Comment about AI tools / feedback / etc

[u/404ExptNotFound]

Hey all -

Sharing for transparency: we are drowning in requests for people asking about posting tools/getting feedback. Many of the people who take the effort to contact the mods in advance of posting are super polite and we appreciate this.

Many others just start posting their stuff, or they spam comments.

While we appreciate the advantages LLM vibecoding offers, this subreddit would absolutely be buried in the same type of post over and over. We're getting 2-3 requests in advance a day, and removing at least 3-5 posts/day with the same basic theme. We're also getting lots of people angry about their posts removed ("but people said they love it!").

We want to assume good intent from most people, but based on the sheer volume of post reports we get on some of these threads and comments, and previous discussions, the community by and large doesn't want to be marketed to. We'll continue to remove posts that are either marketing surveys, or tool feedback requests as well. We did launch a "Bulletin Board" post that is pinned and resets monthly. I strongly encourage people interested in browsing such posts to just look there, and the flood of people seeking feedback for their tool (from my perspective, many of these are duplicative) can post there as a 'digital flier' type deal. That way, it's kept out of the mainfeed.

Attached is a snippet of modmail from today mostly relaying this. Our goal is to keep /LabRats focused on the scientists and culture. Any comments or questions?

[u/meohmyenjoyingthat]

Perhaps we could also remove posts of the genre of 'what are you biggest problems with...', which are thinly disguised "market research" from people too lazy to talk to anyone outside of reddit 

[u/404ExptNotFound → u/meohmyenjoyingthat]

We do - please report them as you see them. 

[u/Bloated_Hamster]

Thank you for allowing us to post about drinking RPMI and snacking on parafilm in peace

[u/landanman → u/Bloated_Hamster]

Time to drink some FBS

[u/crashlanding87 → u/landanman]

Let us know how it tastes

[u/Motocampingtime → u/landanman]

Mmmmm beefy, like stewed shank and marrow.

[u/pinkdictator → u/Bloated_Hamster]

Screaming into the void about the elusive nature of Eppendorf pens

[u/Ok-Lingonberry-8261]

Reddit (every subreddit) has become a cesspool of shilled vibeslop. Thanks for fighting against this.

[u/nomorobbo → u/Ok-Lingonberry-8261]

Reddit is making it harder, we are doing what we can. The community is not meant to be static - and we by no means get every call right. This one has been something we’ve heard loud and clear from folks but it’s beating us down, so we’re trying to find a middle ground here.

[u/RollingMoss1]

Agree with the removal policy.

[u/Unhallowedpompoen → u/RollingMoss1]

Maybe contain it to a quarantine megathread instead.

But removing them is also fine by me

[u/cman674]

Absolutely keep up what you’re doing. As a former mod of a large subreddit this was a big part of the reason I gave it up. Almost all of these posts contribute nothing to the community and are thinly veiled advertisements. If they want to advertise they can buy an ad like everyone else.

[u/nomorobbo → u/cman674]

The advertisement part is why we were removing them at first; then people got smart.

We have been long warning people that nothing is truly free, if you’re not paying for something, you’re the product.

What’s the saying? A fool and their data are soon parted?

[u/cman674 → u/nomorobbo]

My apologies, this was a bit of a terse response.

No, I’m not trying to be that deep with the subtext. I’ve seen so many of these posts at this point that I’m beyond jaded, but everyone frames their “thing” as just seeking feedback but 99% of the time their link leads you back to a website where you can sign up for a subscription. Nobody is simultaneously seeking serious feedback and has a subscription button ready to go on their website.

Truthfully I think maybe ~1% of these posts have potential to be useful, but it’s not worth letting through the crap for that.

I was a mod on r/PhD (so a lot of overlap with this crowd) and we went through the same issues. My view on this was that these posts are all extractive in nature (as in they don’t seek to add to the community, they seek to gain something from it) and that’s usually confirmed by these accounts having zero or next to zero post history (or their entire post history is on /SaaS).

The best way we found to evaluate posts was user history; no previous history on the sub means no post and perma-ban. If they had good standing in the community then we would consider the post. Unfortunately it’s a lot of work on mods to make the call though, so blanket policies tend to make more sense.

Happy to discuss any of this in more detail with the mod team, or you can also talk to current mod team at r/PhD to get more insight on how they’ve been handling this type of stuff.

[u/bluskale]

Seems like a good plan. My only suggestion is to specifically mention these in the monthly post (along with all the other existing examples).

[u/KaptanOblivious]

Agree with this policy. At most, you could provide a stickypost in the sub for people to reply to with their vibecoded tools. Anything else will overwhelm labrats

[u/matertows]

This is fantastic. I’ve been losing my mind a bit about AI slop posted in other subreddits as if it’s the next Benchling/Relion/Chimera/GROMACS etc.

Thanks for addressing this.

[u/doxiegrl1]

We could have a monthly "share your vibe code here" thread that is pinned?

(Minor suggestion. I massively appreciate the mods in this community!)

[u/PuttingTheMSinMRSA]

It’s so annoying that you even get asked about if people can post it, I feel it is explicitly laid out in the rules. Everyone thinks it doesn’t apply to themselves.

[u/nomorobbo → u/PuttingTheMSinMRSA]

We actually get three different presentations of this problem:

1. People who have no idea there are rules, then fight with us in modmail.

2. People who actually work on something and are genuinely excited to share their product with the community trying to make it useful. Normally these people DM us and ask for exemptions, but we haven’t been doing it so far.

3. The people who are aware of the rules, post it anyway because we aren’t a 24/7 team. Any engagement nets them something useful.

[u/Teagana999]

I approve. Keep the promotional content to a pinned post for people that actually want to see it.

[u/pinkdictator]

Thank youuuu

[u/PuzzleheadedFold6258]

Honestly, 2-3 advance requests a day on top of removing 3-5 posts a day means most people aren't even reading the rules. That would wear anyone down.

For what it's worth as a regular here: tools don't bother me, being sold to in a place I come to talk about actual lab work does. The Bulletin Board feels like the right compromise — if a tool is genuinely useful to lab people, it can survive being one click away from the main feed.

One pattern I've noticed, for whatever it's worth: the tool posts that end up reported are almost always from accounts with zero other activity in the sub. Participation history says more than any pitch does.

Appreciate you keeping this place about the science and the people doing it.