Suzanne O
Well-known member
Yeah but how many of those 2,243 users are spammers, trolls, scammers, etc?
At least i have 7 actual users.
Fake it till you make it – a take on fake users
- Thread starter Hotfix
- Start date
At least i have 7 actual users.
ForumFan
Well-known member
62,000 actual posts / comments... authentic content.
I have many actual very active members. We haven't had any problems with spammers / scammers. Honestly. Maybe because I limit membership to the USA only. For no other reason than I am not willing to comply with the laws (such as the EU's GDPR) of other countries.
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Deleted member 184953
Guest
I'm not an expert, but if your forum isn't hosted in the EU, I believe you're not required to comply with GDPR, even if you have EU members. If I travel to the USA I fall under American law even if I am French.
Or do I misunderstand this?
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Deleted member 184953
Guest
2,241
Suzanne O
Well-known member
That's what i'm guessing too.
ForumFan
Well-known member
Nope. My understanding is that if your site / forum SERVES any country in the EU (if you target or have EU clients or users), you are liable for not following their laws. If people in the EU use my site / forum by joining, which is to input personal information, data, or content.... then I (as the owner) am subject to the laws in the EU. So, I've used the Geoblock Registrations add-on to prevent registrations from anywhere but the USA.
GDPR Frequently Asked Questions
Compliance Junction answers GDPR Frequently Asked Questions. It provides information about the use of consent under GDPR. It also discusses Brexit, outsourcing and the right to be forgotten.
www.compliancejunction.com
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ForumFan
Well-known member
Damn... busted. The only real users are me and my wife. But even she is constantly trolling me!
Forsaken
Well-known member
What metric are you using for a successful community? Because the majority of sites (outside of Reddit/Facebook, which are social media that were established at a time they had little competition) who use fake activity generally do not become big successful communities.
The reason fake users or fake activity is noticeable is for the same reason you ditch inactive communities; people notice that the statistic of number of users or previous activity does not match up to the current activity. If you use fake users to initially seed your community, it is fairly obvious when there is an activity drop when you stop using those users.
Not going to go into specifics of the communities I own or manage, but most of them are businesses or business-adjacent (community is not the business). The smallest of which in activity and users is also one of the more successful money wise
, and that is still 50k verified unique users. I have never once used fake activity, AI or paid posters 
.You're still protected by GDPR if you're travelling outside of the UK.
frm
Well-known member
Unless you're using a script to measure this, this is impossible to read, especially for boards that are 20 years old. There's no way to tell, because some members have even died in that time (I've only seen it on one forum where the member was there the entire time till their death).
Unless the real users mix in with the fake and the pendulum swings to where it's legitimate users. But then, I revert back to my first statement that real users will always come and go. There's literally no way to measure this accurately. You are just eyeballing it, and probably better at it being a forum admin than the average user.
Forsaken
Well-known member
Your initial user base generally makes up the core of your community, at least unless there is a falling out. When those users disappear there are usually questions, whether or not people were there at the time or if they come by later and run across old content. If you have 21 active users at the start of your community, and only 1-5 of those users are active a year or two later... There are generally questions.
Also, unless it is AI, or paid posts, it is fairly easy to tell when the same person is sockpuppeting by the way they write, or different mannerisms. Not everyone will pick up on it consciously, but over time people do pick up on it sub consciously because your brain likes to recognize patterns.
I also don't call out communities for fake activity; the examples I am thinking of are specifically when other people have brought it up, and normally there has been backlash for it. People do not like being fooled, and that is exactly what fake activity is.
Whether you agree or not, I don't really care as it's your community, and not mine. Whatever choices or mistakes people choose to make is theirs, I'm just posting so that people who are just getting into this hobby/business/idiotic mistake do not take bad advice
. If you have to use fake activity/AI posts/paid posts to gain activity in your community... You probably do not have much of a reason to be running a community at the end of the day, especially when even having a small friends group is usually enough to get started.
