IF THIS LINK WAS FOR YOU
I know sites like these can feel dismissive and passive-aggressive. But this isn’t meant to be an attack, just a shove in the right direction. If someone thinks your project is slopware, don’t despair, you have a chance to fix your work and prove them wrong!
SLOPWARE IS SOFTWARE THAT
- low effort
- is careless or sloppy in construction
- buried under heaps of noise
- unmaintainable
These problems are made drastically worse when you use AI incorrectly.
IF YOU’RE A BEGINNER
- being inexperienced is fine
- bad code is fine
- learning in public is fine
AI overuse hurts you:
- if you’re doing this for your own learning: you will learn better without AI.
- if you genuinely believe in the utility of the software you made, write about it yourself. AI advertisements sound disingenuous and are an instant turn-off.
FIXING YOUR PROJECT
- slow down
- cut the clutter
- rewrite the parts you understand
- learn the parts you don’t
- make it so you can reason about every detail
DO THIS FOR NEW PROJECTS
- solve one real problem, cleanly
- keep the scope small and maintainable
- write the README yourself, even if it’s imperfect
- only use AI sparingly and intentionally, if at all
WHY THIS WEBSITE
To those tired of seeing slopware everywhere: you’re not alone. Writing the same feedback under every noisy, AI-padded repo gets exhausting. You have better things to do with your time; and yet, it’s important to inform project authors why their work isn’t being received well.
stopslopware.net exists to fill this need.
So, the next time you find yourself scrolling past a slopware announcement post you’re too drained to critique, consider dropping a link to this site instead. It’s quick, it’s honest, and with any luck, the author will take a moment to reflect on how they can do better.
P.S. For a more detailed discussion, consider reading the article your project sucks.
stopslopware.net is a love letter to FOSS, and dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 license. Open source on Codeberg and hosted on grebedoc. Feedback welcome.