The restrictions go well beyond AI. To be featured, projects must now have been actively maintained for at least a year, have an established community and at least three contributors, give or take. Student projects such as note-taking apps are out, developers can no longer recruit maintainers through the forum, and posters need a Reddit account at least a year old with significant prior contributions. The rules also exclude anyone who doesn't speak English, because moderators say they cannot distinguish AI-written text from AI translations.

Critics have been quick to point out the collateral damage. One developer noted their nine-year-old project, with more than 300 GitHub stars and dozens of resolved issues, would no longer qualify as its sole contributor. Fellow moderator ssddanbrown publicly objected to the language rule, saying they had not been consulted. Even the Linux kernel, which contains AI-generated code, sits awkwardly with the policy, though Wolvereness suggested it would probably still be allowed, conceding there is no objective way to enforce the ban.

The backlash has already spawned alternatives, including r/TrueOpenSource and r/OpenSourceAIAllowed, which the original announcement now points disgruntled users towards. The moderators are free to run their forum as they see fit, and developers are equally free to post elsewhere.