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I'm curious why there's such a desire to nitpick how things like ChatGPT perform on tasks like this. First, modems in 1987 were 300-2400 baud mostly, so there
by jcims 4y ago
I'm curious why there's such a desire to nitpick how things like ChatGPT perform on tasks like this.
First, modems in 1987 were 300-2400 baud mostly, so there isn't going to be all the color and graphics that people remember from the BBS's in the 90s.
Second, the prompt is ripe for some tweaking to get output that's more 'realistic' or tailored to what someone might expect.
And lastly, this is just the beginning. What is going to happen 36 years from now when someone loads up the latest release of 'AI' software and says 'pretend being ChatGPT from 2023 emulating a BBS from 1987'.
Edit: I can't get the sharegpt extension to work but had some fun with this prompt:
Please simulate an ascii-based dial up BBS system as it would have appeared in 1987. Please use markdown for all of the presentation, mindful of the 80x24 terminal formatting. Use colors and ascii art to improve the aesthetics of the site. Start off by emulating the dial up modem process and somewhere in the middle simulate what happens when your little brother picks up the phone and starts pressing buttons to mess with the session. You are in complete control of the contents of the BBS, the title, colors, menus and everything else. I as the user will explore using my inputs to select options and interact with the system.
- jmull 4y agoWell, it's a really crappy BBS simulation. It's utterly astounding (to me, at least) that it can sort of simulate a BBS from 1987. But the end result is still crap, that continuously offends the nostalgic senses. > What is going to happen 36 years from now when someone loads up the latest release of 'AI' software and says 'pretend being ChatGPT from 2023 emulating a BBS from 1987'. Presumably it will index that page and nail it.
- ghaff 4y agoI also assume that the training data for replicating a multi-line PCBoard BBS from 1987 is pretty thin, some files on textfiles notwithstanding.
- jcims 4y ago>Well, it's a really crappy BBS simulation. Yes, but it's not a BBS simulator. It's a general purpose tool being asked to imagine a world it has, relatively speaking, very little information about. I spent hundreds of hours in BBSs in the late 80s/early 90s and I completely forgot about the files sections, so I wouldn't have done any better.
- indigodaddy 4y agoAbsolutely agree that it could have been much more realistic with improved/more creative initial user prompting. Yours looks excellent I’m going to try it..