Sub-forum for AI rejections

[AwkwardMD]

Send them to your thread on the Editor's Forum?

That's the one.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Do they add new subforums for ratings/voting questions? Comments? Publication delays? Which category?

 

[StillStunned]

Do they add new subforums for ratings/voting questions? Comments? Publication delays? Which category?

New plan: we surrender the AH to posts about AI, ratings, categories, publication times, underage characters and so on, and set up a new subforum to talk about actual writing.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

New plan: we surrender the AH to posts about AI, ratings, categories, publication times, underage characters and so on, and set up a new subforum to talk about actual writing.

As funny as that was, take a good look at AH and tell me how many topics where we discuss actual writing do you see? It's practically an information booth for new authors about some technical things, and a place where people play word games and such.
The discussions about writing in AH were exceptions, not the rule. We made it like that. If we were interested in talking about writing, there would be multiple active topics in the AH. Yet there is none. It's who we are, and we should probably stop pretending otherwise.

 

[Voboy]

I had a high school teacher who relayed a story that stuck with me.

When he was in college, that school had done some expanding. They'd added some new buildings, and they were asking students to submit designs on the walkways. His suggestion was that they not design anything. Sit and wait, and let the students walk where they want, and over time the students will wear a rut wherever most of them are going. Pave over the rut. Simple.

I love the term "desire paths" for these.

This is not a new idea. When I was at my university orientation 30-odd years ago, they told us that this was how the pathways on the central quad had been planned out in the 1890s.

If your teacher had that idea separately, AMD, it's a good one. But folks have been doing it for quite a long time. I suspect he heard that story and embellished it so that his students would remember it better.

OP, this is not a bad idea. I suspect it's unlikely to happen, but it's not bad. Currently I just ignore most of the AI threads, as I do several others. But I surely don't blame people for coming here to ask. It's the obvious place. I'd blame them for not searching first, but this isn't my first day on the Internet and I'm quite well aware that 99% of the posting population NEVER uses forum search functions.

 

[FrancesScott]

OP, this is not a bad idea. I suspect it's unlikely to happen, but it's not bad.

Being unlikely to happen is no reason not to try. I PMed Laurel and Manu and AH_Mod about this. Chances of success? 0.01%, but I believe in trying.

I can't relate to defeatism
My give-a-fucks are soaked in jism​

 

[onehitwanda]

My give-a-fucks are soaked in jism

Is this a cry for help?

 

[FrancesScott]

Is this a cry for help?

With finding a decent rhyme? Maybe. It’s almost like songwriters have actual talent.

 

[alohadave]

to talk about actual writing

Do we do that now?

 

[AwkwardMD]

If your teacher had that idea separately, AMD, it's a good one. But folks have been doing it for quite a long time. I suspect he heard that story and embellished it so that his students would remember it better.

The man was pretty smart, but also an inveterate exaggerator. When he told us that story, it came with no details, no locations, no dates, no pictures. I wouldn't be surprised if it was true or false, and the point remains valid either way.

 

[alohadave]

This is not a new idea. When I was at my university orientation 30-odd years ago, they told us that this was how the pathways on the central quad had been planned out in the 1890s.

If your teacher had that idea separately, AMD, it's a good one. But folks have been doing it for quite a long time. I suspect he heard that story and embellished it so that his students would remember it better.

There is a subreddit called Desire Paths, and this story comes up a lot. It's the perfect apocryphal tale. There's never any names attached, it's always a secondhand story, and the location is always somewhere local or well known.

I heard the same thing 40 years ago when my dad told it about some local business where we lived.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Neighbor has cows, maybe 15 or 20 head. They have literally dozens of acres of field to roam and graze, 50, 75, maybe a 100 acres, few if any obstructions, mostly wide open.

Yet, there are a number of paths worn to bare dirt, no more than the width of a single cow. I've watched them walk single file though those areas. As little as three feet to one side or the other and the paths wouldn't be so worn.

