r/opensource bans AI projects, non-English speakers and new solo projects

Posting a new side project to Reddit's main open source community just got much harder.

The moderators of r/opensource added new submission rules on Saturday, The Verge reports. The post opens with a line barring projects that use AI, were made by AI, or are built for AI. Projects also must be at least one year old. They must be actively maintained. They must have more than one contributor.

The AI rule

The AI rule has received the most attention. The mods wrote that AI, as it exists today, is incongruent with the open source community. One moderator, writing as Wolvereness, told commenters that there is room for selective enforcement. Software with accessibility features that use AI, such as automatic captioning, may still be allowed. The exact rule in the post is broader than that comment suggests.

Many commenters have raised one awkward fact. The Linux kernel now carries some AI-generated code. If the rules are read strictly, any project built on the kernel could be banned.

The one-year rule and the multiple-contributor rule apply to a different group. A single developer with a two-week-old project cannot post it. The mods added that they can no longer answer requests for maintainers or contributors. That removes the second most common reason a project gets posted in the sub.

The second ban

A separate rule bars people who do not speak English. The Verge quotes the post directly. "If you don't speak English, you need to find a different community," it reads. The mods say they cannot tell AI-written text from AI-translated text. They add that a non-English speaker cannot verify a translation for themselves. The rule treats a translation tool and a writing tool as the same risk.

The response

A new sub, r/trueopensource, was created in response. The Verge describes the reaction in the comments as a revolt against the new rules. The report also names the moderator Wolvereness as the person defending the policy to commenters.

r/opensource was one of the busier places on Reddit to post an open source project and ask for help. A solo developer with a new project now has to find somewhere else. A non-English speaker has to find somewhere else too. GitHub Discussions, Hacker News and Lobsters are the usual next places. A developer who already has a project in the sub can keep it there.

For a developer who uses AI tools every day, the rule reads as hard to meet. A README written with help from Claude or Copilot could be read as an AI project. One mod comment allows an exception for accessibility features. The written rule does not. The sub does not say what counts as "made by AI" for a project with a little AI help.

Source

r/opensource just banned AI, non-English speakers and more, The Verge. The r/opensource rules post on Reddit.