The most talented person in the world

Scope of the problem: duplicated and spammy content

• Many sites (especially medical and “expert” blogs) share nearly identical wording, sometimes via licensed content APIs, sometimes via apparent plagiarism or content mills.
• There are anecdotes of large organizations copying from smaller professional sources without attribution.
• Users report constant outreach from “guest post” hustlers, suggesting a huge SEO content industry.

Search, SEO, and the ad-funded web

• Multiple comments argue that ad-driven incentives and affiliate programs have turned the web into “SEO sludge.”
• One detailed “enshittification” sequence describes the evolution from genuine hobby content to ad farms, then outsourced writers, then LLM-written pages, and finally LLM-based search that never shows the underlying web.
• Some believe big search engines benefit from low-quality results because they keep people clicking back (more ads); others say long‑term reputation should push them toward better results, but short‑term shareholder pressure undermines that.

Alternatives and coping strategies

• Several people pay for alternative search (e.g., niche engines, custom filters, “small web” modes) and say results are much cleaner.
• Common tactics: heavy site blacklisting, tools like uBlacklist, up‑ranking trusted domains, and relying on Reddit/YouTube/Wikipedia and curated communities instead of raw web search.
• Some think self‑hosted or niche tools are “cute but ineffective”; others argue they’re crucial to resisting corporate control.

LLMs: cause, cure, or both?

• Many expect LLMs to massively accelerate spam generation.
• Others argue they could also power spam filters and page graders (commercial bias, bloat, insincerity).
• There’s strong skepticism: current LLMs hallucinate, are bad at recognizing their own kind, and experiments suggest simple heuristics and older ML sometimes outperform them for spam detection.

Identity, trust, and the future of the web

• One faction sees proof‑of‑person and proof‑of‑residence as the only viable long‑term defense against bots, scams, and spam; some even welcome the idea.
• Others strongly reject this as incompatible with free expression and anonymity, warning about doxxing, surveillance, and overreach.
• Proposed middle grounds: reputation networks, shared blocklists, community moderation, and “closed but curated” forums.
• A few commenters feel the panic is overstated: by sticking to known, well‑run sites, they rarely encounter the worst spam and see no need for drastic identity systems.