Michael

I think their performance is relevant. Why would an employee be able to easily run an unknown binary from the internet to begin with? If the systems were properly configured to block this, there would be no issue. If I were an executive, I would absolutely be looking at my IT team in this case.

If the employee went entirely out of their way to run an unknown binary, bypassing OS-level restrictions, and sidestepping established procedures - then the employee should be fired.

Meta/OpenAI openly pirating everything they can to train their LLMs is a good example of how data hungry these AI/etc. companies are.

Is it plausible that companies request that Reddit narrows down data e.g. by demographic, geographic location, or likelihood of being a real person and request that data for purchase? Sure, but the LLMs seemingly require all data that exists that these companies can get their hands on - I highly doubt with the scale of data being consumed (and data theft being committed) that the big players care too much about Reddit data being tainted. If anything, it might even be desirable to them.

Reddit is presumably the only party with the ability to determine which data/interaction is truly legitimate or isn’t.

I have a mostly neutral opinion on AI/LLMs, but I have a negative assessment of the companies driving it unsustainably. They are able to pay big money because AI is where money is flowing. When these actors crash the economy with their hubris, please write back to me - maybe I won’t seem so weird at that point.

There is a high skill level needed to configure Windows properly in enterprise settings. Regardless, I wouldn’t be working for an organization that trusts any Microsoft software.

Keep your popcorn ready though, it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft loses the security battle - unless Microsoft makes gigantic strides in a more sustainable direction.

IT admins (and those involved in a company’s security) should be fired for deploying under-configured or misconfigured Windows installations on computers.

Microsoft in general should be fired from computers - their security is absolute garbage.

If you can land me a gig engaging with back end data from Reddit in a neutral capacity, it’d likely be pretty easy for a layman like me to confirm that it’s largely noise. The AI companies buying data are getting scammed and you are free to remain neutral or plainly disagree with my assessment in the absence of concrete data that is publicly obtainable.

No company is immune to bots and inorganic engagement, least of all Reddit with the strategies employed.

It’s noise, a very large part of it. Reddit is financially motivated to make the data appear as if it is signal. It isn’t - they have taken extremely minimal steps to ensure actual human participation.

This doesn’t matter to AI companies, but it only warps that technology more and more. AI is a sinking ship with current methodologies. Reddit will die when the AI bubble bursts and those involved with Reddit already cashed out enough to be filthy rich.

If somebody can easily bypass work restrictions, they probably aren’t enforced or implemented properly.

Are you somebody invested financially in Reddit? Genuine question.

Those niche subreddits can also have their moments, too. Maybe it’s not bots, but there are plenty of shills that have been caught in various niche subreddits I’ve frequented over the years (thanks to unpaid moderators).

As a user of the website for many years it’s entirely obvious that a majority of the website is gamed (besides its niche corners). Reddit’s bot prevention mechanisms just fuck VPN users - they are wholly inadequate.

That thread is evidence of a organized bot campaign that they had 12 days to clean up (and didn’t). It’s naive to believe that the rest of the website isn’t similarly (and less obviously) affected by bots - with vote manipulation still standing.

There are absolutely vote manipulation campaigns still happening.

See this from 12 days ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1nldj4m/why_are_we_all_just_accepting_metas_new_spy/?sort=old

12 days ago almost every top-level comment was below -50 and responses were untouched.

Is there evidence or something to support your assertion that Cloudflare = NSA?

Even if Cloudflare = NSA, there no evidence to support your parallel. If the Ladybird team does something suspicious or hostile to the interests of its users - please let us know.