Reddit's r/opensource Bans AI Projects and Anything Under a Year Old

Moderators of Reddit's r/opensource community announced rules on Oct. 24 that ban projects built with AI, projects that use AI and software meant for AI, and that also require any project posted to be at least a year old, according to Tom's Hardware and The Verge.

The Verge, in a story by Terrence O'Brien published Oct. 25, said the rules "have sparked a revolt" in the comments. Tom's Hardware, in a story by tech journalist Newton Gitonga dated Oct. 26, reported that the backlash produced a rival subreddit, r/TrueOpenSource, started by the Reddit user u/esk6plays.

What the moderators wrote

The AI rule is blunt. "If it's obvious you're using AI in your project, we don't want it. Tokens are cheap, and we don't care how many you spent to make your amazing project," the moderators wrote, as quoted by Tom's Hardware.

The rules go beyond AI. Projects must have been actively maintained for at least one year, have multiple contributors, have an existing community and use an OSI-approved open-source licence, the Tom's Hardware report said. Student projects such as note-taking apps and PDF viewers are excluded. Posts asking for maintainers or contributors are no longer allowed.

Posters need a Reddit account at least a year old with a history of contributions. Users who contact the moderators after a failed post could face a permanent ban and a mute.

Requirement	Reported detail
Project age	At least one year, actively maintained
Contributors	More than one, plus an existing community
Licence	OSI-approved
Poster account	At least one year old, with a contribution history

The English-language clause

The moderators also told non-English speakers to go elsewhere. "If you don't speak English, you need to find a different community," the post reads, as quoted by The Verge. "We cannot distinguish between AI-written and AI-translated. Since you don't speak English, you can't even verify yourself if it translated correctly."

Tom's Hardware reported one commenter calling the clause "disgusting." It also reported a developer whose nine-year-old project has more than 300 GitHub stars but a single contributor, who said it would fail the multiple-contributor test despite having no AI involvement.

The Linux kernel test

The restrictions raised the question of whether the Linux kernel, as AI becomes more common in software development, could fall foul of them. The Terminal has covered projects on both sides of that line, from design skills that target AI slop to an AI-written compiler with a 3.5x speed claim over C++. A moderator going by Wolvereness said the kernel would meet the minimum requirements, Tom's Hardware reported, and suggested that whether a project is obviously AI-generated would be a subjective call. The outlet said that leaves room for moderators to rule differently from project to project.

The subjective test is the part that cannot be checked. The one-year test can. Three repositories that drew attention on Oct. 26 were all created within the past eight months: NVIDIA's SkillSpector on March 21, 2026, VoiceStudio on April 9, 2026 and PaperPilot on Sept. 28, 2026. Their star counts were 21,918, 88,538 and 516. Measured by creation date, none reaches a year, so none could be posted under the rule as the two outlets describe it. That is The Terminal's reading of the reported rule, not a ruling by the moderators.

Hacker News carried the original Reddit post on Oct. 25 as a story titled "R/open source bans all solo projects and projects using LLMs," which drew 90 points and 121 comments. Another Hacker News submission linking Tom's Hardware had 15 points and 22 comments on Oct. 26.

The moderators acknowledged r/TrueOpenSource in an edit to their announcement and described it as a possible refuge for affected users, per Tom's Hardware. Reddit has not been quoted on the rules in either report.