What're we doing now?

[thefragile]

I've been here since the beginning. I like to visit these forums from time to time. I'd like to hear from the veterans to the noobs.

What are we doing now?

[Sergeant Thorne]

As a noob veteran I have often pondered this question, but unfortunately I have discovered the answer(s) to be elusive without a firm grasp of just what the hell it is we're talking about...

[sigma]

I've been here since the beginning. I like to visit these forums from time to time. I'd like to hear from the veterans to the noobs.

What are we doing now?

And hello to you too. I do not see any reason to debate the essence of your question. Try to interest us a question on another subject

[Isaac]

Running my own business while trying to get back into school to get a 27 more ★■◆●ing credits the state says I need.

[Foil]

Um, guys? It's a bot post. (Look at the joined date, and post count.)

[Sergeant Thorne]

Well when we've had our fun with him he's all yours. (I'm pretty sure I had him on the run, philosophically)

[Alter-Fox]

A bot gives someone something to gain when it posts just by posting... I don't see what this OP has to gain just by being there. Even if it is a bot the sort of responses it gets for those questions need someone alive to make sense of them.

Can it be called a bot if the responses to automatic posts are being read and considered and even maybe responded to by a living mind? We're all posting by typing into a computer interface and hitting a button -- does the fact that the computer is the thing automatically sending the electrical signals to the internet to put the posts we already wrote onto a website make us all bots in a sense?

[Sirius]

since the beginning
(give or take 15 years)

[Sergeant Thorne]

A bot gives someone something to gain when it posts just by posting... I don't see what this OP has to gain just by being there. Even if it is a bot the sort of responses it gets for those questions need someone alive to make sense of them.

Can it be called a bot if the responses to automatic posts are being read and considered and even maybe responded to by a living mind? We're all posting by typing into a computer interface and hitting a button -- does the fact that the computer is the thing automatically sending the electrical signals to the internet to put the posts we already wrote onto a website make us all bots in a sense?

No.

Bots are people using software to fish for dumber people over the internet. Fishing is always overly vague, with some specificity thrown in as the bait ("noobs", "veterans"). In the case of forums, I believe they're usually seeking to become entrenched long enough to push some product or get you to click some link, so the goal at this stage is simply to pass for a real user and not to be deleted. The fact that it's not more carefully crafted suggests it's being done on a large scale. Also I suspect "what are we doing now?" is a sentiment that probably makes more sense in the original language...

[Alter-Fox]

That's horrendously inefficient and idiotically risky.
It would have to be done on a large scale to have a chance at anything coming close to a passing resemblace of success.

[sigma]

I will just answering thefragile question. The meaning of all life on this planet for you to matter as long as you are alive. You can always withdraw from life and no longer worry about the problems of this world.

[Alter-Fox]

Seems it already has.
I don't think there's a mind here. If there was it would have replied by now to all this talk of being a bot. I can't think of anyone who'd not be bothered by being mistaken for a bot... well, maybe one exception.

We can still hijack its thread though.

[Ferno]

Um, guys? It's a bot post. (Look at the joined date, and post count.)

Are you kidding? TheFragile has been here for a long time. Not as long as he says, but pretty bloody long.

I've been here since the beginning (mid 90's) and I remember everybody.


thefragile: i'm still flying, but instead of Descent, I fly planes and helicopters.