This sub needs a "look at my dashboard" weekly megathread
either that or limit the postings to one day a week
84 comments · 91% upvoted · other discussions
comments
maxxell13
varano14
Megathreads kill subs.
Most people have no one in their lives that care about HA and want to show it off to a people who might appreciate it. If you don't like it then scroll past it, takes 2 seconds.
I for one enjoy seeing dashboards as the creativity of people (even with the help of AI) knows no bounds. Most of these posts also have pretty solid discussion in the comments about integrations used or how a card was set up. This is very helpful for new users.
I have been using HA for over a decade at this point and it seems this sub has increasingly become hostile to new comers which is truly a shame. AI is making a lot possible for the non experts and likely will open the door to tons of people trying HA. It seems very short sighted in my opinion to do anything to stifle that.
Rant over
ArizonaFlats
I agree, to many subs have rules because of repetitive categories of posts. “Oh we’re the official sub for [thing] but you’re not allowed to talk about A, B, or C, X, Y, or Z. That’s against the rules and you’ll have to wait until Friday or the next full moon to talk about this topic”
I saw someone suggest a different sub for dashboards. For real? Where does it end? Shall we stop asking for support too because that’s repetitive? Or advice on which products to buy? Why not spin them all off into separate subreddits? No. This is the home assistant subreddit for all things home assistant
People need to realise not everyone is chronically online and just because you see posts as repetitive doesn’t mean it is, maybe don’t spend so much time on Reddit if you’re seeing these posts so often, like you said, 2 seconds to scroll past
varano14
Very well put.
I suspect the chronically online have a much higher likelihood of being an HA power user who might feel they are above using AI to help or that they don't need to see others dashboard's because they already "know the right way to do it"
psychedelic_tech [OP]
LOL
f_spez_2023
Yeah I come here to see what dashboards people are building and get ideas for my own
Izrun
Agreed. I personally enjoy them. I mean, every time they are different. This ain’t a case of a picture of a book and some comment like “ready to read it”. Those are the repeated posts in Reddit that are annoying. No added content. These are original content every time. I don’t care if it’s AI assisted, it’s still new and original content
IAmDotorg
Well moderated subs do fine with megathreads, which is why they're used. What kills subs is lack of moderation and constant spamming and astroturfing with low effort posts. You end up with everyone going elsewhere and the subs being busy, but only with bots and astroturfers circle jerking each other.
Already this sub, and the ESPHome sub, are absolutely flooded with astroturfing and bad actors in brand new accounts getting people to install sketchy code. And the average HA user doesn't understand the implications of doing so on a platform that lacks basic ACLs and runs on a container system.
Shot-Buffalo-2603
Thank you. I never get these posts. It’s a discussion forum, why are we bothered by too much discussion? It’s a community, what you’ve seen posted 10,000 times is someone else's first time seeing it.
Perfect-Escape-3904
Because people only want to see posts that are useful and new for them.
I say let the threads stay, people get so worked up over absolutely nothing on here
gscjj
I think people are feeling devalued over something that honestly doesn’t matter. I think it’s great that the barrier to entry into things like HA have been dramatically reduced and it will make it easier for people to try it.
Most people don’t know the intricacies of how HA work and that’s fine. It’s not like it was 10 years ago and you don’t need and HA doesn’t require you to know that anymore.
fr0z3nph03n1x
Hard agree. We already have a voting system, people can just downvote the content they don't want to see.
stacecom
Then you should subscribe to every dashboard megathread so you can encourage people!
psychedelic_tech [OP]
the /r/selfhosted weekly megathread got rid of about 80% of the crap mucking up the sub. now all the crap literally nobody cares about that got in the way of all the actual content has a place to go and die.
this sub has increasingly become hostile to new comers which is truly a shame
that's bs. the problem is the flood of "hey look what i made" and 90% of it is a dashboard or some other type of card that does the same thing the last 3 music player, energy monitor, frigate system had. these aren't newcomers. these are people that said "claude, make me this".
gscjj
r/selfhosted is dead, take out the AI post and it’s even more dead. They’re just blaming AI for generating content.
