#lore fm

[lena-hills]

FYI from a disabled person on the Lore.fm thing, phones and browsers already have built-in screen readers you can use to listen to fanfic for free and for anyone to use without stealing from authors! Most even let you manually fix pronunciation for weird character names and set the speed to play at! Just do an internet search for instructions for your specific phone/browser and spoken content/text to voice, or go straight to the accessibility options (usually somewhere under settings).

I use it to listen to fics during migraines, but my students also love it for dyslexia/other reading disabilities, especially for homework (I'm a teacher who supports fellow folks with disabilities in my day job). It's also just great to use when I'm crocheting or sewing.

It's fully free because it's part of the accessibility tools built in, so you know it won't ever have ads or steal your data, and because it works from your browser you're not uploading fics anywhere else and the author still gets the hit and you are right there to leave kudos/comments!

Enjoy your fics, without the venture capitalists!

[octoberscigarettes]

In light of the whole lore fm thing I am coming back here to say

FANFICTION IS NOT "CONTENT"

YOU NEED TO HAVE RESPECT FOR THE AUTHORS AND CREATORS IN FANDOM

ENGAGE WITH ACTUAL CREATIVES IN THE COMMUNITY INSTEAD OF MINDLESSLY CONSUMING FANWORKS ON PLATFORMS THAT DONT RESPECT A CREATIVES RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHERE THEIR WORK WILL BE USED AND DISPLAYED

[ffs-abalisk]

Initially, during the first wave of AI scraping for Ao3, I felt bad about archive locking my fics because I felt sorry for the people who may not be able to log in or make an account for some reason.

Not anymore.

Fucking capitalists are ruining the fun for everybody so now you gotta nut up and get an account to read my work. Sorry, but that's the way the cards have to play, because generative AI companies and other bad actors can't leave well the fuck alone!

I encourage other authors to do the same and archive lock their accounts.

I will not allow my hard work that I have poured my heart and soul into and provide for FREE in a gift economy to be used to turn a profit to all these soulless fucks who only view creative outlets as "content."

Fucking choke.

[hedonists]

Not mine; screenshot source: click here

"You can also lock your fics to users only" is a crazy thing to say to authors who do not wish to have their works stolen by a company without their consent. This is insane. This gives off scummy vibes no matter how you look at it. I hope someone files a DMCA claim and gets this taken off the AppStore.

[ghostellie]

For any AO3 authors who have been following the lore.fm stuff, they have posted a video saying they are considering shutting down due to feedback.

[grilledcheese-savage]

People prob about to get reeeeaaall mad at me but Idrc. I’m pissed about the Lore.Fm situation. If you haven’t heard of it, it was going to be an app that reads your fanfiction out loud so you could listen to it like an audiobook. It would’ve sounded more natural and correct than any other screen reader so far. As someone who can’t really read a lot of fanfiction anymore because of my crippling chronic migraine, this would have been a GAMECHANGER for me. So here are some facts:

Lore Fm DOES use Ai to read aloud.

Lore Fm DID NOT send your fics into a training model so it can write more.

Lore Fm MIGHT be owned by a company called Wishroll Inc. , but this is not confirmed.

Lore Fm WASN’T for profit. They didn’t have any way to monetize it. It was just an accessibility tool.

A lot of the fanfiction writers were rightfully scared by this, since a lot of art has been stolen without consent to create AI engines. As a fanfic writer myself, I understand wanting the option to opt out. But a lot of the content I’m seeing made against this, has been factually incorrect OR just completely unaware of why this could be such a good thing. I just watched a tiktok that made me want to post this, of a writer saying you were completely selfish or entitled if you used this app because some people “use accessibility as an excuse to disrespect author’s wishes”. That is just straight up, not true. There could 100% be ways to fix this. For one, Authors who are okay with their fiction being read by AI could submit the fanfics themselves, making it kind’ve like Watt pad instead of it being up to the reader. People could tag their fanfics “Don’t use Lore Fm.” People who made orphaned fics or can’t get back into their account can blacklist themselves on the lore fm app so none of their fics could be read. As someone who codes, these are all very viable options. There could even be a simple honor system. But y’all sent death threats instead of genuine critiques.

