AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities

Re:AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities by account42 on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:50AM (#48061319)

Adding that much friction is also going to loose you many genuine users. Might be worth it depending on the community but if it makes newcomers fewer than your usual churn rate its a death sentence.

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Re:AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities by 000000000001 on Friday May 08, 2026 @08:04AM (#48061891)

I think a better approach would be to upload an image to the sign up form with explicit instructions that isn't in text on the page to be easily read by AI. Like "Answer 2 in the Math captcha" even though the correct answer is 5, the AI will always enter the wrong number.

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Re:AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities by rgblambda on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:54PM (#48065711)

That would work for a time, like with Captchas. Then the AI would overcome it and you'd have to come up with a new idea.

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Re:AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities by rgblambda on Friday May 08, 2026 @07:21AM (#48061558)

True. To be fair, this was a reply to a comment about a niche community.

Though it's possible that this approach could become normalised if it's proven to work at a small scale.

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