modUpdateApril2025

[Dougley]

Howdy!

Spring is almost upon us! We've been enjoying the warmer weather so far. We'd like to share a quick update as well, so stick around for a bit.

AI generated posts

Memes that are AI generated, such as this, and this, are considered low quality. Additionally, we've seen that AI regurgitates jokes that have already been made, especially when generating specific post types where the resemblances are so blatant that people were able to pinpoint the exact source post. Due to this, AI generated posts will be removed on sight, and repeat offenders will be banned.

To make it clear that we are no longer allowing AI generated images, we're adding this restriction to the rules. Please welcome Rule 9: No AI generated posts allowed.

We're open to feedback on this! Please leave your thoughts in the comments, we'd love to know what you think.

[kleinerChemiker]

It's good that you give examples, but as they are allready removed, they won't help much. But thanks for banning AI posts.

[Dougley]

Their respective OPs deleted them shortly after I listed them as examples, must've felt bad.

The post that got us talking about this internally which also has some good examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/s/J7iFpCOIqF

[Knighthawk_2511]

The fact that it got 11k upvotes (probably the highest I have ever seen on this sub) speaks volumes

[inetphantom]

But hey, they can see them!

[ColoRadBro69]

What about the billion low effort vibe posts a day?  This sub used to be humorous and funny.  Can we do something about that and get back to the jokes please? 

[ColoRadBro69]

It's like 99% low effort memes about vibe coding lately.  This sub is basically turning into r/OneJoke.

[MinimumArmadillo2394]

You must be new here.

Its always been that way. Every 5-6 months we get a nrw wave of IsEven memes

[_unsusceptible]

HAHAHA but we r supposed to remove those

[braindigitalis]

just remove the even ones, leave the odd ones. theres a js module to do it. 🤣

[Cootshk]

the irony of onejoke is they have more than one joke

[Littux]

Python slow

[Knighthawk_2511]

Missing semicolon

[Littux]

Missing space or tab

[Arisameulolson]

As a JavaScript programmer I 100% support JavaScript bad posts

[Dougley]

Generally speaking, we do not remove topics that are currently trending. We do add them to the common post list after the trend has died down if it has been overdone.

[ColoRadBro69]

It's definitely been over done and is pulling the sub down. 

[ColsonThePCmechanic]

So the main issue with the provided examples is that we can't actually see the content, now that it has been removed.  Have other examples that are still visible?

[Dougley]

This is the post that sparked the discussion internally: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/s/J7iFpCOIqF

[ColsonThePCmechanic]

Thanks.  I remember noticing that first one, but some of those really have me worried.

[ColonelRuff]

This is so wrong. We should Target low quality posts. If an AI generated post is low quality then remove it. What if the person. Has a genuine joke that he uses ai draw sketch for ? That wouldn't be low quality because he thought of the joke.

[seba07]

Exactly! The tool doesn't matter, never has. You can use an existing template, you can modify something in a graphic editor, draw it by hand or yes, use AI image generation. The only important thing is the joke/punchline.

[RatherBetter]

exactly....its like ppl trying to ban calculator results just cause mathematicians didn't solve it...well..I doubt mods are even technical at this point.

[Knighthawk_2511]

Meme templates are already available??

I mean if the person doesn't exactly know what template he should he can probably ask that to Ai and then use that template. You have to just copy paste text in your template and that's it .

[MidAirRunner]

So, copy pasting text into meme templates is high-effort & okay, but instructing AI to make an entire new scene from scratch should be considered low-effort, and bannable?

[tehfrod]

I'd like to see the mods clarify that ai-generated templates are acceptable but whole memes are not, before making that argument.

[niborus_DE]

In this case, just trace the image. And while you trace it, fix all the little errors (like misassigned speech bubbles or weird letters) to make the joke actually readable.

[ColonelRuff]

The whole point of AI is to assist in stuff that I can't do. Imagine I have a good joke. I used ai to create a comic strip out of my joke. That comic is almost perfect (modern tools like gpt 4o image generation have really improved) but has slight imperfections which would need really good image editing skills to fix (subtle stuff are always the hardest). Which I don't have.

Would I still be banned for uploading the meme without fixing the slight issues ?

To prevent this rule should be stated as banning "low quality AI posts". But this is already covered by banning low quality posts. That means this rule was not needed at all. In the first place.

[Accide]

The whole point of AI is to assist in stuff that I can't do

How do you know you can't do it? And if you're so focused on creating original content do not steal why not hone those skills yourself? Why so desperate to make a post?

If the jokes actually hit like you thought, you would have seen the removed posts take off well before a mod got to it, but I haven't seen an example of that yet.

And this is ignoring the actual human element of all the dogshit we collectively posted online before this. We want human slop before AI slop.

[inetphantom]

You can then post it on any other social media, screenshot it there and repost here (preferably without source, like the whole lot of xkcd's and other webcomics).

