State of the forum 2024

[RedheadDane]

For the record I have no idea about O’Conner’s family heritage.

But, who is this "O'Conner"?
Is he familiar with "Van Welder" and "Ajuso"?

 

[Ripper]

But, who is this "O'Conner"?
Is he familiar with "Van Welder" and "Ajuso"?

He's on the same team as Pogicar and Vingigo

 

[the delgados]

Ahem, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I'm wondering if anyone has an idea why Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel still keep in contact.
I mean, they both got what they wanted out of one another, but these two seemingly opposite figures still get together to make podcasts about bike racing without any mention of doping. It's kind of astounding.
Rather than speculate about what might be going on, Lance hypothesizes that Tadej Pogacar will win three more Tours and will then have to be considered the greatest rider of all time. But not really, because we all know that Lance is referring to himself, not Tadej.
Meanwhile, Johan takes the cues and plays along with this little game by nodding yes at pretty much everything Lance says. Maybe I've taken too much THC, but they seem to have a strange dynamic.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Your help please, for a moderator who is aware of, but doesn't really get, this AI stuff.

My apologies to them if my suspicions are misplaced, but the posts by josephews and now Noah147 seem somehow too inane and anodyne to seem quite human. {The rest of you can take that as a compliment: you are sufficiently objectionable for me to accept your humanity unquestioningly}

Joseph has posted some links, but none that are obviously spamming, so I'm not sure what to make of them: what is the point of anyone sending bots here? (again: great apologies to Joe and Noah if you are breathing sentient beings). Is the intention that they will return and edit the posts to fill them with spam links (some have been here a while without that happening: there were some links in Joe's posts in the Summer Holiday thread, now deleted, but that has not been typical)?



I have avoided replying directly or quoting them, which might trigger a notification, which is why I haven't @ atted them here, but even then, what would they stand to gain? They would know that whoever replied is active here, but unless they have burrowed into the software, they are not getting any info on us.

I am bemused, and perhaps a little naive: your thoughts please.

(I reject typically about 12 new account requests a day that the forum software throws up as suspect, and I presume that the software intercepts a lot more before it reaches my approval list)

 

[SHAD0W93]

Is AI able to correctly @ someone though? Otherwise both look sketchy.

 

[hrotha]

Imagine being so bland that you're mistaken for a bot at cycling news dot com, there's no coming back from a burn like that

(But yes they don't pass the smell test)

 

[Nick2413]

There could be humans pressing the actual button to post but the content itself is definitely bot driven

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

But why? I don't get the bot motive.

And is it harmful?

 

[Tim Cahill]

But why? I don't get the bot motive.

And is it harmful?

The current meta is to mostly post comments that can be construed as normal, usually generic comments about films, locations etc to fool people into thinking it's a real person in order to then astroturf and put forward their ideas. They will have a database of millions of forums using a bot to create accounts on, mostly it's done to push forward political ideas or advertise a product, this one seems to be a Czechia tourism bot.

It's harmful on a mass-political scale, can theoretically be used to sway tight elections, but becoming less effective as time goes on and people start to recognise the signs. On this kind of forum anything like this will usually be benign, usually something to push cycling/exercise gear.

There are also leaked password databases scanning billions of accounts so they can take over old accounts on every website you can think of, because usernames with lots of posts have more credibility. If you go into your old outlook email and check attempted logins you will see hundreds of attempts at accessing it from every VPN location you can think of.

 

[AmRacer]

The current meta is to mostly post comments that can be construed as normal, usually generic comments about films, locations etc to fool people into thinking it's a real person in order to then astroturf and put forward their ideas. They will have a database of millions of forums using a bot to create accounts on, mostly it's done to push forward political ideas or advertise a product, this one seems to be a Czechia tourism bot.

It's harmful on a mass-political scale, can theoretically be used to sway tight elections, but becoming less effective as time goes on and people start to recognise the signs. On this kind of forum anything like this will usually be benign, usually something to push cycling/exercise gear.

There are also leaked password databases scanning billions of accounts so they can take over old accounts on every website you can think of, because usernames with lots of posts have more credibility. If you go into your old outlook email and check attempted logins you will see hundreds of attempts at accessing it from every VPN location you can think of.

If there's a link in the post, it can be potential harmful.

 

[Netserk]

Thanks for the heads up on those flicks, @Unchained! We actually dodged a bullet with Blink Twice last weekend. Almost watched it, but went with Brightburn instead. But before that, we tried giving afrAId a shot, but decided it's not worth finishing.

Hehe, notice the uppercase letters. #Straussian

 

[topcat]

Imagine being so bland that you're mistaken for a bot at cycling news dot com, there's no coming back from a burn like that

(But yes they don't pass the smell test)

I can think of a few.

 

[peterfin]

In 2024 it seems that many here, me included, have reached a schizophrenic state where the right brain is still engaging in the professional road racing forum while the left brain left and headed to the clinic.

 

[Unchained]

Ahem, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I'm wondering if anyone has an idea why Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel still keep in contact.
I mean, they both got what they wanted out of one another, but these two seemingly opposite figures still get together to make podcasts about bike racing without any mention of doping. It's kind of astounding.
Rather than speculate about what might be going on, Lance hypothesizes that Tadej Pogacar will win three more Tours and will then have to be considered the greatest rider of all time. But not really, because we all know that Lance is referring to himself, not Tadej.
Meanwhile, Johan takes the cues and plays along with this little game by nodding yes at pretty much everything Lance says. Maybe I've taken too much THC, but they seem to have a strange dynamic.

