Comment by 8organicbits
21 days ago
I think incentives is the right way to think about it. Authentic interactions are not monetized. So where are people writing online without expecting payment?
Blogs can have ads, but blogs with RSS feeds are a safer bet as it's hard to monetize an RSS feed. Blogs are a great place to find people who are writing just because they want to write. As I see more AI slop on social media, I spend more time in my feed reader.
I've been thinking recently about a search engine that filters away any sites that contain advertising. Just that would filter away most of the crap.
Kagi's small web lens seems to have a similar goal but doesn't really get there. It still includes results that have advertising, and omits stuff that isn't small but is ad free, like Wikipedia or HN.
It's challenging to decide where to draw the line. Is it OK that wikipedia begs for donations? Sites that use affiliate links can be full of crap too, although technically ad free.
I think its worth exploring.
BTW, HN has ads. They post job openings at their start ups, these appear like posts but you can't vote on them. Launch HN is another way this site is monetized, although that seems quite reasonable and you can vote/flag those posts like any other.
Monetization isn't the only possible incentive for non-genuine content though CV-stuffing is another that is likely to affect blogs - and there have been plenty obviously AI-generated/"enhanced" blogs posted here.
Sure, but with a feed reader I unsubscribe when ever I see slop. News aggregators don't have the same filtering ability; I don't think you can ban a site from HN for posting slop, for example.