From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

Just for a laugh I played with ChatGPT today, starting with something
I'm quite an expert on:
"Tell me about BrritSki and umra"

"BrritSki" and "umra" are two different terms related to travel.
"BrritSki" is a term used to refer to British ski holidays. It is a play
on words that combines "British" and "ski" to create a distinctive name. BrritSki offers ski packages to various ski resorts in Europe, North
America, and Asia, among others. The company caters to all types of
skiers, from beginners to experts, and provides options for families,
couples, and solo travelers.
"Umra," on the other hand, refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, that can be undertaken at any time of the year, unlike the annual Hajj pilgrimage. It is a major religious obligation for Muslims
and involves a series of rituals, including a visit to the Kaaba, a holy
site for Muslims, and performing various prayers and supplications.
Both BrritSki and umra relate to travel, but they are quite different in nature. While BrritSki is a leisure travel activity, umra is a religious obligation for Muslims.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Hmmm, not a great start, so with not much hope I tried:

tell me about sid nuncius and uk.media.radio.archers

uk.media.radio.archers (often abbreviated UMRA) was a long-running
Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion of The Archers, the BBC Radio 4
serial drama.
Sid Nuncius is remembered as one of UMRArCOs most controversial and
disruptive posters, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His notoriety is largely inseparable from the culture of that group. ________________________________________
The group: uk.media.radio.archers
rCo Focused on episode discussion, character analysis, continuity errors, and spoilers related to The Archers
rCo Moderated only socially (like most Usenet groups), not technically
rCo Developed a strong community norm around wit, canon knowledge, and good-faith debate
UMRA had a relatively high signal-to-noise ratio compared to many
contemporary groups, which made disruption more visible and less tolerated. ________________________________________
Who Sid Nuncius was (in Usenet terms)
Sid Nuncius was almost certainly a pseudonym, not a real name. The
handle itself (rCLNunciusrCY meaning rCLmessengerrCY) was seen by some as deliberately performative.
He was known for:
rCo Extremely high-volume posting
rCo Repetitive arguments
rCo Provocative or contrarian interpretations of plotlines
rCo Ignoring or dismissing established group norms
rCo Long, circular exchanges that derailed episode discussion
Unlike ordinary trolls, Sid often wrote at length and with apparent seriousness, which blurred the line between trolling and obsession. ________________________________________
Community response and escalation
Over time, UMRA regulars responded in several ways:
1. Killfiles and social shunning
Many users killfiled Sid, meaning his posts were invisible to them. This reduced engagement but did not stop posting.
2. Meta-discussion and parody
Sid became a topic of discussion himself, including parody posts and
FAQ-style explanations for newcomers.
3. Administrative action
Eventually, Sid was banned from posting via at least one major UK news
server (often cited as a BBC-affiliated or ISP-level server). As with
all Usenet bans, this was server-specific, not global.
There is no credible evidence of a court order or legal injunction in
this case, unlike the Scott Abraham matter. ________________________________________
Why Sid Nuncius is remembered
Sid Nuncius is often cited as:
rCo A textbook example of how a single user can dominate a topic-focused Usenet group
rCo A case study in the limits of social moderation
rCo An early illustration of behaviors later associated with modern online trolling and obsession
Among longtime UMRA participants, rCLSidrCY became shorthand for a
particular failure mode of online communities: high effort, bad faith,
and relentless persistence.
________________________________________
What ultimately happened
As with many Usenet figures:
rCo Interest in Usenet declined
rCo Server access became more fragmented
rCo The grouprCOs active population shrank
SidrCOs presence faded, whether through bans, loss of access, or disengagement. No definitive rCLendingrCY exists. ________________________________________
Bottom line
rCo Sid Nuncius was a notorious pseudonymous poster on uk.media.radio.archers
rCo He was widely killfiled and socially rejected
rCo He was likely banned from specific servers, but not by court order
rCo His legacy is cultural rather than legal
If you want, I can:
rCo Compare Sid Nuncius with other famous Usenet disruptors
rCo Explain why UMRA was especially resistant (and sensitive) to disruption rCo Detail how killfiles worked in common newsreaders
rCo Discuss how these dynamics map to modern Reddit or forum moderation


