AI bots infiltrating the forum - reply or just click on 'report'?

[Jdsk]

...
They're vanilla questions precisely because you can't really google that and many people don't understand the options anyway. They want a simple answer like "yes I can fix your hydraulic disc brakes" but what they get is an email back saying:
what bike, what brakes, what is actually wrong with them, how much are you willing to spend?

I've made this point before - most people have NO knowledge whatsoever of the workings of their bike. They'll ask a simple question (cos bikes are simple, right?!) on here, presumably having stumbled across it via said internet search and the Forum Nerds leap into action and start talking about efficiencies and how the OP should just make their own [thing] or effect their own repair using nothing more than epoxy resin and some tools they can knock up from spare bits of rod and bolts and why these tyres are 0.1W faster than those, how they should keep a detailed spreadsheet of their bike kit... And within that will be tangents of complete uselessness as the thread veers off into a sub-topic.

And the average punter asking the average question wonders what kind of hell hole they've wandered into and disappears sharpish, never to return.

The actual answer to most posts of that nature on here should be:
Go to a reputable bike shop.
...

Thanks for this thoughtful post.

I totally agree about the recent habit of answers that are pitched at much too high a level. The signal to noise ratio goes down when this happens.

But I do sometimes respond to vanilla posts with Welcome/Please tell us more. The idea behind the Please tell us more is both a genuine request to find out more so that an appropriate answer can be written and an exploration of whether the poster will ever reappear. When it's someone else who gives an early response of this type I then pause to see if the OP does reappear. That feels smarter than more and more responses to the question unless a very simple closed answer is available.

But I'll think again about this approach after your post.

Jonathan

[Paulatic]

I don't subscribe to the idea that relying on a small group of clued-up users is the most effective strategy. Far better to do what other younger, more tech-savvy forums do, and have a bit of public fun with the bots. This helps bring the whole forum up to speed to the point that any dodgy posts are always greeted with a broadside of sarcasm and memes.

I don't think that anyone has proposed relying on that. It's only a useful tool along with other useful tools.

But I totally disagree about piling in with sarcasm and the like. Because some posters' thresholds are far too low, and it's doing enough harm to the good manners of the forum already. Much better to leave any forceful intervention to the Moderators.

Jonathan

I naturally want to reply with a bit is sarcasm. With our recent OO bot post one I was tempted by post three I was more than tempted but over the years I’ve had at least two warnings from the mods regarding the way I’ve used language. Just in case the poster really is real I resist the temptation walk away and watch how it unfolds.
Report it, aye maybe I should but probably don’t because it’s not doing me any harm. I think in all my years I’ve only reported one post, I felt was racist, it wasn’t upheld.
Manners maketh man and politeness is to be applauded. Just be careful the words usually associated with politeness aren’t used in a way which comes across as threatening.

[Psamathe]

...
They're vanilla questions precisely because you can't really google that and many people don't understand the options anyway. They want a simple answer like "yes I can fix your hydraulic disc brakes" but what they get is an email back saying:
what bike, what brakes, what is actually wrong with them, how much are you willing to spend?

I've made this point before - most people have NO knowledge whatsoever of the workings of their bike. They'll ask a simple question (cos bikes are simple, right?!) on here, presumably having stumbled across it via said internet search and the Forum Nerds leap into action and start talking about efficiencies and how the OP should just make their own [thing] or effect their own repair using nothing more than epoxy resin and some tools they can knock up from spare bits of rod and bolts and why these tyres are 0.1W faster than those, how they should keep a detailed spreadsheet of their bike kit... And within that will be tangents of complete uselessness as the thread veers off into a sub-topic.

And the average punter asking the average question wonders what kind of hell hole they've wandered into and disappears sharpish, never to return.

The actual answer to most posts of that nature on here should be:
Go to a reputable bike shop.
...

It's a difficult one because sometimes the answer to the vague question is not possible or may just mislead the asker. Typical example "What GPS Should I Buy?" and then the reply posts are "What do you want to do with it?" are necessary.

Without the OP's clarification and I suggested a Garmin 1050 @£650+ so OP buy's one and returns "That was a waste of money as I don't want all my performance stats incl HR and to link to others in the peloton ..." and vice versa.

Many questions are complex and bike shops will only recommend what they sell (which is often a limited range).

Ian

[plancashire]

I don't subscribe to the idea that relying on a small group of clued-up users is the most effective strategy. Far better to do what other younger, more tech-savvy forums do, and have a bit of public fun with the bots. This helps bring the whole forum up to speed to the point that any dodgy posts are always greeted with a broadside of sarcasm and memes.

I don't think that anyone has proposed relying on that. It's only a useful tool along with other useful tools.

But I totally disagree about piling in with sarcasm and the like. Because some posters' thresholds are far too low, and it's doing enough harm to the good manners of the forum already. Much better to leave any forceful intervention to the Moderators.

Jonathan

I agree. I suspect some real people for whom English may not be their native tongue might read like a bot, or they might not be able to write a complex question, or they might really be beginners with riding a bike. In all these cases our first response should be to welcome them kindly and with understanding. Maybe we'll win a new convert to bike riding? There's safety in numbers. Everyone makes a difference.