New and old members. WELCOME TOPIC

[Wheels]

Welcome aboard, Wheels. I hope you will enjoy the forum, and that you will stay for long.

Thanks, I tried another tennis forum for awhile and the chat was fine, but there were these two members that were quite bossy and thought they ran the place which they didn't. I wouldn't have had a problem with them if they were staff, but they were not. So I had enough of the bickering and left and joined here. I hope this is a better experience.

[Deuce]

Dear All.
Starting last year, we have had a few "new members" that we have the suspicion are not human. Starting with Cuckoo4Coco, these members have exhibited a peculiar yet distinct pattern: they join the forum, post constantly and then vanish on a given day.
We can't tell if they are some sort of BOT or some experiment regarding AI. Or even, the most mundane explanation, somebody that likes to join presenting different personalities. They all have been female (or pretend to be), but have ranged in age and locations. So far, they have been benign, not posting links leading to malicious sites, although one of them left some code in her last posts.
So. To the person doing this.
Please, stop. We cannot tell, when you apply for membership, whether you are real or not. Your experiment, at the moment, seems pointless, as if what you wanted was to test if you can pass for a human, you have succeeded. So, if you want to join and talk about tennis, welcome. But if we are your testing ground for something else, let me assure you that we are the worst place for that. We are too small, too specialized and not a representative site for larger targets.
Plus, the gig is getting old.

To all real members. Sorry about this, and if you suspect there is some malicious activity, let us know. We will try to control it.

Indeed, it is getting old, and is not at all appreciated.
The pattern is the same, and it's basically impossible that these are real tennis fans (or even real people), as a real, living tennis fan would not be posting at an alarmingly frequent rate, and then stop abruptly.
I, for one, will try to remember to not interact at all with any new member until they have proven themselves as legitimate to my satisfaction.

Ponchi - is there a way that you could create some sort of screening process, whereby you would have to interact with them via E mail or something until they prove that they actually exist as a living, breathing human being?

[ponchi101]

I am working on using a RECAPTCHA system, because the security question is not working for this sort of spam.
Will post you all.

[ptmcmahon]

Dear All.
Starting last year, we have had a few "new members" that we have the suspicion are not human. Starting with Cuckoo4Coco, these members have exhibited a peculiar yet distinct pattern: they join the forum, post constantly and then vanish on a given day.
We can't tell if they are some sort of BOT or some experiment regarding AI. Or even, the most mundane explanation, somebody that likes to join presenting different personalities. They all have been female (or pretend to be), but have ranged in age and locations. So far, they have been benign, not posting links leading to malicious sites, although one of them left some code in her last posts.

If Ainsley is a bot, well done, she seemed to respond to my joke about high school pretty well.

But, I can't lie when I read the posts I thought Cuckoo4Coco was back at first!

[ponchi101]

...

If Ainsley is a bot, well done, she seemed to respond to my joke about high school pretty well.

But, I can't lie when I read the posts I thought Cuckoo4Coco was back at first!

It seems to be the very same people/person. The personalities are very much the same. Young women, very friendly, non-controversial.
Not that I want a bot that is an absolute pain and rude, but that AI was very convincing.
(If it was an AI. Maybe it was a real person suffering from schizophrenia...)

[ptmcmahon]

Welcome aboard, Wheels. I hope you will enjoy the forum, and that you will stay for long.

Thanks, I tried another tennis forum for awhile and the chat was fine, but there were these two members that were quite bossy and thought they ran the place which they didn't. I wouldn't have had a problem with them if they were staff, but they were not. So I had enough of the bickering and left and joined here. I hope this is a better experience.

Welcome! We bicker sometimes too but I don’t think we are actually mad at each other?

[ptmcmahon]

...

If Ainsley is a bot, well done, she seemed to respond to my joke about high school pretty well.

But, I can't lie when I read the posts I thought Cuckoo4Coco was back at first!

It seems to be the very same people/person. The personalities are very much the same. Young women, very friendly, non-controversial.
Not that I want a bot that is an absolute pain and rude, but that AI was very convincing.
(If it was an AI. Maybe it was a real person suffering from schizophrenia...)

If you re read all the intro posts they do look pretty similar. Especially the “my favourite players are John Doe and Jane Doe.”

[Wheels]

Welcome aboard, Wheels. I hope you will enjoy the forum, and that you will stay for long.

Thanks, I tried another tennis forum for awhile and the chat was fine, but there were these two members that were quite bossy and thought they ran the place which they didn't. I wouldn't have had a problem with them if they were staff, but they were not. So I had enough of the bickering and left and joined here. I hope this is a better experience.

Welcome! We bicker sometimes too but I don’t think we are actually mad at each other?

People disagree all the time, but at this other forum that wasn't even the problem. It was basically two members who had issues with one another about posting stuff about matches. One member would always bring up older matches involving older players that they compared to the current match and it completely drove the other member crazy. They fought like cats and dogs over this. The administrator of the forum did nothing about it leaving all the other members in the middle. I eventually had enough and left.

[skatingfan]

If you re read all the intro posts they do look pretty similar. Especially the “my favourite players are John Doe and Jane Doe.”

Everything very generic, and pleasant to a fault.

[Suliso]

Last year I avoided Cuckoo4Coco because it felt like someone older is impersonating a young girl, but with latest developments in AI perhaps indeed they're not even humans.

Will be ever harder in the future to distinguish what is real and what is not. Unless you meet someone in person.

[Wheels]

Like I stated to ponchi101, I feel I joined at the wrong time. I am sorry that all of this is going on with AI and BOTS, but because of my timing I feel I am going to be lumped in all of this mess and that is not fair to me at all. Ponchi101 mentioned to me that all these BOTS had posted a lot in a short period of time and then just left. Even though that is not going to be the case in the manner that I post because of my health issues and what I deal with daily, I still feel I am going to be judged wrongly by others here and when I do post there will always be those who put me in that category of being a BOT. I understand where you are all coming from, but this sort of atmosphere is also not fair to myself either. Unfortunately, I think my timing is wrong and finding another more accepting tennis atmosphere that isn't going through this mess is a better option for me. Good Luck taking care of all of this.

[skatingfan]

That is a very strange response.

[nelslus]

Last year I avoided Cuckoo4Coco because it felt like someone older is impersonating a young girl, but with latest developments in AI perhaps indeed they're not even humans.

Will be ever harder in the future to distinguish what is real and what is not. Unless you meet someone in person.

I knew it- I just knew it all along. Run, those of us who are still humans, RUN!!!!!

[Scoob]

New member, old recreational player, enjoys watching tennis. Played high school tennis back in the 80's .

[ponchi101]

Welcome Scoob. Hope you will enjoy the forum?
How did you find us? We are pretty small and obscure, so bumping into us is not totally easy