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June 5, 2023
Stack Overflow, Inc. has decreed a near-total prohibition on moderating AI-generated content in the wake of a flood of such content being posted to and subsequently removed from the Stack Exchange network, tacitly allowing the proliferation of incorrect information ("hallucinations") and unfettered plagiarism on the Stack Exchange network. This poses a major threat to the integrity and trustworthiness of the platform and its content.
We, the undersigned, are volunteer moderators, contributors, and users of Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network. Effective immediately, we are enacting a general moderation strike on Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network, in protest of this and other recent and upcoming changes to policy and the platform that are being forced upon us by Stack Overflow, Inc.
Our efforts to effect change through proper channels have been ignored, and our concerns disregarded at every turn. Now, as a last resort, we are striking out of dedication to the platform that we have put over a decade of care and volunteer effort into. We deeply believe in the core mission of the Stack Exchange network: to provide a repository of high-quality information in the form of questions and answers, and the recent actions taken by Stack Overflow, Inc. are directly harmful to that goal .
Specifically, moderators are no longer allowed to remove AI-generated answers on the basis of being AI-generated, outside of exceedingly narrow circumstances. This results in effectively permitting nearly all AI-generated answers to be freely posted, regardless of established community consensus on such content.
In turn, this allows incorrect information (colloquially referred to as " hallucinations ") and plagiarism to proliferate unchecked on the platform. This destroys trust in the platform, as Stack Overflow, Inc. has previously noted .
In addition, the details of the policies issued directly to moderators differ substantially from the guidelines outlined publicly, with moderators barred from publicly sharing the details.
These policies disregard the leeway historically granted to individual Stack Exchange communities to determine their policies, by making changes without the input of the community, overriding community consensus, and outright refusing to reconsider their position.
Until this matter is resolved satisfactorily, we will be pausing activities including, but not limited to:
Raising and handling flags.
Running SmokeDetector, the anti-spam bot .
Closing or voting to close posts.
Deleting or voting to delete posts.
Reviewing tasks in the various review queues.
Running various other bots designed to assist in moderation, such as detecting plagiarism, low-quality answers, and rude comments.
Until Stack Overflow, Inc. retracts this policy change to a degree that addresses the concerns of the moderators, and allows moderators to effectively enforce established policies against AI-generated answers, we are calling for a general moderation strike, as a last-resort effort to protect the Stack Exchange platform and users from a total loss in value. We would also like to remind Stack Overflow, Inc. that a network that entirely relies on volunteers for its moderation model cannot then consistently ignore, mistreat, and malign those same volunteers.
