsive answer would be along the lines of "well, a content farm might fabricate too because _____." A responsive answer doesn't need to have a particular formula, much less that one. It just needs to be relevant to the issue and provide more information and/or the commentor's own take (could be just their feelings about the issue too).

TaylorAlexander 4y ago

My rationale was that, before I had seen this very well produced video, I was not familiar with the way that content farms operated. The idea that words being fabricated means it must be GPT-3 seems spurious to me. A person in a huge hurry, with a poor grasp of the English language, could easily generate fabricated words. The video I linked is extraordinary in its level of research and quality, and interesting on its own merits. If someone is not fully aware of the extent to which content farms squeeze out content, it’s easy to assume some weird prose is GPT-3. I felt the articles dismissal of the idea of a content farm was too quick, and perhaps they or the readers might not be familiar with how they operate. And so I provided a summary as well as a link to this very high quality investigative source.