Lance Armstrong has the Midas touch. He basically exploded his life and legacy, but picked himself up, brushed himself off to become an investment maven. Likely that the Johan Bruyneel has enjoyed 6 degrees of separation along the way doing multiple language versions of the podcast he and Lance do together. I am sure that the few thousand dollars or euros that Johan monetized from social media are helpful. @131,000 subscribers on YouTube and looking to average @60-70,000 views. With Johan- Lance latest getting @65,000 views in less than a week. And both constantly comment about no current inside information other than what they get from riders not owners or team management. And a strange twist, Hindcapie bloodline continues, George doing podcast w Lance,Johan and his son Enzo winning both road and TT national championships for his age group.
One thing that has always puzzled me about Johan ,he is fluent, in any variety of Dutch, English, Spanish, German,French and has depth of all aspects from rider, coach,director and ownership coordination in professional bike racing but is not used by any major networks until this year.
Meanwhile riders w obviously less credentials like Christian Vande Velde, Alberto Contador, Sean Kelly all confirmed dopers are asked for color about the state of races. Unsure where Bob Roll fits in cycling history, but again all are employed doing cycling broadcasts.
We shall see as ten years of being banned expires for Johan..

 

[scribers]

Lance Armstrong has the Midas touch. He basically exploded his life and legacy, but picked himself up, brushed himself off to become an investment maven. Likely that the Johan Bruyneel has enjoyed 6 degrees of separation along the way doing multiple language versions of the podcast he and Lance do together. I am sure that the few thousand dollars or euros that Johan monetized from social media are helpful. @131,000 subscribers on YouTube and looking to average @60-70,000 views. With Johan- Lance latest getting @65,000 views in less than a week. And both constantly comment about no current inside information other than what they get from riders not owners or team management. And a strange twist, Hindcapie bloodline continues, George doing podcast w Lance,Johan and his son Enzo winning both road and TT national championships for his age group.
One thing that has always puzzled me about Johan ,he is fluent, in any variety of Dutch, English, Spanish, German,French and has depth of all aspects from rider, coach,director and ownership coordination in professional bike racing but is not used by any major networks until this year.
Meanwhile riders w obviously less credentials like Christian Vande Velde, Alberto Contador, Sean Kelly all confirmed dopers are asked for color about the state of races. Unsure where Bob Roll fits in cycling history, but again all are employed doing cycling broadcasts.
We shall see as ten years of being banned expires for Johan..

The industry followed along with the example being set against bruyneel’s squads, completely shutting him out as bad for their business.

Isn’t bruyneel’s ban for life?

 

[rallybanana]

There could be humans pressing the actual button to post but the content itself is definitely bot driven

My favourite bot was the one who would copy old posts but change some of the words to make it look like original content. The giveaway was when it changed Lance Armstrong's name to Spear.

 

[AmRacer]

My favourite bot was the one who would copy old posts but change some of the words to make it look like original content. The giveaway was when it changed Lance Armstrong's name to Spear.

Spear Legweak

 

[RedheadDane]

My favourite bot was the one who would copy old posts but change some of the words to make it look like original content. The giveaway was when it changed Lance Armstrong's name to Spear.

All those "strings"...

 

[rallybanana]

All those "strings"...

Like the substantially required Anna van der Breggen string

 

[topcat]

I started watching 2 minutes before Pog's attack and watched for another 5 minutes just to make sure he was gone gone. Then I went for a run and did some gardening.
State of the forum: disillusioned.

 

[topcat]

View: https://youtu.be/Ovb_iRWcqsc?si=-2_D6BMOKkTHBrdi
KK remembers cycling before it passed away.

 

[the delgados]

Lance Armstrong has the Midas touch. He basically exploded his life and legacy, but picked himself up, brushed himself off to become an investment maven. Likely that the Johan Bruyneel has enjoyed 6 degrees of separation along the way doing multiple language versions of the podcast he and Lance do together. I am sure that the few thousand dollars or euros that Johan monetized from social media are helpful. @131,000 subscribers on YouTube and looking to average @60-70,000 views. With Johan- Lance latest getting @65,000 views in less than a week. And both constantly comment about no current inside information other than what they get from riders not owners or team management. And a strange twist, Hindcapie bloodline continues, George doing podcast w Lance,Johan and his son Enzo winning both road and TT national championships for his age group.
One thing that has always puzzled me about Johan ,he is fluent, in any variety of Dutch, English, Spanish, German,French and has depth of all aspects from rider, coach,director and ownership coordination in professional bike racing but is not used by any major networks until this year.
Meanwhile riders w obviously less credentials like Christian Vande Velde, Alberto Contador, Sean Kelly all confirmed dopers are asked for color about the state of races. Unsure where Bob Roll fits in cycling history, but again all are employed doing cycling broadcasts.
We shall see as ten years of being banned expires for Johan..

Getting back into the game. I see what you're saying.
Today Johan went on and on about Pogacar's performance at Lombardia and compared him to Merckx. The closest he ever came to talking about doping was when he said "We can't say who is the best of all time because things have changed."
Really? How so?

 

[RedheadDane]

Guys... I think we need to stage an intervention.
It apepars @Tricycle Rider suffers from a severe case of Threadstarting Addiction.
He started a Guangxi thread, in order to ask if he should make a Guangxi thread, and then... he made another Guangxi thread.

 

[Netserk]

Guys... I think we need to stage an intervention.
It apepars @Tricycle Rider suffers from a severe case of Threadstarting Addiction.
He started a Guangxi thread, in order to ask if he should make a Guangxi thread, and then... he made another Guangxi thread.

Gal... You are not the only gal in town.

 

[RedheadDane]

Gal... You are not the only gal in town.

She started a thread then.
Then another.