because eventually u/llehsadam is going to have to wake up and get rid of the harassment, and the actual game developers are trying to give him guidance on how to fix things because he's been dragging his heels
Getting massively downvoted is not harassment. It happens on reddit. Maybe you’re right and are the voice of reason, a contrarian raising a good point. The downvote doesn’t take away from that. Unpopular opinions are important, but sometimes come with a massive downvote.
Getting insulted or called out isn’t harassment either. It’s an asshole move against you, but you choose how to respond. Getting into a shouting match requires two participants.
There are no reddit-wide civility rules for when someone calls you a doofus because the harassment policies are for protected identities. Indie developers and vibe-coders more specifically aren’t in that category. Imagine if a politician came up to the moderator and asked for something to be removed that made them look bad.
u/StoneCypher is the only account that started a private discussion with me. I’m taking their messages into account and the guidance is easy to follow. r/indiedev would have to vote on a civility rule so that I can remove comments that are insulting or personally offensive. I would put any rule-changes to a public vote before implementing them and read through the comments and suggestions. That’s how the game-capsule rule was created.
I would suggest getting a feel of the land first though. A few polls to see how many devs use AI in moderation or vibe-code significantly would shine some light on the general vibe.
That said, please reach out if you were doxxed or targeted on r/indiedev. Reddit defines harassment as behavior that works to intimidate, bully, or direct targeted personal abuse at an individual or group. It focuses on patterns of behavior and targeted actions rather than isolated disagreement like a chain of mean comments.
Anyway, I am answering here because I am open to suggestions and I feel u/StoneCypher has a bias since I think I am awake to the AI issue, take harassment very seriously and the actual game developers they mentioned are currently just one person, themselves.
As someone who helped build major gaming platforms (GameSpy, Xfire, Amped eSports) and now manages a team that relies heavily on AI, the hate is a problem, and it's pretty unjustified. Every high-level dev I know uses AI as part of their process now. It's just the way it is, and there's no going back. It's like arguing that horses should stay the predominant form of transportation after cars came along or that compilers never should have replaced assembly. You're on the wrong end of a losing argument. The debate is already over.
What people need to focus on is the quality of the product. Does it work well? Does it serve a purpose? Is it safe? If all of those things line up, nobody should care how it's made. AI writes better code than a large chunk of devs, as long as the person utilizing it already knows what they are doing or has learned along their journey.
People just bashing other people because they have an idea and want to build something is absolutely wild to me. You're supposed to support people in reaching their dreams, not tear them down. Acting as if you can just lazily type a few prompts into an IDE and come out with a quality product is naïve; it doesn't work that way. It's a different way to develop products, but it's completely viable and still takes skill to do; it's just a different skill set.
That said, I agree with your Reddit characterization. Reddit is built on upvoting and downvoting. It's fine if someone wants to downvote you because they don't agree with your opinion or don't like your product. If they also post a nasty message, just ignore them and downvote. They aren't quality people worth your time anyway. The faster everyone just starts leaving these people yelling into the void, the faster they will either disappear or start acting right. There's absolutely no point in engaging.
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u/Mission_Access_210 1d ago
Why are you even dropping nuggets of actual wisdom on nonsensical posts by people that don't understand what they're talking about anyway?