CedricV
Well-known member
We often have a service (one I’m planning to have again soon) where community owners can purchase genuine content, paid posts from our team to their community. It works well, and it’s in high demand. It sparks activity and engagement on their community.
If you have the right people then it’s something to consider when your community is low on activity. Being a good community leader is also proactively searching for opportunities and engagements. Not your thing? Okay that’s your right - if you only want to do it organically, that’s fine. But those who do use such service from paid posters have never complained and there is usually a 99% return who request again.
Do what you want, it’s your community. No one should judge. A few paid posters isn’t going to ruin your community and make people run away. It’s more obvious when you as an admin have multiple fake accounts with “different” personalities. But again, it’s your community. If you’re happy with 7 users, that’s cool.
If you have the right people then it’s something to consider when your community is low on activity. Being a good community leader is also proactively searching for opportunities and engagements. Not your thing? Okay that’s your right - if you only want to do it organically, that’s fine. But those who do use such service from paid posters have never complained and there is usually a 99% return who request again.
Do what you want, it’s your community. No one should judge. A few paid posters isn’t going to ruin your community and make people run away. It’s more obvious when you as an admin have multiple fake accounts with “different” personalities. But again, it’s your community. If you’re happy with 7 users, that’s cool.
Suzanne O
Well-known member
frm
Well-known member
AI changed everything. You can run your writing through a custom GPT and tell it to make common spelling mistakes, change the tone, change the dialect (southern to British English), use different synonyms, etc. and you would never know anymore.
Before AI, sure, you could tell. But, you can't tell anymore, only have a hunch.
I was just pointing out that you wouldn't be able to tell. Even by your response of 21 to 5 users, you're still guessing. That's the best you can really do.
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Deleted member 184953
Guest
Thanks, i learnt something.
Since the UK has left the EU, you might consider opening registration for UK citizens. Unless UK citizens are still protected by GDPR regulations?
Of course, but if it's allowed to eat cat in France you can't eat cat in US.
frm
Well-known member
Probably not the best analogy right now...
(Don't Google our political news or anything...)
But I did learn something from this.
I thought as long as they were outside of the EU, physically, that it wouldn't apply. And, by physically, that could be by use of a VPN as you would physically appear outside of the EU to the host. You mean to tell me that if a EU citizen tricks a website into believing they are not a EU citizen by using a VPN, they could still turn around and pull the EU citizen card with GDRP complaints?
wedgar
Well-known member
Who is going to enforce EU laws in the US?Nope. My understanding is that if you SERVE any country in the EU (if you target or have EU clients or users), you are liable for not following their laws.
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GDPR Frequently Asked Questions
Compliance Junction answers GDPR Frequently Asked Questions. It provides information about the use of consent under GDPR. It also discusses Brexit, outsourcing and the right to be forgotten.
frm
Well-known member
Just a hypothetical, but if they don't, couldn't someone take it to the courts to have the website blocked from the EU if they don't?
ForumFan
Well-known member
^^^Agree.^^^
Ha! I can see so-called "AI" content a mile away. Seriously. Whether it's images, video, or text... it's super-obvious to me.
It's just not worth it to me to try to keep up with the laws of other countries. *'em. And as an American, I highly value my American Freedoms and Rights. I will not be subject to their onerous laws. We've got enough of our own! LOL! So.... yeah... *'em.
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Mr Lucky
Well-known member
VPNs can be used for a variety of reasons and not necessarily "tricking" - I doubt it would stop a citizen of the EU asserting their rights if they wanted to.
No doubt that seems possible. But if you disagree with wanting to comply with a states legislation, may be best to not have your site visible in those countries anyway.
I haven't found anything onerous about the laws. It's mainly about privacy, legislation around copyright infringement and hate speech.
The privacy stuff is mostly just common courtesy, ie not broadcasting personal info someone trusts you not to make public. And don't some US states have similar privacy laws?
I think there's also stuff about copyright and hate speech of course.
OT alert!
Fun fact: some Spanish restaurants serve rabbit with the head still on so customers can tell it isn’t cat.
