Featured Event Coverage That State Of Atomic... AGAIN.

Welp, I just joined. I typically browse without logging in, but I run an ad-blocker, which A: makes the internet halfway usable and B:makes me part of the problem. This means for years I've been nothing but a mooch.
I was worried that the rush to stuff AI into everything, including search results, could harm the HAMB. Now I see my fears have come true. I know for a fact that artwork I've done in the past has been hoovered up and trained into AI models. I've experimented with AI image models (not gonna lie, the arcane wizardry of AI is astounding, like watching a heap of clay form itself into a shuddering golem before my eyes) and have seen the evidence of that ongoing theft for myself. The scale of the theft is unreal; the ***ulative creative and intellectual output of humanity mulched and sold back to us as a bucket of chum.

I don't even own a hot rod, but for 18+ years the HAMB has been a daily balm for my obsessively hyper-focused mind and a rich resource for supporting my other hobbies, like drawing and researching scale hot rod model builds. Most of my online searches are prefaced with the word "HAMB". I honestly don't want to imagine a world without this place, I mean...holy moly.

I would truly like the HAMB to survive as long as people keep building hot rods and customs.
The insane hurricane of maniacal greed that is mainstream AI adoption is not going to devour the tangible and resilient steel of your cars...but it will eat every source of information and every relationship known to man. Marketplaces. Online communities. Livelihoods, friendships. Artists and craftspeople, lost in the slop. The trick will be to make the communities and relationships last as long as the actual cars will.

I appreciate the standards the HAMB sets and I hate ads, so if I have to pay to lurk here, I will. I ain't rich, but the HAMB makes me feel embiggened and electrified on the regular. I owe this place at least that much.

 

Well, to me it's the law MAKERS allegedly representing us who are far more to blame, because it's clear AI steals information like no search machine ever did, and hence laws should have been enacted to force those who benefit from AI to return the profits they would have never been allowed to make if it were simple intellectual property rights breach.

 

Almost 82, will die with a flip phone, don't know a dam thing about AI and everyday appreciate the HAMB. & Ford Barn. Keep fighting you'll win in the end.

 

Got me - I've never been a paid member of any forum - always figured I was part of the product that created revenue via my posts - well, AI has flipped the script - In the past, Ryan has called me out, complimented me and unknowingly influenced me from afar. Time for us to step up to this new reality - were not the product any more - the hamb is - and we need to support this place. Times, they are a changin - and we need to as well

 

@Ryan, how can we help? Seriously.

When I moved across the country 20 years ago, I didn't have anyone to BS in the shop with, do project stuff, or generally have a group of folks with shared interests.

The HAMB has always been a place for comradery and I am grateful for it.

My opinion is that it's vital we MUST participate in socializing, in supporting communities, in building/maintaining friendships and obviously retaining the information base.

So, how can I help?

 

Patience it is

 

Just a little levity Boss. HRP

Patience my ***, I'm gonna kill something!

 

Well said, @Spex84. Well said, and many others, too. Time for me to re-up, too.

 

This may be off base (and OT to boot), but it strikes me that if the HAMB is deemed ‘morally whatever’ by whichever nameless, faceless body, it might have been lowered to a cl*** of less desirable sites by the agencies that manage online ad buys for advertisers (compounding the losses from AI). It may be that their finding comes from the ‘A’ in HAMB. The systems that try to keep the web safe for children (and others) don’t have much ability to handle context or even words with multiple meanings. In my last corporate job, I had to manage a similar system for e-mail. Most of my time spent on that system was trying to manage it for valid content caught by mistake. Things like factory parts inventories, timber cruise reports, etc. would be caught by filters that were set up to keep stuff out that the company deemed undesirable. Most of these systems are automated and don’t have the handholding I had to do.
Years ago, I was in the Scranton airport. Their Wi-Fi blocked the main page of the HAMB, but I could go to individual pages. The only difference I could find is that the words in HAMB were spelled out on the main page, but abbreviated on the others. This isn’t intended to debate such ‘nannying’. Like it or not, they’re a reality and we need to deal with them. If this is part of the issue, the simplest solution is to abbreviate the’A’ in HAMB. Yes, it is ridiculous that Ryan would have to do this, and I might be way off base, but if it restores even part of the lost revenue, it is probably worth considering.

