#it doesn't work if you're just using it as a tool against writer's block or a way to generate engagement

[joons]

i want to say something about how j.j. abrams' mystery box concept is an attempt to talk about postmodernism without fully understanding it, but my thoughts are still sloshing around

[lexithwrites]

soooo what's exactly your problem with lily (i understand this one, if the fandom gonna take her husband from her they at least should do her justice or don’t write her) and barty being portrayed as shitty exes and why you can't scroll past and let people write what they want and where does your limitation end? are you also gonna bash writers who write regulus as raging homophobe and rapist in wolfstar fanfics or it doesn’t apply to him? what about snape? the way he's written in many marauders fanfics goes against his canon arc, should the writers be called out for inaccurate portrayal of him?

i think characters are tools and if writers wanna use them as tools it should not be controversial. do you think otherwise?

to answer your first question — because it's an opinion. am i going onto people's fanfictions and wasting my time commenting that i hate their trope? no. am i calling authors out by username? no. am i just stating my opinion on my tumblr? yes. plus, you are well within your right to scroll too, you didn't have to let my post get to you? if it offends you that much then block me lmao

id love to know what fics you're reading where regulus does that?? but no i dont agree with that therefore i wouldnt bother reading it? idc how popular a fic is, if i dont wanna read it then i dont have to, its called having free will. i dont want to read about a r*pist for a start, and ive never really liked snape that much and ive only read the books once and watched the films growing up, i dont really think about his character that much especially since i only write muggle/modern aus. write them how you want, but it doesn't mean i have to like it does it?

i dont think anyone should bash authors for their work, myself included. am i allowed to have a private, personal opinion on what i want to read/enjoy reading? absolutely, everyone is in their right! as are you anon, but coming to me and saying this is surely a waste of your time? my opinion doesn't matter to anyone but me lmao

and when did i say it was controversial? i just said i dont like when people make these characters the bad guys when they dont have to. oc's exist for a reason, why not make lily and james old childhood friends instead of exes that have bad blood? why does barty just have to be the old fuck buddy that regulus never looked at again the moment james came around, when he and regulus could have been raised as brothers together and are close that way? or they could all be strangers, the possibilities of fanfics are endless! thats the beauty of them! but is this gonna keep me up at night that authors have FREE WILL and can CHOOSE to write whatever they wanna write? hell no idc that much lmao, but this is my tumblr, as i said, and i can say what i want on it tbh

anyway, if you hate my opinion that much then thats cool, im not mad at that, but you can do much more vital things in your day im sure, have a good one <3

[dawnfelagund]

How to Block AI Bots from Scraping Your Website

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild just recently opened its draft AI policy for comment, and one thing people wanted was for us, if possible, to block AI bots from scraping the SWG website. Twelve hours ago, I had no idea if it was possible! But I spent a few hours today researching the subject, and the SWG site is now much more locked down against AI bots than it was this time yesterday.

I know I am not the only person with a website or blog or portfolio online that doesn't want their content being used to train AI. So I thought I'd put together what I learned today in hopes that it might help others.

First, two important points:

I am not an IT professional. I am a middle-school humanities teacher with degrees in psychology, teaching, and humanities. I'm self-taught where building and maintaining websites is concerned. In other words, I'm not an expert but simply passing on what I learned during my research today.

On that note, I can't help with troubleshooting on your own site or project. I wouldn't even have been able to do everything here on my own for the SWG, but thankfully my co-admin Russandol has much more tech knowledge than me and picked up where I got lost.

Step 1: Block AI Bots Using Robots.txt

If you don't even know what this is, start here:

About /robots.txt

How to write and submit a robots.txt file

If you know how to find (or create) the robots.txt file for your website, you're going to add the following lines of code to the file. (Source: DataDome, How ChatGPT & OpenAI Might Use Your Content, Now & in the Future)

User-agent: CCBot Disallow: /

AND

User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: /

Step Two: Add HTTPS Headers/Meta Tags

Unfortunately, not all bots respond to robots.txt. Img2dataset is one that recently gained some notoriety when a site owner posted in its issue queue after the bot brought his site down, asking that the bot be opt-in or at least respect robots.txt. He received a rather rude reply from the img2dataset developer. It's covered in Vice's An AI Scraping Tool Is Overwhelming Websites with Traffic.

Img2dataset requires a header tag to keep it away. (Not surprisingly, this is often a more complicated task than updating a robots.txt file. I don't think that's accidental. This is where I got stuck today in working on my Drupal site.) The header tags are "noai" and "noimageai." These function like the more familiar "noindex" and "nofollow" meta tags. When Russa and I were researching this today, we did not find a lot of information on "noai" or "noimageai," so I suspect they are very new. We used the procedure for adding "noindex" or "nofollow" and swapped in "noai" and "noimageai," and it worked for us.

Header meta tags are the same strategy DeviantArt is using to allow artists to opt out of AI scraping; artist Aimee Cozza has more in What Is DeviantArt's New "noai" and "noimageai" Meta Tag and How to Install It. Aimee's blog also has directions for how to use this strategy on WordPress, SquareSpace, Weebly, and Wix sites.

In my research today, I discovered that some webhosts provide tools for adding this code to your header through a form on the site. Check your host's knowledge base to see if you have that option.

You can also use .htaccess or add the tag directly into the HTML in the <head> section. .htaccess makes sense if you want to use the "noai" and "noimageai" tag across your entire site. The HTML solution makes sense if you want to exclude AI crawlers from specific pages.