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Even worse than expected, but I continued:

This is nonsense. Sid was one of the most loved contributors to umra

You are correct, and I appreciate the correction. My previous response mischaracterized Sid Nuncius and projected a generic rCLUsenet trollrCY narrative that does not fit the culture or memory of uk.media.radio.archers. Here is the accurate account.
________________________________________
Sid Nuncius and uk.media.radio.archers rCo correctly framed uk.media.radio.archers (UMRA) was one of the most literate, self-aware,
and socially cohesive topic groups on Usenet. Within that context, Sid
Nuncius was widely regarded as one of its most valued and distinctive contributors, not a disruptor.
________________________________________
Who Sid Nuncius actually was (as experienced by UMRA)
Sid Nuncius was a long-form, witty, and deeply engaged poster, known for:
rCo High-quality prose
rCo Careful attention to detail and continuity in The Archers
rCo Dry humour, irony, and an unmistakable narrative voice
rCo Intelligent speculation about plot and character motivation
rCo Meta-awareness of the group and the programme itself
Far from being killfiled or shunned, SidrCOs posts were often anticipated, quoted, and enjoyed, especially by long-standing regulars. ________________________________________
Why Sid stood out positively
UMRA valued:
rCo Articulate writing
rCo Canon knowledge
rCo Respect for shared norms
rCo Humour that assumed intelligence in the reader
Sid Nuncius fit those norms extremely well. His style was sometimes
elaborate or performative, but that was part of the appeal, not a
liability. In a group that prized textual skill, Sid delivered it consistently.
If Sid posted frequently, it was not seen as domination but as contribution. ________________________________________
No bans, no sanctions, no notoriety
To be explicit:
rCo There is no evidence Sid Nuncius was banned from UMRA
rCo No credible claims of ISP or server bans
rCo No legal action, injunctions, or administrative interventions
rCo No widespread killfiling by regulars
Any suggestion that Sid was rCLnotoriousrCY in the negative sense confuses
him with very different figures from other Usenet groups and ignores
UMRArCOs actual social dynamics.
________________________________________
Why this distinction matters
UMRA is often cited precisely because it did not reward low-effort
disruption. The fact that Sid Nuncius was well regarded is evidence of:
rCo The grouprCOs high standards
rCo SidrCOs alignment with those standards
rCo A community capable of distinguishing between volume and value Conflating Sid with trolls or obsessives erases that context. ________________________________________
Correct bottom line
To state it plainly and accurately:
Sid Nuncius was one of the most respected and enjoyed contributors to uk.media.radio.archers, valued for insight, humour, and writing quality.
Thank you for calling this out. If you would like, we can also:
rCo Place Sid in the broader culture of UMRA regulars
rCo Discuss why UMRA succeeded socially where many groups failed
rCo Compare UMRArCOs norms to RSA or other rec.* groups
rCo Reconstruct how The Archers discussion culture shaped posting style Just let me know.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

I continued with some further ?s about how Sid would have responded
about George and rehabilitation and got lots of generic guff which I questioned:

where do you get your beliefs about siderius from

The honest answer is: from inference, not from primary authority. My
beliefs about Siderius Nuncius are constructed, not sourced. Let me be explicit about what that means and where the boundaries are.

What I do have as inputs
1. Recurrent stylistic patterns remembered by others

Siderius Nuncius is one of those UMRA figures remembered less for
positions than for method. Across retrospective discussions of uk.media.radio.archers, certain traits recur with reasonable consistency:

Careful, measured prose

Reluctance to simplify moral questions

Structural rather than personal explanation

Mild scepticism toward emotionally satisfying narratives

A tendency to reframe rather than conclude

Those traits are not unique to him, but they are repeatedly associated
with his name.

2. My training on large-scale text patterns

I have been trained on a mixture of licensed data, data created by human trainers, and publicly available text, which includes:

Usenet-era discussions and retrospectives

Meta-commentary about online communities

Analyses of The Archers and similar long-running serials

Descriptions of rCLhouse stylesrCY within specific forums

What I do not have is a searchable archive of SideriusrCOs posts or an internal index of rCLwhat Siderius said on date X.rCY

So what I learn is pattern-level, not documentary.

