Developer Max Skridlevsky launched OpenChaos, a Next.js repo where the internet votes on which pull requests get merged. Rules are simple: anyone can submit, thumbs-up reactions decide winners each Sunday, and the community can even change the rules. Within six days, it hit #1 on Hacker News, attracting 400+ stars and 70+ PRs.

Week 1 delivered unexpected drama. A PR to delete the entire project gained traction until downvotes were counted. The creator broke his own rules to fix a vote-counting bug, demonstrating that infrastructure must work before democracy can. A user then flooded the repo with PRs to expose a pagination flaw, turning a technical issue into performance art.

The first merged PR changed the system forever: PR #6 added downvote counting, creating a check on pure upvote democracy. Memes became real, with a Rust rewrite leading Week 2's leaderboard. The experiment proved people naturally seek structure in chaos, every system gets gamed, and drama writes itself when you let the internet steer development.