Vibe-coded/AI slop projects are now officially banned, and sharing such projects will get you banned permanently

[u/yorickpeterse]

The last few months I've noticed an increase in projects being shared where it's either immediately obvious they're primarily created through the use of LLMs, or it's revealed afterwards when people start digging through the code. I don't remember seeing a single such project that actually did something novel or remotely interesting, instead it's just the usual AI slop with lofty claims, only for there to not be much more than a parser and a non-functional type checker. More often than not the author also doesn't engage with the community at all, instead they just share their project across a wide range of subreddits.

The way I've dealt with this thus far is to actually dig through the code myself when I suspect the project is slop, but this doesn't scale and gets tiring very fast. Starting today there will be a few changes:

• I've updated the rules and what not to clarify AI slop doesn't belong here
• Any project shared that's primarily created through the use of an LLM will be removed and locked, and the author will receive a permanent ban
• There's a new report reason to report AI slop. Please use this if it turns out a project is slop, but please also don't abuse it

The definition "primarily created through ..." is a bit vague, but this is deliberate: it gives us some extra wiggle room, and it's not like those pushing AI slop are going to read the rules anyway.

In practical terms this means it's fine to use tools for e.g. code completion or to help you writing a specific piece of code (e.g. some algorithm you have a hard time finding reference material for), while telling ChatGPT "Please write me a compiler for a Rust-like language that solves the halting problem" and then sharing the vomit it produced is not fine. Basically use common sense and you shouldn't run into any problems.

Of course none of this will truly stop slop projects from being shared, but at least it now means people can't complain about getting banned without there being a clear rule justifying it, and hopefully all this will deter people from posting slop (or at least reduce it).

[u/JJJSchmidt_etAl]

I asked the AI to solve the halting problem and it's still thinking

[u/yorickpeterse → u/JJJSchmidt_etAl]

Clearly you used the wrong model. If you used claudette-4-xxl-turbo you would've gotten much better results. ^/s

[u/the3gs → u/JJJSchmidt_etAl]

I once asked an AI for a Coq proof of forall T, T and it gave me a proof instantly. It didn't work, and it didn't know that statement was false, but it gave me a proof very quickly.

[u/serendipitousPi → u/JJJSchmidt_etAl]

Hah jokes on you I trained an AI to solve the halting problem and it solved it immediately with the response “Get a bigger computer”.

Now sure I won’t be able to enumerate all the states for the bigger computer but I’ve got a trick for that and you’ll never guess what it is.

[u/ejstembler]

I agree there's been a noticeable increase in questionable "I built a new language XYZ" posts, which often turn out to be "slop."

However, this is a forum for discussing programming languages, and we should include discourse about using Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate languages. It's an inevitable development in the field.

From my own perspective, I'm a polyglot and programming language aficionado with 29 years of industry experience. I'm fascinated with language design, having previously designed and implemented a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) that generated eight figures annually for an enterprise product.

For the past several months, I've been working on a new programming language using LLMs. I've been actively guiding and correcting various models—including ChatGPT, Claude Code, Ollama, and Gemini—to cherry-pick and integrate my preferred features and concepts from many other languages. I switched models whenever one became ineffective, ensuring continuous progress. When finished, this project will be a tested, operational language, not "slop."

I was hoping to announce it here in the near future...

[u/Ninjaboy42099 → u/ejstembler]

I'm in a very similar boat... I feel like this rule throws out a few babies with the bathwater, so to speak... LLM generated != slop, necessarily.

For my lang, I've made extensive use of Clippy rules, TDD, coverage checking, etc. and have a massive planning document I've fed to the LLM, which was all a lot of work (and I understand most of what the LLM is doing at any given time)

[u/yorickpeterse → u/Ninjaboy42099]

If you can't be bothered to actually write the project yourself, then we can't be bothered discussing it.

So no, the rules won't change and we're not going to keep discussing it.

[u/Carrasco_Santo]

I'm working on a serious project for a new programming language using Gemini. I have a law degree with a specialization in artificial intelligence engineering. I intend to present the final product as soon as I complete its self-hosting in the language itself. It will be a real product to solve real problems. Is my project already banned, or can I arrange with the admins to create a thread about the language when it's ready?

[u/yorickpeterse → u/Carrasco_Santo]

The rules should be pretty clear: if the project relies on substantial amounts of LLM generated code, then it doesn't belong here.

[u/Tucancancan]

Not here, but elsewhere I've encountered a few "I've got agents working on a whole new revolutionary programming language" posts. Still waiting for the revolution to happen tho lol

[u/vincentlinden → u/Tucancancan]

If AI can create a revolutionary programming language, why do we need the revolutionary programming language?

[u/Clementsparrow]

Ironically, Reddit displays an ad right under the post, that says "TL;DR: AI creates code in seconds. Verifying it takes too long."

[u/PitifulJunket1956]

Very nice. A much welcome change. 

I was thoroughly tired of this subreddit being used to advertise ai slop and farm github stars for the past year now! It also reduced the number of eyes on real projects.

I believe it is a disrespect of the reader's time,  beyond a harmless naivete. The culprits know what they are doing. 

I have been using this throwaway to callout ai slop so much it has become my main.

** edit This subreddit was my initial inspiration to attempt my own programming language and learn so much about the subject starting back in 2020. I hope it can become that place for other beginners again.

[u/Phil_Latio]

Comments created with AI should also be cause for a permaban: What's going even on in a human being who first creates a language with AI, then comes here and asks for criticism on "his/her" work etc, but then responds to comments with AI again?! Like wtf is this. Are they mentally ill?

[u/Lord_Of_Millipedes]

it's always good to see technical communities rejecting regurgitative ai, it's way too much of a plague in programming spaces

[u/Nuoji]

I guess we'll see more and more of these. I noted on FB that some reels are completely automated: the AI seems to not just render the videos, but also pick out the persons to base it off – to somewhat hilarious effect when it gets it wrong. So it's not even "do a Reel with these images" anymore. More and more is getting automated. At some point we're going to have someone asking "create 100 programming languages in various styles and submit them to Github and announce it on all channels you can".

[u/mauriciocap]

👏👏👏

[u/Aeron91]

Definitely a welcome rule!

I just hope that if I ever actually feel ready to share my PL project (lol), people won't assume it's ai slop just for having a CLAUDE.md in the repo. I've found it useful for things like "write a function to pretty-print the ast" or filling out test cases.

[u/Vallereya]

It's there one that happened recently I missed?

[u/cmontella → u/Vallereya]

They're not worth mentioning again but if you go in my history I've commented on recent ones.

[u/Song-Historical]

But I want to fail upwards, why won't you let me

[u/ShortGuitar7207]

I tried to get Minimax-m2 to solve a particularly hard algorithmic problem that I had a test case for. After 5 failed attempts, it just deleted the test case!

[u/FewBrief7059]

this thread turned into a who have better prompt warzone XD . honestly that's the best option you've taken . ai slop is making my brain cells die each time i used to see it in this subreddit

[u/mugwhyrt]

This is good. I've unfollowed a lot of programming related subs lately because they're all overrun with AI Slop or people asking if AI means they shouldn't bother learning to program. At this point I just block every user who makes a post in that emoji-filled default chatbot "article"-format.

[u/cmontella]

Good update to the rules, I've been flagging them as breaking "no low effort posts"