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PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory (2025)

20 points bmacho 2 days ago 6 comments

bmacho 2 days ago | parent

Previous discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816284 - Jan 24, 2025 | 154 comments

bmacho 46 minutes ago | parent

This comment above is date mangled due to HN second chance pool <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308>.

It's ironic because the article (and many comments in the previous submission) are about how one shouldn't mess with user data to show fake engagement!

Schlagbohrer 31 minutes ago | parent

So, how did all these hacked accounts or backdated posts happen? The article never says that even though the author talks to the site founder and admin.

skew-aberration 25 minutes ago | parent

It's heavily implied the owner had them generated by a bot, potentially as part of his day job in SEO

bmacho 25 minutes ago | parent

PhysicsForum's admin admitted creating them shortly after: <https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/official-response-to-a...>

Aurornis 12 minutes ago | parent

Using AI to fake posting activity is bad.

Using real member accounts to post the fake AI content is so much worse.

I can’t even imagine the thought process that led to thinking it was a good idea to generate fake posts but assign them to real users. If they were going to fake posts, why not fake the users, too? They turned one bad decision into a much worse decision.

It must be sad to see your proud little corner of the internet decline in popularity, but this move took whatever positive historical vibes it had and lit them on fire.