Here are some resources on how to do this for "noindex" and "nofollow"; just swap in "noai" and "noimageai":

HubSpot, Using Noindex, Nofollow HTML Metatags: How to Tell Google Not to Index a Page in Search (very comprehensive and covers both the .htaccess and HTML solutions)

Google Search Documentation, Block Search Indexing with noindex (both .htaccess and HTML)

AngryStudio, Add noindex and nofollow to Whole Website Using htaccess

Perficient, How to Implement a NoIndex Tag (HTML)

Finally, all of this is contingent on web scrapers following the rules and etiquette of the web. As we know, many do not. Sprinkled amid the many articles I read today on blocking AI scrapers were articles on how to override blocks when scraping the web.

This will also, I suspect, be something of a game of whack-a-mole. As the img2dataset case illustrates, the previous etiquette around robots.txt was ignored in favor of a more complicated opt-out, one that many site owners either won't be aware of or won't have time/skill to implement. I would not be surprised, as the "noai" and "noimageai" tags gain traction, to see bots demanding that site owners jump through a new, different, higher, and possibly fiery hoop in order to protect the content on their sites from AI scraping. These folks serve to make a lot of money off this, which doesn't inspire me with confidence that withholding our work from their grubby hands will be an endeavor that they make easy for us.

[darkpoisonouslove]

Do you have any advices against writer's block?🙃

Hi, anon. I'm sorry you're going through this. It sucks but it's important to remember that it's not the end of the world (even if it feels like it).

I just want to say that you should make sure it's actually writer's block and not burnout. If you're generally tired and you don't feel like doing anything, you should rest. Also, I'm assuming you mean that you're blocked with the writing itself, not with the ideas so that's the kind of advice I'm going to give.

First of all, cut the last few paragraphs you've written and paste them in a different document. Try continuing the story without them and in a (slightly) different direction from before. Usually, you don't hit the wall immediately, you write a few more sentences before you block and then it's hard to figure out where the problem is.

Try the Comic Sans font. Personally, I haven't used it but a lot of people claim that using it annihilates writer's block. What have you got to lose? If it works, it works. If not, it won't do any harm.

Change something in the scene - weather, setting, moment of the day, add a character or remove one. It doesn't matter. The point is to find a new angle to look at the scene and try to make your way through it that way. Brains tend to go in circles when they can't make it past an obstacle. You have to get yours out of that rut and the best way is to switch things around.

Get yourself a voice recorder or a speech-to-text tool (if you can find a good one that actually works) and TELL your story instead of writing it. You can transcribe it later or fix it. Just try to see if you can get it flowing this way. You can even pretend that you're telling it to someone like it's a bedtime story.

Take a few dolls or stuffed animals (whatever you have) and play out the scene with them. It will help you visualize what's happening and let you direct the flow of the scene better. And you can't take it too seriously while you're voicing your plushies' internal monologue, can you? That should help your brain reset its expectations and make it less demanding towards itself.

Talk to a friend about it. If you have a particular problem with the story, tell a friend. Either they'll help you or you will help yourself. The fact is that when you're telling your story to someone who doesn't have it in their head, you need to present all the details in a logical way that they can follow. That often helps you find something that you're missing when you're just turning it around in your own head. And even if you don't have a specific problem, telling a friend can get you both hyped about your story and help break through that writer's block.

Get excited about your story. Either reread some of what you've already written or imagine the future scenes that you want to write. Maybe even skip ahead and try to work on them. If there's something you're excited about writing, do that! If you're not excited about the story, try making a playlist for it. Listening to songs that remind you of the characters or plot can really get you in the right headspace for the story. If that doesn't work, make a moodboard. Find images on the internet that remind you of the story and try to arrange them together in a way that appeals to you. While you're looking, you might get a feel for the setting or for the symbolism of the story, anything that could help you write.

Reread old writing/comments you've received on your writing (or remember those if they were given to you in a verbal conversation). Focus on the things you and/or others like about your writing. Remind yourself why you love it. Writing can become so tedious or even downright painful - like pulling out teeth. It's okay if you feel that way about it but if that's the case, then it's likely that that becomes a barrier that your brain has to overcome first before it can even attempt to focus on the actual writing. Prepare yourself snacks or a favorite drink. Make it fun.

In that vein, try to write something else just for fun. It doesn't have to be anything that goes in an actual story or whatever. Take your favorite characters (whether from your own stories or from a show you like (I'm not clear on whether you're writing original fiction or fanfiction and I don't want to presume)) and throw them in an entertaining, low-stakes situation. Have them just hang out and write them bantering. Or have them in an action sequence if that's what you want to do. The point is to not put pressure on yourself to write this. Just jot down what comes to mind. Go wild with it. Doesn't matter what the quality is or if it makes sense, just that you have a good time writing it.

If none of these work, try just... disengaging completely from the writing. Watch that movie or TV show that you've been meaning to for a while, read a book, play a video game. If you have some craft that you're into (like crocheting or knitting), do some of that. Go out with friends or to the gym or to the theater (and I mean theater with live performances). The point is to stop thinking about writing and focus your energies elsewhere so your brain can recharge and find new inspiration. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to focus on a completely different thing and let your subconscious work out the problem.

Some stories need a little (or a lot of) time to marinate before you can write them. I've had stories that are impossible to write for months on end and then one day... it's suddenly all crystal clear. Sometimes the problem isn't solvable right now. You're just not at a place where you can write it. If you're sure that you care about this story and you won't abandon it, then just have a little patience and a little trust that it will work out in the end. In my experience stories (both our own and media made by others) come when we most need them. Maybe it's just not the right time yet. Don't despair and try to find something else to work on whether it would be writing or another hobby altogether.

You can also check out @/ao3commentoftheday for more advice in case I've missed something (or you need a different kind of advice).

Good luck!