How to spot a fake thread on Mumsnet

[LindorDoubleChoc]

I'm not talking about trolling, I'm talking about the threads started by chat bots such at ChatGTP.

Generally they post quite a long op in evenly spaced paragraphs and ask several information gathering questions within the OP. They tend not to make spelling mistakes, typos or grammatical errors.

On Mumsnet at least, they generally have a couple of points listed as bullet points (so the paragraphs get indented).

Needless to say they have a unique name and only post on that one thread or a few other threads on the same day.

They come back to the thread and answer questions and generally "engage" way more often than is usual for a human Mumsnetter.

Their story is usually on the point of being unbelievable. If you think "how could anyone not know? " or "no human would not know this relationship is shit" then it's really quite likely to be fake!

Oh and they love a good cleaning, competitive eating/under-eating, generally judgey type of thread - the ones that always become a wee bit bitchy and generate a lot of clicks.

Anyone else got any pointers for spotting them?

Oh and they love a good cleaning, competitive eating/under-eating, generally judgey type of thread - the ones that always become a wee bit bitchy and generate a lot of clicks

But isn't that the vast majority of threads on here, are you saying not one of them is written by a real boy?

Lack of emotion, unusual use of language and repetition or lack of coherence.

I don't think they're generally difficult to spot at the moment but they will definitely improve with time.

Why do they do it, am I missing something? Is it people get chatGPT to do it or does chatGPT do it themselves somehow?

This post fits it's own criteria! So I'd say it's written by chatgbt

You got ChatGPT to write the OP, didn't you?

X post with @Bramblecrumble22 !

I was wondering this too. And why would people use chatgpt to create fake threads? Isn’t that just another form of trolling.

Yes, that's what I'd like to know.

I am good at spotting fake threads but not sure what a chatbot one looks like.

For normal fakes the situation is usually complex, dramatic or includes button press topics. So "WIBU to park over this person's drive on the school run" or similarly incendiary topic.

Something with a situation that can evolve , with regular breathless updates and demands from people to come back and tell more "hope you're OK OP?!".

Those started on a Friday evening as blatant weekend entertainment and with an aim of getting up to 1000 posts and threads, 2 or more.

The cast of characters with silly names "kind friend", "Asian NDN" or an ex who reads like a sitcom character.

Fawning posts, sometimes sock puppets. All get into the lingo and nicknames used and suck up to OP.

I think sock puppets are the way to get a good dramatic thread going and steer the way you want it to go.

I don't agree the eating/cleaning threads are Chatbots at all. They've always been around for a start.

Chatbot ones are the ones that we used to think were journos fishing for stories. Well-written, standard use of English, tells of own experience then says "has this happened to anyone else?" Etc.

Usernames tend to be like the Reddit generated ones. RandomWord+RandomWord. GreenSkyscraper, LostHumidifier, CruiseAutomaton.

It is easier to spot trolls though.

@WhenIWasAFieldMyself I know what you mean about those but are so dull I never engage. It's definitely different from someone posting this is my experience what is yours? / what do you think?

I sort of assume some threads are building up posting history to start trolling. Baby names always full of trolls.

one would presume its the jargon the application would use ?

ChatGPT is not a bot and neither can it post threads on its own.

People may use it to write content that then share on here. But that's not the same thing.

Oh sorry - just spotted it's a Zombie. 👻

thats my fault, it came up in the similar related threads and i forgot the dates

Why do people (or bots) generate such posts? What's their motive?

AI is reverse psychology-ing us... this chat was written by a bot 😭

If this is satire, I’m impressed!

I Always Swerve Threads With Titles Written Like This. Stands out for the wrong reasons - automatic headline generator is obviously US trained.

I know this is a zombie thread but it has unnerved me, I always indent my new paragraphs and change my username regularly.
It's very late on in life to be discovering I am a bot. Is there a group? Do we have a flag?