Shoutout to the old forum mod who taught me to check timestamps

Back in 2020, I was on a fan art board and a user named 'PixelGhost' would always post these long, weirdly perfect comments right after new art dropped. The head mod, an older guy named Greg, showed me how to check the post timestamps and cross-reference them with the user's join date, which was always the same day. The comments were clearly bot-generated slop, and Greg's simple check saved the community from a flood of fake engagement. What's the most basic, old-school trick you still use to spot AI slop before the fancy tools even get involved?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley834d ago

Ever see a post that's just a little too on the nose? My buddy caught one last week where a "new user" gave a super detailed review of a niche product, but every single link they posted was dead. Just a quick check of the domain registration showed it was created like two days before the post went up. Felt like someone was trying way too hard to seem legit.

the_uma4d ago

Ugh, that's so obvious it hurts. They always mess up the small stuff because they're in a hurry. Next time, tell your buddy to check if the "review" uses the same exact wording as the product's sales page. I've seen that a ton. They just copy the marketing copy and paste it like it's their own opinion. It's lazy and makes the whole thing feel like a bad commercial.