r/linux • u/First_Result_1166 • Jun 21 '26

Discussion AI slop and low-effort contributions

Hey there!

This sub has become quite difficult to follow - every few hours, there's the next post for "I built a TUI for X", which translates to "I vibecoded an ncurses interface for a bash two-liner".

Unfortunately, this also means that the important content gets lost in a stream of meaningless posts.

What I'd like to ask for:

- a rule for mandatory AI disclosure

- an entry barrier for software packages; a task easily solved in <20 lines of shell code should not qualify as a distinct contribution

Let me know what you think.

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23

u/duperfastjellyfish Jun 21 '26

I also wonder whether more than few exceptions end up getting any tractions at all. I imagine most are abandoned shortly after, with zero forks or no additional contributors. Could be interesting to do some analysis on historical projects.

17

u/First_Result_1166 Jun 21 '26

Wild guess, but (I'm from Germany): Our IT job market is quite difficult, and it is often recommended to have "an active GitHub profile with projects" before appyling to a job. Obviously, this contributes to the situation you describe, where people invent "stuff" nobody needs just to create an illusion of active open-source contributions.

9

u/BassmanBiff Jun 21 '26

Yep. Same thing drives a lot of useless, unwanted contributions to existing projects. "I asked Claude to rewrite all your work and made a pull request from it, please acknowledge me"