[QGIS-Developer] Two proposals -- moratorium on LLM use, and requiring a "proof of life" for contributors

[Nyall Dawson]

Hi list,

It's quite clear that there's considerable hurt and disappointment
within the QGIS developer community right now, and for very
understandable reasons.

I've been giving this a lot of thought over the last few days, and
would like to propose two actions we could take that I think would
make a positive difference to our community.

#1. Place an immediate, total moratorium on all forms of LLM based
contributions.

We've tried gentle policies regarding this up till now, but clearly
that's not helping. So I would like to propose a complete and total
moratorium on any form of contribution assisted in any way (beyond as
a replacement for a simple web search*).

I think we should introduce a firm policy ASAP as a step toward
repairing our community, and only after this could we start
discussions about what form of LLM contribution may be acceptable.

I.e. RIGHT NOW we default to a safe "NO AI" policy, and potentially
later loosen this, rather than having a loose policy right now that
maybe we'll correct in future.

#2. Require a "proof of life" from all new contributors

The above policy only really applies to existing contributors who we
know and trust. Any policy we introduce will just be totally ignored
or lied about by bots or karma farming AI sloppers. I've been
wondering how to handle this. I've been thinking some form of "proof
that you are a human and who you actually are" could be required, as
some kind of document submitted to PSC for private/secure storage. But
realistically, that's impossible in 2026, as any form of ID document
could be forged in a few seconds, and it's clearly not possible for
QGIS.org to police.

So I'd propose that new contributors must FIRST make a financial
donation to the QGIS project, before any contributions from that
person are accepted in any form. This could be a small amount, just
enough to deter the karma farmers who don't actually care about the
project and what they're contributing. And any amount would be
sufficient to block the bots.

(Another solution could be to require a face-to-face, in person
meeting with a contributor before they can submit changes)

What do you all think? I believe we need to act immediately on #1. (I
realise #2 may be more tricky and/or controversial)

Nyall



* because the web is broken in 2026. "simple" web searches don't work anymore.