That sub is dying for the same reason this one will, it’s super opinionated, a lot of group think, and no one is interested if you do anything other than the standard mini-pc, Proxmox, and the usual set of apps self hosted completely offline apps. AI made it worse because almost no was recommending alternatives anyway.
GreenDavidA
I agree, that sub is getting more hostile
Toosder
This is one of the most hostile subs in general. Tons of sexism. Angry at people using whatever tool. Angry at new people asking for help for something that they deemed too simple. All I ever see now are posts telling other people not to post things.
aquoad
Could just require "look at my dashboard" flair on them, so it's easy to see them if you want to, or filter them if you don't. People who don't care either way will still see them.
I agree megathreads are useless, if you're going to force a particular topic into a megathread you may as well just ban the topic.
ResponsibleHand3110
Couldn't agree more
Aggravating-Depth330
Also a weekly "look at this screen I screwed into the wall".
Maybe one with "and you can see the wire dangling to the power outlet" and one with "and the wire is behind the wall"
Holiday_Ad_9163
Yes but have you considered that MY stupid AI slop dashboard needs your full attention?!!
BJozi
Or better yet a subreddit just for dashboards!
I never look at mega threads, messages get lost and unanswered in them real quick.
Shot-Buffalo-2603
This sub needs a “complaining about dashboards” mega thread too
s4lt3dh4sh
Don’t forget the “complaining about posts where anybody dared build something with AI that they were excited enough to post about and we should have a single day where those posts are allowed” mega thread.
Tac0Thund3rs
I'd rather see dashboards than the latest "look at the phone/watch/gizmo" that I purchased that looks exactly like everyone else's.
IAmDotorg
A single post is the way to go, especially since 99% of them are AI generated with all the incorrect implementation that comes with using an AI to develop code when you're not an extremely experienced developer.
cr0ft
On the other hand, what is there otherwise to talk about between the monthly updates?
Some dashboards, some AI chatter, the occasional HACS project that might not suck, seems to be about it.
shackrat
I like the idea of a “Dashboard Day”. It does seem like dashboard posts are taking over this sub.
Gwizman
I'm very, very new to HA. I believe I will learn much more from other users who share what they did and how they did it...regardless of how they got there, than I will learn from someone who beats their chest about how righteously they have written their 5,000 lines of code.
In my brief time on this sub, I've already learned that if I come upon a post that doesn't interest me I can merely scroll on to the next.
stacecom
Also a "look at all this shit in I bought" thread
clt_drol
I’m tired of the posts whining about dashboard posts. Can we limit those too?
Resistant4375
And include AI disclaimers before post approval
[deleted]
Late-Replacement-481
I’m very surprised they keep getting so popular… dashboards like this have been par for the course for 6 months or more.
I guess the people who made them are less “look at me” then the people it’s accessible to now.
Jurbl
I like the specific day. Been in Bass guitar groups that restricted new gear stuff to a specific day and nobody complained.
Equaled
Yeah. I personally am fine leaving things as they are but I do think posting on a specific day is better than a mega thread. At least then posts can still make their way into my feed instead of needing to come directly to the subreddit.
The iosprogramming sub allows for app promotion on Saturdays only and it feels like a good middle ground.
JoshS1
Yeah, if there's anything in the world I dont care about, its other people's dashboards.
SPiX0R
Weekly please! Because sometimes I’m out of inspiration 🙃
National_Way_3344
Megathreads, crazy rules and circle jerk asshole mods will ruin this sub.
Any subs that have been militant about megathreads are functionally unusable.
Itchy_Reference4039
Some of yall are too whiney. Let people post what they want. Megathreads suck.
ChrisTomufu
I'd like people to show more of their mobile dashboards, wherever the community decides that to be.
saltyDog_73
I’m just getting started in HA and came on here and thought “looks like I gotta get my dashboard setup.” 🤣
ahj3939
Allow unlimited postings as long as they show their code.
RedRedditor84
I think it needs a "this sub needs a dashboard megathread" megathread.
muckity-muck
This sub needs more "I made this" posts.
KnotBeanie
I actually like the dashboard posts, better yet when someone makes a custom card or something and even better when they can explain why they made something custom
theoriginalzads
Look at my dashboard. (You never specified which one)
cac2573
Nah
Toosder
I think we also need a weekly mega thread of people asking for weekly mega threads because lately that's all I see.
