iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ken Tremendous @kentremendous.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

That's what taxes are, man. That's the definition of taxes. "You are subsidizing things you might never use" man shut the fuck up. My taxes currently subsidize like oil company exec private jets, you think I'm upset at low-income people eating inexpensive bananas?

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Laura Keating @lorekeating.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

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Beth Cato @bethcato.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Hey! If you were published at Daily Science Fiction, be aware that a site called Science Fiction Weekly has stolen the entire story database & posted it on their site. All of my DSF stories are there without my permission. sciencefictionweekly.com

sciencefictionweekly.com

Free short science fiction, published weekly · Science Fiction Weekly

Science Fiction Weekly publishes a free short story every weekday and a curated digest every Sunday. Subscribe by email.

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Kim Sokol (Open for Commissions/Freelance!) @kimsokol.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I come back to this tumblr post again and again

Tumblr post by sunderwight: The current AI situation is like if the people who were pushing NFTs had successfully gotten everyone to start referring to any and all digital transactions as an NFT, thus allowing them to pretend that things like online shopping, downloadable video games, bank transfers, etc were closely related to convincing middle-aged would-be techies to invest serious money in ugly digital paintings, and hold the former examples up in defense of the latter any time someone pointed out that the whole NFT thing was a racket. What do you mean NFTs are bad, don't you want disabled people to be able to use their phones to have medication delivered to their doorstep? Wow. Horrible of you, really.

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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 25/07/2026

Nope. No, you haven’t.

r/WritingWithAl
u/Dazzling-Major-5620 • 13h
ChatGPT not letting you emulate specific authors anymore
Prompting
Join
I've been writing my book for several months now, paid for a more advanced model. Took a break. Came back.
Now Ms. GPT says she can't generate content in the style of specific authors. My prompts were soooo specific and I got exactly what I wanted out of them. For example,
'rewrite in the literary style of 'author here' with abundant dialogue and detail avoiding staccato prose. That was my go-to. Or 'please write and flesh out in the style of
'author' etc. they tightened the ropes. I have no idea how to get around this other than maybe feed it prose I already edited that's technically mine? Fuck.
& Locked post. New comments cannot be posted.

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Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Me too, titmouse

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 02/05/2026

Finally getting around to reading Dune, and... just gonna leave this here. 🙃 For no reason whatsoever.

Screenshot of highlighted Dune quotes, all of it reads:
"Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
"'Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind,'" Paul quoted.
"Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible," she said. "But what the O.C. Bible should've said is: 'Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.'"

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 08/04/2026

Unsurprisingly didn't make the cut for the #ShortStoryChallenge2026 round 2, however! This judge's feedback cracked me up (because SAME): "After I got over my initial horror that Y2K fit the definition of historic fiction" (I didn't make the rules, only followed them 😭)

media.tenor.com

a woman from schitts creek says me too girl in yellow

ALT: a woman from schitts creek says me too girl in yellow

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 24/03/2026

Chatting with a friend the other day about rehydrating my sourdough starter and if it takes too long I can always make "stupid bread..." Bc I guess sourdough is the smartphone of breads?? 😂 Makes no sense but cracked us up 😆

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 29/01/2026

I'm on draft 3 but more full of 😱😱😭😱😭😱😭😱😱 with every step forward. How much mixing is too much to not feel grounded in historical? It's hysterical, ha ha HA... 🤡 🎵 Somebody saAA—ve me— (name the show 😂) #ShortStoryChallenge2026

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 25/01/2026

To trust your intuition at the risk of being disqualified or write unlike yourself to be safe? Guess which one is winning 🤓 Now I just have to figure out what the heck happens in the middle to get to the end 😂 #ShortStoryChallenge2026 #writerproblems #writerslife

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 24/01/2026

... welp, definitely a threat this time 😭 #ShortStoryChallenge2026

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Gail Drakes @gaildrakes.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

YES TO THIS. 😔 I recently was trying to find the words to describe the way AI slop steals our appreciation of beauty, our curiosity, and sense of wonder. It isn’t just about truth in political matters, etc.

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 02/12/2025

Wow that feels weird, please don't call me that 😂 Anyway, rewarded for my good deed by a bunch of adorable fluffy birds flitting adorably (upside down, even) on a tree on the quiet back road. Naturally, I had my croissant when I got home. 😋 (Next time, I'll get it fresher in the morning...) 4/4

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 02/12/2025

Ah ha! Makes more sense. I double check no cars are coming, go get the ball (nearly dropping the bag with my eggs in the process) and toss it back over the fence to them. I'm thanked profusely, and I even hear one kid say "bonne chance avec les courses madame" and. 3/4

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 02/12/2025

Immediately the thought is followed by a stranger one: ils demandent l'aumône? (Are they asking for alms?) As I get closer, the only pedestrian on this side of the street (and/or at the moment), they start pointing and asking me to get the ball which is in the middle of the (two lane) street. 2/4