Signed,
Baum mit Augen ♦ Jun 2
sideshowbarker ♦ Jun 2
Ward ♦ Jun 3
random ♦ Jun 4
Cody Gray ♦ Jun 2
Sathyajith Bhat ♦ Jun 3
Mast ♦ Jun 2
gbianchi ♦ Jun 2
cag51 ♦ Jun 3
Scortchi ♦ Jun 3
Bryan Krause ♦ Jun 2
Zoe ♦ Jun 2
Machavity ♦ Jun 2
Aloizio Macedo ♦ Jun 4
blackgreen ♦ Jun 2
Undo ♦ Jun 2
Anton Menshov ♦ Jun 2
Ian Campbell ♦ Jun 2
Mad Scientist ♦ Jun 2
Stephen Rauch ♦ Jun 3
DavidPostill ♦ Jun 3
terdon ♦ Jun 2
Stephie ♦ Jun 4
ChrisF ♦ Jun 2
Andy ♦ Jun 3
journeyman geek ♦ Jun 3
Paramanand Singh ♦ Jun 3
curious ♦ Jun 2
thesecretmaster ♦ Jun 2
Ry- ♦ Jun 3
rene ♦ Jun 2
Zanna ♦ Jun 4
andrew.46 ♦ Jun 2
Samuel Liew ♦ Jun 2
Alexander Gruber ♦ Jun 2
Rob ♦ Jun 4
Pedro ♦ Jun 2
ArtOfCode ♦ Jun 2
Canadian Luke ♦ Jun 2
Ganesh Sittampalam ♦ Jun 2
Thomas Owens ♦ Jun 2
RoryAlsop ♦ Jun 3
Mithical ♦ Jun 2
C. Lange ♦ Jun 3
Wrzlprmft ♦ Jun 3
Kusalananda ♦ Jun 2
Ruben ♦ Jun 3
Makyen ♦ Jun 2
Nofate ♦ Jun 3
Mokubai ♦ Jun 3
MX D ♦ Jun 4
Luke Sawczak ♦ Jun 3
El'endia Starman â—Š Jun 3
Caleb â—Š Jun 3
Massimo Ortolano â—Š Jun 3
Loong â—Š Jun 3
Shog9 â—Š Jun 2
Jon Clements â—Š Jun 2
doppelgreener â—Š Jun 2
Petra Minaler Jun 2
Frizlab Jun 2
Oli Jun 2
greg-449 Jun 4
Adrian Mole Jun 2
StormFoo Jun 2
das_ Jun 2
Paul Enta Jun 4
Jasmijn Jun 2
Elements in Space Jun 4
The Thonnu Jun 4
Stargateur Jun 3
Andras Deak Jun 2
CDR Jun 4
Dan Masek Jun 3
Ken White Jun 4
Balarka Sen Jun 3
jps Jun 2
4b0 Jun 2
lamak Jun 2
Arnis Lapsa Jun 2
John C Franke Jun 2
D.C. the III Jun 3
userless Jun 4
Thierry Lathuille Jun 3
qharr Jun 3
Muhammed Abiola Jun 2
S.L. Barth Jun 2
Denys Seguret Jun 3
Vickel Jun 2
Anonymous M Jun 2
E_net4 Jun 2
jq170727 Jun 2
Oleg Valter Jun 2
Danis Jun 2
mousetail Jun 2
radeklew Jun 2
gnat Jun 3
Aquatica Jun 2
cigien Jun 2
mplungjan Jun 3
markalex Jun 2
Destroy666 Jun 3
celsius narhwal Jun 2
Antti Haapala Jun 2
Jesse Jun 2
David Heffernan Jun 4
Lino Jun 2
nmpennypacker Jun 2
Nordine Lotfi Jun 3
Ethan Jun 2
KEMONO_PANTSU Jun 2
Pablo Jun 2
Ross H Jun 4
thebrettd Jun 2
Makoto Jun 2
Sineofthetime Jun 3
Ander Biguri Jun 2
snkecharmerb Jun 4
cocomac Jun 3
RocketNikita Jun 2
冥王 Hades Jun 3
LW001 Jun 2
Starship is go for launch Jun 4
khelwood Jun 3
jmoerdyk Jun 2
nmath Jun 4
ocodo Jun 3
AdrianHHH Jun 3
Mikko Ohtamaa Jun 2
vidarlo Jun 3
kromster80 Jun 4
mustaccio Jun 2
Thomas Markov Jun 2
Akixkisu Jun 3
Jeremy Banks Jun 2
BeastOfCaerbannog Jun 3
Nick Jun 2
Andreas O. J. Jun 2
Erik Reed Jun 2
Alon Eitan Jun 3
ldrg Jun 2
Silvio Mayolo Jun 3
double-beep Jun 3
Spevacus Jun 2
Shadow Wizard Jun 3
roganjosh Jun 3
Vogel612 Jun 4
starball Jun 2
Joseph Sible Jun 2
tripleee Jun 2
ofou Jun 2
Elias Jun 3
Shu-Wai Chow Jun 2
VLAZ Jun 2
JR Ong Jun 3
lus Jun 2
philipxy Jun 4
Kevin B Jun 2
Natejb Jun 2
QBrute Jun 4
Candid Moe Jun 2
kmdreko Jun 3
PM 2Ring Jun 4
Dalija Prasnikar Jun 2
M.A.R. Jun 3
Tim Jun 2
Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Jun 2
Ilja Everila Jun 2
Suraj Rao Jun 2
Marco Bonelli Jun 2
Thom A Jun 4
Mark Rotteveel Jun 4
gre_gor Jun 4
janw Jun 3
schrodingerscatcuriosity Jun 3
metatoaster Jun 4
M-- Jun 3
Ted Shifrin Jun 3
dan1st Jun 2
Peter Cordes Jun 3
Zhenya Kovalyov Jun 2
CodeCaster Jun 2
Gypsy Spellweaver Jun 2
Sophie L (Rexogamer) Jun 2
njord Jun 2
Peter Kolosov Jun 4
Monomantle82 Jun 3
jcsahnwaldt Reinstate Monica Jun 4
Expand all 188↓
If you support the sentiments we've expressed in this letter, you can sign it too to demonstrate your support.