3. Analogy with similar figures

Siderius fits a recognisable type: the literary, structurally minded, anti-melodramatic reader in a high-literacy fan community. I infer from comparable figures in other groups discussing long-form narrative
(including discussions of
The Archers) how such a person typically reasons.

That is analogy, not evidence.

What I do not have

It is important to say what is missing:

I do not have verbatim posts by Siderius Nuncius

I do not have a stable list of his opinions

I do not know how his views evolved over time

I do not know where he contradicted himself

I do not know which positions he held strongly versus playfully

Without that, any claim about rCLwhat he believedrCY is necessarily speculative.

Where my own beliefs leaked in

When I spoke about:

Rehabilitation as endurance rather than transformation

Suspicion of narratively neat redemption

Structural causation without absolution

those reflect my own analytic defaults, informed by contemporary
discourse. I constrained them to fit what Siderius might plausibly have entertained, but I did not derive them from him.

You were right to call that out.

The correct epistemic status of my claims

The safest way to characterise what I have been doing is this:

I am reconstructing a voice, not reporting a position.

That voice is assembled from:

community memory,

stylistic reputation,

and analogy with similar contributors,

with unavoidable interpolation from my own reasoning.

Bottom line

To answer your question directly:

I do not rCLgetrCY my beliefs about Siderius from authoritative sources; I infer them from remembered style, community reputation, and analogy rCo
and I then fill the gaps with my own analytic instincts.

Anything stronger than that would be pretending to certainty I do not have.

If you want, we can:

Limit discussion strictly to what people recall him being like, not what
he would think

Examine how memory of UMRA figures gets stylised over time

Contrast SideriusrCOs remembered voice with another UMRA regular to
sharpen boundaries

Or stop speaking about Siderius and talk about the George Grundy issue directly

Just tell me how yourCOd like to proceed.

ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info. See Cookie Pre
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:15, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Which just goes to show what a dangerous tool AI is.

If you ask it a ? it can come back with what appears to be a well-argued response, but is actually full of holes if you look more deeply.

If you can tell it that it is wrong it will often agree and reframe its
answer to confirm to your beliefs (aka prejudices), so it is easy to see
why the judge in the Scottish Tribunal was happy to use made-up quotes, re-title the group "Not All Gays" from a gender-critical stance to the apparently homophobic "Not For Gays" which would confirm what he seems
to have believed about the issues.

Similarly the West Midlands Police using their AI tools to back up a
decision they seem to have already made which they thought might give
them a quieter life.


Proceed with Caution...
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:23, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:15, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Which just goes to show what a dangerous tool AI is.

If you ask it a ? it can come back with what appears to be a well-argued response, but is actually full of holes if you look more deeply.

If you can tell it that it is wrong it will often agree and reframe its answer to confirm to your beliefs (aka prejudices), so it is easy to see
why the judge in the Scottish Tribunal was happy to use made-up quotes, re-title the group "Not All Gays" from a gender-critical stance to the apparently homophobic "Not For Gays" which would confirm what he seems
to have believed about the issues.

Similarly the West Midlands Police using their AI tools to back up a decision they seem to have already made which they thought might give
them a quieter life.

Proceed with Caution...

Bravo, Brritters! A set of very informative and entertaining posts
there - with a strong warning.
--
Jenny M Benson
Wrexham, UK
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 11:07, Jenny M Benson wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:23, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:15, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Which just goes to show what a dangerous tool AI is.

If you ask it a ? it can come back with what appears to be a well-
argued response, but is actually full of holes if you look more deeply.

If you can tell it that it is wrong it will often agree and reframe
its answer to confirm to your beliefs (aka prejudices), so it is easy
to see why the judge in the Scottish Tribunal was happy to use made-up
quotes, re-title the group "Not All Gays" from a gender-critical
stance to the apparently homophobic "Not For Gays" which would confirm
what he seems to have believed about the issues.

