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I'm a new user (I knew of SO but never used it until I started learning how to code).

I've almost violated the AI-policy already - I wanted to post something that was generated via ChatGPT (but tested and adapted by me).

I learned of the policy through the moderator election thread.

How are new users supposed to find out about this policy?

I checked the onboarding journey and this is what it currently looks like:

  1. No mention on the website
  2. No mention on signup page
  3. No mention in the ToS / PP
  4. No mention on the welcome page after signup (there is a big banner advertising AI search features on SO though)
  5. No mention on what's visible in SO viewport
  6. No mention in "Ask question" UI
  7. No mention in "Answer question" UI
  8. No mention in the initial viewport of SO Meta

Here are some screenshots I took.

Two places I've found after looking for them:

  1. In the FAQ section on Meta SO Meta scrolled
  2. In the helpcenter enter image description here

Is this the place new users are supposed to check or have I overlooked a place? Not trying to debate the pro/con of the ban, but I assume that many new signups - like me - don't even realize they are violating a policy that's so hidden.

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    There's a banner on every "answer question" box. "Reminder: Answers generated by artificial intelligence tools are not allowed on Stack Overflow. Learn more". (should that banner also exist here on meta?)
    – Kevin B
    Commented Feb 21 at 16:51
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    @KevinB you're right, there is a light blue banner that appears after clicking into the text box. I missed this (and I've submitted some answers already). Ironically, I believe it's easier to miss when copy-pasting something into the answer rather than writing it.
    – nick
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:05
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    While there's an answer to this that's obvious to any Meta SO regular (banner blindness is real!), I think the post here shows important insight into some places where guidance probably should be. (And as a related note, I never knew the sidebar hid so many meta posts from new users; I only even learned about the "Hello World" sidebar box by coincidence last week.)
    – Laurel
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:18
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    The perspective brought in this question is quite valuable, IMO, so thank you for sharing, @nick. It's very useful to know when guidance is being missed and what might cause that, so having the perspective of a new user on this helps shed some light on that.
    – Mithical
    Commented Feb 21 at 19:06
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    Comment threads about 1) whether it should be obvious or not that copy-pasting LLM text is plagiarism 2) how to post helpful answers 3) how/when to close questions have been deleted because none is directly related to "how can new users find out about the AI ban". Please keep the discussion on track.
    – blackgreen Mod
    Commented Feb 22 at 16:25
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    welcome to SO, where site-usage guidance in general is not very easily discoverable
    – starball
    Commented Feb 23 at 3:58

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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There is also the following banner above the answer box. (Yours will certainly have different colours.)

screenshot showing the described banner

I wonder if it might be worthwhile to have a modal of some sort pop up if you paste more than x characters of text into the answer box for your first few answers?

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    I could see that modal being annoying for legitimate answers though, since it's a common habit to write your code in an IDE to test it and then paste it in from there.
    – John Montgomery
    Commented Feb 21 at 20:46
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    Click it away and you'll never see it again (and forget about it). Not even after deleting cookies.
    – Gert Arnold
    Commented Feb 21 at 21:13
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    "if you paste more than x characters of text into the answer box" that can trigger if you just copy and paste something from the question. Or if you quote documentation.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Feb 21 at 21:22
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    I often paste code into an answer after trying it out on my own system. I'd hate for nanny-ware to start assuming it came from AI.
    – Mark Ransom
    Commented Feb 21 at 22:23
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    @MarkRansom: The site is capable of remembering that you've dismissed the banner. It should also be able to remember that you've clicked "don't remind me again" on a modal dialogue after a big paste. (Once ever, or once a year, would be pretty minor, and worth the inconvenience if it actually helped a significant number of well-meaning users avoid polluting the site with posts that are time-consuming to deal with.)
    – Peter Cordes
    Commented Feb 22 at 5:15
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    "Yours will certainly have different colours" - are you using custom local CSS, then?
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Feb 22 at 9:06
  • @PeterCordes when I say "nanny-ware" I'm not talking about a pop-up, I'm talking about disallowing the post entirely. There are already conditions that do it today.
    – Mark Ransom
    Commented Feb 22 at 14:02
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    @KarlKnechtel I have never left the glorious world of April Fool's 2022 and the Frisa Lank filter. github.com/miken32/frisa-lank
    – miken32
    Commented Feb 22 at 16:10
  • Modal dialogues are the devil incarnate. There's a reason the software community in general moved away from them.
    – Philip Couling
    Commented Feb 23 at 15:09
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See this banner at the top-right of every page (yours may have different colors):

enter image description here

This banner shows announcements or 'featured' posts in our community discussion area, Meta (this place, where we are now). One of those is a Temporary policy about Generative AI being banned.

