This has not in the least bit been unexpected - I posted about the impact of LLMs in the mod forum towards the beginning of last year, and even that was after having thought about it for a couple of years beforehand (I had a lot going on so didn’t get time to put my thoughts down on paper till then).

So if you’re worried about the forum, don’t be if anything, the impact of LLMs is actually somewhat freeing and exciting - because it means we don’t have to be as strict on some of the things we have been strict on in the past (like SEO) and so it heralds a new direction and chapter in the forum’s life We intend to cover some of this in our annual update (which we are holding off posting for now - it’s our tenth birthday next month so we’ll post it closer to that) so definitely keep your eyes peeled for that!

You also probably won’t be aware as you only registered here in 2020, but the forum has already gone through several changes as and when our needs and goals have changed. For instance, in the early days (arguably what many might consider when we were setting ‘the gold standard’ for forums like this) we had things like a general dev section. José was (understandably) actually apprehensive when I first mentioned it but I promised him it would be fine - and it was - it was more than fine, it played a significant role in helping with adoption as it helped create the kind of buzz and activity that was mesmerising and unmatched at the time. You could literally feel that something special in the air! It was infectious! (It was also hard work, hence when it did its job we adapted once again.)

So if you’re worried about the forum please don’t be - it’s not the first time we’ve had to traverse the impact of external forces… some of you may remember the (catastrophic) impact on some forums with the advent of social networks, yet many adapted and are still going strong today. So we’ve certainly been around the block and you’re in good hands - if people continue to enjoy and use the forum it will continue its path… even if it’s a little different to what you may have witnessed yourself during the time you’ve been here

Be sure to check out our annual announcement when it drops for more on this!

Going back on topic…

What new tech stacks

While we may see an acceleration in new languages and frameworks, largely put together with the help of LLMs, LLMs (or rather their overlords) will ultimately get to decide which ones live or die.

We’ve covered some of this in our thread:

And we recently saw a real-life indication of this with Tailwind:

If a huge project like Tailwind struggled to survive, what hope does that leave everyone else?

I think people aren’t considering the fact that LLMs are replacing those sources - because whereas previously people were asking questions on forums and SO, now they are asking LLMs and so LLMs are becoming those resources. And this not only ties back in to that thread where LLM overlords will dictate which languages live or die, but one of the greatest human inventions and one of the best things about the internet - of freely and openly sharing knowledge - will start to die. This could be devastating for humanity as the LLM overloads end up controlling, and in some cases, especially when you consider the evil-ness of billionaires, gate-keeping or nefariously skewing and manipulating that knowledge.

We may well be living in the beginning of Star Wars - where you’re either part of the Federation or the Resistance. Will people choose the side they chose in those movies? I sincerely hope so. I still have faith in y’all!

We still have the power to make a difference

This to me only means that there’s even less space and attention for new languages and frameworks.

I am not even sure that’s a bad thing. Most new languages I had a look at outed the creator as somebody who had a very specific axe to grind and made it a point to show that to the world. Some of the newer tech is genuinely interesting and might progress the area but generally there is too much churn.

The danger here is the same as always: what happens if the LLM companies end the free lunch?

My hope for this rather crazy era is that some brave souls will make smaller more specialized open models that we can all download and use ourselves. Because otherwise we would look back at this time as a collective fever dream.

The content on this forum has noticeably changed. Save for some notable examples, It’s largely library/community announcements and discussions like these more than it is people asking questions. I (subconsciously) completely stopped answering questions here months ago and of course there are generally fewer people around here because they’re all just talking to their robots. It’s bad for people like me who gets excited and motivated by seeing other humans have lots of active discussion about the thing I’m interested in. All that to wonder: when will this be problem for existing languages too (if it will)?

I am and I don’t! Nor do I have my company pay on my behalf and I won’t until I’m told I have to. I’m also not going to get into that, though, since I already did a while back.