*
If you're a moderator or employee, your signature will have a ♦ shown next to it automatically. If you're a former moderator or former employee, and would like a ◊, please contact Mousetail .
When you click Sign, you will be taken to authenticate with your Stack Exchange account. This allows us to make sure everyone is only able to sign once. Once authentication is complete, your access token is discarded and no access to your account is possible.
FAQ
Why not judge AI-generated content by the same standards as other content?
Content generated by generative AI like ChatGPT can look high quality on the surface — High quality enough to fool a casual observer and such content can often gain upvotes or even accepts despite being wildly inaccurate.
AI-generated content can be spammed at a very high speed. While a human can, with enough effort, write a semi-convincing story about a subject matter they know little about, an AI can write 10 such answers in 5 minutes, utterly overwhelming the community's effort to carefully fact check those answers.
What metrics do mods really use other than unreliable automatic AI detection tools to suspend users?
Just one tool saying one answer is AI is not enough to get a suspension. Mods combine their own intuition as well as multiple tools together to form a conclusion. While any one method can be unreliable, when an answer feels like AI written and multiple automated tools agree, mods can be quite confident that the post is indeed AI generated.
Mods already err on the side of lenience. If they are unsure something is AI written no suspensions are issued.
The new policy bans use of all manual and automatic detection methods, even when combined, leaving no options. Even obvious AI content won't be able to be removed, and will flood the site.
I am not a moderator on any stack exchange site, how can I help?
Even if you are not a moderator you can participate in the strike by:
Not voting on posts
Not submitting edits
Not reviewing in the review queues
Not commenting
Not flagging posts
DO NOT purposefully submit AI-generated answers during the strike. While we will not be removing them during the strike you may be suspended afterwards. We anticipate plenty will get posted anyway without purposefully submitting more.
Single Line Text
June 5, 2023. Stack Overflow, Inc. has decreed a near-total prohibition on moderating AI-generated content in the wake of a flood of such content being posted to and subsequently removed from the Stack Exchange network, tacitly allowing the proliferation of incorrect information ("hallucinations") and unfettered plagiarism on the Stack Exchange network. This poses a major threat to the integrity and trustworthiness of the platform and its content. We, the undersigned, are volunteer moderators, contributors, and users of Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network. Effective immediately, we are enacting a general moderation strike on Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network, in protest of this and other recent and upcoming changes to policy and the platform that are being forced upon us by Stack Overflow, Inc. Our efforts to effect change through proper channels have been ignored, and our concerns disregarded at every turn. Now, as a last resort, we are striking out of dedication to the platform that we have put over a decade of care and volunteer effort into. We deeply believe in the core mission of the Stack Exchange network: to provide a repository of high-quality information in the form of questions and answers, and the recent actions taken by Stack Overflow, Inc. are directly harmful to that goal . Specifically, moderators are no longer allowed to remove AI-generated answers on the basis of being AI-generated, outside of exceedingly narrow circumstances. This results