I want to get something out of the way first. You might read this and think, well, he's clearly been kicked out of a group and he's having a moan about it. You are sort of right, it was the trigger for this post, but I've seen this happen more than once, in more than one place, and I've got my own bit of platform to shout about it on. So here we are. All three of you reading this, thank you for your time.
I'm seeing more and more smaller facebook group resorting to publishing crowd pleasing AI generated rubbish. It's generally not the big well established aviation Facebook groups that do this. The ones with thousands or 10s of thousands of members tend to have clear rules, posted somewhere obvious, which are easy to follow and applied consistently. You know where you stand. It's the smaller ones, the 200 to 400 member groups, that seem to think they can jump straight to being a big, thriving community without doing any of the work that actually gets you there.
Publish real flights, with genuine pilots, and your posts get removed for reasons that never quite add up. Removed for reposting - when I posted it twice, once on my Facebook page, and once in the group in question. 15 seconds later it's 'Removed by Admin'. Then I get hit with a strike. At the same time the group happily fills up with AI-generated aviation content that never came within a hundred miles of an aircraft. Ask why, and the answer's usually something about "the algorithm."
The FB/YT or any other social media algorithm isn't stupid. It looks at interactions, not just posts. It can tell the difference between something people genuinely engage with and a bit of artificial clickbait a handful of accounts are farming for views. Chasing the algorithm by feeding it exactly what it's designed to spot doesn't work for long. I've been in the media sphere for long enough to see it come and go. It's actually quite easy - look at what you like to watch and you have a good idea as to what 'good' conent is. YouTube is an expert at serving YOU what YOU want, that is it's job, and if I can come up with something you want to watch, then I will feature in your feeds. Try to game the system and I you will loose very quickly.
Its not a Game
I'm never going to play that game. What you get from WhiskeyAlphaPilot is me, warts and all. You might get the odd clickbately title, or 'interesting' thumbnail, but thats about it, as a creator I still have to play some of the game just to be seen. But my bad landings stay in. Real mistakes stay in. If something didn't go to plan, you'll know about it, because that's the entire point. We never stop learning, and the day we do is the day we should stop flying.
I use AI. Burn me.
Yes, I use a bit of AI-generated art occasionally, a cartoon here and there to illustrate a point. It's a bit of fun, and I've never pretended it's anything else. I can't afford to commission an illustrator every time I want a laugh at my own expense, and don't have the time, so this is the alternative. But there is a real difference between that and manufacturing entire fake posts to farm engagement. One's a joke in the margins of something honest. The other is lying to the people who followed you because they trusted what you were shown was real.
I'd rather have a smaller, honest following than a big one built on content that never happened. If that costs me reach in a group more interested in its own numbers than its members, that's a trade I'll take every time.
If you want to see what I'm actually up to, you know where to find me. WhiskeyAlphaPilot on socials, the YouTube channel, or here whiskeyalphapilot.com.