 

To quote the Moody Blues from 1969...

...And now to suit, our GRRREAT computer, you're magnetic ink!

This has been coming for a long time...

 

^^^

Marcus...

 

Thanks once again for the insight Ryan.

Old Hot Rods Rule

 

backside
****ocks
tail
seat
rump
rear
bum
cheeks
bottom
fanny
posterior
behind
tush
buns
booty
haunches
caboose
heinie
derriere
hams
keister
breech
duff
tail end
rear end
beam
fundament
nates
can
stern
hunkers
moon

It comes down to using a tool for it's intended use. If the tool does not do it's intended job, it's faulty. Hiding under the cover of anonymity of a faceless corporate structure to avoid fallout for poor (automated) decision making means blame cannot be placed and action taken.
I'm going to sign out and view this list. Wonder how many show and how many are hidden? EDIT: only one. ****ocks

 

I just had a pop-up for pizza. Now I'm hungry.

 

Yet my hunger for pizza remains.

 

Hot Rods Rule.

 

Taildraggers rule more

 

I don’t mind stable ads in between paragraphs in the text so much, it’s pop-ups that kick the text up or down or cover the text that really ****. I suppose it’s partially a function of my devices (in)ability to load the ad quickly or not, too. But it’s frustrating when the sentence that you’re reading jumps up or down to accommodate the ad and you have to go looking for the sentence that you were just reading. Compe***ion Plus and NHRA are really bad in that respect, I seldom go there to read articles anymore.
In the big picture, I guess virtually everything on the internet is or will be ad driven. That’s ok as long as ads can be managed so that the main content is readable.

 

@Ryan, that list came from the Merriam Webster thesaurus.
If an entire site is blocked by robo-nannies for a few words, well we were warned.


I am sorry you are in this position.

 

Gone here....I got no problem with ads if needed, but that type was annoying as hell where it stayed in the same place as I scrolled down. I'm aware it wasn't intended, was temporary, and wasn't your fault, but if for some reason we have to have them, that one gets the bottom of the bucket on my list.....and I still logged in multiple times this morning. Do what you gotta do. I'll keep coming back no matter what.

 

After reading through 4 pages of posts, I've made some observations that may or may not help. I clicked on the posters who commented that were not Alliance members, and some have been members for 10-20 years. Doubling the Alliance fee for posters that do contribute hardly seems fair.
The HAMB store may or may not turn a profit but whenever I check for what's available, they are out of stock. I would love to buy a couple of HAMB shift knobs as well as some key chain fobs, but in the ten plus years I've been a member, I've never seen them available.
I will admit that I very seldom check the store because of the lack of availability. I'm sure that it takes a lot of time and effort to produce these items and I understand if they don't really turn much of a profit to help the site.

 

This is the bit I dont understand, non alliance members offering to help yet dont join the alliance. Seems to me thats the simplest way to help.

 

After becoming an Alliance member and receiving my tag I immediately installed it onto my 29 Roadster. It will remain with the car no matter what.
I will be renewing my membership in about a month from now, after thinking about helping out by joining the Alliance, it actually makes more work because now you have to make up another tag and there is a cost to that as well.
Maybe you can add an option to not receive a tag when renewing your Alliance membership.

 

Ryan
Thks for keeping the best Hotrod Forum alive and well.
I appreciate everything you do for our community.

 

I'll be honest, this strikes fear in my heart. My whole life is cars and has been my entire life. When I was in HS, I was a loner. Not a lot of car guys in my high school. I thought I was a weird kid, then I found the HAMB and all the weird kids were here. I talk to my buddies from the hamb weekly. If it wasn't for the hamb, I would still be a loner. Anything I can do to help, I will.