RFC: What do we want to do about AI-generated content on r/apachekafka?
There's been a sharp rise in the quantity of AI-generated content being shared on this sub. This includes blogs, videos, and tools. My concern is that we are frogs in a pan, and the water temperature is approaching boiling without us realising. Low-quality posts dilute visibility of useful content; people stop bothering to even downvote; the sub slowly dies. (Related: AI Slop is Killing Online Communities.)
For some context, visits to this sub are down over the last four months straight, and nearly 50% since October's peak. Perhaps this is unrelated. Perhaps not.
People sharing content built with AI are often not ill-intentioned. They are really excited about the thing they just created. But often it's not actually that novel or useful for the Apache Kafka community, and more of a "hey look what happened when I prompted my AI tool!". Which is cool, but doesn't belong on r/apachekafka.
I'm a member of other subs who have similar challenges, and see various approaches — all with their advantages and disadvantages.
What are the options?
- Ban anything AI-created.
- Mandate self-disclosure and labelling — poster must include Built with AI flair.
- No drive-by link dumping. Contributors must be already active in the sub, and engage with comments on their posts. A first-time post in r/apachekafka may not be sharing one's own content.
- Do nothing. Let downvotes do their thing.
- Other?
My opinion
Doing nothing is not an option. Downvotes are but a paper cocktail umbrella against a deluge; ineffective at scale. The community will disengage and over time disintegrate.
An outright ban is not the positive engagement environment that we seek to foster on r/apachekafka. StackOverflow tried the absolutist route, and I along with many others simply walked away because it sucks.
My proposal is that we adopt rules 2 and 3 above.
Your opinion?
This post is literally a Request for Comments 😄
Reply with your thoughts and votes for the above options (or other suggestions). I'll summarise next week and review with the rest of the mod team before any further action is taken.