Lore Fm took themselves down because they didn’t want to piss off the community, because their team is apart of the fan-fiction community. They deleted all their posts and took the app off stores.

Again, I AM NOT AGAINST PEOPLE CRITIQUING THIS. In fact, I think more people should be keeping AI in check, especially when it pertains to art. Their beta testers should’ve been giving them this advice.

Honestly, I’m glad they took it down for now, I think a lot of the advice I had given earlier should’ve been implemented waaaay before beta testers, but the over-exaggeration of this has gone way too far. Do your research and make your own opinions. AI has gotten out of control but it can be used IN CERTAIN SETTINGS for good. If you’re legally blind, photosensitive or just plain busy, this would’ve been so great.

Major disappointment. I’m definitely willing to change my mind about this in the comments/reblogs though if you have good evidence of why this shouldn’t have been made, just please be respectful.

[maingh0st]

the lore.fm situation is such a nightmare. from what i can tell, almost all of their organizational information & marketing has taken place on tiktok, a hellscape of an app that i refuse to download, so im having to read reddit threads to get the latest updates.

anyways, they’ve announced they’re shutting down, but from what i can tell have not done so yet? so I’ll be temporarily locking my fics so only users with accounts can access them. I’m sorry if that’s an inconvenience to anyone! once this blows over I’ll unlock them again

[sweetlittlevampire]

In light of the whole lore fm thing, my fics on AO3 have now been locked for the time being. Sorry about that.

The whole thing is opt-out instead of opt-in, and I don't want them to be able to have my email adress just because I wanted to opt out of a service I didn't consent to using my writing in the first place.

AO3 already lets you use screen readers. But also, as a podficcer? lore fm feels like a slap to the face. If you would like to listen to a fic and have it narrated by someone who isn't a computer, consider looking for a podfic of said fic, kindly requesting that it be podficced, or taking up podficcing yourself. It's fun, and you don't necessarily need expensive tools or programs for it.

[allemantheias]

Now rivd is gone..

I'm unlocking my works again now rivd is taken down. But when something like rivd and lorefm happens again, i will go back to locking temporarily (or permanent depending on the issue).

I still recommend everyone without an ao3 account to get into the invite queue now. Ao3 is honestly a great site to be part of.

[ecccentrick]

The amount of people with the attitude that fan writers are being entitled or dramatic in response to the lore fm app debacle is really disheartening. I know I stood by fan artists against AI and any unauthorized use of their art, still do, and you didn't hear half the snide comments we have about them being upset about it. It just shows again that our works aren't considered on the same level as fanart. Fanartists can profit off their work. We can't. We do this purely for fun, to engage in fandom. And let's not forget our unsung heroes in fandom, the podficcers. They do their best to make fanfic more accessible.

This isn't us being against accessibility—many, myself included, are disabled ourselves in different ways. But all signs have pointed to dubious intentions and, at best, major mishandling and unprofessional behavior.

[editorbit]

I love how every time someone tries to take advantage of the fanfiction community to earn some money, it always crashes and burns immediately

[ishootthelightsout]

Seeing all the shit about lore fm trying to commercialize fanfics and being super passive aggressive even when shutting down… like people have been using free realistic tts like Microsoft Edge read aloud for a while now be real

[baileys101]

So having seen the Lore FM issue I've learnt more about podfics (yes I live under a rock- with Cas) and promptly went to update my fic tags to include podfic welcome, just incase anyone did want to make it accessible - I felt they shouldn't have to ask, and I should make it clear I was cool with that.

Anyway, I thought I was being clever using edit all fics function. I was not. I've accidentally deleted all my additional tags 😆. So instead of 1 by 1 adding podfic welcome, I've now got to remember tags on all 61 works (I prob won't do all - some likely didn't have them since were pulled over from other now none existent sites).

