this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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Yup, I'm posting another this week. Sorry.

This week I'm hoping we can wrangle a solution around AI and our selfhosted community. There are plenty of strong opinions (both pro and con), but one thing is for certain - there needs to be better disclosure in promo posts. Two options (that aren't mutually exclusive):

  • Any posts of an AI focused, AI Developed, etc software gets an [AI] tag. No, a [Not-AI] tag is not needed to accomplish this, thats kind of a "non-golfer" sort of tag.
  • Comment requiring an AI disclosure response to every promo post, if its not detailed in the post itself. Specifics (generating docs for commands, translation, whole-boat vibe-coded this app, etc) would be requested.

I will say that having disclosure and/or tagging would mean that comments that just say "slop" or "fuck ai" or whatever would be off topic at that point, that information is already provided, so its just noise (and sometimes pretty uncivil - I've been light on that for now due to the need for a rule on this).

The tag [AI] would make it easy to filter out (or search for, if that's your thing), but there is a wildly different degree of AI use out there, and from the posts with a positive score, its usually due to responsible AI use (translations, a snippet they had to do something obscure with, available to use with AI but doesn't require it, whatever), which is why I think the disclosure has a place as a benefit to everyone.

Please provide any input or alternative options on this, and I can then put it to a vote like the last one. Comments seem to be the best approach without involving something off-site, but if you have a better idea/option, please share.

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

+1

Home-AI oriented channels like Reddit's localllama are filled with self promotion garbage, and it will trickle here over time. I'm not even against self promo or heavy coding assistance, but 4 out of five times the linked repo is nonsense, or straight-up fraudulent. And being obviously vibe-coded is a common tell.

Good to get ahead of this.

Also, +1 on supressing driveby insults. If the post is tagged up front, there's no need. That bieng said, it should be okay for users to call out an obviously a grift, or a "nonsense repo" that's actually pure slop.

[–] curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

That being said, it should be okay for users to call out an obvious grift, or a “nonsense repo” that’s actually pure slop.

Especially if the disclosure is blatantly a lie, absolutely. I'd also say if you see any indicators that they are lying in the disclosure, its still worthy of reporting - but I would say report and separately message the "why", to limit visibility of seeing those indicators.

[–] arran4@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago

This sounds like a review / gating problem

[–] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I want a community where people can use AI to help build a tool and be able to post about it here. But unfortunately, I’m just not seeing that. The AI-generated apps seem to be coupled to a drive-by, AI generated post (and comment replies) all full of em dashes and the standard Claude slop language.

So, yes, mandate an AI tag. Hold posters to it and remove violators, because it seems to always be the same class of “contributors” that are cosplaying as software developers.

Not sure if your rule changes are touching this, but the worst offenders I don’t want to see here are:

  • posting and commenting text written entirely by AI
  • not open sourcing or giving any visibility into their code
  • adopting a paid model

The people doing that remind me of the people who would approach me 20 years ago saying “hey I have an idea for an app I want you to build and I’ll give you 5% of my company. It’s like Facebook for dogs, but I need you to sign an NDA before I say any more”.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The first bullet is, the other two are covered in the current rule 7 that just went live this week.

While part of promo, this is just about its own item here. In part because it could be something like "I wrote some of this script, got some ai help to talk to this closed device, here's what I'm using" which doesn't really fit promo, but still garners a lot of negative attention and comments.

I'm a bit hopeful this one would be of slightly broader benefit than just the straight up promo posts (which has a good amount of requirements now to filter out the garbage, though it does put some delays on f/loss projects that are well intentioned).

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[–] terabyterex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i agree with you. i have been working orofessionally as a software developer for over 27 years. i'll use ai to help research something but i cant atand low effort full ai projects being posted.

i always saw non devs using ai to fully generate something for them personally to fix a very custom need but why do these people post projects thry honestly had no hand in.

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[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I don't have a problem with AI. I have a problem with vibe-coded apps released as a one-shot and then never maintained or supported. That's slop.

I also have a problem with the trace apps (lifttrace, nutritrace, etc.) because while they're entirely vibe-coded, they are actively developed, but they're posted here by a brand promotion account that doesn't otherwise contribute to the community. If there's any "x% self-ptomotion" threshold, they fail it, because it's 100% self-promotion.

I know I also reported another post as slop recently but I don't remember what it was.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah. Abandonware isn’t cool generally

[–] dryfter@ani.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Honest question intended to spark discussion.

Does this mean that all “single developer” projects can be considered abandonware (that aren’t open source/forkable)?

Or really “all” non open source software really. Companies “can” die.

