What have I done?

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, David Schweizer said:

Am I the only one who not only fails to understand the posts on this topic from moderators, bordering on the dismissive? Why do they seem unable to speak in ordinary language?

You are not alone. I did make a request for plain English because I do not understand but They simply requoted with an additional error. 

[MtB]

24 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

Am I the only one who not only fails to understand the posts on this topic from moderators, and bordering on the dismissive? Why do they seem unable to speak in ordinary language?

 

 

 

You will need a reasonable grasp of recent developments in the field of "Artificial Intelligence" and "Large Language Models" and how they have potential to be a damned nuisance on discussion forums, to make sense of this thread.

[1st ade]

To quote a recent security conference I attended "This is a game of chess where only one side knows they are playing"

 

Those who are testing the water with AI are well aware of what they are doing and why. There may (repeat may, repeat may) come a day when AI can respond in a useful manner to "why will my Lister JP 3 not start, it's got petrol and everything?" but that day is [IMHO] a (very) long way off. On the other side there are an awful lot of people (including me) who use the forum to swap views with other humans - we generally accept that other humans may be wrong, biased (or misguided) and don't understand [nor want to] how AI and Large Language Models work.

 

The Mod's originally joined up to stop the odd prolific user of bad language, those who seek to use the forum as a free market place (not always for canal related products) and the occasional person-on-person abuse. We've recently had what appears to be a glut of overseas posters who are heavy on words, light on information. We (the Mods) think that the forum would be better place for not being a playground for teaching AI how to be better at being human.

[Tony1]

5 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

 

.... posters who are heavy on words, light on information...

 

 

Almost all my posts fit the above criteria. I must be an AI thingy.

 

And I'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky mods.

 

[1st ade]

12 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

Almost all my posts fit the above criteria. I must be an AI thingy.

 

And I'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky mods.

 

But your response (at least on this date) shows you are not...

 

Give it another few months when Bot's and AI give a credible "I'm outraged that you've blocked me" and we have a problem

[Tony1]

7 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

But your response (at least on this date) shows you are not...

 

Give it another few months when Bot's and AI give a credible "I'm outraged that you've blocked me" and we have a problem

 

I think we can smoke the buggers out, by God. 

All we do is start a chat about charging lithium batteries.

If they are still awake and interested after an hour of that, they can't be human.

 

A thread about the merits of blue signs will probably work just as well.  

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Tony1

[Jen-in-Wellies]

1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

Am I the only one who not only fails to understand the posts on this topic from moderators, and bordering on the dismissive? Why do they seem unable to speak in ordinary language?

Not understanding it is fine. You and @Tracy D'arth are fine upstanding members of the forum and help make it what it is. You aren't going to be using AI to write your posts for you, so the new forum rule is irrelevant. The mods are trying to get ahead of a new problem that could fill the forum with useless posts, generated entirely by computers that have no idea about boating. Think spam in terms of annoyance. It has only become a problem in the last month or so and we are learning as we go. We've explained what we are doing so it is all in the open for those that want the details.

[Chris Lowe]

 

8 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

I think we can smoke the buggers out, by God. 

All we do is start a chat about charging lithium batteries.

If they are still awake and interested after an hour of that, they can't be human.

 

A thread about the merits of blue signs will probably work just as well.  

 

Maybe you could add to that a long discussion on the correct grades of oil for each type of engine.

[1st ade]

Just now, buccaneer66 said:

 

Maybe you could add to that a long discussion on the correct grades of oil for each type of engine.

And the benefits of cassette / composting / pump out toilet.

 

Hang on, we blocked a post (suspected of being AI) on precautions to take when installing a pump out...

[Tony1]

18 minutes ago, buccaneer66 said:

 

Maybe you could add to that a long discussion on the correct grades of oil for each type of engine.

 

Steady on old chap. The different oil grades is a fascinating topic.

Perhaps we're being a bit hasty in judging these young AI fellers. 

 

BTW, I've suspected Nick Norman is an AI chap for some time now, but one doesn't like to make a fuss.

 

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Tony1

[MtB]

26 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

BTW, I've suspected Nick Norman is an AI chap for some time now, but one doesn't like to make a fuss.

 

 

I'm inclined to disagree!

 

AI stands for "artificial intelligence" and I'm beginning to think Nick's is real, not artificial

 

Or maybe it just has me fooled...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1st ade]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I'm inclined to disagree!

 

AI stands for "artificial intelligence" and I'm beginning to think Nick's is real, not artificial

 

Or maybe it just has me fooled...

Without casting aspersions on Nick (or any other [mammalian] forum member) - Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity - Albert Einstein

[Puffling]

I may be being a little slow here, but is asking a new or existing member to click a button declaring that they are not a bot going to prevent the infiltration by said AI?

