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r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

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Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#101

Post by minimaxir »

petercooper wrote: post #86

We also believe that, generally, the community have been indicating that, by and large, they aren't interested in this content. How can that be true? Reddit is vote-based. So if people weren't interested, they wouldn't vote it up and it wouldn't appear on the front page. Hacker News has no rule banning posts about Barbie and yet, amazingly, Barbie rarely makes it to the front page, because that's how upvotes work. Pe…

Unlike Hacker News, Reddit's new Best algorithm often surfaces newly posted post (which is a good idea that help mitigate the cold start problem), but that means people who are subscribed to /r/programming will see posts about LLMs and typically downvote them.

From the user responses to the linked ban, said ban was a positive decision for that community.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#102

Post by hperrin »

geraneum wrote: post #28
mudkipdev wrote: post #16

There can't be any interesting discussion about AI programming. Every conversation boils down to what skill files you use, or how Opus 4.6 compares to Codex, or how well you can manage 16 parallel agents.

My pet peeve with all LLM discourse is whenever someone mentions any problem they experience with LLMs or any mistake they make, someone comments that humans make the same mistake.

And the difference is that humans will learn not to make that mistake anymore.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#103

Post by hperrin »

simianwords wrote: post #27

There’s something off about Reddit. Either I grew up or it became hollow from within. Just angry people scolding each other all the time. There are some true gems however but usually in smaller focused subreddits.

You should try Lemmy. It feels a lot like Reddit did in like 2012. Small, but a great community.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#104

Post by vova_hn2 »

mudkipdev wrote: post #16

There can't be any interesting discussion about AI programming. Every conversation boils down to what skill files you use, or how Opus 4.6 compares to Codex, or how well you can manage 16 parallel agents.

Genuine question: how to distinguish yourself from the stream of slop?

I am also annoyed by the endless stream of articles and projects related to LLM-assisted coding. Not because I dislike LLM-assisted coding as an idea, but because it's all more of the same (as you said). I think that there are still a lot of low-hanging fruit in improving LLM harnesses that no one is working on because everyone seems to be chasing the latest trends ("agentic", "multiagentic", "skills") without thinking bigger.

But I'm afraid that if I finally invest time and implement some of my ideas on making LLM-assisted coding better (reliable, safer, easier for humans to interpret and understand generated code), I won't be able to gather any feedback. People will simply dismiss it as "yet another slop for creating more slop" and that's it.

What is the way out of this conundrum?

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#105

Post by csin »

simianwords wrote: post #27

There’s something off about Reddit. Either I grew up or it became hollow from within. Just angry people scolding each other all the time. There are some true gems however but usually in smaller focused subreddits.

It was inevitable given it's a top 7 most popular site.

The reality is, the masses, the real world, the average person. Is an asshole.

It doesn't reflect in the real world, because people learn to hide their assholeness at a very early age (Or they learn how to get punched in the face).

On an anonymous forum. You don't have to hide your assholeness.

Frankly it's amazing the site never devolved into 4chan. I attribute that to all the people doing free labor --> mods.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#106

Post by nromiun »

I had almost forgotten about that subreddit. Sadly it has been in a zombie state for years now. Despite having millions of members you can hardly find even 100+ comments on any post in the front page.

Last time I checked only political posts (like related to offshore programmers) got any kind of attention. Most technical posts barely gets 10 comments. Some of the smaller subreddits (like /r/ProgrammingLanguages) are much better.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#107

Post by yoz-y »

southerntofu wrote: post #95
yoz-y wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not the same. Luddites were fighting for humane working conditions; breaking machines was just a means to an end. They weren’t doing it because machines were the problem. Anti AI crowd on the other hand just doesn’t like AI. A modern equivalent of a Luddite would be someone going on strike to protest firings.

You are being overly dismissive of a mindset you obviously don't understand. Of course being anti-AI is about decent living conditions for humans. Most of us don't believe in singularity or Matrix-style threats. But current AI is actively destroying our breathable/livable planet by drawing unmatched quantities of resources (see also DRAM shortage, etc), all the while exploiting millions of non-union workers across th…

You have misinterpreted my comment. But I concede that I should have written it more clearly.

I divide anti-AI people into two groups. Those who don’t like AI because of what it is, and those who don’t like it because of its impact on society. Naturally there is an overlap.

Luddites were not opposed to the technology. So the comparison to them is only correct for the latter group.

Not talking about LLMs on a forum is not going to change anything in the grand scheme of things. It could be a protest, but I see it more (the feeling I get from the announcement) as a means to protect the forum from being overrun regardless whether AI is ultimately good or bad.

Also note that nowhere in my comment I have stated my position in this argument.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#108

Post by mrcsharp »

johnfn wrote: post #35
mudkipdev wrote: post #16

There can't be any interesting discussion about AI programming. Every conversation boils down to what skill files you use, or how Opus 4.6 compares to Codex, or how well you can manage 16 parallel agents.

There genuinely is a lot of interesting discussion to be had about LLMs, and I know this is true because I discuss things with my coworkers daily and learn a lot. I do admit that conversation online about LLMs is frequently lacking. I think it's a bit like politics - everyone has an opinion about it, so unfortunately online discourse devolves to the lowest common denominator. Hey guys, have you noticed that if you us…

For me, almost every single time a conversation like this happens in real life it boils down to the one side claiming that "This is the future" and "Don't get left behind" followed by a torrent of hype and buzzwords. So no, there is no interesting conversations to be had about LLM programming anymore.

Re: r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming

#109

Post by zer0tonin »

hperrin wrote: post #102
geraneum wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My pet peeve with all LLM discourse is whenever someone mentions any problem they experience with LLMs or any mistake they make, someone comments that humans make the same mistake.

And the difference is that humans will learn not to make that mistake anymore.

That's very optimistic.
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