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Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

blog.terrygodier.com

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Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#31

Post by mortenjorck »

user43928 wrote: post #6

On the previous HN posts I got this impression: The developer's astrology app containing tarot reading features was rejected from Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps. He then replaced the app's content with a clone of, if not the identical open source astronomy app "Dark Hours", copying even the name. The original is here: https://darkhours.app The developer was then in contact with John Gruber, who wrote…

OP or dang should change the link to the DF retraction. While the app’s author has apparently produced some quality products, this puts a big asterisk next to that reputation.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#33

Post by underdeserver »

The author's alleged misdeeds aside, even before AI, there were lots of small projects that were similar to one another.

I don't think that's a bad thing, or that it's necessarily plagiarism - unless the LLM spews out the other project's code from its training...

I'm happy to see multiple takes on the same idea. There are lots of tiny aesthetic and functional decisions that make apps different from one another. Now that implementation is cheaper we should celebrate that.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#34

Post by llm_nerd »

It is simply amazing that the "the AI ate my homework" routine works on anyone. Like, a single person out there actually falls for this hilarious nonsense?

The AI eating his homework wasn't even the worst of it, and this whole debacle is just a series of poor decisions and deceptions. Bizarre. Yet there are comments in here praising his "attitude". Can I interest you fine folks in the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm selling it for 40% off, today only. Message me.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#35

Post by firasd »

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #5

Something went seriously wrong there, and I'm not sure it's just Claude copying an existing project bug-for-bug. For more context, see also this post from Gruber at Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje...

Yeah... If you even say to Claude I want to make an app like github.com/user/repo it's not gonna just clone it and do some touch ups. Anything can happen of course, but my spidey sense says generally AI won't fork a project unasked (just because of the implied maintenance burden of applying future patches from upstream if nothing else)

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#36

Post by mechanicum »

I’d love to see the other repo, and the prompts that led to both.

Did Godier copy the other guy’s repo, name and all, and try to pass it off as his own work? That seems like the obvious conclusion, albeit brazen to the point of insanity.

Did Claude copy the repo, in response to a prompt? If Claude copies a Claude vibe-coded project, can any plagiarism really be said to have taken place?

Or is this just what Claude is statistically likely to spit out if you prompt it to build an astronomy app and leave it to it?

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#38

Post by [deleted] »

llm_nerd wrote: post #34

It is simply amazing that the "the AI ate my homework" routine works on anyone. Like, a single person out there actually falls for this hilarious nonsense? The AI eating his homework wasn't even the worst of it, and this whole debacle is just a series of poor decisions and deceptions. Bizarre. Yet there are comments in here praising his "attitude". Can I interest you fine folks in the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm selling it…

[deleted]

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#39

Post by timcobb »

llm_nerd wrote: post #34

It is simply amazing that the "the AI ate my homework" routine works on anyone. Like, a single person out there actually falls for this hilarious nonsense? The AI eating his homework wasn't even the worst of it, and this whole debacle is just a series of poor decisions and deceptions. Bizarre. Yet there are comments in here praising his "attitude". Can I interest you fine folks in the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm selling it…

> Bizarre.

This is easily the most casually bizarre HN saga that I've experienced...

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#40

Post by ryan_n »

lellow wrote: post #8

I love the attitude. Period. And I also understand his personal decision to not use it to create mobile apps, as mentioned. But, I would not follow the same route. There are several open source projects, and just because models were trained with their code, it shouldn’t stop me of creating something similar/better, with my “taste” (from another post this week) in mind. We are all different. We should have different o…

The dude had claude copy a repo bug for bug. Where is the "taste" and "creativity" in that?

> I fully support open-source, but I support way more the creativity and idea from individuals that can generate something new.

None of that happened here...

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