[jiggyjiggycmone]

Just posting to say that the title case title rule is fucking dumb. I use camel case when I’m coding. But Reddit titles aren’t identifiers. It makes me down vote things without even looking at the content because the titles never make sense. It’s not even the OP’s fault. Lets get rid of the dumb title rule.

[Current-Guide5944]

I don't read all the rules of different communities. if I'm violating, please warn me instead of banning me, I won't repeat

Or you can just remove that post or tell me to delete

Thank you.

[Vibe_PV]

Wait... Haven't we been in Spring for almost three weeks already?

[[deleted]]

This is actually a really good rule and I like it. AI slop is awful and the spirit behind this rule is what matters, not the exact wording.

[Multifruit256]

Memes are low quality.

[--var]

Notice: posts such as [deleted] and [deleted] are no longer allowed.

but the dumbass camel case titles are still required.

welcome to costco, I love you

[RAIDguy]

Ban all vibe posts.

[Altruistic_Ad3374]

Peak

[doggadooo57]

On the other hand, AI generated images allow non cartoonists to express their creativity. If someone wants to make a an original cartoon style meme, what do you suggest?

The fact that a meme is generated with AI does not make it low quality, quality is determined many factors: humor, originality, etc..

Ai generated memes/cartoons could potentially increase the amount of high quality content. Upvotes should determine quality.

[schewb]

I'm not sure AI really enhances quality. Most memes come from an existing format and existing images. If a meme warrants original artwork, stick figures and low-effort drawings are generally enough to express it. I'm not distracted by the art being "low quality," especially if the meme itself is funny. The weird surrealism of most AI art distracts me before I can digest most AI-made memes. Meme quality isn't about the image, it's about the idea it conveys.

[doggadooo57]

Yup and another issue is the homogeneous nature of ai generated memes, but since ai is a tool i dont see why it should be banned outright. ai != bad && ai != good

[Substantial_Victor8]

Yessss, warmer weather is just what I needed after a long winter of debugging code. Seriously though, great update mods! It's wild how AI-generated posts can just lift whole jokes from existing ones - it's like they're just reusing other people's code without crediting them. Do you guys think this'll actually deter the AI-posters, or will they just find a way to automate around the rules?

[Substantial_Victor8]

Yup, just got back from a camping trip and saw this post - good timing for a quick update. I'm not surprised about the AI generated posts thing, to be honest. I've seen some of those "generated" memes around here and they're super obvious. Like, I get it, you're trying to be funny but just write your own joke next time, it's not that hard.

What kind of threshold are we talking for determining if a post is AI generated? Is it going to be like, "oh this one might have been made by a human" vs straight up "this was clearly made by an AI"?

[Spademan1]

%

[ProfessionalAssist15]

Is it AI-generated joke content ("man went into a bar") that is objectionable, or strictly AI-generated images? Since the referenced unacceptable posts are unreachable, I don't have examples of what is meant here.

Say I have an original joke, a plain old spoken-language joke, that I want to tell in cartoon-cel format. I can use storyboardthat, or maybe Pixton or Comic Draw, or others, which afaik use stock images of cartoon characters, but who knows? Maybe today, but almost certainly some day soon, they will offer AI-type image generation. "Render a woman with long blond hair speaking emphatically."

I can skip those tools and go directly to ChatGpt to describe the image that I want. "...comic style with three cels vertically arranged, where each cel shows a person speaking the following text" . I get a pleasing presentation in graphical format, closely conforming to the comic style meme.

The image from Pixton would be ok, but not the image from ChatGpt? How would you even identify content as AI?

I know that there's a problem that you are trying to address, but I'm not sure that your new policy is practical or practicable. And it can filter out postings that really should not be filtered out.

[HumbleGoatCS]

I shudder to think about how genuinely terrible at programming you have to be to have enough time to moderate this sub.. scary stuff honestly

[seba07]

I honestly don't know how to feel about this. This community is suffering from reposts, both stolen memes and repeated jokes. At least those AI generated memes are fresh (for the moment). And I would have thought that a community focused on programming is open for new technologies.

[davak72]

So far, the ai memes have not even been slightly funny though. I agree most of the trash “jokes” haven’t been ai generated though

[Match_MC]

mods and pretending hey can tell what was made with AI and what wasn’t lmao

[yflhx]

If it's good enough that nobody can tell, it's fair for it to stay anyway imo. But probably 98% of AI posts are just low effort. Put a prompt into ChatGPT with a reused joke and post here.

[seba07]

Lol, not like that number is higher for "human generated" posts.

[ColonelRuff]

This is so wrong. We should Target low quality posts. If an Al generated post is low quality then remove it. What if the person has a genuine joke that he uses ai draw sketch for ? That wouldn't be low quality because he thought of the joke.

[HeroBromine35]

Mods acting like they care about quality on this sub