#as if it were a huge fandom

[enolezdrata]

[ohhgingersnaps]

I'm seeing some frustration over fandom creatives expressing anger or distress over people feeding their work into ChatGPT. I'm not responding to OP directly because I don't want to derail their post (their intent was to provide perspective on how these models actually work, and reduce undue panic, which is all coming from a good place!), but reassurances that the addition of our work will have a negligible impact on the model (which is true at this point) does kind of miss the point? Speaking for myself, my distress is less about the practical ramifications of feeding my fic into ChatGPT, and more about the principle of someone taking my work and deliberately adding it to the dataset.

Like, I fully realize that my work is a drop in the bucket of ChatGPT's several-billion-token training set! It will not make a demonstrable practical difference in the output of the model! That doesn't change the fact that I do not want my work to be part of the set of data that the ChatGPT devs use for training.

According to their FAQ, ChatGPT can and will use user input to train itself. The terms and conditions explicitly state that they save your chats to help train and improve their models. (You can opt-out, but sharing is the default.) So if you're feeding a fic into ChatGPT, unless you've explicitly opted out, you are handing it to the ChatGPT team and giving them permission to use it for training, whether or not that was your intent.

Now, will one fic make a demonstrable difference in the output of the model? No! But as the person who spent a year and a handful of months laboring over my fic, it makes a difference to me whether my fic, specifically, is being used in the dataset. If authors are allowed to have a problem with the ChatGPT devs for scraping millions of fics without permission, they're also allowed to have a problem with folks handing their individual fics over via the chat interface.

I do want to add that if you've done this to a fic, please don't take this as me being upset with you personally! Folks are still learning new information and puzzling out what "good" vs. "bad" use is, from an ethical standpoint. (Heck, my own perspective on this is deeply based on my own subjective feelings!) And we certainly shouldn't act like one person feeding a fic into ChatGPT has the same practical negative impact, on a broad societal scale, as a team using a web crawler to scrape five billion pieces of artwork for Stable Diffusion.

The point is that fundamentally, an ethical dataset should be obtained with the consent of those providing the data. Just because it's normalized for our data to be scraped without consent doesn't make it ethical, and this is why ChatGPT gives users the option to not share data— there is actually a standardized way (robots.txt) for website servers to set policies for how bots/crawlers can interact with them, for exactly this reason— and I think fandom artists and authors are well within their rights to express a desire for opting out to be the socially-respected default within the fandom community.

[utilitycaster]

I definitely need to observe this more but I feel like in a lot of actual play or adjacent (ie, sf podcast) fandoms there's like. a particular fan mindset that takes almost every action from secondary characters in the worst faith possible with the exception of villainous/deeply morally ambiguous characters, and so you get people who will assume everyone is out to get the protagonists EXCEPT for the person who has shot at them 20 times while kicking a puppy; that person is misunderstood and deserved a redemption arc.

[locusfandomtime]

A (somewhat) genuine “What your favourite hermit says about you” chart because my joke one was so popular

Obvious disclaimer: do not take too seriously! these aren’t necessarily true! this is like 50% a joke! i mean everything here positively!

i am still right though. anyways let me know who you are I’m a zed fan

[lunarharp]

played dragon age 2...just simple scribbles

[arcanegifs]

[intermundia]

so i think stats on ao3 stories say more about the size and activity of the fandom at the time of posting rather than anything terribly meaningful about the quality of the story in particular, and as a result i don't take my own numbers very seriously, but i think taking them instead as a metric of the community, it can be very fun and meaningful to see certain milestones passed. i just saw my obikin stories have more than 750k hits from over the last four years, and that's amazing proof of community to me, like it's so cool that i could be in the right place at the right time to be a part of that movement, something so much bigger than myself. the fandom has been through so much, from the pandemic activity boom and the end of tcw to the kenobi show doing its propaganda work, so many brilliant people coming and going, it's been a real journey haha it's got me feeling nostalgic and proud to see proof of just how many people over the years have explored the ship and loved it as much as i do!!

[jalluzas-ferney]

I don’t think this is an unpopular opinions but lowkey fannon kailor is sm better than cannon kailor.