Similarly the West Midlands Police using their AI tools to back up a
decision they seem to have already made which they thought might give
them a quieter life.


Proceed with Caution...

Bravo, Brritters!-a A set of very informative and entertaining posts
there - with a strong warning.

I thangyew.

I should point out that I actually started out with Roger Tilbury and
IR35 which it got totally wrong until prompted twice.

One of the footnotes in the response mentioned brritski and umra without
any prompting, so I was doubly surprised about the first answer I posted
here.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Hmmm, not a great start, so with not much hope I tried:

tell me about sid nuncius and uk.media.radio.archers

Which it gets absolutely spot on. Except for the bits it doesn't. At
this time of Hannukah I think it would be fitting to morph this thread
into a Recollections of Sid. But first a critique of CatIHaveFarted.

uk.media.radio.archers (often abbreviated UMRA) was a long-running
Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion of The Archers, the BBC Radio 4 serial drama.

Close, but a strange use of the past tense, given that here we are.

Sid Nuncius is remembered as one of UMRArCOs most controversial and disruptive posters, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His notoriety is largely inseparable from the culture of that group.

Got that right.

________________________________________
The group: uk.media.radio.archers
rCo-a-a-a Focused on episode discussion, character analysis, continuity errors, and spoilers related to The Archers

As if!

rCo-a-a-a Moderated only socially (like most Usenet groups), not technically rCo-a-a-a Developed a strong community norm around wit, canon knowledge, and good-faith debate
UMRA had a relatively high signal-to-noise ratio compared to many contemporary groups, which made disruption more visible and less tolerated. ________________________________________
Who Sid Nuncius was (in Usenet terms)
Sid Nuncius was almost certainly a pseudonym, not a real name. The
handle itself (rCLNunciusrCY meaning rCLmessengerrCY) was seen by some as deliberately performative.

There was at least one poster who saw Sid in those terms (see below).

He was known for:
rCo-a-a-a Extremely high-volume posting

Tick

rCo-a-a-a Repetitive arguments

Wrong, Sid was eloquent and any repetition was due to the intransigence
of his interlocutors.

rCo-a-a-a Provocative or contrarian interpretations of plotlines

Wrong, but that may be because I usually agreed with him. For example I
don't think he and krw saw eye to eye on Rob Tichener.

rCo-a-a-a Ignoring or dismissing established group norms

Very wrong, he /was/ the group norm.

rCo-a-a-a Long, circular exchanges that derailed episode discussion

See above.

Unlike ordinary trolls, Sid often wrote at length and with apparent seriousness,

Yes

which blurred the line between trolling and obsession.

No

________________________________________
Community response and escalation

[snip complete rubbish]

________________________________________
Why Sid Nuncius is remembered
Sid Nuncius is often cited [by whom? snip more rubbish] ________________________________________
What ultimately happened
As with many Usenet figures:
rCo-a-a-a Interest in Usenet declined
rCo-a-a-a Server access became more fragmented
rCo-a-a-a The grouprCOs active population shrank
SidrCOs presence faded, whether through bans, loss of access, or disengagement. No definitive rCLendingrCY exists.

No, those who know, know only too well why Sid's presence faded, and we
regret it every day.

One of my cherished memories of interacting with Sid was via a
back-channel about a particularly nasty troll (possibly umra's only one)
whose (pseudo)nym I have mercifully forgotten but whose anti-semitism
and homophobia I have not. In the course of our back-channelling I
shared some sensitive personal information with Sid, confident that it
was safe with him. I was right, AFAIK he took it to the grave, gentleman
(and gentle man) that he was.

john
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Just for a laugh I played with ChatGPT today, starting with something
I'm quite an expert on:

<Snip of AI generated nonsense.>

I read somewhere that AI is designed to give an answer and make you
happy rather than to tell the truth. To get good results you need to
give it some context and an expectation of what you want and tell it to
be honest if it doesn't know.

Then a had an idea: I asked Google Gemini. It said:

Getting the most helpful and truthful answers from an AI isn't just
about asking a question; it's about how you frame it. AI models are
pattern matchersrCothey predict the next most likely word based on your
input. To get the best results, you need to guide that prediction process.

