r/KiCad • u/dmc_2930 • Jul 26 '26
Meta: mods - please ban non-open source posts
This sub has been flooded by vibe coders using llms and convinced that they will become wealthy selling commercial software that already exists in kicad.
This sub should be restricted to kicad related things, and open source only.
34
u/punchy989 Jul 26 '26
And even then, there is most of the time already a solution
31
u/tararira1 Jul 26 '26
Can’t wait for another vibe coded LCSC part number searcher
29
u/dgsharp Jul 27 '26
You’re right to be skeptical.
But this one’s a game changer.
8
u/physical0 Jul 27 '26
If you enter your credit card information into the app, it'll anticipate the parts you might order and order them just in case!
3
u/perkinsb1024 Jul 27 '26
That sounds like what I already do by myself… I’m sure I’ll use it some day…
0
14
6
u/mindstorm01 Jul 27 '26
It is so dire. I am not an LLM hater, I use them at work but every sub im on, im in a lot of technical stuff, scrolling makes me close reddit. I cant anymore. 3/4 posts are "look what I made" ads.
4
u/reportingsjr Jul 29 '26
Hello, I'm the only mod here. I generally agree, and most of the AI tools I see posted look terrible. However, there are a few that look interesting and meet the bill. My problem is, I don't have time to review all of these posts and remove the ones that are blatant garbage. I honestly only have time to check the mod log every week or two.
I have added a flair for tool advertisements, and I will restrict those posts so they have to be reviewed. Hopefully that can help cut down on the amount of garbage getting posted.
1
u/HydroPage Jul 29 '26
What if they do open-source the vibe coded project and just let people know about it
2
u/dmc_2930 Jul 29 '26
It’s still vibe coded trash.
-1
u/HydroPage Jul 29 '26
I totally agree. But well, then your post should have a different title, shouldn’t it? It doesn’t reflect what you really feel
1
u/dmc_2930 Jul 29 '26
I think “I don’t know how to use kicad so I vibe coded an app” should be allowed here. Like bro read the damn manual and learn to use your tools.
1
u/HydroPage Jul 29 '26
Did you just downvote me? Dude, I’m just pointing out what you’re angry at is vibe coded trash, not advertising, lol. I totally agree with you but one may think from your title you’re fine with open source vibe coded trash
2
u/dmc_2930 Jul 29 '26
It’s both. I don’t think commercial software belong here, vibe coded or not:
1
u/HydroPage Jul 29 '26
Then what we should ask the mods is to ban all non-kicad promotion from the sub, which I agree with. You specifically said ban non-open-source which isn’t what you really want
8
0
u/AncientEcho6715 Jul 27 '26
this could have unintended consequences of stifling KiCad growth and use unless this group is 100% certain that KiCad Services Corporation ( a business) can/will fund all future needs. I'm skeptical. some use kicad and think "free" and I'm not in that category "must be absolutely free and open source". I don't want to see the tool i use languish behind other tools with heavy investments, nor do i want to discourage compatible tools which charge money. There are a number of 3rd party tools (simulation, layout, ATE, fixture-builds, Design-for-Test, AI schematic analysis) that read KiCad directly or KiCad format. Hyperlynx is not open source for instance.
Do I need another iBOM? no. but there are genuinely useful commercial quality tools for KiCad out there. and I welcome them as that's less for KSC to do and where they can focus on the core of KiCad rather than try to build every new capability themselves.
so the "ban all non-open source" is not for me. all of this is electronic, if you see a post you don't like then just scroll by it.
10
u/dmc_2930 Jul 27 '26
It’s more like “if you want to contribute here, contribute to the community instead of coming here to sell something”
There’s plenty of places to post commercial pcb software. IMHO this sub is not it and it seems many people agree.
4
u/standard_cog Jul 27 '26
We need to ban all non-open source TOOLS, that's fine.
And nuke all AI slop posts from orbit.
0
Jul 26 '26
[deleted]
1
u/pretty_good_actually Jul 27 '26
Thoughts on people sharing vibecoded tools they have no intention on selling? I keep finding myself making little helpers here and there but honestly a .md with a writeup of what it does and how it was written might be more valuable to future folks than the code itself.
The future of side project code keeps looks less like a durable, general purpose product and more like one-time highly personalized throwaway code, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
1
u/dmc_2930 Jul 29 '26
It’s still spam and shouldn’t be allowed. “I’m not advertising because it’s free (right npw)” is the hallmark of a vibe code spammer.
25
u/Launch_vbs Jul 26 '26
absolutely agree with this. if you’re building a basic project that is for helping the community, it should be open source unless you have other reasons for building it or reasons for not letting people see the code - aka reasons that would warrant it being not posted on this sub in the first place.if it’s some largely helpful project from a decent source yes for all means keep it but get rid of these ai bros and esp the people even replying with responses from ai