(Read the tags)

[gwyns]

it's actually quite amusing watching people discuss jurian like he's some disgraced youtuber over a comment that doesn't matter and that elain ultimately won't give one shit about because she wasn't around to hear it

[beescake]

found some old tweets frm my private diary acc logging errant thoughts i had while getting into hs

and well. smth abt the progression of it makes me emo. happy new year ig :')

[robiinurheart33]

My heart is squeezing fuck in another lifetime maybe Simon would be able to run away with Johnny. Maybe in another lifetime they could hold each other in their arms and feel safe for the first time. Maybe in another lifetime Simon didn’t have words choked in his throat, jaw flexing and neck twitching just to get the words out to express his undying love for Johnny. Maybe in another lifetime they would be able to feel their skin against each other and to understand what it means to have a soulmate, not that either of them believed in it in the first place. Maybe in another lifetime Simon wouldn’t be holding Johnny’s hand for the last time, watching the red trickle down the side of his head. Maybe in another lifetime simon and Johnny would just have someone to love without an outworldly force determined to tear them apart

[leventar]

the fandom sees megumi interacting w someone feminine presenting and suddenly it’s an onslaught of thinly veiled misogyny

[iphyslitterator]

I don't know if this is a point that needs defending, but I feel strongly that Tommy's love language is quality time.

Evidence with Buck:

We've already talked extensively about how Tommy Shows Up to the wedding even sooty and exhausted.

At the bachelor party, he's not especially demonstrative, but he's THERE when he's sleepy and on standby and the party sucks, and he only leaves when he's called in to work.

They don't touch at the medal ceremony (I headcanon that they agreed not to), but Tommy sits next to him, stands next to him, goes through the buffet line with him.

Offering flying lessons and Muay Thai lessons: This isn't really an act of service, because neither of these is actually useful to Buck -- but they are a way to spend time together. The Muay Thai conversation is literally, "Of course you'd rather hang out with Eddie" / "I'll teach you so you can hang out with me too!"

In the first kiss scene and the 7x10 date night, Tommy shares his own feelings of jealousy. Words of affirmation would have stayed on Buck (you're great, you have nothing to be jealous of, your birth father doesn't deserve you); switching to himself puts the quality in quality time (we're bonding, we're having a deep conversation, this is reciprocal).

And with EDDIE. oh BOY:

Goes to his house THREE TIMES in the first TWO WEEKS, I'm still hung up on this, that's so fast.

Muay Thai

Working on cars

Karaoke trivia night

Basketball

Trip to Vegas: Kind of an act of service/gift, but if it was easy for him to get the tickets, the emphasis is more on spending a significant amount of time together.

Again. It's been a few WEEKS.

I suspect Tommy is amazing at words of affirmation when necessary, and I like to imagine he's big on romantic touch. But what we've seen of him in season 7 leans heavily toward Being Together, rather than Doing Things, as the way he expresses interest. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[edwardallenpoe]

Hey. Just wanted to put my two cents in, like everyone else on Tumblr dot com is. (It got pretty long so putting it under a cut)

I don't really care about what you think should happen to the fandom. Like. If you are going to continue to engage in the fandom without giving Neil any sort of gain is fine. I'm personally still on the fence on what the fuck to do now. But let's not make that the whole focus, yeah? What Neil allegedly did was fucking terrible. Like. Objectively worse than what JKR did when things first came out about her. Let's forget good omens and sandman and coraline for a minute (don't care if you still engage with those things or burn your copies and remove your tattoos, let's just put it down for a minute.) and try really hard to think. Because we all hated JKR. We burned her reputation to the ground. For good reason. But we can't even decide if we hate Neil Gaiman yet? Guys. Please. We have to believe all women. Plus he's a rich fucking white dude who has admitted to using his power for gain.

And if it turns out (which this is a 8% chance) that this is all not what it seems to be, or even all of it is fabricated, and Neil is innocent, we still gotta stop worshipping this dude. This has got to be a wakeup call that he's not some Messiah. He's a human dude in power who does the same shitty things human dudes in power do.

And I get it. You want to continue to like your stories that he helped create (key-word 'helped' bc he was a part of a team with a lot of these stories, including Sir Terry Pratchett) but me personally? I would be a massive hypocrite if I metaphorically burned my Harry Potter stories to the ground and put HP fans in my DNI because of JKR but said "separate the art from the artist" with Neil Gaiman.

And this is coming from any other Good Omens fan that became way too attached to the story. Like a lot of people have said that story helped in very. Very fucking trying times. It was my rock, some days the only thing keeping me going. The fandom has been an amazing place of creativity and community and love.

