I've noticed in this sub corporate tools pose as personal projects
Posted by kuhunaxeyive@reddit | LocalLLaMA | View on Reddit | 64 comments
When corporate tools pose as personal projects
Several recent posts in r/LocalLLM have disguised commercial products as personal projects, undermining the sub's credibility, and I'm annoyed. How do you think about it?
I'll give two examples here:
Hyperlink, promoted as "I built a local AI agent," is a product by Nexa AI. The post frames it as an individual's passion project, while the website clearly markets it as a corporate tool with plans for Pro and Enterprise tiers. The claim that "everything you can do today is free" is technically true but strategically vague. It implies permanence where none is guaranteed. This is not transparency; it’s marketing wrapped in a personal narrative.
Hyprnote engaged in the same pattern across multiple subreddits, posting under the guise of "giving back" with 100 free licenses. This was not community contribution, it was beta recruitment. When called out by me, the posts were deleted within an hour.
These are not minor missteps. They seem to happen quite often on this sub and they exploit the trust and technical culture of this community to bypass advertising norms. If you represent a company, say so. Don't pretend to be a solo developer building in your spare time. The value of this sub depends on honest disclosure.
Savantskie1@reddit
I know I made a post that kind of resembles this, but I promise I have no corporate backing or anything. I wish I had that kind of money. I just built my memory system to solve a pain problem. I'm disabled, and need assistance with remembering things. And I had noticed LLMs don't have that capability. I noticed that a lot of people were just copy and pasting stuff for their models to ''remember'' I figured I'd try to fix it. My project is totally open source. Now, would I love some corporate backing to make my project even better? Of course I would. But I'd never get rid of the free version on Github. If anything, i'd make sure I updated it with anything I was able to add on my own version.
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
What you describe is very different from what we experience on this sub. Your case is a personal project that might get backed up commercially at some point, and I assume you would announce it as such.
What we experience on this sub is commercial software pretending to be a personal project, closed source pretending to be open source, and niceties just being advertisement offers or a request to beta test.
Savantskie1@reddit
Ah, yeah those suck. I just thought mine might be mistaken as such and didn't want anyone to accuse me. Sorry, I'm kinda insecure about stuff like that. Probably need more counseling.
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
Those bad actors surely make it more difficult for projects like yours to be accepted, and that's exactly the reason why we should call them out and don't allow them on this sub. But no worries, just be very clear and honest about your software, and you'll be fine!
tiffanytrashcan@reddit
The latest one seemingly has like a dozen employees randomly chiming in from locked down accounts.
I'm going back to my rule of: checking the account first, and if it's closed off - downvoting, reporting for spam, and moving on.
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the hint. I've just left a comment on their post and let's see how long it takes for them to delete their post or being taken down.
tiffanytrashcan@reddit
Oh wow, no I actually meant the one with them advertising their interface engine, but it literally requires a license, always on internet to phone home for said license, Etc. A newer post.
Then found the conflicting information on the website vs what they say vs what it says somewhere else on the website vs what they lie about here.
Bizarre that they will only reply to comments from other accounts, not the one posting.
They all but gave up on trying to publish research and be flashy on their blog and website now it seems they're turning to this new marketing scam of using github. They marked it Apache 2.0 which is amazing, but clearly a lie.
vibjelo@reddit
I'm not sure how we (moderators) are supposed to be able to make definite conclusions based on just the posts though.
Personally, I'd rather let some of those through, rather than effectively removing posts that are actual solo developers building something in their free-time. So err on the side of letting things through, because I don't want to punish people who are honest, and sometimes it's really hard to judge either way.
But as always, I'm eager to hear from people if they have some approaches they feel like could improve the situation. Blanket banning any personal projects obviously won't work, and the same for vice-versa, we can't just let everything through.
So what should the process be? We don't want the sub to be manipulated or people misrepresenting their projects, so anything that can make that easier to judge that would be most welcome :)
I think the best you can do as a user and contributor today is reporting all the posters you see obviously misrepresenting themselves, and we'll do our best to be responsive to that. Try to use the built-in report functionality as much as you can and not the subreddit's modmail as currently only one moderator has access to it, so using the build-in reporting functionality will lead to faster action.
tomekrs@reddit
"post weights or get banned" would be a good start!
my_name_isnt_clever@reddit
That's extreme. You can ignore that stuff if you want, but a lot of us still want a technical and local-first take on proprietary models and projects. This would lower the value of discussions here, not a good idea.
Due-Function-4877@reddit
Well, I'm sure the "proprietary models and services" subreddit will skyrocket to popularity and take over to meet that demand, if it's really something people want.
my_name_isnt_clever@reddit
LLMs are still new tech, it doesn't make sense to split up an already small community this way.
