Econ Job Market Rumors—the internet’s deranged, occasionally brilliant, and for years indispensable backchannel for the economics profession—has been down for several weeks.
Maybe the solution is to do substantially all of the censoring on the front end (i.e., filter for nonhuman traits at account creation/modification rather than on a post-by-post basis)? My fun way to do this would be to require the registrant to post something racist, but CAPTCHAs and the like would also probably work.
requiring users to register for an account would have been the only way to mitigate spam. Then the spammers would at least have to spend time registering email addresses to keep spamming
Hate to hear that. May have only known about them through you because I don't travel in those circles, but when some site dies, I know the sense of loss.
Quite coincidentally, only a few days ago I posted a note talking about the monster we have created (AI) and the havoc it can create e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. The world is going to see shattering changes.
Good write-up. I was never actually part of either EJMR or PSR.
Around 2022, I started receiving a growing number of Google Alerts from both domains mentioning my full name. I eventually discovered that SEO spammer Jesse Nickles had begun using these sites to repeatedly harass and defame me.
The concept behind these communities is actually quite good when they are used for their intended purpose. Unfortunately, once moderation declined and the sites became overrun with spam, SEO manipulation, and personal attacks, much of that value was lost.
Yeah, it looks like he lashed out at you too. The guy has dedicated a significant part of the last few years to harassing and defaming me.
At first, I actually thought he might have a legitimate point. I assumed he was doing real OSINT work or was a meaningful contributor to open-source projects, so years ago I sent him a LinkedIn message trying to clear up what I thought was a misunderstanding. Instead, he retaliated by repeatedly spamming and attacking the company my wife works for, and that has continued for years.
At this point, I'm actually glad he chose to focus so much of his attention on me rather than people who could have been seriously harmed by it. He's spent years going in circles, spamming the same material over and over, getting essentially nowhere, and exposing more of his own behavior in the process. There's something almost comical about it.
More importantly, I'm glad he isn't spending that same energy targeting people in traditional employment, trying to get them fired, damage their careers, or make them unemployable. Better me than them.
It's at least a little ironic that you have screenshotted a highly upvoted post in defense of EJMR right after saying that reddit is a hopeless echo chamber set against what EJMR stands for.
Less work than you might think. The bigger issue would be liability. One reason those two sites lasted as long as they did was that nobody really knew who was responsible, where to send legal notices, or who could ultimately be held liable.
what is needed is an organization, non profit, maybe cooperative, which consults the field, meets with academics and hears their needs. then spends time building a platform that is conducive to those needs.
Maybe the solution is to do substantially all of the censoring on the front end (i.e., filter for nonhuman traits at account creation/modification rather than on a post-by-post basis)? My fun way to do this would be to require the registrant to post something racist, but CAPTCHAs and the like would also probably work.
requiring users to register for an account would have been the only way to mitigate spam. Then the spammers would at least have to spend time registering email addresses to keep spamming
Oh I didn't realize that registration wasn't even required. That checks.
Hate to hear that. May have only known about them through you because I don't travel in those circles, but when some site dies, I know the sense of loss.
Quite coincidentally, only a few days ago I posted a note talking about the monster we have created (AI) and the havoc it can create e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. The world is going to see shattering changes.
Good write-up. I was never actually part of either EJMR or PSR.
Around 2022, I started receiving a growing number of Google Alerts from both domains mentioning my full name. I eventually discovered that SEO spammer Jesse Nickles had begun using these sites to repeatedly harass and defame me.
The concept behind these communities is actually quite good when they are used for their intended purpose. Unfortunately, once moderation declined and the sites became overrun with spam, SEO manipulation, and personal attacks, much of that value was lost.
Nickels is a total psycho
Yeah, it looks like he lashed out at you too. The guy has dedicated a significant part of the last few years to harassing and defaming me.
At first, I actually thought he might have a legitimate point. I assumed he was doing real OSINT work or was a meaningful contributor to open-source projects, so years ago I sent him a LinkedIn message trying to clear up what I thought was a misunderstanding. Instead, he retaliated by repeatedly spamming and attacking the company my wife works for, and that has continued for years.
At this point, I'm actually glad he chose to focus so much of his attention on me rather than people who could have been seriously harmed by it. He's spent years going in circles, spamming the same material over and over, getting essentially nowhere, and exposing more of his own behavior in the process. There's something almost comical about it.
More importantly, I'm glad he isn't spending that same energy targeting people in traditional employment, trying to get them fired, damage their careers, or make them unemployable. Better me than them.
I've browsed the site on August 7th
It's at least a little ironic that you have screenshotted a highly upvoted post in defense of EJMR right after saying that reddit is a hopeless echo chamber set against what EJMR stands for.
Strange. I've browsed it a free days ago. But now it's offline indeed...m
Makes me wonder whether 4chan is suffering from the AI spam problem
somebody could literally vibecode an alternative within a day. the only issue is that they would have to maintain it
Would Chris do this?
ask him lol
seems like a lot of work
Less work than you might think. The bigger issue would be liability. One reason those two sites lasted as long as they did was that nobody really knew who was responsible, where to send legal notices, or who could ultimately be held liable.
check your DMs
what is needed is an organization, non profit, maybe cooperative, which consults the field, meets with academics and hears their needs. then spends time building a platform that is conducive to those needs.