But so was Harry Potter. If you think about it. If any Good Omens fans were previous Harry Potter fans you'll know just how wide spread and open and creative and deep the hp fandom was. And this may just be me misremembering because it was a couple years ago at this point (plus everything with Neil Gaiman is still such news) but because JKR was spouting rhetoric that directly harmed us (us being majority queer and poc people) we drop-kicked hp pretty fast and focused on the artist and her shittiness.

Can we have the same attitude towards Neil? Can we separate the art from the artist long enough to fucking focus on Neil? When I say separate the art from the artist I don't mean "remove artist, continue to enjoy art" I mean "remove the art and focus on the artist, and study that motherfucker". How many video essays are their out about JKR? How many books referencing her terribleness? Without giving so much as a hint to Harry Potter?

Separate the art from the artist and focus on the artist and bringing him to justice. And believe the victims.

And yeah I can see your arguments against the source of the information and who the victims went to tell their stories, I can understand those arguments, but let's look at the data, okay? Let's look at what Scarlett and K actually said with their actual words and their actual messages and separate the source from the material. What Scarlett and K talked about is scary. Terrifying. I couldn't even read more than a little bit before I got triggered. I wasn't caring about how the source podcast was talking about it. What Scarlett and K said with their own words should be enough. Make your own judgements. If you can't look at a story without being influenced by the storyteller's hidden agenda and not have critical thinking skills????? I'm sorry but that's going to be your downfall.

Or better yet, if you can't believe victims because they have political views that differ from your own (which, they probably don't. From what I can tell nobody really fucking knows what Scarlett and K's political views are but it doesn't really matter) you need to really study and look into what you mean when you call yourself a "leftist". Because it's not very progressive or helpful to not believe or help victims because of their political views. Sorry. Is that wild for me to say? Idk

Uh anyways. I don't really care what you do in your free time when it comes to enjoying the fandoms. I don't necessarily think it makes you a terribly shitty person for still engaging in it instead of burning all your Neil Gaiman stories, and also like a lot of people have said (and since I'm on the same boat) treating fans like the scum of the earth when a lot of fans have had good omens as a way to escape and has become super dependent on good omens and are justifiably horrified by everything and trying to ignore it is shitty. But I'm personally going to continue to follow this story because I care about the victims. Not because I want to be guilt-free reading a fanfic about an angel and a demon. Because I care about real life people.

[sweetpapercroissant]

i don’t get the appeal of an incest ship if you’re only ever going to focus on the good romantic feelings and not the icky negative ones. the resentment the feeling of being trapped shackled wanting out and away from the person who knows so much too much about you since before you even knew to not allow it but at the same time you can’t imagine living in a world without them being away is like tearing a limb a piece of your soul you will never again be complete without them. no one else will ever understand you the way they do no one else will ever get so deep under your skin and you may hate it but you hate the thought of them not being there even more you can’t stand to see anyone else get to a part of them you didn’t and even worse when they get it before you. you push and you push and you push but when they let go it’s like you’re free falling and it doesn’t matter how far away you run you will never be far enough away because you carry them inside you everywhere you go. you tell yourself you want nothing more than to get away but they’re the only home you will ever have and you won’t ever let anyone get that close you’re already moulded to only fit in perfectly with them and you didn’t have a choice but this is who you are. there’s nothing you could do to make them let you go but there’s nothing you could do to make them let you go. you want to be so close to them you want to merge your bodies into one you hate how crowded you feel when they’re in the same room like they’re sucking in all the air and there isn’t any left for you and you want to get away so you can just breathe but you don’t even want to breathe in the air that hasn’t passed through their lungs first you hate that you feel this way you wish you could claw it out of your veins but then who would you be without it without them you want so much and it’s so ugly and you’re ashamed of how raw that need is how you want every part the good the bad the human you wish none of this had ever happened you feel dirty you never even had a chance to find something else be something else but then you look over and you love them so much so much and when it comes down to it nothing else was ever going to be enough for you anyway.

[pocket-notebook]

Mmm. Long time no see wonderful Tumblr community. While I haven't been active on here, I HAVE been active with making art. Specifically.....

Crossing over the stop motion puppet animation show Moral Orel with season 1 of the live action crime drama show Fargo by making PUPPET LESTER NYGAARD!

My friend @lester-nygaard and I have had this insane crossover idea of these two shows. And I knew in that moment of beautiful fandom creation, months before, that I had the perfect birthday present idea.

And now I've got the itch for it.... so if there is anyone else as insane as me and my friend about this idea... I wouldn't say no to making another

Sometimes you can make the coat, sometimes you can fly the plane, sometimes....just sometimes you can make the puppet ("puppet").