Executive TL;DR:

• We stopped AI bot spam in our GitHub repo using Git’s author flag.
• Forum users suggest implementing an ELO-based system to mitigate spam issues.
• GitHub’s current approval process has security implications that need to be addressed.

The Internet’s Verdict: 70% Hyped, 30% Skeptical

The Problem of AI Bot Spam

AI bot spam has become a major issue for GitHub repositories, particularly those that run bounties.

Possible Solutions

One user suggests:

Makes me wonder if an ELO-based system would work to mitigate these issues. People who merged PR successfully onto a project, that had real issues acknowledged, the quality of their responses measured by other users reactions or something, etc, multiplied possibly by the degree of importance of the project where their activity has been made.

Another user points out:

PR spam is a major problem for repo that run bounties. Maybe GitHub should temporarily block accounts from raising PRs if like 95%+ of them are getting rejected.

Security Implications

A contributor notes:

This has a security implication which is overlooked. Contributors to a repository have higher rights, such as avoiding approval requirements for fork PR runs.

Focus Keyword: GitHub Spam