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 02/12/2025

I just wanted a croissant... (What a stereotypical French phrase to say 😂 #sorrynotsorry) #storytime My first outing since arriving, jetlagged, in this small French town. On my way back (WITH 🥐,) I see a dozen kids' arms sticking out the schoolyard fence. Strange, I think, is it a new game? 1/4

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 23/11/2025

I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world And by design LLMs destroy shared context

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 18/11/2025

I guess it's time for another installment of the Short Story Challenge by @nycmidnight.bsky.social! What better way to start the year than with a deadline and the threat (thrill?) of an avoided genre. 🫣 Starts January 23rd, info here: nycmidnight.com/ssc

nycmidnight.com

The Short Story Challenge — nycmidnight

The Short Story Challenge is an annual creative writing competition that challenges writers around the world to create short stories based on genre, subject, and character assignments in as little as ...

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I need everyone who uses AI to generate art & text to notice what Vince Gilligan says here. You're surrendering your brain, your creativity, the divine spark within you to a machine. Someday you'll wake up and find you're no longer capable of writing or thinking. And for what?

["When your selling point is: 'This thing is great, it'll write your high school essays for you, it'll create your artwork for you if you're an artist, so you don't have to actually learn how to draw and paint anymore ... You don't ever need to learn how to read a map or use a compass ... this this will wipe your butt for you.' What's left to live for? The creative spark in human beings - it's one of the most precious, wonderful things we have. What is more important than being creative?'"]

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

I'm very grateful to @jasonkoebler.bsky.social for letting me speak on the relationship between AI and book bans. This is a great and thorough article, and I'm glad I got a chance to say a thing I say a lot but that-- without the context Jason provides-- makes me sound a little conspiracy minded.

AI is an agreement machine, which is anathema to learning and critical thinking,” Tokuda-Hall said. "Previously we have had experts like librarians and teachers to help them do these things, but they have been hamstrung and they’ve been attacked and kneecapped and we’ve created a culture in which their contribution is completely erased from society, which makes something like AI seem really appealing. It’s filling that vacuum.”
“Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another,” she added.

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 10/11/2025

To #shortstorychallenge 2026 or not to, that is the question... Pros: ✔️ deadline(s) & word count provided ✔️ new genre(s) exploration guaranteed ✔️ create new! (ideas/stories/worlds/characters/etc) Cons: ✔️ deadline(s) 🫠 ✔️ new genre(s) 😨 ✔️ writing 😱 #writerproblems #writingcommunity

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Phil Nobile Jr. @philnobilejr.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Good morning! AI is being force-fed to you by a handful of billionaires who will lose a bunch of money if they fail to convince you that you need it. You do not need it 🫶

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 10/11/2025

Some writers sticky note their brain (for a time) Some doodle the vaguest lines barely resembling a shape but better than misplacing the brain sticky... 🫠

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Too many people have resigned themselves to not reading because they fear they no longer have the focus for it. You only need to limit your screen time for a few days to begin feeling the effects on your brain. I promise you, you are capable of reading books again.

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Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

In huge positive news, the Australian government just ruled out handing the work of their country’s creatives to AI companies for free 🙌 They resisted the well-funded tech lobby & shut down proposals to upend copyright law. Other governments should do the same! www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

If you want to push back against tech's encroachment into every corner of our lives, you have to read books. They're eager to create a future in which most people are illiterate and hooked on slop, a world without imagination or knowledge. Reading is resistance.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

This is one of the absolute toughest things about predatory inclusion — the predation is often fun or a little useful. Criticism makes a reasonable person sound like an asshole. LowerEd weathered me for this kind of social death. So I’ll say it: your enjoyment does not matter & should not matter.

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The Reel Jon 🦌🎬🇵🇸🇸🇩🇸🇸🇺🇦 @thereeljon.cryptoanarchy.network · 11/08/2025

If an individual offering consensual nudes of themself on OnlyFans is considered “illicit” but a program generating nudes of women without their consent is fine, the powers that be have made their priorities clear. And they’re the same as they ever were.

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Keezy Young🌼 @keezyyoung.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

*leans in real real intimidatingly close to your face* even if they're a protagonist

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 27/07/2025

Hmm, I do have a virtual group during the week and technically writing to a prompt (assignment, potato potahto? 🤭) but the contextualizing is louder than the scene 😩 Maybe I'll add a word/space goal and see if that helps 🤔

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Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦖 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

You don’t have to like, approve of, or engage with porn and nsfw work to see how right wing extremists are using fear and stigma around smut to ban queer people from public life, define “good” sex as only between married people for procreation, and otherwise further force white supremacy on everyone

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BMBrice @bmbrice.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

grumble grumble

I'm going to outline for you exactly how the christofacists win, because it's an obnoxiously simple strategy but a reliably powerful one.

You know that post that's like "I don't trust y'all to eat the rich because you'll just target a bunch of doctors and actors and forget about the people who do the real damage?" That's our communal Achilles Heel.

