I recently experienced an interesting interaction with a moderator that left me a bit puzzled and amused. As a newcomer to this community, I’m still learning the ropes, so please bear with me if I slip up. The story begins when a reply I posted in a thread was removed by a moderator.
In my original reply, I offered a solution to a fellow member’s .htaccess problem, providing the appropriate code and an explanation on how to tackle the issue. Here’s what my initial response contained:
Code:
======================================= It seems that the issue with your .htaccess file is that it's causing a rewrite loop for non-existent subdirectories. To resolve this, you need to make sure the requested URL is either a file or a directory before the rewrite rules are applied. You can update your .htaccess file as follows: Code: --------- RewriteOptions inherit RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$ RewriteRule ^/?$ "https\:\/\/www\.mydomain\.tld\/" [R=301,L] RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ $1.php [L] RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ $1.html [L] ErrorDocument 404 /404.shtml --------- By making these changes, you should be able to avoid the 500 Internal Server Error and instead display the 404 error page for non-existent URLs within subdirectories. =======================================
After the deletion, I received a message from the moderator, ‘bear’, who informed me that my response had failed an AI-written test, suggesting that I had copied the content from another source. Feeling a bit confused, I clarified that I only used Grammarly to correct common typos and not for generating content.
The moderator then highlighted that Grammarly is an AI-powered application and concluded that I must have used AI to compose my response. I found this amusing, as I had merely employed Grammarly to fix typos and not to create content.
This unusual situation has led me to ponder: Should Grammarly or other auto-corrector add-ons be prohibited on WebHostingTalk? I understand the importance of eliminating bot-generated posts, but in this instance, it appears to be a false positive.
While I appreciate the efforts that moderators put in to maintain the integrity of our community, this encounter has made me question if there’s room for improvement in detecting AI-generated content.
What are your thoughts? Should we be allowed to use Grammarly and similar tools on this forum? Keep in mind that I haven’t asked @bear permission to post his reply, so @bear feel free to update the thread to remove your reply if you did not want them to be public.
Alerts Received:
Code:
Please do not post "fluff" or content copied from other sites including artificially generated text, to pass off as if you'd written it. Post only when you have something new, relevant, original, and helpful to contribute. Posts perceived as intended solely to increase your post count will simply be removed, so you're wasting your time posting this way.
First Reply:
Code:
I'm having trouble understanding this. I attempted to assist him by providing the correct code for his .htaccess issue and explaining how to resolve it. I didn't copy any other website or anything; I simply tried to help him, and my solution did indeed work. What could I have done instead? Should I have just shared the "solutions" without any context or helpful explanations? The only add-on I use for text modification is Grammarly, and it mainly corrects common typing mistakes.
@bear replied with this:
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> I didn't copy any other website or anything The content you posted failed a test for being AI written, indicating it was likely a result of copying something you "found" elsewhere. Please explain. 'bear' WHT Community Leader
Then I replied:
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Hello Bear, At this point, you might think I'm an AI, but I'd rather be known as Emillia. It's possible that there's an issue with the test you're using, and I was curious to know why my solution was removed. The code in question was an .htaccess code, which is quite common on the internet, so there's a high probability of finding similar code elsewhere. Just as I find this ironic, I posted my response (which you blocked) on the following website: (copyleaks com/ai-content-detector) According to that link, 76% of the content from the removed post is human-written. I tested this reply as well and received a great score of 51%, I might be almost a bot. As I mentioned earlier, I only use grammarly com, so I'm not sure what the problem was. However, I'll make sure to disable Grammarly if I reply to someone else in the future, and it's a great thing that you remove bot posts on a forum. But if this was automated, it's clearly a false positive.
Last @bear response:
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> At this point, you might think I'm an AI No, but you'd used one. > As I mentioned earlier, I only use grammarly com, so I'm not > sure what the problem was. Simple. This is from the front page of that site: "Compose bold, clear, mistake-free writing with Grammarly’s new AI-powered desktop Windows app." Note the last half of that: "AI-powered desktop Windows app" Pretty clear that did the writing, and the methods we use for detecting that did it's job properly. Please just use your own words, and not use bots to "enhance" what you post. 'bear' WHT Community Leader
So, what do you guys think about that? It’s worth mentioning that I’ve spent significantly more time addressing this issue and defending myself than I did actually assisting another user with their code. Also, it’s not as if I’m going back to old posts just to increase my post count – I have no desire or intention to do that.
Hi everyone, I’m Emillia. I occasionally write about computer science in Dutch for a living and am a Bitcoin enthusiast. Due to my mechanical writing habits, I might unintentionally add some “fluff” in my forum posts. Nonetheless, I am dedicated to offering genuine contributions. I’ve been in the industry for a long time, having worked with the Combell Group (teamblue) for about a decade. Although I’ve only been on WebHostingTalk for about a week, I’m excited to be here. Rest assured, I’m not an AI, but I’ll do my best to help whenever I can.
Warm regards,
Emillia V.