Think of me in this time of stupidity 🤪

[yaeggravate]

nah sorry but HOW is dainsleif/kaeya STILL so slept on, even after they finally interacted? to the uninitiated, dainsleif is named after the sword of the legendary king hogni, also known as hagen, the son of alberich, a character from wagner's ring cycle, who kaeya is based on. in other words, dainsleif is literally named after kaeya's sword. whatever that means for their future relationship, and whether this is metaphorical or literal is unclear for now but hello that's crazy why are you as a man another man's sword

adding to that, in the previous patch we learned that dainsleif was carrying a ring with him, which is a reference to THEE ring of nibelung, which hagen (yes that guy again) was instructed to steal back by his father. and did you know that in order to use the ring the wearer must forsake love? i think you should know

not to mention the foreshadowing of a tumultuous and potentially tragic relationship based on their constellations. kaeya's a peacock and dain's ouroboros (snek). in hindu culture peacocks are often depicted killing snakes so you could say it's not looking good for mr dainsleif.

so basically you have two ways their relationship can go: either dainsleif is going to become loyal to kaeya, (which I can see happening because kaeya is the only khaenriahn we know of who isn't cursed or evil, and dainsleif would want to keep it that way. dain was also the royal guard of khaenri'ah and kaeya's ancestor is anfortas who briefly took over as regent when the king went awol, so there might be some kind of debt he wants to repay by protecting his descendent.) or kaeya is going to kill him <-obviously the story isn't THAT dark and they'd never permanently kill off a playable character lmao so if he does die i think it would be because he's freed from the curse, which according to zurvan is the reason why he's alive, implying that he died once. ouroboros does symbolize eternity so maybe kaeya is actually the key to breaking the curse of immortality, but what happens if you remove the only thing keeping him alive?

oh, and fun fact, the quest in which they meet is named 'destined encounter'. connect this to mona's prophecy of kaeya's fate catching up to him and you literally have him meeting his destiny. we're also told dainsleif loves alcohol and even mixes his own drinks, it's like they deliberately created him as the man of kaeya's dreams

with all this in mind, it's really strange to not see more people excited about the potential of their relationship, because they are in a unique position of being two characters with no pre-established relationship becoming closer throughout the story, where both of their fates remain a mystery, as opposed to so many of the other characters who remain stagnant and whose stories are already told.

[lensman-arms-race]

I got a reply to my email:

We appreciate your feedback. The app has been taken down from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We wholeheartedly apologize for the stress we caused the community, and we don't want to put fanfiction in danger.

Good!

I think the person who created the app doesn't write fanfic of their own or do anything more with it besides passively consume it (doesn't leave comments or engage with writers or fandom).

Hey I don’t know if this is being talked about on Tumblr but thankfully the AO3 subreddit has a conversation going about this app that just went live.

TikTok user unravel.me.now has just launch an app (lore.fm) she is calling “Audible for AO3”. It’s an app that uses AI voices to read out fics.

🚨She is requiring any authors who do not want their fics to be on this app to OPT OUT by emailing team@lore.fm 🚨 🚨She has not given an actual template or how you’re supposed to prove you’re the author or said how her team will process this or how she will keep these requests secure🚨

I do not have this app. I haven’t seen anyone use it yet. According to Reddit users, unravel.me.now’s earlier TikToks stated she envisions the app being able to create libraries stored on that app and to have version of “Spotify wrapped”. That implies that eventually data collection must happen, if it’s not happening currently.

I don’t know the actual capabilities of this app. I don’t know the legalities. I do know that it personally feels like this app is trying to turn AO3 into a content generation source and I haven’t heard of the app allowing you to leave a comment or kudos or interact with the original work.

I’m just sad about this.

[1-ker0sene-1]

Hey there, coming out of my unfortunate hiatus for a moment. Because what the fuck?

To say it's ableist to not back an AI, data scraping, writing stealing, app- is absolutely fucking ridiculous. And the statement itself, is ableist.

This app isn't some original godsend, you literally just steal from unwilling writers. Could have done the opposite, could have been reaching out to authors about moving/merging their work onto the app- but no. Instead you expect writers to figure out to message you, and ask NOT to get stolen from. And that's if you even believe that they're the author, or if you even decide to read the damn email.

There are and have been very good tools for disabled people to read and enjoy content, from app overlays and extensions. Because let's be real, the purpose of this app was not for disabled people, you just ran out of excuses. The entire point is the AI and data.

Do not use disabled people to condone your AI bullshit, do not use disabled people to steal the hard work of writers. Do not use disabled people as an excuse for your bullshit.

Writers, authors, poets. You are not ableist for protecting your hard work.

-sincerely a disabled bitch.