Writer’s culture is agonizing for weeks over how to describe the most mundane detail and then coming up with the best sentence you’ve ever written while brushing your teeth
go set the stage (it's a classic for all ages)
do you think you could get a post to 1 million likes
there are only 300 tumblr users
will you just let me be silly for a sec. there's this dread so ancient in me
why are people even fucking with gatcha games the wikipedia random article button is $0 and i just rolled a 10th century byzantine encyclopedia on my 17th try
Good morning to the trans man loudly slamming his girlfriend in the bunk above convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, and ONLY the trans man loudly slamming his girlfriend in the bunk above convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell
yk what i hate though. is when i find a meme and im like THIS IS SO [cool intimidating mutual i never talk to] I SHOULD SEND IT TO THEM but then i remember ive never talked to them ever and so i cant just like give them a meme out of the blue and so the meme just withers and rots in my camera roll 😔
Person A: "You know, with how closed minded and stubborn our boss is, I never expected them to hire so many vampires as soon as the new laws went through... and so enthusiastically too!"
Person B: "Yeeaah, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure that's just because they legally don't have to pay extra on health insurance for workers who can regenerate on their own."
Person C: "...We also tend to work longer hours without needing a break."
Person B: "That too."
AI using your writing to train.
Hey writerly friends! Here's your warning that Google is making updates to terms and service allowing them to mine your data and train AI with it. It's focused on emails right now but Google docs facing a similar change is on the horizon.
Keep your eyes peeled for terms of service updates because you've already accepted future changes once you hit accept the first time. Unpublished novels do not have the same copyright protections as published novels and lawsuits are much more difficult to win. I would highly recommend anyone with a large amount of writing in Google docs start removing it from that platform.
If you don't want your writing used to train AI (and to be clear you won't be paid for it) then it's time to start looking at alternatives to Google Docs.
Some thoughts on alternatives
Microsoft Word - unlikely to implement AI training
Microsoft Word is possibly the safest bet at the moment. The Office suite makes most of it's money from corporate licensing. That depends heavily on strict privacy rules. The risk to their reputation is too high to even attempt it on just the personal version of Word. If you want to be very very cautious, get Word Professional as there is ZERO chance of it being used for AI scraping.
$159.99 USD one time purchase OR subscription model for $69.99 per year which comes with all of the Microsoft Office suite and significantly more cloud storage.
Microsoft Word Professional is $439.99 USD. You really don't need it for writing.
Scrivener - unlikely to implement AI training
Scrivener would probably not survive the kind of controversy AI scraping would cause as their customers are exclusively writers.
$59.99 USD one time purchase per platform (if you switched from windows to mac you would need to repurchase.)
Libre Office - read all the terms and conditions or don't risk it.
Libre Office has an AI tool. There are no stories circulating about them scraping user's data but they're not near as big as Google and may not have drawn enough attention yet.
Free! (Which unfortunately makes data scraping more likely.)
Also don't forget:
Platforms like Ao3, Wattpad, Smashwords and possibly even Tumblr are all being targeted by AI companies for data scraping. In fact OpenAI are being sued for doing just that.
Be careful where you post your writing.
That's all folks!
Person A: "Why does everyone blame you for (Person B)'s death? I watched the footage last night and you weren't even in the same room when it happened!"
Person C: "Same reason I've always been blamed for things outside of my control... Because it's easier to blame me, than to acknowledge the truth."
Person A: "So, how did you two meet?"
Person B: "...You know, we actually legally can't answer that."
Villain: Hey, you queer?
Hero: Yeah, why?
Villain: I needed to figure out if I'm going to murder you or keep you alive.
Hero: Just when I thought you couldn't stoop any lower... you're of course homophobic.
Villain: I'm letting you go, actually. Can't kill someone who's queer during pride month. Wouldn't be very sporting.
Hero: ... what?
Villain: I'll fucking kill you starting July.
Person A: "How can you not know that you're dating a fucking deity?!"
Person B: "...I mean, to be fair, before the accident they never really acted like a deity around me. Our life together had been mostly domestic and sappy up until that point."
Person A: "And now?"
Person B: "...Honestly, it's still pretty domestic and sappy, they just don't bother hiding their inhuman nature around me anymore."
Which of these would you rather see on your dash?
Hey @staff. This is a perfect example of why collapsed reblogs is such a bad idea. Seeing the full thread, you go like this: 😮 ooh, that's cool 😀 "they're free," hehe! 🤣 "16 cents," perfection!!
I have achieved joy, I feel positive feelings toward Tumblr, I want to engage, I want to stay, my eyeballs land on more ads, you make more money, everyone wins! 🎉
Seeing the collapsed thread, you go like this:
😮 ooh, that's cool 😐 "16 cents"? yes, that's literally what the pic shows, not sure why you felt the need to say that
There is no motivation for me to uncollapse the reblog chain—it looks like a boring conversation about the denominations of coins. And even if I do uncollapse it, you've ruined the joke by showing me the punchline before the setup. I am sad, Tumblr is boring, I go elsewhere to entertain myself, I see less ads, you make less money, everyone loses. 😥
Reblog chains are the best thing about Tumblr. They are your unique super power. They are the thing that makes people screenshot Tumblr and share it around. Why on earth would you kneecap them??
I don't know exactly how you plan to implement this. Give people the option to keep them collapsed if there truly are people who are annoyed by how long they can get (you already have a version of this feature), but don't collapse them for everyone or new users by default. Please. It will make Tumblr so much more boring.