Due-Function-4877@reddit
It's not really that small and it represents a outsized amount of money. That's why there are so many adverts.
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
Exactly. This is not anti-commercial products, this is about honest communication. Even advertising might be acceptable as long as it doesn't pretend to be something else. Information about a closed source commercial product built upon local LLMs might be acceptable and of interest for many here, as long as it doesn't pretend to be some cool one-dude magic or some open source project while it's not.
Iory1998@reddit
I disagree. The mod is right to point out the difficulty in judging which content is legit and which is promotion at first glance. But, if many users report a post, it should be automatically deleted or at least hidden.
tomekrs@reddit
It's very simple: there is a download link or there is not.
Iory1998@reddit
I would also suggest the addition of a community added flair like Promotion flair.
vibjelo@reddit
Not every project out there are about what specific weights are being used :) What about a TUI for managing agents? Obviously useful, but would be deleted with such rule. Are you proposed no software projects at all should be allowed?
tomekrs@reddit
no closed source ones, sure.
Beestinge@reddit
name them, this is really pointless if you don't mention examples.
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
I did name two in the original post above, and added a few more now.
Direct_Accountant797@reddit
I took about a 7 year break from Reddit. Came back a few weeks ago on another account. It is far from just this sub.
tomekrs@reddit
Yeah but this sub is very specifically about stuff that can be ran locally, so anything that does not fit this description should be outright banned.
my_name_isnt_clever@reddit
If you don't like something, downvote it. That's how reddit is supposed to work, community consensus.
Strange_Test7665@reddit
not sure why this is getting down votes. I don't think it was meant as a 'if you don't like it here go some place else' just a reminder that Reddit is designed to be community concensus with the votes, so don't be stingy with the down votes when non local LLM /covert corporate hype posts come around. I usually just scroll past that stuff but reading this I was liek - oh yeah, i should down vote more often for stuff like that
Direct_Accountant797@reddit
My gut response was, "yeah, but subs change all the time from their initial intentions" etc etc. But this really must really be a wild shift I assume this last few years or so for what was probably a particular niche within a niche for as long as it had existed. Even myself, I'm here because I believe in the thing but I likely treat it more like another ML sub than I should.
pitchblackfriday@reddit
Corporate shill issue aside, how are you feeling about revisiting Reddit?
I also came back from long hiatus, and damn, it feels like Reddit has become a ghost town since the 3rd-party API ban clusterfuck. The userbase and their engagement have shrunken significantly, and AI-generated slops and bots are rampant more than ever. Despite Reddit's notoriety, at least it felt more "human" before.
Now I only follow several subreddits only, /r/LocalLLaMa is one of very few saving graces.
rm-rf-rm@reddit
where did people go? I dont see much uptake with lemmy
pitchblackfriday@reddit
I don't know, maybe other social media, or they just quit Reddit and living a real life?
One thing is suspicious, that Reddit has introduced a new policy to generate a random username automatically on signup, around that time when they imposed API ban on 3rd-party clients. Now you can't distinguish if the user 'Deterministic_Priest2857' is a real human or LLM chatbot. There is a possibility that Reddit did it intentionally to mitigate the exodus, filling up the empty seats with fake bots.
rm-rf-rm@reddit
yeah that seems to be a recent thing? If i dont see the person changing their username i start suspecting its either a bot or a non-serious user (using the account for marketing or scamming etc)
https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1idedjp/how_to_choose_my_reddit_username/
Caffeine_Monster@reddit
Yeah, community focussed programming subs are lousy with poorly disguised corporate products and advertising these days.
my_name_isnt_clever@reddit
It's really funny to me as a reddit old how much people used to scream about hailcorporate anytime a brand was mentioned. Now with reddit being far more mainstream, none of the real advert posts are that subtle about it.
Direct_Accountant797@reddit
Absolutely that. And while it isn't as bad as straight up obvious corporate, it is nuts how many people are pushing their app or "pre seed" startup. Let alone paper or "breakthrough" theory but at least those are technically sharing ideas and feel more like what the space used to feel more about. Im sure it's just more pronounced after being away for a bit though
Commercial-Celery769@reddit
I don't like it at all. The sub is called LocalLLaMA not SortaLocalLLaMA. Would be nice if mods would put an end to it because sometimes the corporate tool thats posing as a normal repo is just straight up an ad for some regurgitated agentic yap (not saying agentic is bad im saying low quality "pay me to get the mid ass quality" agentic spam).
vibjelo@reddit
We do moderate based on the current rules that been in place since 2023, which includes that things have to be related to the topic of LLMs. But for better or worse, nothing in the rules state anything about the LLMs having to be local or not.