Here's the play: Collective Shout organizes a bunch of phone calls to payment processors demanding the elimination of NSFW/LGBT/ETC content. Payment processors go "oh, that's a lot of phone calls, we should do something" and then tell Steam and Itch to comply with those demands or be cut off from being able to do business. Then Steam and Itch have to make a decision between cutting off an arm and clamping down, or take a stand and shoot themselves in the head, functionally nuking their entire platform which, especially for Steam, have exponentially farther reaching ramifications.

Then our community gets mad at *them* and start calling them cowards and boot lickers and profess never to support them again. And like, yeah I get that getting mad at Itch is easy when you've got nothing to lose, but what the fuck with "I'll only support you, the comparatively small business with no real power as long as you can singlehandedly and successfully fight off the international might of the owners of theocratic capitalism with no further action from me?" like do people really not see the distance between creators and Itch (that's like, what? 30 people?) vs fucking Mastercard??

When the Goblin has Spider-man under his glider, we start throwing shit at him, we don't go "Damn, Spider-man, you said you'd save us. I guess you suck. Fuck you."

So if you want to be more than a useful, reactionary pawn, I'm linking to a bunch of posts where smarter people than I are sharing payment processors phone numbers, scripts on how to talk to them, and other resources. If you do not pick up your phone and make that call you have *no* right to be mad at a company that has historically been pretty good about their support for creators and are likely trying to figure out how to weather this storm in real time.

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TBSkyen @tbskyen.com · 22/07/2025

It is so, so important to learn to understand the difference between A Gross Thing That Freaks Me Out, versus A Thing Which Causes Actual Harm In The World because as long as you can't navigate the difference, your disgust is a lever that can be used to manipulate you

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 26/07/2025

Has anyone found the perfectionist off switch? I'd like to get words on the page, not spend an hour stress dissecting the scene I haven't even written yet... 🫠 #writerproblems #writingcommunity #writerslife

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Casey S. Pumpkins 🎃 @caseyexplosion.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

"But this is just about porn games!" Yes, and weird religious fascists regularly mischaracterize queer people and queer art as inherently pornographic, they shouldn't be given an inch because there's no line for them, no cut-off point, they'll never be satisfied. Do you think they'll stop at porn?

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Kendra, spooky version @kendrawcandraw.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

In the discussion of what is acceptable in art and writing, it's always interesting to me that there are a million sexuality-based restrictions, but they never mention regular degular violence. Can't have a boner, but I can cut the head off anyone with a sword and drink their blood

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 26/07/2025

Airbnb guest, confused about my writing class: What kind of writing? Me: Creative writing, fiction. (Some days later) Him, a STEM kinda guy: Did you finish your story? Me: ... ??? No?? (I've had ONE class 😂 but even so) To be fair, writing was easier when my perfectionist had lower standards...

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So Mayer @suchmayer.northsky.social · 07/07/2025

Writers! Note that AI translation (under the guise of "global access") is being seen/used as the weak point to get AI into publishing (possible bc Eng lang publishing is weak on translation). Stand with translators & for more human translation, fairly paid!

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 18/06/2025

How does one unplug (mute?) their inner critic? (And maybe fear. And overthinking...) I'm so tired of blocking myself 😩

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 10/06/2025

Back in the "haven't written for so long, do I even know how to write anymore?" boat and woah, choppy waters. 🦺 #writerproblems #writerthings #writingcommunity

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

School ingrains in us that reading is a chore. It helps to remember that you're not being tested; you're engaging in a pastime that has given people pleasure for centuries. Learning is fun, reading is fun, and immersion in a good book is one of life's greatest joys.

tweet that reads "Pls don't laugh but how do i start reading again"

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Suzannah Rowntree @suzannahrowntree.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

I don't use generative AI at any stage, not researching, outlining, writing, or editing, and I hire artists and designers who don't use it either. 100% genuine intelligence (or folly) in my books wherever possible. Which makes me one of the people AI cannot operate without 💀

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Hate this a lot. Value human creators, writers, artists, narrators, editors -- everyone in the chain of making a book and putting it out into the world should be a human being. Humans make art for humans. P.S. fuck AI -- eat shit, artbarf robots www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

theguardian.com

Audible unveils plans to use AI voices to narrate audiobooks

Amazon brand will offer more than 100 artificial intelligence-generated voices in English and other languages

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Melinda 🌻 @melindacharnas.com · 10/05/2025

Sometimes you write stuff that only hits when you read your words again two years later... "Joy breaks up the monotony of the expected." #writerthings #writerslife #quotes (can I use that to quote myself? 😂)

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🦊.quiet.ink @quiet.ink · 29/04/2025

i'm mostly not out here just to repost memes, but this is in fact a photograph of me soooo

a photograph of a cat, overlaid with the words: "stop using chatgpt i can also give you misinformation and i'm beautiful"

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 12/04/2025

Info on its energy gobbling should be in every news story about AI. It is newsworthy. It is inseparable from the tech itself.

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