[–] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

IMO, abandonware means software that is a dead-end upon its very release, with no hopes or plans for anyone to every build upon it. Abandonware is generally not extensible, follows no good design philosophy that would let someone else build it up, and embodies essentially nothing.

Even a 100-line throwaway Python script has more utility to someone when it is published on PasteBin or whatever. But something like a binary executable released with no source code, with no support, and with no intent by the developer to ever make anything more of it, that's abandonware.

[–] dryfter@ani.social 4 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the definition!

I’m tracking what you’re saying.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago

If there's any "x% self-ptomotion" threshold, they fail it, because it's 100% self-promotion.

Not with f/loss, just account age and they are above the threshold there.

[–] Chaphasilor@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago

Not a fan of a tag, since it's not transparent enough. Sounds like every minor use of AI would warrant a tag, which seems past the point.

The disclosure comment I feel works well. People that care about if/how AI was used can check it to get a proper impression of the scale of and workflow for AI usage, and those who don't care can ignore it.

[–] EarMaster@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I would still prefer an additional [Non-AI] tag. Even if people are arguing against it - it is not same omitting an [AI] tag and consciously saying "I never used and never will use AI". And the latter is the thing most users who want the AI-tag are looking for.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

Same. It removes the ability to have plausible deniability of "oh I just forgot to tag it"—no, if you tagged it "non-AI" and it was actually vibe-coded, you clearly deliberately and consciously lied.

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I'm going to actually +1 this as well.

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[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 9 points 1 month ago

I really is like having the disclosure comment pinned for a more nuanced explanation of what, if any, AI went into a project or post. I think just a tag can't capture the levels of AI use.

I'm personally a never-genAI, but, unless we go No AI as a community, I don't think it makes sense to group all projects that touch AI for documentation with all that use it for testing with all that completely let the AI generate all their code, etc. And I don't think setting a threshold for which get tagged makes sense either. Basically, a tag is misleading no matter how it's implemented.

[–] SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You know, after last week, I've landed on the position that this is an intractable debate. Both sides have valid points and neither side is willing to concede or meet in the middle. That's just people.

Ironically, I think both sides want he same thing - no bots, no slop.

To that end, for the proper functioning of this group, I think that the wisdom of having an AI tag (even though I personally think it's a blunt tool) is probably the only productive way forward. The pro and anti sides will not see eye to eye...but at least with [AI] tag, maybe the worst excesses of both may be mitigated.

Cynically, if we look at Reddit as a "what not to do" example...the only thing that stops Lemmy from becoming Reddit 2.0 is friction. The tag provides friction.

Anything that stops the real slop invasion (ala r/localllm et al) is a big plus. I'd like to think that almost all of the users here are savvy enough to tell slop from real, but at the end of the day, if every other post becomes slop, it gets exhausting to deal with.

Bot posts on Lemmy have been on the rise, as (presumably) people migrate from Reddit and bots follow.

If the new community rules + AI tags can mitigate both slop and the FuckAI crowd, I'm for trying it.

EDIT: I think the [AIT] proposed else where is better than straight [AI] tag.

[–] Chaser@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago

Sounds like a good solution for me. I think most users dislike completely vibe coded apps, not ai supported apps. So maybe we should be more specific here.

For example: [Vibe-Coded]

This would also support new users finding the right tag.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I like the AI tag idea. I'm someone who has what I'd call a noderate approach to AI, not an AI bro but any means but I'm also okay with some things built with AI if they're done with care. If others don't want to see it, fine, then that's what a tag could be useful with. However the fuck AI/slop comments on something that admits to being AI is annoying to me. (We know it's AI, they literally said it is).

If it becomes too much content, then yes would be okay with bi-forcating the community, buy only after it becomes a problem.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (14 children)

I'm not consistent about it yet, but because of exactly this, I'm trying to differentiate the two when I talk.

Responsible automation? I use ML or machine learning.

The grift consuming the world? A Tech Bro? "AI"

I think one of the saddest things is the conflation between the two, like you can't even talk about one without invoking the other. Or it opening up that whole ethical debate, when you're just talking about, like, a 100M transcription model trained by one research in some university on a potato.

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[–] TheMightyCat@ani.social 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

My 2 cents are that the issue is promotion not AI, if people started promoting stuff made without AI that would still be spam.

From the rules:

F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & can be self-hosted in full without payment, your post is exempt from the 10% requirement. The exception does not exempt you from the account age requirement.

I would propose making this the requirement and not an exception, forbid all promotion of closed source, and allow the 10% requirement for open source projects.

