Link: https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/10/26/reddits-r/opensource-bans-ai-slop-and-quite-a-few-humans-for-good-measure/5305392

Meanwhile on reddit.

To get a project featured on the subreddit, developers now need to show it has been actively maintained for at least a year, has an established community, and has at least three contributors, give or take. Student projects such as note-taking apps and PDF viewers aren't welcome either, and developers can no longer use the subreddit to find people willing to help maintain their software.

That creates a chicken-and-egg problem for independent developers, who apparently need an established community before they can use an open source forum to find one. Even projects with no AI involvement could fall foul of the rules. One Reddit user pointed out that their nine-year-old project, which has more than 300 GitHub stars and dozens of resolved issues, would no longer qualify because they're its sole contributor.

The moderator also imposed a minimum Reddit account age of one year and requires significant prior contributions. Anyone who attempts to post and then contacts the moderators seeking an exception risks being permanently banned and muted.

Honestly, the "maintained for one year" part alone would filter out most of the AI slop. The rest of the rules are kind of crazy. I've got several ongoing open source projects, and almost none of them would qualify because I don't spend any time making community posts...

I’ve got several ongoing open source projects, and almost none of them would qualify because I don’t spend any time making community posts…

....and why would you in a community like that?

I've never been active in r/opensource and don't want to make assumptions of bad faith on this moderator. It's my opinion that these rules, while perhaps well-intentioned, are a bit too stringent, and they will most likely walk some of them back in time. Personally I would give the benefit of the doubt to established projects but I think newer projects should merit more scrutiny, not an outright ban. That said I have spoken in favor of a ban on vibe coded and mostly-generated projects (although tend to give the benefit of the doubt to established projects experimenting with generative tools).

IMO I'd keep the one-year maintained rule (maybe walk it back to six months) and the "capstone project" rule (more scrutiny if it's something we have a dozen of already). "Must have 3+ contributors" is just too far. The account age rule is also probably a good idea if it keeps spammers away.

That said it is my experience that many "anti-AI holy warriors" are not "pro-FOSS" or very knowledgeable about the free software movement in general. Not saying that's true about this moderator in specific but many would have no issue at all sacrificing the FOSS community if it helped fight back against slop. I'm not saying being pro-FOSS means being "pro-AI" but I think most "anti-AI" are motivated by silly mickey mouse reasons like "stolen intellectual property" when there are imo actual reasons to be skeptical of "AI" especially the proprietary SaaSS models.

English requirement because the entire world revolves around Americans

Oh yeah reddit is the right host for "open-source" content...

They don't want AI slop but uses the platform that shut down alternative reddit clients so that they can sell training data to AI companies...

The whole fit against AI is ridiculous on Reddit.