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Writing copy is painfully time consuming. AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators. I know it'll write be

by bko 8mo ago

Writing copy is painfully time consuming. AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators. I know it'll write better copy than me. Terminally online people need to get over this weird aversion to anything generated w/ help of AI. Do you have similar misgivings, like "this guy obviously used auto correct", or "he's using speech to text, I'm not reading anything unless its hand-written" Get over it. It's here, it's useful, judge the product on its merits. I get if you see spam email messages that are overly tailored and ignoring them because the person obv didn't do the work. But this dude created a free app that looks pretty cool, maybe he didn't want to spend another few hours to create a pretty standard boilerplate website with app information.

loloquwowndueo 8mo ago
> AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators. Sorry, no. It doesn’t do it better. It’s like chewing cardboard. All fluff, not a lot of actual well-presented information. AI is also not a great communicator- it learned from people, which you said are not great.
endymion-light 8mo ago
THere's a level of AI generated copy that makes the website look unpolished. I think it's right to critique, in the same way i'd critique an obvious bootstrap css website. There's loads of factors that may implicitly turn someone off using an app, and I think it's important to let the OP know a critical one.
BoxFour 8mo ago
I'll bite: Copy can signal that a real person spent time on the details and cared about the product. Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea. Even boring corporate PR language communicates something. It says the company wants to project stability and predictability, which can be reassuring. Slightly awkward, unpolished copy also sends a signal. It suggests a person speaking directly off-the-cuff rather than polished corporate messaging, which some people prefer. LLM-generated copy sends a signal too, and not always a good one. To me, it often suggests the author didn’t care enough to think carefully about the message - not even enough to edit something that came out of an LLM. At that point it starts to feel like someone just prompted Claude to build a reminders app with no care or thought put into it, which I could do myself if I find this idea valuable at all and even personalize the hell out of it. Maybe that's an unfair first impression! But it's not a crazy one given how quickly the cost of code is approaching 0.
- bko 8mo ago
  > Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea Why? You didn't spend real time consulting a dictionary or using penmanship, since writing is often slower than speaking. You didn't do your own memory management? Wow, guess you don't care about the details. Used a compiler? Wow dude, please spend the time to actually build the product the right way. These are all levels of abstraction, the idea is the idea. The LLM has no agency, it has no ideas, you give it your idea. It packages it out and communicates it effectively, which is respectful to the final user. I don't owe you anything. Why am I wasting my time on this so you can feel somehow important. The copy is not the product. Its communication and should be done clearly and respectfully, and if an LLM facilitates with that, I would hope people use LLM for my sake. > Even boring corporate PR language communicates something Yes I want to communicate. I do so with the LLM. I might have a rant "stress privacy, go through the app and highlight the privacy features. Mention it's good for kids. Oh and also mention its local first (I would make this first actually),... " Whats the point of spending literally hours structuring, writing, re-writing etc. Communicate to the LLM, and use it to be respectful of your audience.
  - BoxFour 8mo ago
    > The copy is not the product I think this is an illuminative statement from you, so I’m going to just explain that I (and many of the people responding to you likely) will vehemently disagree: The copy is an extremely important part of a product like this. Unlikely we’ll see eye-to-eye on this which is fine, but I would encourage you to do some reflection on that. I’ll certainly be reflecting on what might’ve led to you your position as well.
  - goodmythical 8mo ago
    I'm with you. Keep fighting the good fight. Can't wait until people give up this lunacy. It's exactly the same "back in my day" bullshit that's always existed. What do you mean you typed this? If it isn't handwritten, I won't accept it. What do you mean you drove to work? Do you not have the dedication to walk? You can't be a good fit for this company if you're so lazy that you have to drive to work.
contagiousflow 8mo ago
> Writing copy is painfully time consuming I literally do not understand this sentiment. Do you not enjoy anything that takes time to do? Do you not enjoy putting time in for things that other people will look at? > I know it'll write better copy than me If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more. If you think the copy on this page is passable, let alone good, please read more.
- bko 8mo ago
  I like building apps, I don't necessarily like writing the same boilerplate BS for a necessary landing page for every app I make. Again, I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it (i.e. English isn't someones first language). So let's be accepting and get over it. > If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more. Please stop moralizing.
  - contagiousflow 8mo ago
    If you're making apps for yourself, sure. But the purpose of a landing page is to convey information to humans. Slopping together some drivel to attempt the appearance of professionalism isn't just lazy, it's dishonest. Have some respect for the things you make and the people who may interact with them. And if you don't want to write boilerplate or copy: don't!
  - sebastiennight 8mo ago
    > I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it The problem is that the generated "marketing copy" ends up being bland and ineffective (nobody "buys", so the copy fails at its single job) when using generalist LLM tools like eg. ChatGPT. So in the end, you don't achieve the goal of "getting better copy" from it because neither version (neither the copy you'd have done naïvely without knowing anything about marketing, nor the LLM copy) converts anyone.
duskdozer 8mo ago
Do you have it generate fake people with fake photos and reviews too?