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Personally. I want an AI tag so I know to look more carefully.

I don't mind AI speeding up a skilled engineer.

But I do mind a crypto bro, turned AI bro, with little experience, too eagerly advertising their vibe coded app.

Its too exhausting to audit everything I may be interested in and the AI tag would help me to budget and optimize my time.

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think this should be a thing. At the same time, I would also want something similar for funding or platforming fascists, but that is unlikely to end up being done. I think a simple tag, the [AI] one would work, is the best current solution. I think extra detail in the post is a good thing to do, for example AI assisted documentation, AI assisted bug finding, AI assisted vibe coding. They are all different and have different effects on the product and community. If someone uses AI to find bugs in their own code I am all for it, that is a great use if it. If they use AI to write their login system I am not keen at all given the likelihood of intense security issues and the low likelihood that they will ever fix it.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago

I would also want something similar for funding or platforming fascists

Ooh that would be good

I wonder if there is a database somewhere...

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[–] thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Thanks for grappling with this @curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I will say that having disclosure and/or tagging would mean that comments that just say "slop" or "fuck ai" or whatever would be off topic at that point, that information is already provided, so its just noise (and sometimes pretty uncivil - I've been light on that for now due to the need for a rule on this).

good idea

it won't solve the "noise" problem though. I was relatively active on !imageai@sh.itjust.works and we were constantly nagged by sloppies even though the community is clearly dedicated to generativeArt

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago

No, but with a rule in place like these, its clearly out of place and can be removed. I don't harbor any delusions about not seeing those sort of comments.

Would be nice though. And I like being nice.

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[–] gaiety@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

i want a community where AI is not tolerated at all. ai is a corporate grift and there's no room for it in a self built community founded on resistance of the tech status quo

[–] aguasemgas@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 1 month ago

I think tags are a good idea. I would change the tag to [AI / LLM], and maybe some subtags like [chatbot], [image processing], etc. AI is here to stay, or a least until the US realize the hole under their entire economy (Or both in worst case scenerio) , so regulation is a good solution to this. (In my humble opinion)

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Also:

Anything with an [AI] tag, first thing in the title, will have a drive-by downvote issue.

Not sure how to deal with that, or if its even a concern.


EDIT:

Maybe it should be something else that's not such a loaded keyword?

[ML] for Machine Learning? [SAI]? [LAI]?

I've been messing with 'AI' for a decade, and even I hate what the term has come to represent.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh I'm sure it will be. I don't know if its a concern though - TBD I suppose.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

TBD indeed. But it will effectively 'downrank' posts and their visibility, maybe into the negative vote range. I've seen highly negative scores across the board in more machine-learning focused subs, and that's without a tag that catches the eye so easily.

I think even modifying the acronym could make a difference, though (as I ninja edited).

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 month ago (10 children)

I do like the idea of a different tag, still easy to filter but less of a target like the ai generated communities out there.

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[–] arran4@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

If you don't delineate, it will simply be easier to tag everything ai as there was ai involved somewhere and you're less likely to need to defend yourself.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Yep. It is a time-suck to see an interesting new project only to check it out and find out it's AI slop. For some apps, it doesn't bother me... They may not require the access or stability of critical apps. Other times, I just can't trust a slop app, and it would be very helpful to know which it is in advance.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I will say that having disclosure and/or tagging would mean that comments that just say “slop” or “fuck ai” or whatever would be off topic at that point, that information is already provided, so its just noise (and sometimes pretty uncivil - I’ve been light on that for now due to the need for a rule on this).

The drive by down voting doesn't bother me at all. I sense that it does intimidate quite a few here. To me it's pretty darn silly because it's no longer a filtration mechanism as it was once intended, and now has become a way to vent displeasure, angst, and inner turmoil. However, it is what it is. I can deal with that with ease.

The curb stomping is really the issue to me. I realize there are 8.4 billion other people on this planet and few will align with all of my core beliefs and convictions, which I see as a positive; yaaay diversity! I'm willing to give the space to agree-to-disagree and still be cordial and supportive where it's needed. (eg: the *arr stack) All I want to do is hang out with selfhosters, learn from them, and share with others what little knowledge I've gained along the way. I have no other agenda.

I agree with the [AI] tag. I'm not really sure why that would trigger someone more than [SOLVED], and I agree with the 30 days in the hole. Two weeks would have sufficed imho, but 30 is fine.

Thanks @curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I agree, there's valid points on both sides, let's be civil and request posts are tagged accordingly so that they can be filtered.

Respectful coexistance, is the path forward.

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