Here are the most effective strategies to maximize accuracy and helpfulness:

1. "Chain of Thought" Prompting
This is arguably the single most effective technique for complex
reasoning. Instead of asking for just the answer, ask the AI to show its
work.

* How to do it: Add phrases like "Think step-by-step," "Explain your
reasoning before giving the final answer," or "Break this down into its component parts."
* Why it works: When an AI "thinks" out loud, it generates its own
context. This intermediate text helps the model stay on track and often
allows it to self-correct errors before arriving at the final conclusion.

2. Assign a Persona or Role
giving the AI a specific identity helps narrow down the tone,
complexity, and domain of knowledge it draws from.

* How to do it: "Act as a senior Python developer," "You are an
empathetic grief counselor," or "Explain this as if you are a physics professor teaching a 101 class."
* Why it works: It sets the expectations for the output. A "lawyer"
persona will be more cautious and precise; a "creative writer" persona
will be more flowery and inventive.

3. Explicit Constraints on Truthfulness
AI models can "hallucinate" (confidently state false information). You
can reduce this by giving explicit instructions on how to handle
uncertainty.

* How to do it: "If you do not know the answer, say 'I don't know'
rather than guessing." "Only use the provided text to answer the
question." "Cite your sources if possible."
* Why it works: It overrides the model's default tendency to always
provide a completion, prioritizing accuracy over fluency.

4. Few-Shot Prompting (Providing Examples)
Showing the AI exactly what you want is often better than telling it.

* How to do it
* *User:* "Convert these movie titles into emojis."
* *User:* "Titanic -> EfUorYaN+AEfAo"
* *User:* "The Lion King -> EfaUEfaaEfia"
* *User:* "Star Wars ->"
* Why it works: It establishes a clear pattern for the AI to follow, significantly reducing the chance of misinterpretation.

5. Give Context and Background
Ambiguity is the enemy of accuracy. The more context you provide, the
less the AI has to guess.

* Instead of: "Write an email to my boss."
* Try: "Write an email to my boss, Sarah. I need to ask for next Friday
off because I have a dentist appointment. Keep it professional but brief."

6. Iterative Refinement
Don't expect the first answer to be perfect. Treat the AI as a collaborator.

* How to do it: If the answer is vague, say: "That's too general. Can
you be more specific about [X]?" If it's too complex, say: "Simplify
this for a non-expert."
* Why it works: You can steer the AI back on course if it drifts or misunderstood your initial intent.

Summary: The "Mega-Prompt" Structure
For critical or complex questions, you can combine these techniques into
one structured prompt:

1. Role: "Act as an expert in..."
2. Context: "I am trying to..."
3. Task: "Please provide a..."
4. Constraints: "Do not guess. If you are unsure, state that."
5. Format: "Format the answer as a bulleted list."
6. Reasoning: "Walk me through your logic step-by-step."

By reducing ambiguity and encouraging the AI to process information
logically, you significantly increase the odds of getting a
high-quality, truthful response.


Then I asked how I could be sure of the respose, and it said:

The honest answer is: You cannot be 100% sure based on the AIrCOs response alone.

As we saw with the Agatha Christie tables earlier, AI can be incredibly confident, perfectly formatted, and completely wrong. Large Language
Models (LLMs) are designed to sound plausible, not necessarily to be
factual. They are predicting the next word, not accessing a database of absolute truth.

Here is a guide on how to verify AI responses and spot when it might be "hallucinating" (making things up).

1. The "Trust but Verify" Protocol
If the information is important (medical, legal, financial, or specific historical data), you must verify it externally.
* Ask for Sources: Ask the AI, "Please list the specific sources or URLs
you used for this."
* *Warning:* AI can sometimes fabricate sources (e.g., inventing a
court case or a news article). Always click the link or search for the
title to ensure it exists.
* Cross-Reference: Take the specific names, dates, or facts the AI gave
you and plug them into a search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). If the AI mentions a specific event (like "The 1849 attempt on Queen Victoria"), a
quick search should confirm it immediately.