Friendly_Average_824
It’s getting to the stage where this sub needs a “this sub needs a look at my dashboard megathread”
ConversationKnown101
Lol Devs salty. Love it.
lowbatteries
I just don't understand people who click on things they are interested in. Oh wait, I'm doing it too.
I love that idea. That will sweep out a lot of “hey I discovered AI can help with Home Assistant” too.
ArizonaFlats 32 points · 25d ago
I liked the post the other day saying there should be mandatory flagging if AI was used or not, be it integrations, cards, or dashboards, and if the user intends to maintain their code
Those of us actually in IT understand AI is necessary and here to stay, it’s just the application of it that’s the issue, not the existence itself
CubanlinkEnJ 10 points · 25d ago
Home Assistant is such an amazing thing and I had been wanting to get into it forever so I could stop using the disaster that is Google Home, but it’s not intuitive and absolutely not for a novice.
I used ChatGPT to set up a VM to run HAOS, integrate all of my devices, and help me design my dashboard. Honestly it came out incredible and the amount of hours I put into it, I learned a ton. Will I ever be able to write yaml on my own? Never, but who cares.
AI is a great tool to get more people involved in and using Home Assistant and I think it should be encouraged. And because I was able to do this with the help of AI, I’ve abandoned Google Home completely and purchased an annual subscription to Nabu Casa so I have remote access to my dashboard.
[deleted] -7 points · 24d ago
[deleted]
CubanlinkEnJ 8 points · 24d ago
So should I just not use Home Assistant because I relied on AI to help with the setup and the coding? Should I go get another degree so I can say I did my entire HA set up with my big brain? The product is great and AI allows more people to get into it and inevitably some of us will pay for an annual subscription which continues to fund the work being done behind the scenes. Why is it so frowned upon?
Vash265 -1 points · 24d ago
The product isn't great if you need an AI to help you use it.
Home assistant should be providing an intuitive setup and integration that just work™. The fact that you needed (and need) an AI to help you with it speaks to larger failings with the UX and the overall design of home assistant itself, and those problems should be surfaced and corrected.
Two reasons: spam (lots of it), and a lot of folks who have been in this industry a while recognize the signs of "this person knows just enough to make some very bad decisions that will cost them a lot down the road".
I don't think the latter personally affects us, but you're basically guaranteeing a lifelong dependency on a tool you have no control over and whose cost is likely being heavily subsidized right now. Meaning when it breaks, if we've hit the enshittification phase of AI by then, you won't have the expertise to understand why you setup your system the way you did, much less how to fix it.
CubanlinkEnJ 2 points · 24d ago
The product is great because of everything it allows you to do with it, regardless of whether you use AI or not to create what you want with it. I 100% agree with you that it should be more intuitive, but it’s just not, and because there’s a lot of interest in using it, people are utilizing AI to create some awesome things with it.
And why would you care if someone else’s system breaks and they can’t figure out how to fix it? That’s their problem and not yours or anyone else’s. The entire argument gives off jaded nerd vibes that the Home Assistant club is being infiltrated lol.
Vash265 1 points · 24d ago
Because it'll cause an influx of users asking for help from the HA devs to fix issues they caused, making feature requests to revert APIs that were never intended to be public or stable because their LLM staked out a dependency on it, generate a ton of noise on public forums (see: the topic of this thread), post their AI generated configs to public repos without understanding the purpose of what those repos were for nor acknowledging the responsibility of owning and maintaining code/software posted publicly.
I'm all for using it as a learning tool, and all the power to you if it unblocks you from using something you've been wanting for a while.
But 1) not everyone has access to AI, so the argument that it unlocked the ability to use HA for you is far from universal. And 2) I mostly just want people to stop prompting their way to feeling like they did something that was worth sharing publicly.
I feel the same way about AI generated art. Generating an image for you to share with your friends that makes you laugh? Cool. Generating a "drawing" of a superhero and trying to claim it as your artwork because you're a prompt engineer or artist or some other bullshit? Hard pass, please keep it to yourself.
