PhysicsForums quietly filled its archive with 115,000 AI-written posts under real users' names
PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory (2025)
PhysicsForums, a hard-science forum founded in 2001, never changed its URLs or erased old posts, making it a rare time capsule. But its sequential post IDs reveal the timeline was altered: from March 2023 onward, roughly 115,000 posts were backdated and attributed to at least 110 real users, including founder Greg Bernhardt. One account, ravenprp, gained 2,817 posts after its last login, many claiming expertise it never had. The author argues this is the Dead Internet Theory made concrete.
In every case, a name is being attached to viewpoints that person does not necessarily endorse.
- Aurornis
Using AI to fake posting activity is bad.
Using real member accounts to post the fake AI content is so much worse.
I can’t even imagine the thought process that led to thinking it was a good idea to generate fake posts but assign them to real users. If they were going to fake posts, why not fake the users, too? They turned one bad decision into a much worse decision.
It must be sad to see your proud little corner of the internet decline in popularity, but this move took whatever positive historical vibes it had and lit them on fire.
- Schlagbohrer
So, how did all these hacked accounts or backdated posts happen? The article never says that even though the author talks to the site founder and admin.
- bmacho
Previous discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816284 - Jan 24, 2025 | 154 comments