iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 03/10/2026

I am hearing strong opinions in both directions from people whose opinions I trust, so I expect it will still be a matter of debate fot some time. Since this particular one is so mixed, might make a field just for that and let people filter it as they like, we will see

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Arkady Martine | Dr. AnnaLinden Weller @byzantienne.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Apropos of several things in recent news: If you want to have a confidential conversation via a video conferencing call, you really, REALLY should ban all auto-transcripts and "AI" notetakers. Transcripts are a great tool for non-confidential meetings. (though nobody needs an AI notetaker imho)

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Memento (artemis) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

A murder of crows? You mean caws of death??

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Chert @chert.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

please help… my son…

photo of a forklift w/ a pallet jack sitting on its forks like it was an adult carrying a child across its arms

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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I always ask if people think hearing a digital piano programmed to play a concerto is the same as hearing my dad — who’s been playing for 79 years and still practices hours a day — do it. And funnily enough no one has ever agreed that it is.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 01/10/2026

I think that has to be it, I scrolled thru all our titles and I think thats the only one that fits! I kept thinking of "The Octopus Dreams of Personhood" by Hannah Yang, which involves possession but by an octopus not a demon, and no pov shift.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 01/10/2026

Hm, is it mayhap "An Arctic Excavation of Us" by your sometime-coauthor Sara S. Messenger? www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...

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R.S.A. Garcia (BUY THE NIGHTWARD) @rsagarcia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Bunch of writers sprinkling Celtic mythology or Greek mythology all over a scifi or fantasy story with NO OTHER ELEMENTS from these cultures or countries, but the moment I say, 'Caribbean,' I have to match a newsreel or your vacation fantasy. The double standard is ridiculous.

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Severed Ed @dwightwedding.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

You must have seen this one, right?

LukeZero @lukemckinney
Incredible scenes on Weibo, someone tweeted a bird expert "I saw this bird what'sit called?", people mocking the sketch until the expert replies "Oh yeah that's a Twelve-wired Bird of
Paradise, the sketch is great except you're missing five wires"

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 29/09/2026

This is why I am walking miles for the Young Center this month against my husband. Because babies should never, ever have to face this kind of thing.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 30/09/2026

Do you remember any other details?

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Adria Bailton @adriabailton.com · 24/09/2026

Have you read? “One Heart” by Annika Browne at Diabolical Plots I thought the theme this week was mothers, but it's really grief. What a beautiful, thorough representation of loss. www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...

diabolicalplots.com

DP FICTION #139B: “One Heart” by Annika Browne – Diabolical Plots

Diabolical Plots

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 30/09/2026

Thanks for the shout out! Also I like your butterfly sweater!

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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

tracking the Ring

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 30/09/2026

Noted! Makes sense! I've seen similar things for other languages, like referring to "the Los Lobos gang"

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 30/09/2026

Ah! Thank you so much! I had found a couple other ones that claimed to be it so I wanted to make sure it was something that would not be nonsense to someone who spoke the language in that context.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

LOL true, I feel like the disclaimer is mostly used when someone is asking very murdery questions, I just thought it would be funny here

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Hi! Weird question! (Don't worry, I'm a writer) Is there anyone who can speak Norwegian who can tell me what how the tarot card The Fool is generally written in Norwegian language? I've found a few answers, but most common result seems to be: Narren Can anyone confirm/correct this?

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

I love these! I think this is the first time I've seen young Fiddleford in these too :D

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

How do we determine that it is not chatgpt in a trench coat? (this is a genuine question) their website does not seem to clearly declare whether they claim it is or claim it isnt

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

So if a pub has an AI policy like "we dont allow AI submissions of writing, we dont use AI art, we will never enter submissions into an AI program but we do use pangram to filter our slush", that has been a delisting. This is transparent, they declare that they do it.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Right. Totally agree. At the moment I am focused on thinking about publications that DO publicly declare that they use it. Because if a publication doesn't declare that they use it then I probably don't know about it to make any decision at all.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

I mean, I think its fair to make a choice that if it uses plagiarism as a basis for the program's existence, to say that one chooses not to use it even if it doesn't generate text. Generating text is a factor but not the only factor imo

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Right, as with much else of the genAI stuff a huge, accountability for decisions is a huge factor. If a human chooses poorly, the human can be held accountable. The program can't. "I took this action because I trust the program's unexplained judgment" is a huge responsibility dodge

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Right, I hear you. I am a software developer. I took classes in AI in college before of THIS tech was developed. I wrote small scale artificial neural networks in roughly 2003. The sloppy language about the genAI for marketing purposes really irks me, getting applied to tech like OCR

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

To be clear I am not saying "maybe the techbros were right maybe the slopbots are great". I am just doing a bit of a sniff test to see if I have failed to read the room on delisting things for Pangram. I know some writer/publisher will be unhappy anyway, just getting some thoughts. Thank you!

