Nothing. And that's the problem -- the issue isn't "should a contributor be able to use AI" it's quickly becoming "is this entire contributor an AI agent". Every actual-human who gets a bad first experience hurts the project. The contributors having to be suspicious of new people hurts the project. The whole thing just sucks, and I don't know how to fix it.

I use claude-code, but the AI ecosystem and some of the autonomous tooling coming out of it -- which some people "helpfully" use irresponsibly and point at OSS projects they aren't personally invested in -- enables a LARGE amount of abusive behavior towards open source projects. This is even before we get into how many infrastructural resources crawlers eat up.

Me, and most other OSS contributors, signed up to be a mentor, to create software, to work together ... not to be the equivalent of a reddit moderator banning AI agents left and right.

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kikoreis a day ago | parent | next [-]

"Nothing" is not accurate in the context of Debian as per comments above; it's not like Github in that sense.

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digitaltrees a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What is a good project for a human to get human mentorship? Asking for a friend :)

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jayofdoom 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I work on OpenStack, which is a project folks work on primarily due to sponsorship -- not many people who want to do security/stability work for a cloud "for the fun of it" :D.

So mentees I've worked with have usually come as part of a program, such as MLH[1] or Outreachy[2]. Other projects I've helped with mentoring have come from college programs or professors[3].

I have no idea how hard it is to get through the filters to get these opportunities; I know generally we ask them to only send us the best and that's worked out really well.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbsI8l-MaFA is an interview done on my podcast (by the other host, Tabatha) with CID, who works with me on OpenStack Ironic. A little over 2 years ago, he was an MLH fellow (https://fellowship.mlh.com/) working with me -- now he's a maintainer on OpenStack and working on my team. This is an exceptional outcome, but he's not the only person who has found success via MLH that I know.

[2] e.g. https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@...

[3] https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@...

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kikoreis a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Debian itself is actually great: https://mentors.debian.net/sponsors/

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lrvick a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://stagex.tools

Always happy to train up new packagers and maintainers.

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zenoprax a day ago | parent [-]

This is the second time I've seen this project mentioned on HN. Their white paper is very interesting and aligns closely with my interests but I don't see much on the main site about how to get involved.

Are they using their Matrix server to filter out drive-by/low-effort contributions?

	▲	lrvick a day ago \| parent [-]
		I am the founder of the project. We accept every contribution that solves a problem, even drive-bys. Though they may often sit for a bit as we often merge in batches. If there is something missing, make a PR by all means. Ask any questions on matrix.

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hypfer a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Usually, mentorship is a quite well paid service.

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ls612 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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GPerson a day ago | parent | next [-]

Good. I want open source projects which serve infrastructure to be gate kept so that only responsible people are involved. Responsible people can use AI too. Get all of those people on board, and keep out irresponsible people!

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superb_dev a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most people who wrote software before AI didn’t contribute to projects like Debian because it takes a certain passion and commitment. Just being able to write code is not the bar for entrance here.

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ebiester a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This isn't talking about bespoke software, though. This is talking about upstreaming contributions to others. This puts a low barrier to create work and a lot more work for unpaid volunteers.

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smoe a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't care if a project uses AI or not, but I absolutely do care that they are firmly gatekept in alignment with their vision and team dynamics. Then I can choose projects whose gatekeeping policies I agree with.

There is never not an alternative to something, and I can always have my AI botch together my own version if I think this is going to get me better results.

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setopt a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The issue at hand isn’t people using AI to make some app that they and their mom will use. That’s awesome.

It’s people who insist that potentially millions of other people should be affected by their vibe-coded stuff too, by upstreaming it into Debian.

I vibe coded some simple things for the family myself, but I don’t expect or require anyone else to want or use it.

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overfeed a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> ngl this is just gatekeeping

As a beneficiary of Debian, this is good, you are praising Debian with feint damnation. I wish Debian had done more gatekeeping in the past on specific components.

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NuclearPM a day ago | parent [-]

Did you intentionally write that like an AI as a joke?

	▲	overfeed a day ago \| parent [-]
		I'd be impressed by an AI that can go against tons of training data by reversing the polarity of a common turn-of-phrase. I was proud of that, and am slightly bummed to hear someone thinks it sounds AI-like. Also, I had a typo, its supposed to be "faint" (light) not "feint" (fake-out), though the latter worked out in context, and works by adding a homonym layer to the turn of phrase already turned on its head. 2 layers of smug, conceited cleverness - or 1 layer and a typo if you're not feeling charitable - that gets in the way of clear communication seems very human to me, YMMV.

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acheron a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Gatekeeping is good, actually. Not keeping your gate is how your town gets overrun by Mongols.

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catlifeonmars a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

“This is just gatekeeping” is simultaneously true and ignoring the problem it’s reacting to.

Also there’s an implicit moral judgement there against gatekeeping.

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pessimizer a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ah, "icky gatekeeping." I'm convinced.

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bluefirebrand a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> ngl this is just gatekeeping

Gatekeeping serves a useful purpose in any functioning organization of all scales, from a community center to a country, from an open source project to a Fortune 500.