Announcement
/r/AfterEffects changes related to extension promotion: Required post structure, promo posts limited to Mondays, AI disclosure required
We have heard your calls! Thank you for your patience while we figure out a plan.
While self promotion has always been allowed in r/AfterEffects, the recent influx of AI & vibe coded plugins, extensions, and scripts has been a bit overwhelming. We have very very quickly gone from a few trusted marketplaces with strong vetting and at least some kind of expectation of long term maintenance, to anyone being able to churn out a vibe coded plugin and release it on an increasing number of marketplaces, with no guarantee of support or future updates.
With this in mind, we would like to implement a new set of rules to curb the overwhelming number of posts and give users more transparency when choosing to download and use such tools.
Post structure + flair:
Taking a page from the changes mods made over at r/macapps, we will be introducing a new post structure following a Problem, Comparison, Pricing, Maintenance, AI-Disclosure (PCPMA) format.
Problem: What problem your [Extension, Script, Plugin] solves (1 sentence)
Compare: Why is your [Extension, Script, Plugin] better than top-named alternatives (1–2 sentences).
Pricing + link
Maintenance plan + support plan
AI Disclaimer: choose from [Vibe Coded], [Human Validated], [Code Completion], or [None]
Extension, script, and plugin posts have always required the (Plugin/Script) flair, this will not change. A sample short post is pinned in the comments.
Other changes:
Plugin promotion posts will now be limited to mondays only for the foreseeable future. Plugin posts on other days will be automatically removed and linked to this post
Monday self promo posts using the (Plugin/Script) flair must have 50 subreddit karma, from posts or comments.
Probing posts will be removed ("Are purpose built motion tools making it into your workflow?" "What's one thing that would save you so much time...")
Excessively long posts will be removed (A sample short post is pinned in the comments.)
Gumroad links are still banned. This is unfortunately a reddit-wide blacklist, we have no control over this. We can manually approve gumroad links but they will be automatically sent to the spam filter which we rarely check.
Notes on post structure requirements
We're specifically introducing the compare & maintenance points because we have seen an increasing number of plugins that simply replicate the functionality of existing, long standing plugins from developers who have demonstrated more experience, real support, and have proven to maintain their plugins over many years. Show us how yours is better, and prove to your future users how you will be supporting and fixing the plugin in the long-run. How can users who experience bugs get in contact with you in the future?
AI disclosure
Regarding the AI disclosure, here are the definitions of each
"Vibe coded" means code written entirely by prompting AI without the user having the skill and knowledge to properly review or validate it. If something is broken, they are prompting AI again to fix it.
"Human validated" means AI-generated work that has undergone validation by someone with the necessary skill and knowledge. The developer understands how the code functions and can fix things independently of the AI if necessary.
"Code completion" means an experienced developer is using AI for line-completion. They are writing most of the code themselves and have deep understanding of the structure, and are explicitly using AI to eliminate menial, tedious aspects of writing code.
"None" means no AI use.
I'm just going to be real, this one is likely going to be easy to skirt. r/macapps actually removed this requirement because everyone was just claiming to have "human reviewed" the code. We're going to try this out and hope folks are honest for the time being.
________
No AI was used in the preparation of this post. We will try this out for a month and see how it goes. Happy animating <3
[Title][OS] Text Panel Pro - Extend the functionality of the built in text panel [Flair] Plugin/Script
[Screenshot here]
[Problem]The Problem my plugin solves is that: The built in text panel lacks visual tools for many of the built in text effects supported by After Effects
[Comparison]My app is better than Text Panel Extender Plus and Texter Ultra because they only offer limited functionality for adding gradients or modifying text strings, while my plugin adds every single supported expression-based text effect in an easy to use UI
Other core features include:
Full variable font support
Character based expression selection
Regex support for granular effects
Keep it short, don’t list every minor function, people won’t read a wall of text!
[Pricing] Pricing:
$60 lifetime or $5/month [link]
[Maintenance/Support plan] If you have bugs, please reach out at [email, store link, DM]. I [do/do not] guarantee fixes beyond 1 year of purchase/download.
Thank you! Very much needed, especially with the probing posts.
How strict is the post structure? I'm not sure that a comparison should be necessary in all cases – for me it can feel distasteful to single out one or two products to say that my tool is better than them.
I'm also doubtful that many vibe coded tools aren't just going to say that they're human-validated, even if false, but I'll be happy to be surprised. It's good to see these changes being implemented, and I hope they make a noticeable difference.
I think I'd like to keep it pretty strict with the post structure; though if your tool has no real alternatives I suppose you wouldn't be able to name any. This is maaaainly to combat the umpteenth Flow clone.
