alt Hacker NewsThis looks AI Slop. At first the style of the site and the cover of the book were a bit suspicious, but then digging a bit further:
- Domain was registered in February this year: https://www.whois.com/whois/vivianvoss.net
- Web archive has only a couple snapshots before this year, and it seemed to belong to an "Elite Escort": https://web.archive.org/web/20160515000000*/https://vivianvo...
- All his other domains are recently registered too, the oldest one `byvoss.tech` is from May 2025.
- GitHub has way too little projects and contributions for someone with such experience. The first project dates on the same day as the domain registration: https://github.com/VivianVossNet?tab=repositories
- As other people mentioned, too many blog posts lately (almost one a day), and a very weird writing style. Which doesn't seem at all that's because it's English as a second language. It's just plainly vague and disconnected sentences.
Replies
Have you considered that "very weird writing style" might be due to the fact that a German person is writing in English?
One post a day over the last short period of time does not seem unusual for someone who is suddenly interested in a least a part-time career as an author.
Your random online persona assassination aside, I am curious about the book. The Devil Book kept me occupied for years when I was in university; I'd like to see what I've missed since then.
I'm not sure I'd put it at full slop, but the book is clearly AI assisted. You can view samples on retailer websites, and it features 'interjections' from an AI avatar. Further, in the opening pages, the author feels it pertinent to point out that every fact in the book is verified. Not my cup of tea.
I'll look into this a bit. But...
"Github has way too little projects"... I had PRs against stinkpad wireless drivers in 1999/2000 time frame - FreeBSD specific. Do I expect those to be around? No.
Do I think 20+ years of working for commercial companies means I have a splendid GH resume - absolutely not.
Using your logic for HN, 140 karma, ignore.
VV has been in the community awhile (I'm not active, but watch). AI slop isn't a thing, trolling for top of HN is.
Thanks for pointing out. So close to buying it. Would appreciate more disclosure regarding the use of hostile technology.
Counterpoint: most AI slop authors have multiple books/posts on random subjects. This is their only book on Amazon and their posts sound like draft chapters. Could this just be new author with an unconventional writing style and a disciplined daily schedule?
LinkedIn profile picture is oddly smooth and has the OpenAI signature yellow hue, although it could just be an odd touch-up.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vvoss/