Seems like reading the code is now the real work. AI writes PRs instantly but reviewing them still takes time. Everything flipped. Expect more projects to follow - maintainers can just use ai themselves without needing external contributions.
They invited AI in by creating a comprehensive list of instructions for AI agents - in the README, in a context.md, and even as yarn scripts. What did they expect?
> An open pull request represents a commitment from maintainers: that the contribution will be reviewed carefully and considered seriously for inclusion.
This has always been the problem with github culture.
On the Linux and GCC mailing lists, a posted patch does not represent any kind of commitment whatsoever from the maintainers. That's how it should be.
The fact that github puts the number of open PR requests at the very top of every single page related to a project, in an extremely prominent position, is the sort of manipulative "driving engagement" nonsense you'd expect from social media, not serious engineering tools.
The fact that you have to pay github money in order to permanently turn off pull requests or issues (I mean turn off, not automatically close with a bot) is another one of these. BTW codeberg lets any project disable these things.
Didn't take long before the quality went downhill.
Skynet was evil and impressive in The Terminator. Skynet 3.0 in reallife sucks - the AI slop annoys the hell out of me. I now need a browser extension that filters away ALL AI.
> If the job market is unfavourable to juniors, become senior.
That requires networking with a depth deep enough that other professionals are willing to critique your work.
So... open-source contributions, I guess?
This increases pressure on senior developers who are the current maintainers of open-source packages at the same time that AI is stealing the attention economy that previously rewarded open-source work.
Seems like we need something like blockchain gas on open-source PRs to reduce spam, incentivize open-source maintainers, and enable others to signal their support for suggestions while also putting money where their mouth is.
> If the job market is unfavourable to juniors, become senior.
That’s just the regular LinkedIn nonsense. Very few people have the time and other resources to become seniors while unemployed. On top of that, it’s still unlikely that they’ll pass the HR filter without senior positions on their resumes, regardless of their actual knowledge.
We've enjoyed a certain period (at least a couple of decades) of global, anonymous collaboration that seems to be ending. Trust in the individual is going to become more important in many areas of life, from open-source to journalism and job interviews.
Generally speaking, the value of these contributions was determined by "proof of work". Time and effort are precious to a human hence its a somewhat self-regulating system preventing huge amounts of low quality contributions being generated. This is now gone. Isn't that an interesting problem to fix?
> and little to no follow-up engagement from their authors.
A strategy I sometimes use for external contributions is to immediately ask a question about the pull request. Ignoring PRs where I don't get a reply or the reply doesn't make sense potentially eliminates a lot of low quality contributions.
I wonder if a "no AI" rule is an overly blunt instrument. I can sympathise with it but babies and bathwater etc.
17 comments
[ 0.29 ms ] story [ 36.0 ms ] threadis this satire?
I wouldn't bet on it
SlopHub
This has always been the problem with github culture.
On the Linux and GCC mailing lists, a posted patch does not represent any kind of commitment whatsoever from the maintainers. That's how it should be.
The fact that github puts the number of open PR requests at the very top of every single page related to a project, in an extremely prominent position, is the sort of manipulative "driving engagement" nonsense you'd expect from social media, not serious engineering tools.
The fact that you have to pay github money in order to permanently turn off pull requests or issues (I mean turn off, not automatically close with a bot) is another one of these. BTW codeberg lets any project disable these things.
Skynet was evil and impressive in The Terminator. Skynet 3.0 in reallife sucks - the AI slop annoys the hell out of me. I now need a browser extension that filters away ALL AI.
Then I just took my hosting private. I can’t be arsed to put in the effort when they don’t.
> If the job market is unfavourable to juniors, become senior.
That requires networking with a depth deep enough that other professionals are willing to critique your work.
So... open-source contributions, I guess?
This increases pressure on senior developers who are the current maintainers of open-source packages at the same time that AI is stealing the attention economy that previously rewarded open-source work.
Seems like we need something like blockchain gas on open-source PRs to reduce spam, incentivize open-source maintainers, and enable others to signal their support for suggestions while also putting money where their mouth is.
That’s just the regular LinkedIn nonsense. Very few people have the time and other resources to become seniors while unemployed. On top of that, it’s still unlikely that they’ll pass the HR filter without senior positions on their resumes, regardless of their actual knowledge.
You need a literary agent for just about all of them
I'd add science here too.
A strategy I sometimes use for external contributions is to immediately ask a question about the pull request. Ignoring PRs where I don't get a reply or the reply doesn't make sense potentially eliminates a lot of low quality contributions.
I wonder if a "no AI" rule is an overly blunt instrument. I can sympathise with it but babies and bathwater etc.