Late-Replacement-481 1 points · 25d ago
Eh, I don’t think flagging AI in general is a good filter. We ship lots of good code and make use of a lot of good code done with LLMs. It just has a tendency to turn novices into what sounds like experts, and while lowering the bar to entry is good, it makes sorting the quality a nightmare.
Holiday_Ad_9163 3 points · 25d ago
Who is shipping lots of good code with AI? I’m a dev at a FAANG company and can assure you we don’t.
Late-Replacement-481 1 points · 24d ago
I do financial model consulting for insurance companies. In general, we used to do good math, but crappy code.
LLMs have made it much better.
TerminalFoo 3 points · 24d ago
But that doesn't make the crappy code into good code. It just means that your crappy code is a little bit less crappy. Flagging things as AI or not should be mandatory. That includes anything that you run through AI for "cleanup" or the posts that are "I no speak good English so I use AI". AI has a use. I use it. But, come on...let's have a conversation, human to human.
Cultural-Drawer-7287 1 points · 6d ago
Totally agree! LLMs are fantastic, but you have to know how to manage them. AI does so much for me in the little amount of time I have. But, its through careful management of the model. If you aren't careful, you can end up with pile of crap or an inefficient and ineffective HA system.
DoktorMerlin -11 points · 25d ago
no, this would not be helpful. You would filter out too many good new integrations that genuine people created using AI as a tool
ob2kenobi 13 points · 25d ago
Shouldn't that be up to the person doing the filtering? If they don't want to see it, why do you care if they get a way to avoid it?
DoktorMerlin -6 points · 25d ago
I don't want to see AI generated dashboards. But I definitely would like to see AI generated integrations that work well, which would also be filtered out. So the filter wouldn't work
ShiggsAndGits 1 points · 24d ago
I say this as someone who uses AI to make my home assistant shine and to decide my damn breakfast (I'm dieting):
It would work, and it sounds like you'd just need to keep the ai content unfiltered and deal with some annoying dashboard posts?
I vibe code my own shit, I know I can keep it up to my standards.
I don't use other people's vibe coded shit (knowingly, at least), because it's not likely to be up to my standards.
I don't publish my vibe coded shit, because it's not likely to be up to other people's standards (and I suck at maintaining anything I've lost interest in)
Even as someone that's embracing ai, I'd like to know if it was used when evaluating a project.
DoomBot5 -1 points · 25d ago
The AI used flag is the worst way to do it. Everything else is a better discussion. At this point assume that the best and worst projects all use AI
No_Practice_9597 2 points · 25d ago
I am the only one not having success with AI :/
IAmDotorg 7 points · 25d ago
No, they're complete garbage if you don't know how to tell it exactly how things should be implemented. Skills don't really help because most of the skills out there for HA were clearly written by AI and are filled with implementation errors, but mostly the problem is that all of the LLMs out there (without carefully crafted prompts to change the behavior) will just plow ahead in a recursive way compounding prior errors.
The only way to get good output is to be able to do it yourself so you can put them in planning mode, ask for exactly what needs to be done, and have the ability to review the plan and make revisions.
That's true of dashboards, but even more so the absolute deluge of extensions, components and add-ons flooding the sub, the vast majority of which clearly are coming from non-engineers or lower-level engineers who don't understand how little experience and knowledge they have.
parski 5 points · 25d ago
Please share your abomination slop dash.
Swing_Right -2 points · 25d ago
I didn’t have success until I finally just put Claude sonnet 5.5 on max thinking and let it go hog wild for about an hour. It took up about 110% of my copilot credits but it was during a rollover period so it didnt cost anything extra
Late-Replacement-481 1 points · 25d ago
Yeah, gotta learn the hard way like I did… and submit a very reasonable PR to matter to learn that open source has some… opinionated turf wars
gscjj 1 points · 25d ago
I’m so glad we don’t have to subject ourselves to that anymore
gscjj 2 points · 25d ago
Before AI, 90% of this sub was dashboards, hardware and tablet builds that the overwhelming majority of users here aren’t creative or technical enough to emulate.
It’s an issue now becuase you don’t need to be a web dev to create an actually good looking dashboard and people want to share?