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   josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:03:48 JST josef

   a high-profile software project proudly announcing that it's going to start "using AI" is basically the same thing to me as seeing a big "this repo is archived" banner. perhaps even worse in some respects? intentionally or not, the message it sends is "we don't really enjoy programming and we don't want to work on this anymore, but rather than retire the project we're going to do a really lackluster job from now on". like if your favorite coffee brand proudly announced "now 20% more sawdust"

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:, ✧✦Catherine✦✧ and Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:04:43 JST josef

     in reply to

     committing to that kind of approach is just so obviously a massive PR mistake to me, too. historically it's been so difficult to pin down exactly what 'causes' bugs and regressions (beyond "entropy" or "mistakes") that developers aren't really blamed for them. but if you've decided to "Go All In On AI", any user experiencing any problem whatsoever now has their explanation: it was your fault. you decided to let the AI in, on purpose. it wasn't neglect, it was willful damage you caused

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ and Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:57 JST josef

     in reply to

     • kolya
     • degenerating degenerate

     @kolya @hopeless ah right, thats what i thought they meant. my brain pattern-matched to "that stereotypical open source attitude where the users are leeches" or whatever. which seemed a bit rude? so i assumed maybe there was something i was missing

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     degenerating degenerate (hopeless@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:57 JST degenerating degenerate

     in reply to

     • kolya

     @jk @kolya If you're consuming the project's work and not contributing anything, that is the dictionary meaning of "leeching".

     I also leech of hundreds of projects and only contribute to a handful, it's just a statement of fact.

     However it puts into contrast what you're demanding, which is you only want to leech off the work of an actual human and their time on the planet.

     If AI patches work and can be maintained, they should be preferred to minimize the cost to actual humans.

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     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:57 JST josef

     in reply to

     • kolya
     • degenerating degenerate

     @hopeless @kolya i think the open source world is kind of an attention economy, where gaining users can be a net positive, as some tiny percentage will end up becoming volunteer contributors. people want to use (and contribute to) high-quality software, so doing things that signal low quality is kind of a bad move economically. personally, the more human involvement and effort in a project there is, the more i value it. i think that's quite a popular way of intuiting the value of something

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     degenerating degenerate (hopeless@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:59 JST degenerating degenerate

     in reply to

     @jk

     Is the coding AI producing mostly-reasonable and maintainable results?

     Because the fact you like the results of the project to date, is not worth anything to the project, compared to good patches.

     Nor is your purity demand for only the contributors' personal hard labour being good enough for you to leech.

   • Embed this notice
     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:59 JST josef

     in reply to

     • degenerating degenerate

     @hopeless sorry i cant parse what youre saying because im too stupid

   • Embed this notice
     kolya (kolya@social.cologne)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:21:59 JST kolya

     in reply to

     • degenerating degenerate

     @jk @hopeless
     they are saying that in open source good code contributions count more than ideological demands of people on the sidelines.

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     Mudlark :verified_trans: (mudlark@bark.lgbt)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 20:25:36 JST Mudlark :verified_trans:

     in reply to

     @jk actually… some coffee brands actually do that :floofLol: it’s not sawdust, but it may as well be - it’s a hardier (and worst tasting nearly all the time) plant variety called robusta. Some coffee brands mix in 20% to save on costs, and try to advertise it as a plus :floofMug:

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Dec-2025 22:13:03 JST josef

     in reply to

     even as a force-multiplier for people who want to feel powerful or capable, i don't think there's much value there. nobody respects the witless manager who's unable to control their subordinates. it's embarrassing to see pull requests where humans desperately try to rein in hordes of chattering automata. from the outside it looks like supposedly-capable engineers have traded in concrete work for a bizarre video game. it makes me question their judgement in general. they look silly