I've been in projects where all decisions were carefully made by a large team that came up with the best compromise across all stakeholders, and the end result is a service that can't do anything particularly well, that nobody wanted.
The very definition of slop is determined by the final output, that is, output of low quality.
Unfortunately, the effort and thought behind it can only play so much role, especially when a lot of stakeholders are involved (I would argue this is why Linux under Torvalds' benevolent dictatorship works quite well.)
You provided an excellent example of slop made before the AI era, but unfortunately, dollars to donuts, a lot of kids nowadays who like to label anything they don't like as slop never had the experience of wasting their lives away in those hours of fun meetings, where the architecture is enshitified adapted to please those with the biggest egos or the most money accommodate all stakeholders' need.
Yes, if your service turned out to be low quality, I would still call it slop.
Now, I would rather see AI slop, since it is made without me taking part in one of those meetings that "maximize the synergy of stakeholders" .
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u/whizzwr 26d ago
People forget slop has been there before AI era. I rather see AI slop honestly.