by bko 8mo ago

loloquwowndueo 8mo ago

> AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators. Sorry, no. It doesn’t do it better. It’s like chewing cardboard. All fluff, not a lot of actual well-presented information. AI is also not a great communicator- it learned from people, which you said are not great.

endymion-light 8mo ago

THere's a level of AI generated copy that makes the website look unpolished. I think it's right to critique, in the same way i'd critique an obvious bootstrap css website. There's loads of factors that may implicitly turn someone off using an app, and I think it's important to let the OP know a critical one.

BoxFour 8mo ago

I'll bite: Copy can signal that a real person spent time on the details and cared about the product. Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea. Even boring corporate PR language communicates something. It says the company wants to project stability and predictability, which can be reassuring. Slightly awkward, unpolished copy also sends a signal. It suggests a person speaking directly off-the-cuff rather than polished corporate messaging, which some people prefer. LLM-generated copy sends a signal too, and not always a good one. To me, it often suggests the author didn’t care enough to think carefully about the message - not even enough to edit something that came out of an LLM. At that point it starts to feel like someone just prompted Claude to build a reminders app with no care or thought put into it, which I could do myself if I find this idea valuable at all and even personalize the hell out of it. Maybe that's an unfair first impression! But it's not a crazy one given how quickly the cost of code is approaching 0.

bko 8mo ago
> Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea Why? You didn't spend real time consulting a dictionary or using penmanship, since writing is often slower than speaking. You didn't do your own memory management? Wow, guess you don't care about the details. Used a compiler? Wow dude, please spend the time to actually build the product the right way. These are all levels of abstraction, the idea is the idea. The LLM has no agency, it has no ideas, you give it your idea. It packages it out and communicates it effectively, which is respectful to the final user. I don't owe you anything. Why am I wasting my time on this so you can feel somehow important. The copy is not the product. Its communication and should be done clearly and respectfully, and if an LLM facilitates with that, I would hope people use LLM for my sake. > Even boring corporate PR language communicates something Yes I want to communicate. I do so with the LLM. I might have a rant "stress privacy, go through the app and highlight the privacy features. Mention it's good for kids. Oh and also mention its local first (I would make this first actually),... " Whats the point of spending literally hours structuring, writing, re-writing etc. Communicate to the LLM, and use it to be respectful of your audience.
- BoxFour 8mo ago
  > The copy is not the product I think this is an illuminative statement from you, so I’m going to just explain that I (and many of the people responding to you likely) will vehemently disagree: The copy is an extremely important part of a product like this. Unlikely we’ll see eye-to-eye on this which is fine, but I would encourage you to do some reflection on that. I’ll certainly be reflecting on what might’ve led to you your position as well.
- goodmythical 8mo ago
  I'm with you. Keep fighting the good fight. Can't wait until people give up this lunacy. It's exactly the same "back in my day" bullshit that's always existed. What do you mean you typed this? If it isn't handwritten, I won't accept it. What do you mean you drove to work? Do you not have the dedication to walk? You can't be a good fit for this company if you're so lazy that you have to drive to work.

contagiousflow 8mo ago

> Writing copy is painfully time consuming I literally do not understand this sentiment. Do you not enjoy anything that takes time to do? Do you not enjoy putting time in for things that other people will look at? > I know it'll write better copy than me If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more. If you think the copy on this page is passable, let alone good, please read more.

bko 8mo ago
I like building apps, I don't necessarily like writing the same boilerplate BS for a necessary landing page for every app I make. Again, I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it (i.e. English isn't someones first language). So let's be accepting and get over it. > If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more. Please stop moralizing.
- contagiousflow 8mo ago
  If you're making apps for yourself, sure. But the purpose of a landing page is to convey information to humans. Slopping together some drivel to attempt the appearance of professionalism isn't just lazy, it's dishonest. Have some respect for the things you make and the people who may interact with them. And if you don't want to write boilerplate or copy: don't!
- sebastiennight 8mo ago
  > I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it The problem is that the generated "marketing copy" ends up being bland and ineffective (nobody "buys", so the copy fails at its single job) when using generalist LLM tools like eg. ChatGPT. So in the end, you don't achieve the goal of "getting better copy" from it because neither version (neither the copy you'd have done naïvely without knowing anything about marketing, nor the LLM copy) converts anyone.

duskdozer 8mo ago

Do you have it generate fake people with fake photos and reviews too?