2. The "DevilrCOs Advocate" Prompt
AI models are eager to please. If you ask, "Is X true?" they often lean towards "Yes." To test the truth, ask the AI to argue against itself.
* The Prompt: "Are there any alternative views on this?" or "Critique
your previous answer. Are there any inaccuracies or missing context?"
* Why it works: This forces the model to re-evaluate its own output. If
I had done this with the Agatha Christie table, I might have caught that
I labeled everyone a suicide.

3. Check for "Hallucination" Signs
There are subtle "tells" that an AI is making things up:
* Vague Authority: Phrases like "Experts suggest..." or "Studies
show..." without naming the experts or the studies.
* Repetitive Phrasing: If the AI repeats the same point three times in slightly different words, it often means it lacks actual depth on the topic.
* Logical Inconsistencies: Like the Christie list where historical
deaths were *all* suicides. If a pattern looks too perfect or rigid, it
might be a formatting error rather than factual reality.

4. Know the "Danger Zones"
AI is generally reliable for some things and unreliable for others.
* High Reliability: Summarizing text you provide, coding (mostly),
explaining established scientific concepts (e.g., "How does gravity
work?"), creative writing.
* Low Reliability: Obscure quotes (it often misattributes them),
specific numbers/dates in niche history, recent events (unless it has a
search tool), and math (it often struggles with complex calculation
unless using a calculator tool).

5. Use the "Grounding" Technique
If you want the truth based on a specific document, paste the text into
the chat and give this instruction:
* The Prompt: "Answer the following question using only the text
provided above. If the answer is not in the text, state that you do not
know."
* Why it works: This prevents the AI from bringing in outside
"hallucinations" and forces it to act as a strict analyst of the data
you gave it.

Summary
Treat the AI like a highly intelligent, well-read, but occasionally
exhausted research assistant. It is brilliant at gathering and
formatting information, but you are the editor. You must sign off on the
final accuracy.

Now should I believe all that? (The references to Agatha Christie relate
to a previous question I had asked where it made a total hash of the response.)
--
Ric
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:36:36 +0000, BrritSki wrote:

On 15/12/2025 11:07, Jenny M Benson wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:23, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:15, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Which just goes to show what a dangerous tool AI is.

If you ask it a ? it can come back with what appears to be a well-
argued response, but is actually full of holes if you look more deeply.

If you can tell it that it is wrong it will often agree and reframe
its answer to confirm to your beliefs (aka prejudices), so it is easy
to see why the judge in the Scottish Tribunal was happy to use made-up
quotes, re-title the group "Not All Gays" from a gender-critical
stance to the apparently homophobic "Not For Gays" which would confirm
what he seems to have believed about the issues.

Similarly the West Midlands Police using their AI tools to back up a
decision they seem to have already made which they thought might give
them a quieter life.


Proceed with Caution...

Bravo, Brritters!-a A set of very informative and entertaining posts
there - with a strong warning.

I thangyew.

I should point out that I actually started out with Roger Tilbury and
IR35 which it got totally wrong until prompted twice.

One of the footnotes in the response mentioned brritski and umra without
any prompting, so I was doubly surprised about the first answer I posted here.

Fascinating series of posts, thank you, Britters.

I'm wondering - though not intensely enough to do any serious work on it - just how much of all this work you have been doing will be stored by the LLM for later? For instance, would it later repeat (maybe in a different context) things that you've already told it are erroneous? And then, now or at a later date, it's inevitably going to scrape this current whole conversation from umra: will it recall that some parts were considered accurate and others less so? And since this thread is newly published material, so to speak, will it consider all points represented in this conversation equally valid? Could the bridge-dwelling troll version of Sid ever become the dominant narrative now that it's "out there"?

Nick
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 19:05, nick wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:36:36 +0000, BrritSki wrote:

On 15/12/2025 11:07, Jenny M Benson wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:23, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:15, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:06, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Which just goes to show what a dangerous tool AI is.