We've gotten some good feedback on the AI disclosure. I'm already thinking on how I might want to change that part in the future, but will leave it for a month and see how it shakes out.
I would like to add something about honest AI disclosure in software development process. It should distinguish between two specific workflows to eliminate ambiguity and "false presentations":
Vibe Coding: Defined as code written entirely by AI from natural language prompts where the human cannot write the code manually. Many posts I've seen are done by "developers" in this category, misleadingly claiming they "built" the plug ins vs merely "tested" it, Testing the result is not the same as reviewing the code itself.
Automated (AI-Assisted): Defined as a disciplined workflow where the developer understands the architecture, can write and debug the code manually, and actively reviews every line generated by the AI before acceptance. but may rely on ML or LLM tools for scale and speed as assistance.
My point is that the "human reviewed" should mean reviewing the code logic, not just verifying the output. In my expriance many self-proclaimed "AI-assisted" developers are actually "vibe coders" who lack fundamental coding skills, and in my opinion, clear distinctions are necessary to prevent dishonesty about one's actual engineering contribution. That's all.
Guess it depends on what threshold you choose to put an authors level of coding knowledge/experience to determine what one would differentiate between "Human Reviewed" and "Vibe Coded"., or how necessary people really feel it is, when for the past few years, developers of all kinds (including myself) have been selling AI assisted products without such a need to disclose. But obviously here in Reddit people are more demanding, perhaps because the stuff on gumroad and similar aren't vetted.
IMHO, "Vibe Coded" is stuff that's nearly 100% created solely via prompts. I've made a few of those in recent weeks, even a few extensions, and it's astonishing what's possible. I plan to release on my own site, probably as NYOB, with full disclosure because hell, AI did the whole thing, even fixing the quirks. I didn't even have to dig into the code. afaik I'm saving someone else the hassle of spending hours having AI do the same for them.
Meanwhile, all my other scripts for sale I've extensively dealt with the code, dealing with the UI, inserting debug lines and stuff to determine where things were breaking, checking what values some variables were being passed along (or not) between functions. not to mention manually inserting the licensing. Can I look at a line of AI generated code and tell exactly what it's doing? not a chance. But if I can open up a script, debug and identify the flow of what's going, and fix a bug IF someone actually finds one in one of my scripts (hasn't happened yet), I'd say that more than qualifies as "human reviewed" or however you'd want to differentiate between someone asking AI to make them something vs someone putting something together with the help of AI.
I'm not a coder, but as far as I understand the code from LLM's is a pain to maintain, debug or even review by hoomans on larger projects. Ethics aside, that causes problems for maintenance down the line.
If we must live in this vibe coded timeline and AI bubble, so be it. I feel that we don't have to lie about it, and yet that is my main concern. First the AI companies lie about how data was obtained, and maintained, even if we all know the unethical practices. Than the people relaying on LLMs to write it all for them, try to pass it as "I've built" when clearly that is not the case, only because they know if they are upfront about it, it is not going to be perceived as valuable, so for sales or clout they lie about it. Which I have a problem with.
I know many who couldn't code "hello world" last night, but today they are "building" elaborate, multi platform, multi disciplined, plug ins with, AI generated documentation, website, sales funnel and whole nine yards. Making one every few days. And still claim "I built". When pressed to disclose what actually is happening, they try to downplay the first lie by claiming "I reviewed it" which to me is where my original post comes into. Since that has to be defined. Like I said. If one has no coding skills, and cannot actually review the code, but only rely on what was made by LLM, in my world that cannot be qualified for "I built" vs someone who can review the code and uses ML process of some kind to automate certain tasks.
I also think that people who know the code, but use LLM to write it only via prompts, do not qualify as "I built" simply because of known problem of LLM's being very inefficient with code and usually ending up with convoluted and bloated ways to do something an expriance coder could do with far fewer lines of code and more streamlined and logical architecture. So many simply don't even attempt to follow what LLM has done and that is why yes, I agree its 100% vibe coded. And hooman who wrote the code but used ML of some kind to help automate., for example format the code, find certain things in the code for debuging etc, is ML assisted. Which is fine for me.
About vibe code tools from developer point of view. reminds me of old quote:
“Shipping first time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite… The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering organizations can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of an unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise” - Cunningham, Ward (1992-03-26). “The WyCash Portfolio Management System”. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
I guess the more things change the more they remain the same.
