Why some people copy / paste LLM answers to a question as their own ?

[jkon]

I don't get it. It is different answering a thread to quote an answer that you got from an LLM and it is completely different to post it as your own. I don't understand why people do that ? Don't they understand that it is obvious what they did ? And at the end of the day , what are they trying to achieve with that ?

[Dani]

Google, and the SEO industry at large, has always been an advocate of increasing your reputation as an expert in your industry by posting in forums demonstrating your knowledge, and linking to your site in your forum signature or member profile. Google uses this information to determine if these websites being linked to are actually written by people who are authorities in their niche, or just chasing high-valued Google keywords (eg writing about content that pays a lot by AdSense, such as payday loans, instead of writing about content that you are passionate about). Using GPT is a fast and easy way for agency subcontractors overseas to mass produce this relevant, seemingly-knowledgeable content, seemingly-written in grammatically correct English. You will notice every single one of them has a link to a for-profit website in their member profile. That website is paying an SEO service for the pleasure of “spamming” our community.

Either way, this content is against our rules, and our spam bot is already capturing a lot of it before it ever gets posted.

[Dani]

Sorry, I was typing out my previous post while on my phone and exercising on the stationary bike, so it wasn't as thorough as I could be, as I could ramble for hours and hours on this topic. One of the big things that really hurts a site like DaniWeb is when people copy/paste ChatGPT content directly into the forum posts, because obviously Google can also tell it's not coming from humans who are experts on the topic. Here's an article from Google about that.

For those not familiar with this aspect of SEO, here's a crash course that might explain the rationale going on here.

And here are some other articles on highly respected publications in the SEO industry:

• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-e-e-a-t-how-to-demonstrate-first-hand-experience/474446/
• https://searchengineland.com/google-search-quality-rater-guidelines-changes-december-2022-390350

[jkon]

First of all , Dani I am happy that you exercise even in a stationary bike (isn't Los Gatos bikes friendly ? From Google Maps it seems so , but you can never tell if you haven't been there and really attempt to bike on the road) .

You see it mainly from a SEO perceptive I am seeing it mainly from a user's one. If a user comes in , and in a question gets the robotized 1. , 2. , 3. that are just generic advises (not valuable some times) will have a negative impression about DaniWeb and might not come back again.

The reason I am wondering about this is because there isn't a link in those profiles , nor in these answers. It's just a simplified LLM (probably not ChatGPT or Gemini in the first place) that someone (human (we are in a position that I have to make this clear)) just get the core and paste it as an answer. Without having links in their profile or anything.

Do they believe that with that they will gain credibility and THEN add links ?

I am not really asking (because how would you know) , but what are you all speculating , what are they are doing ?

[Dani]

First of all , Dani I am happy that you exercise even in a stationary bike (isn't Los Gatos bikes friendly ?

Los Gatos is very bike friendly. However, I’m dealing with some health issues (not sure if you saw my forum thread about cancer) and I’ve been struggling with my weight since being bedbound all of 2023. Sooooo exercise bike it is :)

You see it mainly from a SEO perceptive I am seeing it mainly from a user's one.

I think I’m seeing it from both perspectives. While certainly not always true, I think in this case, especially as it revolves around EEAT, what is best for seo is what’s best for end-users. I think the goals of both are very mutually aligned here.

The reason I am wondering about this is because there isn't a link in those profiles , nor in these answers.

All of the ones I’m coming across, and there are a lot between now-deleted posts, and posts caught up by the spam filter, have a link either within the content, within a forum signature, or within the About Me section of their profile. Can you show me a few that isn’t the case for?

[Dani]

Do they believe that with that they will gain credibility and THEN add links ?

While that’s entirely possible, I have seen less of that lately, actually.