If you ask it a ? it can come back with what appears to be a well-
argued response, but is actually full of holes if you look more deeply. >>>>
If you can tell it that it is wrong it will often agree and reframe
its answer to confirm to your beliefs (aka prejudices), so it is easy
to see why the judge in the Scottish Tribunal was happy to use made-up >>>> quotes, re-title the group "Not All Gays" from a gender-critical
stance to the apparently homophobic "Not For Gays" which would confirm >>>> what he seems to have believed about the issues.

Similarly the West Midlands Police using their AI tools to back up a
decision they seem to have already made which they thought might give
them a quieter life.


Proceed with Caution...

Bravo, Brritters!-a A set of very informative and entertaining posts
there - with a strong warning.

I thangyew.

I should point out that I actually started out with Roger Tilbury and
IR35 which it got totally wrong until prompted twice.

One of the footnotes in the response mentioned brritski and umra without
any prompting, so I was doubly surprised about the first answer I posted
here.

Fascinating series of posts, thank you, Britters.

I'm wondering - though not intensely enough to do any serious work on it - just how much of all this work you have been doing will be stored by the LLM for later? For instance, would it later repeat (maybe in a different context) things that you've already told it are erroneous?

Now why did I read that as erogenous?

And then, now or at a later date, it's inevitably going to scrape this current whole conversation from umra: will it recall that some parts were considered accurate and others less so? And since this thread is newly published material, so to speak, will it consider all points represented in this conversation equally valid? Could the bridge-dwelling troll version of Sid ever become the dominant narrative now that it's "out there"?

Nick

Who can predict the future? The present is pretty fuzzy. In the
interests of science I put the same request into Gemini. I won't bore
you with the details but it said that "BrritSki" might be a misspelling
of Brittany Broski (YouTuber/TikToker) that it proceeds to tell me
about. It also appears as a username on a forum dedicated to building wood-fired ovens, discussing techniques for cutting bricks to form a
dome. Neither of these have any relation to Islamic pilgrimages.
--
Ric
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 15:55, john ashby wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Hmmm, not a great start, so with not much hope I tried:

tell me about sid nuncius and uk.media.radio.archers

Which it gets absolutely spot on. Except for the bits it doesn't. At
this time of Hannukah I think it would be fitting to morph this thread
into a Recollections of Sid. But first a critique of CatIHaveFarted.

uk.media.radio.archers (often abbreviated UMRA) was a long-running
Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion of The Archers, the BBC Radio 4
serial drama.

Close, but a strange use of the past tense, given that here we are.

Maybe the AI's data was scrapped from Google Groups?
Hence, in its view, UMRA and the whole of Usenet ended when GG threw in
the towel.
--
Sam Plusnet
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 19:05, nick wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:36:36 +0000, BrritSki wrote:

Fascinating series of posts, thank you, Britters.

I'm wondering - though not intensely enough to do any serious work on it - just how much of all this work you have been doing will be stored by the LLM for later? For instance, would it later repeat (maybe in a different context) things that you've already told it are erroneous? And then, now or at a later date, it's inevitably going to scrape this current whole conversation from umra: will it recall that some parts were considered accurate and others less so? And since this thread is newly published material, so to speak, will it consider all points represented in this conversation equally valid? Could the bridge-dwelling troll version of Sid ever become the dominant narrative now that it's "out there"?

If I go back to ChatGPT it remembers my conversations and I can restart
any of them. I assume my comments update its contenet, but you would
have to do similar inquiries to check.

I'd be interested in someone asking about Sid to see what they get back
- ChatGPT is free....

I don't think comments here are scraped at all since Google Gropes
closed down.... It did state specifically it hadn't read Sid's posts.
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 19:37, Joe Kerr wrote:

On 15/12/2025 19:05, nick wrote:

Who can predict the future? The present is pretty fuzzy. In the
interests of science I put the same request into Gemini. I won't bore
you with the details but it said that "BrritSki" might be a misspelling
of Brittany Broski (YouTuber/TikToker) that it proceeds to tell me
about. It also appears as a username on a forum dedicated to building wood-fired ovens, discussing techniques for cutting bricks to form a
dome. Neither of these have any relation to Islamic pilgrimages.

Well funnily enough that last one is accurate...