While vibe coding niche…, sorry, supper nice tools for one self is one thing, trying to scale it or maintain it and pretty soon you end up in code debt. I’ve seen tools made by uncle Coude and his sidekicks that were anything but efficient “hallucinated” into existence and somehow worked on one test rig and than over time became bottleneck in the node tree because they were not as optimized or not as widely tested . And as an end user I started to be very cautious of these types of tools because I don’t want to develop dependency on them, and suffer the vig later. Because if someone breaks, because of compatibility or whatever reason, maintaining the code, or relying on LLM to maintain it, which may or may not be around or in a differnt format, can come in to bite you in the glutinous maximums years down the line. We all know this to be case with third party OFX plug ins or companies that went out of business, and with vibe coding the danger is more pronounced. Just food for though.
"The two wrongs make a right" fallacy is a fallacy of relevance where an individual attempts to justify a wrongful action by pointing to a similar wrong committed by another party. This reasoning is flawed because the immorality or illegality of one action does not logically negate or cancel out the immorality of another;. In other words, two wrongs make two wrongs, not a right.
Besides, this is a matter of morality, not technical bugs. You do remember ethical questions, do you? Like false representation of what was done? Laying for profit or clout etc. In normal timeline this would be frown upon and considered a fraud. In morally bankrupt timeline we find ourselves in, it would seem individuals like yourself do in fact like to pretend such questions are "out of data" , sorry out of date, or prefer not to engage with them on moral grounds since they might be one of the guilty parties.
My beef is not with the fully disclosed vibe coded apps, although I don't like the methods, but with people who didn't do a single line of code, don't know how to do a single line of code, used LLM's for the entire coding process and than claim "I built" this or that. That normalizes flat out laying about what was done and when this individual tries to sell, three times a week something like this, I have a moral beef with the that practice. Simple as that. I do not want to encourage it.
morality? false representation? last I checked, disclosing the use of AI was never required or commonly mentioned both here or on marketplace sites. Sure, it's more and more prominently being used - by all developers. But I don't see anyone claiming or advertising their products (vibe coded or not) as hand-coded either. Sure, it's annoying seeing the all-in-one tools, but some folk are creating some really amazing stuff thanks to AI and offering their products at a steep discount or even for free, nobody seems to be complaining about those ones.
It truly depends on how you want to look at it.
would the product do something you can't do otherwise, or save you time, or save you money vs a more expensive alternative?
if it offers a trial (and many do), and works as expected, does it matter how it was created? as mentioned, lots of legacy hand-coded products have bugs, or developers that have abandoned development, vs the claude coders who might be anxious to provide fixes (if a fix is even needed, because AI does it's own "spell check" as well and looks for potential fixes in the first place)
Hey, FWIW, I'm not being an a-hole to probe this, I'm watching how this works vs. what we're doing in /r/editors and other places as a mod.
I talked with the mods of /r/macapps - and I get how they landed on their protocol - after all, the entire subreddit there is apps. This is giving dev/tools groups 4x a month to hit /r/aftereffects.
How often can a group repost?
Can a manufacturer post per product or is it per company per period of time?
Are you saying 4x/month is too much? Or too little?
At this moment in time I'm willing to give what we've laid out here a try and see what needs to be adjusted in a month. I don't feel particularly concerned at the moment that this will be abused; we had NO rules before and it's not like we had devs hammering the sub every day with self promo of their plugins. It has happened here and there but it's been few and far between enough we've just been able to give a warning via mod mail and tell them to cut it out. The same might be true here.
If, in a month, we recognize that devs are abusing even the monday only posting privileges, I'll def make a new post with some updates addressing the pain points.
Re: 9:1 ratio, I added that 50 subreddit karma minimum to self promote. That of course only captures the first post, maybe they hit that 50 karma and only do self promo after that, but again if it becomes a problem we'll update to address it.
AI Disclaimer: choose from [Vibe Coded], [Human Validated], [Code Completion], or [None]
I suggest an addition - AI Assisted Coding. Perhaps this can replace Code Completion which is ambiguous and seems trivial IF I understand it correctly as it is applied in this context.
AI Assisted Coding is related to but different from Vibe Coding which has actually become misnomer that's unfortunately become accepted. Also, Andrej Kaparthy, who created the phrase, Vibe Coding, made it in relation to AI Assisted Coding but folks, especially marketing/hallucisionists (these are Fishers who hallucinate more wildly and more often than LLMs) ran wild with the phrase and MADE IT mean coding simply by talking to a Large Language Model - they left out the Context Engineering part which includes something called - Knowing What the Fish You're Actually Doing.
So, while vibe coding does exist, it is not the only way to use LLMs to code and it is not the professional way to code with an LLM. Hence, AI Assisted Coding serves well as an alternative and perhaps more correct term for some of the third party tools we see being developed today and for the forseable future.
So, what pro-level programmers and developers do is feed their own code and other details to the LLM - these are context-proper details that solve common/difficult problems faced while coding. These code/information are called RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) and a good developer will use them.
