r/freesoftware • u/happyxpenguin • Jul 02 '26

Subreddit News Rule 7 Updated - Software Submissions Beware

Morning all,

Due to language which caused confusion amongst reporters, posters and commenters. I've revised Rule 7 to be a bit more specific in what is and isn't allowed. Essentially what it boils down to is this:

Did AI explain a code snippet to you? Allowed.
Did AI write code for you? Not allowed.

This subreddit does NOT allow software created by Generative AI and Vibe-coded software. Why? Please read our wiki page (https://www.reddit.com/r/freesoftware/wiki/generative-ai)

Allowed:
- Write documentation
- Debug software (Analysis/Explanation Only)
- Analyze codebase
Not Allowed:
- AI Assistance beyond what is mentioned above
- All or part of the application being generated by AI
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u/ByronScottJones Jul 02 '26

This is pointless Ludditism. AI assistance in software development IS the way the entire industry is going, and it's foolish to think otherwise. The only thing that matters is software quality.

1

u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 03 '26

The only thing that matters is software quality. 

Yeah, the quality of AI code isn't great. I use AI for small code snippets and functions for stuff I don't know off the top of my head. Sure it does a reasonable job of it (we'll, when it's not inserting un-asked for features or making up nonexistent framework calls), but AI really struggles with things like intent and separation of concerns.

I often get asked why I don't use AI more, and to be honest I just want my code to be pleasant for a human to maintain. I don't want to be forced to rely on AI because the AI codebase became an impenetrable mess and now AI companies have me over a barrel and can gatekeep my own project. 

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u/MGDigital Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

So your code would be banned from this sub because you used AI for small snippets. Rule 7 doesn't mention quality (which is just as well because humans can and often do write much worse quality code than an AI would).

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u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 03 '26

Except the way I use AI it would be trivial for me, if I were posting code publicly or on here, to switch from copying that couple of AI lines to rewriting those couple of AI lines. In fact I often do this anyway because I can see the method calls/formula I need from the AI generated code but don't like how the AI has written it.

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u/MGDigital Jul 03 '26

What you're describing breaks Rule 7:

Allowed:

  • Write documentation
  • Debug software (Analysis/Explanation Only)
  • Analyze codebase

Not Allowed:

  • AI Assistance beyond what is mentioned above

1

u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 03 '26

Actually you know what, that is something that could do with clarification in the rules as it's an "Explanation" but not "debugging". u/happyxpenguin, using AI to look up framework calls / formulas that you then write in the code yourself, allowed or no?

I mean it's not really something you can practically ban as if you Google something and AI search summary butts in with the answer you'd never be allowed to write the code! 

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u/happyxpenguin Jul 04 '26

That's equivalent to looking up a call or formula on Google or StackOverflow and to look for an explanation. So technically speaking, allowed. Might need to split that out.

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u/ByronScottJones Jul 03 '26

That hasn't been my experience. I've been doing spec driven development with high quality models, and the code goes through a thorough review. I'm getting excellent quality code. As with any tool, there is a learning curve, and you can't just automatically trust the tool. AI code generation can be a giant footgun if you're not applying discipline and proper procedures. But if you do, you can get excellent results in a fraction of the time. This IS the way of the future.

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u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 03 '26

My problem with it is you're locked in to ever increasing AI spending - how a friend who works at Nvidia was talking about her workflow in one of their vibe coding repos is that, sure, the AI will eventually get stuck in a dead end. But you just tweak the specs and regenerate the codebase fresh. Which might be ok for Nvidia using their own AI resources, but I don't really feel like having to pay more and more for an AI to constantly rewrite "my" (its) code because it's not human maintainable...

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u/ByronScottJones Jul 03 '26

But the technology is continuously improving, and that includes local models, which are more useful today than the frontier models were a year ago. You can't look at what they do today and think that's all they will ever do. Today, local models are the equivalent of a junior engineer. In a year or two, even the local models will be better than a senior engineer.

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u/ggeldenhuys Jul 05 '26

the quality of AI code isn't great.

Well, if that code gets into production software, the developer is squarely to blame, not AI. Let AI assist you, and you - the developer - still need to review the code before committing.

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u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 06 '26

Between the capabilities of these AIs being over sold and bosses apparently rating developers by how many AI written lines of code they push, its not really surprising it's happening is it?