in effectively permitting nearly all AI-generated answers to be freely posted, regardless of established community consensus on such content. In turn, this allows incorrect information (colloquially referred to as " hallucinations ") and plagiarism to proliferate unchecked on the platform. This destroys trust in the platform, as Stack Overflow, Inc. has previously noted . In addition, the details of the policies issued directly to moderators differ substantially from the guidelines outlined publicly, with moderators barred from publicly sharing the details. These policies disregard the leeway historically granted to individual Stack Exchange communities to determine their policies, by making changes without the input of the community, overriding community consensus, and outright refusing to reconsider their position. Until this matter is resolved satisfactorily, we will be pausing activities including, but not limited to: Raising and handling flags. Running SmokeDetector, the anti-spam bot . Closing or voting to close posts. Deleting or voting to delete posts. Reviewing tasks in the various review queues. Running various other bots designed to assist in moderation, such as detecting plagiarism, low-quality answers, and rude comments. Until Stack Overflow, Inc. retracts this policy change to a degree that addresses the concerns of the moderators, and allows moderators to effectively enforce established policies against AI-generated answers, we are calling for a general moderation strike, as a last-resort effort to protect the Stack Exchange platform and users from a total loss in value. We would also like to remind Stack Overflow, Inc. that a network that entirely relies on volunteers for its moderation model cannot then consistently ignore, mistreat, and malign those same volunteers. Signed, Baum mit Augen ♦ Jun 2. sideshowbarker ♦ Jun 2. Ward ♦ Jun 3. random ♦ Jun 4. Cody Gray ♦ Jun 2. Sathyajith Bhat ♦ Jun 3. Mast ♦ Jun 2. gbianchi ♦ Jun 2. cag51 ♦ Jun 3. Scortchi ♦ Jun 3. Bryan Krause ♦ Jun 2. Zoe ♦ Jun 2. Machavity ♦ Jun 2. Aloizio Macedo ♦ Jun 4. blackgreen ♦ Jun 2. Undo ♦ Jun 2. Anton Menshov ♦ Jun 2. Ian Campbell ♦ Jun 2. Mad Scientist ♦ Jun 2. Stephen Rauch ♦ Jun 3. DavidPostill ♦ Jun 3. terdon ♦ Jun 2. Stephie ♦ Jun 4. ChrisF ♦ Jun 2. Andy ♦ Jun 3. journeyman geek ♦ Jun 3. Paramanand Singh ♦ Jun 3. curious ♦ Jun 2. thesecretmaster ♦ Jun 2. Ry- ♦ Jun 3. rene ♦ Jun 2. Zanna ♦ Jun 4. andrew.46 ♦ Jun 2. Samuel Liew ♦ Jun 2. Alexander Gruber ♦ Jun 2. Rob ♦ Jun 4. Pedro ♦ Jun 2. ArtOfCode ♦ Jun 2. Canadian Luke ♦ Jun 2. Ganesh Sittampalam ♦ Jun 2. Thomas Owens ♦ Jun 2. RoryAlsop ♦ Jun 3. Mithical ♦ Jun 2. C. Lange ♦ Jun 3. Wrzlprmft ♦ Jun 3. Kusalananda ♦ Jun 2. Ruben ♦ Jun 3. Makyen ♦ Jun 2. Nofate ♦ Jun 3. Mokubai ♦ Jun 3. MX D ♦ Jun 4. Luke Sawczak ♦ Jun 3. El'endia Starman ◊ Jun 3. Caleb ◊ Jun 3. Massimo Ortolano ◊ Jun 3. Loong ◊ Jun 3. Shog9 ◊ Jun 2. Jon Clements ◊ Jun 2. doppelgreener ◊ Jun 2. Petra Minaler Jun 2. Frizlab Jun 2. Oli Jun 2. greg-449 Jun 4. Adrian Mole Jun 2. StormFoo Jun 2. das_ Jun 2. Paul Enta Jun 4. Jasmijn Jun 2. Elements in Space Jun 4. The Thonnu Jun 4. Stargateur Jun 3. Andras Deak Jun 2. CDR Jun 4. Dan Masek Jun 3. Ken White Jun 4. Balarka Sen Jun 3. jps Jun 2. 4b0 Jun 2. lamak Jun 2. Arnis Lapsa Jun 2. John C Franke Jun 2. D.C. the III Jun 3. userless Jun 4. Thierry Lathuille Jun 3. qharr Jun 3. Muhammed Abiola Jun 2. S.L. Barth Jun 2. Denys Seguret Jun 3. Vickel Jun 2. Anonymous M Jun 2. E_net4 Jun 2. jq170727 Jun 2. Oleg Valter Jun 2. Danis Jun 2. mousetail Jun 2. radeklew Jun 2. gnat Jun 3. Aquatica Jun 2. cigien Jun 2. mplungjan Jun 3. markalex Jun 2. Destroy666 Jun 3. celsius narhwal Jun 2. Antti Haapala Jun 2. Jesse Jun 2. David Heffernan Jun 4. Lino Jun 2. nmpennypacker Jun 2. Nordine Lotfi Jun 3. Ethan Jun 2. KEMONO_PANTSU Jun 2. Pablo Jun 2. Ross H Jun 4. thebrettd Jun 2. Makoto Jun 2. Sineofthetime Jun 3. Ander Biguri Jun 2. snkecharmerb Jun 4. cocomac Jun 3. RocketNikita Jun 2. 