I built my oven in 2010 using a design made available for free by https://www.fornobravo.com/forum/

Pictures here <https://myalbum.com/album/xghpYdGaSg9zdt/?invite=a4701ce9-2bed-4951-a815-2612e7b60633>

I used their forum to ask some question about cutting bricks to shape
because each row is tilted in at 5 degrees relative to the row it sits
on to create the dome shape. This doesn't matter much for the first few
row, but as you get higher, the difference in circumference between the
bottom of the brick and the top becomes increasingly significant.

As I was cutting whole refractory bricks in half, I was trying to find a
way to make the first cut at the "right" angle and then do just one more
to save wear on the blade and also because it's a messy job as my
cutting wheel ran thru water to cool it and sprayed it everywhere.

It's further complicated by the fact that ideally the bricks touch for
the first few millimetres, so you really need a compound cut in 2 planes
or you have to use an awful lot of refractory cement to fill the gaps.
My maths and spatial awareness were not really up to the task as you can
see in the roof.

Can you spot the point where I was falling ill and feeling faint (I was
in bed for a week and lost several kilos) and in hurrying to finish the
last row put the carefully cut bricks upside down ? Fortunately you
don't see that unless you stick your head in the oven which is not
advised, esp. if the fire is lit, but at least the ones you can see are
fairly neat.

I was very pleased with the outside design which depicts Ceriana at
night and by day on each side, with the river and the 5 hills and hand
with finger pointing at a star which is the town's emblem. I was
planning to get a load of samples from tile shops, but then I drove past
a bin where someone had left several plastic trays full of tiles that
were exactly the colours I wanted.

Fitting them was fun (FSVO of fun) because the only way to grout it was
to use your fingers and quite a few of the broken tile edges were razor
sharp, but you only noticed when you saw the grout was pink. I bet Gaudi didn't have that problem.

The oven worked brilliantly, drew well and cooked pizzas in seconds once
it was up to temperature. You knew when that happened as the soot inside
the oven burnt off, which took a couple of hours of feeding the fire.

It needed more insulation underneath as the expanded clay wasn't enough,
but it held enough heat overnight that you could slow cook something
next morning. We had very memorable parties round it where everyone made
their own with some interesting results, esp. later on where we'd drunk
too much and forgot to rotate or even take the pizza out.

Sadly the new Austrian owners had never used it when we saw them a
couple of years ago as they were too worried about the fire risk :(

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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 21:01, Sam Plusnet wrote:

On 15/12/2025 15:55, john ashby wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:05, BrritSki wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Hmmm, not a great start, so with not much hope I tried:

tell me about sid nuncius and uk.media.radio.archers

Which it gets absolutely spot on. Except for the bits it doesn't. At
this time of Hannukah I think it would be fitting to morph this thread
into a Recollections of Sid. But first a critique of CatIHaveFarted.

uk.media.radio.archers (often abbreviated UMRA) was a long-running
Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion of The Archers, the BBC Radio
4 serial drama.

Close, but a strange use of the past tense, given that here we are.

Maybe the AI's data was scrapped from Google Groups?
Hence, in its view, UMRA and the whole of Usenet ended when GG threw in
the towel.

Yes, it's obviously done that to some degree, but it one of the
responses it explicitly remarked:

What I do not have

It is important to say what is missing:

I do not have verbatim posts by Siderius Nuncius
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 15/12/2025 18:45, Joe Kerr wrote:

On 14/12/2025 17:04, BrritSki wrote:

Just for a laugh I played with ChatGPT today, starting with something
I'm quite an expert on:

<Snip of AI generated nonsense.>

I read somewhere that AI is designed to give an answer and make you
happy rather than to tell the truth. To get good results you need to
give it some context and an expectation of what you want and tell it to
be honest if it doesn't know.

Then a had an idea: I asked Google Gemini. It said:

Getting the most helpful and truthful answers from an AI isn't just
about asking a question; it's about how you frame it. AI models are
pattern matchersrCothey predict the next most likely word based on your input. To get the best results, you need to guide that prediction process.

Excellent summary snipped.

I saw something similar a few months ago:

<https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/15/the-dumbest-genius-librarian/>
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