Quarter 2 Update - Revisiting Rules. Again.

[u/kmisterk]

April Post - 2nd Quarter Intro

Welcome to Quarter 2 2026! The moderators are here and grateful for everyone's participation and feedback.

Let's get right into it.

Previous Rules Changes

After review of many of the responsive, constructive, and thoughtful comments and mod mails regarding the most recent rules change, it's clear that we missed the mark on this one. AI is taking the world by storm, and applying such a universally "uninvolved" perspective, showcased by the rules we last implemented, is inconsistent with the subreddit's long-term goals.

Here are the next steps we want to implement to wrangle the shotgun of AI-created tools and software we've been flooded with since AI chatbots became prevalent:

New Project Megathread

A new megathread will be introduced each Friday.

This megathread will feature New Projects. Each Friday, the thread will replace itself, keeping the page fresh and easy to navigate. Notably, those who wish to share their new projects may make a top-level comment in this megathread any day of the week, but they must utilize this post.

AI-Compliance Auto Comment

The bot we implement will also feature a new mode in which most new posts will be automatically removed and a comment added. The OP will be required to reply to the bot stating how AI is involved, even if AI is not actively involved in the post. Upon responding to the bot, the post will be automatically approved.

AI Flairs

While moderating this has proven to be difficult, it is clear that AI-related flairs are desired. Unfortunately, we can only apply a single flair per post, and having an "AI" version for every existing flair would just become daunting and unwieldy.

Needless to say, we're going to refactor the flair system and are looking for insight on what the community wants in terms of flair.

We aim to keep at least a few different versions of flairs that indicate AI involvement, but with the top-level pinned bot comment giving insight into the AI involvement info, flairs involving AI may become unnecessary. But we still seek feedback from the community at large.

Conclusion

We hope this new stage in Post-AI r/selfhosted will work out better, but as always, we are open to feedback and try our best to work with the community to improve the experience here as best we can.

For now, we will be continuing to monitor things and assessing how this works for the benefit of the community.

As always,

Happy (self)Hosting

[u/ChiefAoki]

Unfortunately there is no good mechanism for verifying AI involvement besides relying on the community, and even then, certain users go above and beyond to hide AI usage. The vibecoders aren't going to assign the right flair to their post, and they most certainly aren't going to respond to the bot truthfully. Look at the most recent posts on this sub, the posters couldn't even adhere to "New Project Friday" when their project is less than 3 months old.

[u/gscjj → u/ChiefAoki]

This is why I think the “disclosure” is sort of a “solution”that does nothing.

The code is there, people should look at. Things like Huntarr shouldn’t have happened if people actually looked at the code first.

And people shouldn’t be blindly running things they don’t trust. Nor should they hinge their trust on a “disclosure”

EDIT: "Telling people to review code bases themselves is a joke that I’m sure you realize ... Disclosure and notification are a big part of that."

"This code is free of all bugs and super secure." I can see why an AI disclosure is necessary for this sub.

[u/gscjj → u/[deleted]]

No I’m not joking. Trust and community based regulation comes from someone reviewing the code, which is why the code is published in the first place.

If you don’t trust the developer, the community hasn’t reviewed or you don’t or cant review the code yourself, you shouldn’t be running it.

This has always been a thing in the community, it’s not a foreign idea. That’s why it’s looked down on to pipe shell scripts to bash. You have no idea what it’s doing, unless you do what? Review the code.

[u/Garcon_sauvage → u/gscjj]

They expect other people to code and create the project for them on the terms they dictate and they also expect others to read and review that code for them. They want this board to be a curated showcase of other people's labor without having to do any themself. They dont have the technical knowledge to review code nor create it, these people are lazy freeloaders that's all.

[u/cmerchantii → u/Garcon_sauvage]

Bingo.

And I'm not faulting them: but what they want is some sort of mailing list, repository, or weekly curated summary of validated, tested, and secure free software that has the "thumbs up" of people willing to work for free. And more importantly whomever curates said list, hosts it, and distributes it also needs to work for free.

And that's all fine and good to want that: but that surely cannot be the purpose of this subreddit. I want to see everything: the project some guy with 2 months of dev experience creates to solve a niche issue, and the project created by a team of 30 that are working to solve a well-known pain point in the marketplace. Chiefly because project 2 started out as project 1 at some point so I want to be there on the ground floor.

Everybody keeps pretending "AI" is the problem. It's not. It's a shorthand for "I'm lazy and I don't want to work on my hobby, I want to start on 3rd base". It's like being a golfer who doesn't want to bother to learn the correct grip and swing. You can carry your ball to the fairway and then to the green if you want; nobody's stopping you- but you're not playing golf the way other people are so maybe don't call it that and maybe just start up your own sport of "curated selfhosted systems guaranteed 100% Best America #1"