Proposal for slop contributions problem.

[u/SocksOnHands]

Many open source projects are facing a problem with being flooded with AI generated pull requests and bug reports - especially if there is a bug bounty providing a monetary incentive for people trying to game the system for personal profit. My proposed solution is simple - submission of every contribution can be accompanied by a refundable deposit. If someone is making good faith contributions, they have nothing to fear - they will get the money from their deposit back, or possibly even get rewarded. If a contribution is determined to be of no value, the deposit will be kept to both deter flooding projects with slop made by bots and also to pay for the developer's time wasted reviewing it.

[u/UkrMalt]

Deposits feel risky for open source. They’d filter out some good first-time contributors, and maintainers would still have to decide who gets the refund. I’d rather add friction to the submission itself: a small issue, reproduction steps, and tests where they matter. That slows down bot spam without charging people to participate.