For the submissions that do break the rules, please do report them as it's the fastest way for us to be able to spot them.
Not to say the rules aren't possible to change though, it's a orthogonal issue from the one discussed in this submission though, which is about authors misrepresenting their projects. Feel free to create a new submission to discuss any wanted rule changes :)
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
The issue with those posts is not what the post is about, but that they pretend to be something they are not.
my_name_isnt_clever@reddit
I'm glad, as a strict "local only" policy would mean we lose discussions of non-local happenings in the space. I find this technical community's take very valuable, and anyone who doesn't care can keep scrolling.
Commercial-Celery769@reddit
I have no issue with non local models being discussed the only issue is when its people very obviously overhyping things to try to sell their SaaS products on the sub.
Erdeem@reddit
" I will make this project open source I just need to ______" then crickets.
pitchblackfriday@reddit
"I will make this project open source, I just need to get Series A funding from venture capital"
Cool-Chemical-5629@reddit
HilLiedTroopsDied@reddit
I built an awesome open source AI project!
next line:
"we ..."
hedgehog0@reddit
If he or she is from academia, especially math or theoretical CS, then “we” is also common to refer to one…
Altruistic-Elephant1@reddit
Ah! So this trend of waking up at 5 A.M. makes sense now, building things takes time.
PayBetter@reddit
It kinda muddies the water for people like me who build actual personal projects.
tomekrs@reddit
If it's not open weights at the moment of posting (not "we will opensource it maybe in the future blah blah") it should result in instaban.
sammcj@reddit
Unfortunately companies often consider this "community engagement" style marketing. Please do report posts you see doing this!
-TV-Stand-@reddit
Don't they need to mark it as brand affiliate like this?
j17c2@reddit
What are the sub mod's opinions on this?
vibjelo@reddit
So far, there are two moderator's who've shared their (personal) opinion about it:
https://old.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1ng35k8/ive_noticed_in_this_sub_corporate_tools_pose_as/ne2h78n/
https://old.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1ng35k8/ive_noticed_in_this_sub_corporate_tools_pose_as/ne5s0ru/
AnomalyNexus@reddit
That's just how it goes these days - has little to do with this sub.
Speaking of "this sub"...you're posting to /r/LocalLLaMA but complaining about /r/LocalLLM ?
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
I just wonder how this even is positive for them. People go to their website, see that the impression they try to make is not matching reality. The result is people getting mad and lost trust, while trust is so important in this field of local LLMs. We are not stupid. So I just don't get it from their perspective either.
Thanks for the tip, I corrected the sub name.
AnomalyNexus@reddit
You're not gonna sell anything if nobody knows about you at all
kuhunaxeyive@reddit (OP)
I know, but can't they just make advertisement in an honest way and say who they truly are, and that some tier is free but there is also a paid tier? Some code is open source and can be re-used as such, but not all of their system because they still need to earn some money? That's the part I don't get. Not the advertising part, but the dishonesty in it.
vibjelo@reddit
I dunno, sometimes I feel like most of the space is built on dishonesty, for better or worse... Meta launched Llama and all the marketing material + Zuckerberg calls the models and weights open source, meanwhile their very own legal department refuses to use "open source" and instead call the models and weights "proprietary" whenever they can, probably because they're a bit more careful about making sure to call things by the right names, compared to Meta's marketing department.
Most of the ecosystem seems fine with this, so you end up with a environment where truth matters less than hype.
silenceimpaired@reddit
This is why I think they should have a flair Commercial Interest or Remote Only to let us ignore all the posts focused on something you must pay for and/or is only available remotely. Lots of posts claim they’re so happy using an open model with their project but it’s just a hidden ad for their project… or the post is just a benchmark for the next closed model
Xamanthas@reddit
Yes. Ive been collecting data on it to hopefully finetune something to filter the slop out when I browse.
cms2307@reddit
Yes it’s annoying as fuck and I try to call them out every time
Lesser-than@reddit
Yes there is a lot of guerilla marketing , this sub actually has a lot of it under control compared to others.
WorldPeaceStyle@reddit
LinkedIn dementia
wellomello@reddit
Yes, it’s pissing me off
toothpastespiders@reddit
I'd flip that too. I think some solo devs think that they need to adopt some corporate persona on here to get respect. And for me at least it's the exact opposite. I see corpo speak and spamming SOTA/frontier/etc and I seldom click.
Old-School8916@reddit
content marketing
ekaj@reddit
Yea. It's been happening for a while.