Also I believe there was another modal that appeared at the top center of every page until dismissed for a while letting users know it was banned, but I'm not sure if that is still around.

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    What are you talking about? There is this yellow blob up there which I sometimes catch a glimpse of if I look at my monitor at just the right angle. But it is entirely "not my problem" so entirely invisible to me otherwise.
    – Gimby
    Commented Feb 21 at 16:57
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    I think what's happening is that new users get a "Welcome" section shown atop of "Featured". This limits "Featured" to only two entries and the "Temporary policy" is currently entry #3
    – nick
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:01
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    Testing an "AI-generated content" policy banner on Stack Overflow - graduated and enabled for all users on January 10, 2024
    – VLAZ
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:02
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    Thanks @VLAZ this is the answer I was looking for (Kevin B mentioned the same in another comment). Anecdotally, it was not sufficient for me to learn about the ban (I've answered questions w/o noticing the banner).
    – nick
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:08
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    @nick I guess you should look up more :-)
    – TylerH
    Commented Feb 21 at 17:09
  • @TylerH haha fair - I did use the search function though and went through the first few pages to check if there is a similar question. This was in addition to checking the (AI-supported?) similar questions. So it's not lack of looking up things, but rather a skill issue looking up the wrong things?
    – nick
    Commented Feb 21 at 18:21
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    @nick: Not "look up" as in a dictionary, but look vertically upwards, at the space above the answer box, where the banner is located. :P Banner blindness is a real thing, it just blends in with the clutter of an unfamiliar site, but I think that's the joke TylerH was making. (Unclear from that youtube comedy sketch; it also involved looking up reference information on a map.)
    – Peter Cordes
    Commented Feb 22 at 5:20
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    @PeterCordes Yes, the point of the sketch was to look upward, e.g. above.
    – TylerH
    Commented Feb 22 at 16:01
  • Isn't it amazing how important things like this get displaced by literal sewage like discussions?
    – Ian Kemp
    Commented Feb 23 at 14:30
  • @IanKemp The word is "figurative". Figurative sewage.
    – Sod Almighty
    Commented Feb 23 at 20:15
  • @SodAlmighty Try "ironic".
    – Ian Kemp
    Commented Feb 24 at 17:51
  • @IanKemp That's not irony. Unless you're Alanis Morissette.
    – TylerH
    Commented Feb 26 at 14:18
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Every new user is expected to take the [tour] and read the [help] pages for SO. On the main help center page, in large print, you can see the following:

Help page image showing AI-assisted Generated Content Ban

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    When you take the tour and arrive at the end, you have a proposition to find a question or post your own. Below that, there is this text 'Looking for more in-depth information on the site? Visite the help center' Clearly the message conveyed is that you have now all the informations to ask questions, and that looking at the help center is an option. Could you point where new users are told that reading the help center is expected?
    – Alois Christen
    Commented Feb 23 at 9:55
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    "Every new user is expected to take the tour and read the help center pages" - How are they expected to know about this expectation?
    – zovits
    Commented Feb 23 at 11:17
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    @zovits" When a new account is created at SO, the user receives a notice that they should take the tour and read the help pages to learn how the site works. And no, I can't point out that exact location, because I haven't created a new account in quite a while.
    – Ken White
    Commented Feb 23 at 13:56
-13

Well, unless I've missed some part of the policy (not impossible), I suspect it would work the same as any other policy issue. Namely, people will notice, flag it, it will go in the review queue where people with enough reputation go through and mark what they think the appropriate action is. If I remember correct, this will provide you with a message of what you did wrong and what the policy is. Then, assuming you don't keep doing what you were asked not to do, nothing more happens (no harm, no foul).

Generally speaking, Stack Overflow is about explaining to people what the norms of the community are and how to follow them. If you follow what you've been told, you're forgiven, if you repeated ignore them eventually a moderator will deal with you. Most people (myself included) have a learning period of working out what an appropriate answer is, how much or how little you can put in, what should go in a comment versus an answer, etc, etc. If we punished everyone who made a mistake, no one would be left.

TL;DR: Make an effort to follow whatever feedback you get, don't purposefully do anything wrong, and you'll be fine.

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    there's no dedicated queue right now for AIGC flags. and sending AIGC to existing queues via "very-low-quality" flags and such is deemed inappropriate IIRC.
    – starball
    Commented Feb 23 at 3:36
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    Actually we do have a help centre which should explain most if not all policies. Certainly it explains the policy under discussion here. Getting reprimanded for overstepping the boundaries is a safety net and courtesy, it’s not actually the primary means by which people should learn the rules.
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented Feb 23 at 5:01

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