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Right, the whole em-dash thing where every writer I know is like "you can pry the em-dash out of my cold dead hands"

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Part of pushback has included claims that work run thru Pangram is not used for training datasets. But: 1. is there any way to verify that or are we to take their marketing claims at face value? 2. even if we can verify, not wanting publishers to utilize tech built on plagiarism is reasonable imo

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

Policy has been that if AI is applied to submissions that the publication doesn't get listed & have included Pangram in this. But have gotten some pushback from a couple publications who say it is the only way to mitigate the effect of the slop on their submission queue. Interested in in input

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 29/09/2026

"AI detector" programs like Pangram use the same technology they claim to detect, right? When publishers put submissions thru these, what do people think of that? (these are genuine questions not rhetorical. I am not considering using it for DP, I am thinking about its effect on Grinder listings)

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Marc "Candy Corn" Criley @marcc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Wife got me a shirt for my birthday from @diabolicalplots.com. "It smells like new T-shirt!"

A bearded man wearing a ball cap, glasses and a T-shirt that says DIABOLICAL PLOTS in red letters.

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karanormal activity 💜 @deadontheoutside.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

also known as the hazmatryoshka doll

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 26/09/2026

Amazing, I had not seen that before, A+++

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(((Eddie))) @abracadocious.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Probably her echolocating insectovorous hat. For both cases.

Kingfisher & Wombat (@UrsulaV)
Bearing in mind that I am NOT a scientific illustrator...

Fig 1. Hoary tophat locates prey via echolocation from organs in hatband.

Fig 2. Hat ascends above the prey, while swinging brim forward into feeding position. This is the most difficult part of the maneuver, as the hat can no longer see the prey and must rely on its last perceived location.

Fig 3. Hat slams shut, trapping prey inside. As the brim is no longer providing lift, the hat will fall to the ground until the prey is digested, leaving the hat vulnerable to haberdashers.

Animal Behaviour
Volume 48, Issue 5, November 1994, Pages 1013-1021

Regular Article
Constraints on optimal foraging: a field test of prey discrimination by echolocating insectivorous hats

Robert M.R., Barclay, R. Mark Brigham

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 25/09/2026

Unaware of the discourse I must assume it is either about which of her hats are the most fabulous, or which of her animal facts are the most disturbing!

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Simon and Gargamel @kellylink.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

as a bookstore owner, we cannot do the work or offer the benefits which public libraries do—fund libraries and everyone, including bookstores, will thrive

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Liz Shuler @lizshuler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

*9 to 5* may have been a comedy, but for so many of us women fighting for respect on the job, it felt all too real. Dolly helped make us laugh at the boss and imagine what we could change together. Happy 9 to 5 Day! We miss you, Dolly.

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Juliette Wade @juliettewade.com · 24/09/2026

The fact that "AI" bros call their product "a tool" when that's most convenient, and "a person" when that's most convenient, only proves it's just a means for THEM to escape any accountability.

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P.A. Cornell (She/Her) @cornellwriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’d forgotten I’d plugged The Submission Grinder in this interview. It always amazes me that so many people still don’t know about it. It’s run by @diabolicalplots.com. Definitely check it out if you’re a short fiction writer, whatever the genre.

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 23/09/2026

Bring the computer outside! Or hollow out the computer and plant a shrubbery in there!

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Marc "Candy Corn" Criley @marcc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

And just in the last couple days the Submission Grinder's creator has been implementing some performance upgrades that make it much snappier!

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GigaNotoSaurus Magazine @giganotosaurus.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The Submission Grinder is now featuring the entire GigaNotoSaurus back catalog. We’ll be gradually updating the cards with more metadata. If you have ever been published by GNS and want to help tagging your own stories, send us a note to get our (very short) directions.

thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com

GigaNotoSaurus - The Submission Grinder

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 23/09/2026

Fun fact, our logo was a sandwich for a short interval between being a meat grinder and being a coffee grinder!

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 23/09/2026

That being said, I hear what you're saying about the category feeling unchanging. I always like to see the longer list of what was nominated. Arguing about changing Hugo categories and suggesting rule changes is a beloved pastime of people who follow the Hugos closely, :D

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