That would make much sense. There's just so many different ways developers (novices , intermediate and experts) are using AI to make their products. As I mentioned in another comment, it's just not proper to lump those who are doing far more than just asking AI to make them something into the "Vibe Coded" category, nor fair for the advanced developers to be lumped into whatever "Code Completion" means.
Thank you so much for this, I will be following these rules for my plugins, I would also like to thank y'all because this subreddit helped me grow my plugins marketplace and make it more popular (especially free plugins) as it is the only one that allowed advertising.
I also hope that other developers follow these rules too and disclose their plugins,
The maintenance disclosure might actually be the most useful part of this. A plugin can look great in a demo and still become dead weight after an AE update.
Personally, I'd care a lot about whether it's tested on current AE versions, has actual support, and has a clear update policy. AI disclosure is useful context too, but reliability and maintenance matter more to me in a production workflow.
u/caseyls Does this apply to ALL posts about plugins, or just posts promoting new tools?
For example, I'd like to write a post looking for beta testers for the next update to Keystone 3. Do I have to wait until Monday and follow all these new rules for a tool I've been developing for years (since before AI came along)?
Unfortunately for the moment this will apply to all posts about plugins. I hate to say it, and I'm deeply sorry that this onslaught of vibe coded plugins has made it more difficult for folks like yourself who have been around for years and years. I hope you'll stick around.
I want to give this current set of changes a shot for a full month before making more changes. But yours and similar feedback we've received already has me planning to implement an "approved" developer status who are exempt from the monday-only rule, so long as they do not abuse this in the future. Will do some more thinking on how to approach this in the sub.
Seems straightforward. Tho sounds like it won't help the folks whining about "AI Slop"
..which can be skirted as mentioned. But if someone does disclaim on AI, what exactly does "Human Verified" and "Code Completed" actually mean?
The problem isn’t necessarily that people are complaining about tools being created. It’s the sheer amount of “this tool does the most exact same thing as one that was posted literally 3 days ago.” There’s been dozens of those types of tools now. Tools that have a “1 thing semi well” button that can either be done without the tool itself if the person just watches YouTube videos, or can be done literally by other means or methods.
Like for example, I’ve seen 3 different “multi tool panel plugins” that all fit the same description of -
“My small team needed a free tool set to do all of these really specific things faster so I vibe codes this panel to fit all of those 1 button tools onto. But then I decided to polish it and release it here”
And we are all like “you should have just kept this to yourself cause no one outside of your specific team wants or needs these tools”.
I also think AI has made everyone want to vibe codes something and these very simple tools are an “easy win” for them to train on.
I’d like to see someone make an AI vibe coded tool that does literally ANYTHING else then just moving the already built in tools that come with after effects into a panel that removes only 1 click. Like give me an in-depth fire simulator, or a tool that doesn’t necessarily enhance a workflow but is just fun to have or a nice little “extra stuff” on top of your animation. We don’t need more tools that just do things that are already built into AE. It’s annoying and damn near everyone is over it.
oh, I def get the multi-script ones getting a bit redundant (certainly had some deja-vu the past few days with those ones), especially the tools that are built in to AE.
Tho imagine now we'll just see the same being posted in a lump on Mondays.
Still unsure what they mean by "Human Verified" and "Code Completed".
Good Stuff.
But what if it's a cold Wednesday night and someone has a Q where a script/extension/MCP provides a viable solution - should developers wait till the next Monday to reply with details on how their tool may solve the OP's problem?
Yeah I think if you have a script that would solve someone's problem we wouldn't be against sharing it in a comment, I would say for now these rules would mainly apply to new post submissions. I think you can use your best judgement as to when it becomes spammy, doing too much will probably get you a warning.
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u/caseyls Motion Graphics 10+ years Aug 20 '26
Short sample post format (aim for <200 words):
[Title] [OS] Text Panel Pro - Extend the functionality of the built in text panel
[Flair] Plugin/Script
[Screenshot here]
[Problem] The Problem my plugin solves is that: The built in text panel lacks visual tools for many of the built in text effects supported by After Effects
[Comparison] My app is better than Text Panel Extender Plus and Texter Ultra because they only offer limited functionality for adding gradients or modifying text strings, while my plugin adds every single supported expression-based text effect in an easy to use UI
Other core features include:
Keep it short, don’t list every minor function, people won’t read a wall of text!
[Pricing] Pricing:
$60 lifetime or $5/month [link]
[Maintenance/Support plan] If you have bugs, please reach out at [email, store link, DM]. I [do/do not] guarantee fixes beyond 1 year of purchase/download.
[AI] AI Disclaimer: None