Metafilter fpp converted to yt January 1, 2015 11:54 AM   Subscribe

After reading the post on the "wreck of the Kulluk" I searched youtube to see if there are any more videos. First hit is a bizarre text scroll of the ffp and first few comments. Is this some sort of auto-generated yt to attract views?
posted by 445supermag to MetaFilter-Related at 11:54 AM (25 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

bizarre. Since it only has 2 views, I imagine it's some sort of bot-video-spam proof of concept?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:55 AM on January 1, 2015


Looks like the yt account is all mf text conversions.
posted by 445supermag at 12:01 PM on January 1, 2015


What a weird thing. Hard to read, not sure what the benefits of text tho video would be... Maybe someone trying to awkwardly put together a presentation?
posted by edgeways at 12:01 PM on January 1, 2015


I noticed this kind of thing before but didn't think enough of it to post a MeTa. The one I saw appears to be from a different account, and with some non-MeFi stuff included, but the same basic idea.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:10 PM on January 1, 2015


Maybe it's someone testing some sort of text/video processing system using MeFi as the corpus of text?
posted by double block and bleed at 12:12 PM on January 1, 2015


It's not all MeFi. It's pulling from all over.
posted by SLC Mom at 12:21 PM on January 1, 2015


I'm thinking maybe it's testing a bot's ability to transcribe text to video, maybe with the intent of training another bot to reliably read that text from the video, although I would think that technology already exists. Maybe someone is trying to perfect it. If you're trying to train it in a way that's language-aware (able to read English), you'd need a good source of English text. Metafilter among others would be a good choice since it has a vocabulary ranging from conversational to erudite and mostly lacks l33t speak.

Of course that's a wild guess. It's more likely something to do with spambots. I'm pretty stuck with the bot idea since this account appears to be posting every 1-10 minutes without fail. Real people have to eat and take bathroom breaks.
posted by double block and bleed at 12:57 PM on January 1, 2015


Proof of the cabal. Just not sure of the details yet.
posted by 724A at 1:08 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


This user has uploaded over two hundred videos, with the oldest being only 16 hours old. Either it's a test of some kind of program, or it's a spambot of some sort.
posted by Kattullus at 1:19 PM on January 1, 2015


...spambot of some sort that's been deleted before and a new YouTube account has just been made.
posted by Kattullus at 1:38 PM on January 1, 2015


When in doubt, spambot is probably your best bet.
posted by maxsparber at 3:24 PM on January 1, 2015


This user has uploaded over two hundred videos, with the oldest being only 16 hours old. Either it's a test of some kind of program, or it's a spambot of some sort.

"On January 1, 2015, YouTube became sentient. And proved to have curiously good taste in reading material."
posted by valkane at 4:28 PM on January 1, 2015 [18 favorites]


Removed now, violation of YT policy against spam.

4.5 hours though since this MeTa was posted - pb could teach them a trick or two.
posted by arcticseal at 4:53 PM on January 1, 2015




No need to upload it to youtube if this is just test data.
posted by Mitheral at 5:08 PM on January 1, 2015


This user has uploaded over two hundred videos, with the oldest being only 16 hours old

Removed now, violation of YT policy against spam.


Did it look like this?

I spotted this one back in October. I was going to post here about it, but got busy with other things and it fell off my radar. Sorry I didn't mention it sooner.

It's inaccurately transcribed. It looks like it was translated into another language and then back into English via Google Translate.

At the end it says
"This opening upheld by a Full-Text RSS use - if this is your calm and you're reading it on someone else's site, greatfully review a FAQ during fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers"
This Youtube user posted dozens of similar videos based on text from other sites.
 
posted by Herodios at 5:32 PM on January 1, 2015


robotistic dictung möbius slam!
posted by clavdivs at 8:20 PM on January 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


robotistic dictung möbius slam!

Definitive proof that clavdivs is actually Mark E. Smith.
posted by mykescipark at 8:37 PM on January 1, 2015 [5 favorites]


Did it look like this?
posted by Herodios


Yes, including the open squares (I assume for a non-transcribable character) and white/light text on colored backgrounds.
posted by 445supermag at 9:22 PM on January 1, 2015


No need to upload it to youtube if this is just test data.

No, but depending on the nature of the project, it's something one might do. (However, in that case, I'd assume you'd make it clear what the things were.)
posted by hoyland at 6:03 AM on January 2, 2015


You do need to upload it if you are testing your youtube-uploading tool or your YT spam-deletion policy reverse enegineering tool.
posted by Dr Dracator at 8:50 AM on January 2, 2015


Oh yeah, I found one of these videos for this post. My user name was turned into "lilliputian" so I figured it was some kind of translation bot.
posted by homunculus at 1:13 PM on January 2, 2015


We sure this isn't a cortex project?
posted by cjorgensen at 3:42 PM on January 2, 2015


There are no fiber optics.
posted by clavdivs at 4:15 PM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love "content" becoming "calm" there.
posted by lokta at 3:35 AM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


We sure this isn't a cortex project?

There would be more Christmas carols or Star Trek screenshots in that case.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:14 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


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