 

Surely the focus ought to be on the sign up process. Enough tricky CAPTCHAs to screen the basic ones out without putting off genuine warmbloods with compromised eyesight. Whenever I sign in to my PROTONmail account I'm asked to solve a jigsaw picture puzzle, which is easy for anyone who understands the context but seems rather better than those "traffic light/ chimney" squares recaptcha tests.

 

It's in the mists of time that I joined here now, but I assume you use recaptcha for fresh signups.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Puffling

[Jen-in-Wellies]

26 minutes ago, Puffling said:

I may be being a little slow here, but is asking a new or existing member to click a button declaring that they are not a bot going to prevent the infiltration by said AI?

 

Surely the focus ought to be on the sign up process. Enough tricky CAPTCHAs to screen the basic ones out without putting off genuine warmbloods with compromised eyesight. Whenever I sign in to my PROTONmail account I'm asked to solve a jigsaw picture puzzle, which is easy for anyone who understands the context but seems rather better than those "traffic light/ chimney" squares recaptcha tests.

 

It's in the mists of time that I joined here now, but I assume you use recaptcha for fresh signups.

A fair point. The risk is that if the forum is made hard for AI's to use, it is also harder for humans to use. Computers are getting better at solving CAPTCHAs than humans are in recent months. Especially for those who are not so computer literate. Also a regular human could do the sign up, then hand over to a computer to do the posting. It is not possible to tell human from AI generated writing apart with 100% accuracy. There are false positives and false negatives. We have to strike a balance between making the forum easy for mark 1 humans to use and discouraging AI's. For now, if we suspect that a post is AI written, we ask the member if they are using AI and if not, who they are, why they are posting on CWDF. A little bit about themselves. Have they got a boat, planning to buy a boat, had a boat once, just interested and so on. We try and do it respectfully, but it is is tricky questioning some ones humanity without it coming across badly. If they are not on moderator approval for their posts already, as new members are for the first few, they are put back on moderator approval. So far, when challenged, most suspect posters don't reply to the query and don't try and post again.

[MIKE P]

3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

You are not alone. I did make a request for plain English because I do not understand but They simply requoted with an additional error. 

Probably computer generated

[rusty69]

The whole thing is very frustrating. I logged in, and it wouldn't let me even log out without agreeing to the terms. So, it's agree to the terms or can't view the forum. 

[Alan de Enfield]

18 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

The whole thing is very frustrating. I logged in, and it wouldn't let me even log out without agreeing to the terms. So, it's agree to the terms or can't view the forum. 

 

A bit like you have to agree to C&RTs T&Cs if you want to go boating on their waters - no agreement - no boating !

[Tony1]

23 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

The whole thing is very frustrating. I logged in, and it wouldn't let me even log out without agreeing to the terms. So, it's agree to the terms or can't view the forum. 

 

Hmm. If you really were an AI boater, that's exactly what we'd expect you to say....

 

My advice would be to fess up old boy.  You've had a good run, but the game is up.

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Tony1

[rusty69]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

A bit like you have to agree to C&RTs T&Cs if you want to go boating on their waters - no agreement - no boating !

True, but I didn't want to agree. I just wanted to log out. 

[Tony1]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I'm inclined to disagree!

 

AI stands for "artificial intelligence" and I'm beginning to think Nick's is real, not artificial

 

Or maybe it just has me fooled...

 

 

Not being possessed of intelligence myself (artificial or otherwise), I feel I am uniquely placed to weed these blighters out from among us. 

 

But look, I'm not accusing Nick of being an AI chap. 

I'm just asking the question.

 

[rusty69]

48 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

Hmm. If you really were an AI boater, that's exactly what we'd expect you to say....

 

My advice would be to fess up old boy.  You've had a good run, but the game is up.

 

 

 

I'm not sure how I feel about being described as an artificial inseminatted boater. 

Edited October 6, 2023 by rusty69

[Chris Lowe]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

The whole thing is very frustrating. I logged in, and it wouldn't let me even log out without agreeing to the terms. So, it's agree to the terms or can't view the forum. 

Yes we use that new and improved narrow Bot

[Tony1]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

I'm not sure how I feel about being described as an artificial inseminatted boater. 

 

Well I must say, as AI chaps go, you're a saucy devil. 

 

[MtB]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

True, but I didn't want to agree. I just wanted to log out. 

 

I'd imagine if you found and deleted the CWF biscuits (the term 'cookies' is too American for my taste), you'd find yourself logged out anyway.

 

 

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

True, but I didn't want to agree. I just wanted to log out. 

 

I'd imagine if you found and deleted the CWF biscuits (the term 'cookies' is too American for my taste), you'd find yourself logged out anyway.

 

 

[TheBiscuits]

40 minutes ago, MtB said:

I'd imagine if you found and deleted the CWF biscuits

 

Oi! What have I done to deserve such treatment? 😭