Original DPR has migrated to XenForo

I think a forum the size of dpreview might be particularly interesting to these bots, because (I assume) a vast amount of content and detailed information might be flagged by those as new information, due to the transition. I imagine that's a goldmine for LLM, particularly another goldmine of misinformation, as (due to the lack of threaded view and post titles) A LOT of context is missing. Good times ahead!

Woah!! you worked for Apple 1986/87? That's about how long I've been using Macs, I started with a Mac SE. You know the Mac Folklore guys then? Bill Atkinson recently passed on. There's a website folklore.org

Hi,

I am thinking the same thing. Views by bots inflating the counters.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

I get the feeling the dpreview team knows about it, but doesn't want to address it, This way they can claim "traffic is up" at least. I've seen similar things with other forum-systems. It might even be an indicator, that the old (custom) system was better at preventing excessive bot/ai interaction, while they certainly figures xenforo out, because it's probably lucrative enough.

I still think that the bigger problem for more nuanced/technical/historical discussions than the lack of threaded view, is going to be the illusion that you're able to quickly gain knowledge by the use of AI. It's gonna be even more tiresome for the people who're already well-versed in a topic, clearing up the misconceptions and lack of real sources and many may not be willing to keep up with that.

I had a couple of those conversations already and if they become the norm (and you're spending more time correcting the wrong information people provide with the help of hallucinating LLMs, than it would take to find the real answer by looking stuff up yourself) I'll certainly loose my patience at some point and stop sharing stuff on any kind of forum. And I'm speaking as someone without any kind of scholarly/scientific knowledge... it must be even more frustrating for people, who are used to doing real research.

As the AI-bashing continues, I have zero problems with free ChatGPT, and use it daily. I don't feed it abstruse questions any more than I do with Google search or when querying a database.

Today

People seem to ignore the note at the bottom, instead choosing to whine about a perceived flood of wrong answers ...

It does seem to me that the view counts are much higher than one would expect. An obscure post of mine much less than a day ago has already accrued 6,000 views and the one below that which I mentioned earlier "one started Oct 20, 2025 in the Sigma Forum has accumulated 494,000 Views" is now up to 567,000 !!!

I'm sorry if it feels like bashing - that's not my intention! If you're using it reasonably with a good portion of skepticism and a will to check things/look them up yourself if necessary/important, it's fine of course and I'm sure it can be a very useful tool. I know people personally who do use those LLMs for interesting stuff as well.

I would just advice everyone to always keep your critical thinking skills up, particularly when dealing with a new technology like this!

Sorry, it wasn't aimed at you personally - I was trying to balance up the generally anti-AI tone on this site.

Hi,

I was looking up some needed info on a John Deere tractor the other day. And AI, which is what pops up first on Giggle, had all sorts of -wrong- information.

The Why? of that is easy. JD more recently reused the model number of the 1970 vintage machine I am wrenching on. And AI cannot wrap it's wits around that. What I needed was for a 120 HP six cylinder engine with a PowerShift transmission and what I got had some of that. Mixed up with a 30 HP four cylinders engine and a Hydrostatic transmission.

At least they are both Diesels. But some reused older model numbers are for gas back when and Diesel now. Wanna see some excitement? Load gas into a Diesel.....

Not that this would likely bother someone wrenching on the old iron. But for the more likely scenario of folks wanting to wrench on the newer model, this wrong information will very likely lead to a busted tractor and maybe even a few injuries. All because they don't know the wrong information actually makes no sense. They will just go with what AI tells them.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

That sorta rang a bell. I have a vague recollection from about 70 years ago of a farm tractor in England that one somehow started on petrol and then switched over to Diesel oil.

Might have been an old Ferguson ...

xpatUSA (Ted Cousins)

Hi

That was fairly common. I know International Harvester was one who did that as well. They had side pockets in the heads to allow gas to burn as it needs lower compression. Then, once warmed up, close off that pocket and up the compression and then switch to Diesel at the same time. Problem was, the slider that closed off the pockets would get gunked up and then that required frequent head pulls.

The other way was to use a pony motor. Caterpillar and Deere used those. A small gas engine started first, then used to turn over the Diesel sans compression, then close the valve and let it heat the Diesel cylinders and, finally turn on the Diesel fuel. This added another entire engine to the mix, and clutch and drive gears to make it all work. But it was an improvement over the gas-then-Diesel scheme.

24 volt electric starters replaced both schemes. And, later still, gear reduction 12v starters which is what we use now. That is what I was doing on the tractor I mentioned. Converting the system from 24v to 12v.

Stan

I'd like it a lot more, if it listed it's top 10 sources in the results.
At the moment, it's a crap shoot with no accountability.

Ron

I remember Word and Excel from 30 over years ago on the Mac. Microsoft decided, from a native Mac software for Word and Excel, they decided to run Word and Excel in an emulator, or a port of Word 6.0 for DOS/Windows. That pissed off a lot of people, going from Mac Word 5.1 to 6.0 slowed it down and also increased the number of Diskettes needed for installation. Connectix had Virtual PC at the time, plus other utilities. I think Microsoft bought Connectix.

When I saw those large view numbers, I just assumed that they referred to individual posts viewed. Don't forget, there is still a huge bug (I hope it's a bug and not a feature) that marks posts as read in the DPR forums when people have never even exposed them to view. The current logic is that on any given page, going to any post on it will mark all of the posts above it as "read". So if you reply to post #17, and your reply becomes post #80, all of page 4 is marked read, even if you hit the "back" key or icon and jump out of the thread, without ever having read #61 to #79.