Flutterby™! : Gatekeeping and AI

Gatekeeping and AI

2026-02-18 17:20:08.83168+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

A lot of discussion out there about how to create a culture of quality in a world filled with AI slop, especially in Open Source.

Some random links:

Joan Westenberg: The case for gatekeeping, or: why medieval guilds had it figured out

I don't mean you need a certificate to write Python. I mean something closer to what the Debian project has done with its Web of Trust model for decades: existing trusted contributors vouch for new ones. Your vouching carries weight proportional to your own standing. If you vouch for someone who turns out to be a spam vector, that costs you something. The system works because it makes reputation legible without making it bureaucratic.

@Daojoan on the Fediverse, lobste.rs.

Jared White on the Fediverse proposing an end to anonymous contributions, with pushback from David Gerard citing the awfulness of real name policies.

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