alt Hacker News> In my mind this destroys the core value proposition of the site: reputation.
The question was: Where is anything on PhysicsForum presented as human activity? Because I don't see it. It is modelled like most other online message forums, including HN, which explicitly remove any suggestion that there could be humans involved behind the scenes. Which is the whole point! Online forums are for when you want something other than the human experience. When one wants the human experience they go where humans are found.
> If this is a clever pivot than I could use some help understanding the intended direction.
Allegedly the site was effectively dead and this was the operator's attempt to resurrect it. Was it clever? Probably not, but if the operator was clever it wouldn't have reached the point of near death in the first place. What are we expecting here? A miracle worker to come along and give the operator supernatural powers to abate his natural limitations? Not everyone is going to be as smart or capable as you are.
> The question was: Where is anything on PhysicsForum presented as human activity?
Right, that's the question I struggle to interpret as good faith, but I'll try to answer! For me, the whole concept of online forums is interacting with semi-anonymous humans (and I believe that's why many (most?) ban bots), but also the slogan is "science by humans" and that seems to be their general brand direction:
https://www.physicsforums.com/
But I worry the focus is on the word "human" too much. My complaint is attribution, which applies to any account on the site, human or otherwise.
Since you continue to sidestep the implications of my rhetorical question, I'd ask it non-rhetorically:
Why would anybody make an account on an "expert discussion" site to be misrepresented? Why would anybody, be it you or me or whoever you like, want that?