 

[Omenainen]

Neighbor has cows, maybe 15 or 20 head. They have literally dozens of acres of field to roam and graze, 50, 75, maybe a 100 acres, few if any obstructions, mostly wide open.

Yet, there are a number of paths worn to bare dirt, no more than the width of a single cow. I've watched them walk single file though those areas. As little as three feet to one side or the other and the paths wouldn't be so worn.

Cow-ways! Like highways, but… like…

I’ll show myself out.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Wouldn't it be funny if Laurel created an AI writing contest? The rules of the competition would be that the work must be unedited AI-written and submitted to the contest, along with instructions for each scene. Then we could argue about who cheated and wrote the story themselves, as undoubtedly the three winners' stories wouldn't be AI-produced.

 

[StillStunned]

There's a new sticky thread that seems to be a direct response to this discussion: Story Sent Back? Please Read.

 

[FrancesScott]

Thank you to @Laurel for posting the sticky thread. I consider this thread closed, but feel free to add thoughts if you like.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm not sure that the proliferation of threads about AI rejections and those advocating for AI to be allowed is doing much to prevent rejections or bring about a change in policy. We rehash all of the same things over and over, and for some reason, I feel compelled to read every stinking thread about it AI. I don't comment on every thread. When I do comment, I make the same points as I have before. I am also sure that all of us are broken records on the subject, making the same points in slightly different ways, until the dron of it all weighs us down.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I'm not sure that the proliferation of threads about AI rejections and those advocating for AI to be allowed is doing much to prevent rejections or bring about a change in policy. We rehash all of the same things over and over, and for some reason, I feel compelled to read every stinking thread about it AI. I don't comment on every thread. I am also sure that all of us our broken records on the subject, making the same points in slightly different ways, until the dron of it all weighs us down.

That's why we drink

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'll drink to that. Or not. I'm trying to drink less and think more.

That's why we drink

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Wouldn't it be funny if Laurel created an AI writing contest? The rules of the competition would be that the work must be unedited AI-written and submitted to the contest, along with instructions for each scene. Then we could argue about who cheated and wrote the story themselves, as undoubtedly the three winners' stories wouldn't be AI-produced.

As it relates to AI rejections, I find the AI Era writer’s challenge hilariously ironic. I’m sure it’s a fun topic otherwise.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've got a wicked sense of humor.

As it relates to AI rejections, I find the AI Era writer’s challenge hilariously ironic. I’m sure it’s a fun topic otherwise.

 

[SkyBubble]

I’ve never explored them, but the Authors’ Hangout seems to have sub-forums for things like audio stories.

Would it make sense to create a sub-forum for stories rejected due to possible use of AI? Maybe it should be more general and also become a home for advice on how to deal with any type of story rejection: dialogue, underage, etc.

People could post there, and I was thinking that the forum moderator could move any such thread posted in the main forum to this sub-forum.

I assume that there will be some drawbacks, please air them. Just floating an idea.

Not a bad idea.

 

[Voboy]

There is a subreddit called Desire Paths, and this story comes up a lot. It's the perfect apocryphal tale. There's never any names attached, it's always a secondhand story, and the location is always somewhere local or well known.

I heard the same thing 40 years ago when my dad told it about some local business where we lived.

Oh no no, my university wasn't claiming they originated the idea. As a matter of fact, the impression I got from the orientation people was that it was a fairly common practice at that time.

A little squadron of engineering students stood on the roof of the Arts and Sciences Building and charted the paths on paper. The original paper diagrams were in the university museum!

 

[NotWise]

Thank you to @Laurel for posting the sticky thread. I consider this thread closed, but feel free to add thoughts if you like.

Right now, the sticky thread consists of one message (yours, saying thank you) and it's locked.

 

[Britva415]

Right now, the sticky thread consists of one message (yours, saying thank you) and it's locked.

Yeah, it kinda seems like it wasn't intended to be a "thread" at all, much less a "subforum," more of a plain old sticky-able announcement with links to the usual resources and no accommodation for discussion or pleas for attention.