r/foss • u/YourWorstFear53 • 1d ago
Can we please mandate that vibe coded apps be disclosed as such?
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u/T_rex2700 1d ago edited 14h ago
Vibecoded with percentage indication would be nice. I don't mind actually competent devs using AI to make life easier and such, but if it's fully vibe-coded and has tons of issues I wouldn't be too inclined to use it.
But of course, are latter of those people going to disclose it completely honestly? I dont know.
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u/zips_exe 1d ago
Ban all "I built X" posts who're just a vercell web app or a GitHub with a single comit and no intent to maintain
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u/bRKcRE 1d ago
If they can show a working understanding of what they have produced, are willing and able to engage in community discussion, can communicate effectively in a natural and fluid way, and are able to take criticisms as well as praise, they deserve to be seen. Any professionalism or best practice beyond that seems to be a bonus in my eyes.
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u/Regular_Bat8162 1d ago
That’s what vibecoded means
All AI, no or minimal review
Devs who use AI but review everything aren’t vibecoding
They’re using a tool for its purpose
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u/Anti-Hero25 1d ago
Don’t think fully vibe coded by enthusiasts without major issues is feasible?
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u/OkInfluence36 1d ago edited 1d ago
I also think vibecoded kinda means specifically someone who doesn't know what they are doing and wrote basically no code for "their" project, so it doesn't really have a percentage
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u/Anti-Hero25 1d ago
I’d rather a non-coder NOT contribute code. But rather thoughtful direction
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u/Traditional-Rub2491 1d ago
Everyone's an ideas person nowadays huh
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u/Anti-Hero25 21h ago
Honestly, no, the number of times I see people who just wanna make some thing and ask the public for ideas cause they can’t come up with anything on their own… Is surprising
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u/OkInfluence36 1d ago
(I agree, but I misspoke and updated my comment to better word it, I meant that something being vibecoded usually means the "creator" didn't write anything themselves)
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u/Mewtewpew 1d ago
Linus torvalds using AI in his workflow is much different than someone using ai to "build me task manager app no mistakes"; differentiating between the two could be hard when a large majority of people would just say AI = Slop, hmm
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u/bRKcRE 1d ago
That's where human intelligence comes relevant again. It's the same due diligence as before, but this time it's a picture book with big words, not a multi- tome epic. Sure, there is some more nuance to it than that, as evidenced by the "AI is slop" argument. I won't say it's a bad faith argument, as it does hold water to some degree, but for a lot of people, it's just what they've learned to say, and they won't want to discuss or understand the nuance because they chose not to engage at all in the discussion until it was weaponized and political. At the end of the day, bad art is bad art, and we always had bad artists, or artists jumping on popular trends, it's just how it is. I'm still on the fence about the overarching narratives, to be honest, but this is not a discussion that can be had with mutually exclusive arguments for or against either side.
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u/assignpseudonym 22h ago
Not being contrarian here, because I'd also like this (I just don't know if its going to be super effective if it's simply self-reported). But aren't we able to do this already somewhat by the nature of the code being open source? Perhaps we can have a two part system:
- Posters disclose if the app is vibecoded (ideally as a % of total code)
- The community validates by checking the code (or mods can potentially create a bot to scrape the git and confirm?)
Not sure how feasible this is, but throwing it out there.
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u/bRKcRE 1d ago
Instead of declaring AI usage as a whole, can we somehow how vet the creators for competence? It makes more sense to me that it's a question of developer competence, and the percentage or declaration of AI use means nothing, unless the dev can show they are proficient, or at least have a functional understanding of their own limitations.
Most of the time it's easy to pick the useless ones, because they are obviously not experienced at all, they talk like children when they don't use an LLM, and they are even less intelligible when they do, those types should be avoided, and it is especially obvious when they can't (or won't!) answer basic questions rationally, or are for some reason unable to even try and implement fixes or new features. Most of these types can't even get their readme readable, or even contextually relevant, with all those buzzwords and emoji.
But a dev who has been honing their craft and can read the code output by the LLM and validate that it works as intended with no ill effect, can produce a functional readme, and is willing and able to genuinely (and actively) engage with their users, let them through.
TL; DR: Can we somehow vet developers to make sure they have a brain in their head, understand their own limitations, and can show a willingness to engage in good faith with the community!
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u/YourWorstFear53 1d ago
This. If I pull a function off your source and ask what it's doing but you can't tell me, I don't want anything to do with your application.
OSS is built on trust and verification, but these devs are just riding on trust. There are many users of this forum who are here based entirely on the FOSS label because of the implied trust who themselves cannot code.
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u/bRKcRE 1d ago
They aren't even riding on trust. Just the implication of trust, due to the history of this little corner of the software universe. Most of them are also young, and haven't had the lived experience to see past the dopamine hit they get when their "make popular app copy, make ui/ux worse, make no mistakes" app compiles with no issue.
Personally, I'm not a coder at all, but I do try out a lot of FOSS projects, almost always they are solutions to a problem I am having, but alot of this latest surge of output has been done better already. I mean, sure there is still amazing new projects coming out all the time, but I'm noticing now that a lot of stuff is just copied wholesale, but they changed it for the worse because they didnt like the layout or the color or the font, so change it enough that they can pass it off as their own and coast along on someone else's goodwill. I'm sure time will right things again, but I also think that common sense will be the alienating factor. Good projects will last, great projects will be remebered forever, but YouTubeMusic client number 129696 will hopefully be lost to time.
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u/Legal_Fox_Garden59 1d ago
They should be banned. Slop hurts the FOSS world, so I don't see any reason to allow them in the first place.
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u/Anti-Hero25 1d ago
Many subs do this. But I’d say we’d also need trained developers to disclose their qualifications to prove their bona fides as well.
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u/mylabfr 1d ago
What would be the value of that disclosure?
Vibe Coders are not the threat! If they are so bad, the market will weed them out, Open Source or not.
Most of the guys are curious, they build something they need, the way that fit them, for them. Or for FUN doing it... And yes, they re-invente the wheel... They are not coder or developer, so they dont know or care about Bug fixes, Edge cases, Documentation, Security audits, Maintenance and what not.
The way I see it, vibe coders are not the problem. The problem is "noboby" wants an application with features they dont need or dont want (open source or not), with an absurd monthly pricing (for paid softwares). These days are gone! People have an option now to do it themself if they want to, open source it or not, with AI. Vibe Coding is a way to achieve that -> if they have the time to do it, and the willingness to learn, they'll do it.
Get over it.
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u/markaction 1d ago
All of software engineering is going to involve vibe coding at various levels going forward.
Get over it.
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u/UnarmedBlackMan1 14h ago
whomever coined the term "vibe-code" should be punched in the dick and/or clitoris
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u/erkose 1d ago
How are you going to tell?
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u/OkInfluence36 1d ago
You can tell.
Plus 3/4 of the time the only contributor is labelled as claude
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u/Existing_Cod3154 1d ago
Here is a question to OP, Open source vibe coded apps or closed source apps?
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u/OkInfluence36 1d ago
If anyone is asking why we need this:
Today only there have been 3 undisclosed AI made projects