冥王 Hades Jun 3. LW001 Jun 2. Starship is go for launch Jun 4. khelwood Jun 3. jmoerdyk Jun 2. nmath Jun 4. ocodo Jun 3. AdrianHHH Jun 3. Mikko Ohtamaa Jun 2. vidarlo Jun 3. kromster80 Jun 4. mustaccio Jun 2. Thomas Markov Jun 2. Akixkisu Jun 3. Jeremy Banks Jun 2. BeastOfCaerbannog Jun 3. Nick Jun 2. Andreas O. J. Jun 2. Erik Reed Jun 2. Alon Eitan Jun 3. ldrg Jun 2. Silvio Mayolo Jun 3. double-beep Jun 3. Spevacus Jun 2. Shadow Wizard Jun 3. roganjosh Jun 3. Vogel612 Jun 4. starball Jun 2. Joseph Sible Jun 2. tripleee Jun 2. ofou Jun 2. Elias Jun 3. Shu-Wai Chow Jun 2. VLAZ Jun 2. JR Ong Jun 3. lus Jun 2. philipxy Jun 4. Kevin B Jun 2. Natejb Jun 2. QBrute Jun 4. Candid Moe Jun 2. kmdreko Jun 3. PM 2Ring Jun 4. Dalija Prasnikar Jun 2. M.A.R. Jun 3. Tim Jun 2. Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Jun 2. Ilja Everila Jun 2. Suraj Rao Jun 2. Marco Bonelli Jun 2. Thom A Jun 4. Mark Rotteveel Jun 4. gre_gor Jun 4. janw Jun 3. schrodingerscatcuriosity Jun 3. metatoaster Jun 4. M-- Jun 3. Ted Shifrin Jun 3. dan1st Jun 2. Peter Cordes Jun 3. Zhenya Kovalyov Jun 2. CodeCaster Jun 2. Gypsy Spellweaver Jun 2. Sophie L (Rexogamer) Jun 2. njord Jun 2. Peter Kolosov Jun 4. Monomantle82 Jun 3. jcsahnwaldt Reinstate Monica Jun 4. Expand all 188↓. If you support the sentiments we've expressed in this letter, you can sign it too to demonstrate your support. * If you're a moderator or employee, your signature will have a ♦ shown next to it automatically. If you're a former moderator or former employee, and would like a ◊, please contact Mousetail . When you click Sign, you will be taken to authenticate with your Stack Exchange account. This allows us to make sure everyone is only able to sign once. Once authentication is complete, your access token is discarded and no access to your account is possible. FAQ. Why not judge AI-generated content by the same standards as other content? Content generated by generative AI like ChatGPT can look high quality on the surface — High quality enough to fool a casual observer and such content can often gain upvotes or even accepts despite being wildly inaccurate. AI-generated content can be spammed at a very high speed. While a human can, with enough effort, write a semi-convincing story about a subject matter they know little about, an AI can write 10 such answers in 5 minutes, utterly overwhelming the community's effort to carefully fact check those answers. What metrics do mods really use other than unreliable automatic AI detection tools to suspend users? Just one tool saying one answer is AI is not enough to get a suspension. Mods combine their own intuition as well as multiple tools together to form a conclusion. While any one method can be unreliable, when an answer feels like AI written and multiple automated tools agree, mods can be quite confident that the post is indeed AI generated. Mods already err on the side of lenience. If they are unsure something is AI written no suspensions are issued. The new policy bans use of all manual and automatic detection methods, even when combined, leaving no options. Even obvious AI content won't be able to be removed, and will flood the site. I am not a moderator on any stack exchange site, how can I help? Even if you are not a moderator you can participate in the strike by: Not voting on posts. Not submitting edits. Not reviewing in the review queues. Not commenting. Not flagging posts. DO NOT purposefully submit AI-generated answers during the strike. While we will not be removing them during the strike you may be suspended afterwards. We anticipate plenty will get posted anyway without purposefully submitting more.