AI - again (sigh)

[Always_on_my_mind]

EDIT: My story was published today thanks everyone
Thanks for all the suggestions people, I have a lot of different things to try here to see if I get anywhere. I appreciate everyone's replies.

 

[RejectReality]

I've always manually made changes to the original file as part of my standard workflow. I write in Wordperfect, ( X4 from 2008 ) but spell-check in Word ( 2021 version because my early 2000s version quit working. ) and make the changes in the open WP window when Word flags something I agree with. Same for text-to-speech. Paste into the program, correct in the base document when I hear something stupid. Same goes with anything that comes back from human editing. I keep a base document and send a duplicate to my editor. Make changes in the base document according to the markup in the editor's copy.

Then before submission, I copy-paste into wordpad, save as plain text, and add any html needed. Copy-paste to the submission box from that final Lit version. ( Other sites have their own version document. My base document and all editor drafts/site versions get archived in a published folder )

It was working harder rather than smarter for a lot of years, but now it's probably catching up on the "smarter" side of the equation.

 

[liliput1]

Thank you. Does anyone know if people get blacklisted by AI? Like if I put in the raw version, without any grammar check, will it still reject me?

We think there's a glitch where a story once rejected remains rejected. But it's also possible that it's just bad luck and the failures are random.

Some people claim they've had luck deleting their story, creating a new story and pasting the text back into it. Some other people also claim pasting the text into a flat text file and copying it out helps. But it could also just be timing and luck.

 

[qidniz]

Nope. Only the Form gives you a preview, showing the text as it will appear on Lit. Very handy for making sure italics and bold have rendered correctly

Not true. All of my submissions (.txt files from a text editor) have been by upload, following which the preview button worked, even though there was nothing in the text field. The preview form has a "make changes" button, which brings you back to the submission form, this time with the text field filled in. I would then make changes in my local copy and upload again. I've never bothered with the text field.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not true. All of my submissions (.txt files from a text editor) have been by upload, following which the preview button worked, even though there was nothing in the text field. The preview form has a "make changes" button, which brings you back to the submission form, this time with the text field filled in. I would then make changes in my local copy and upload again. I've never bothered with the text field.

Interesting. The text field didn't do that before. That's a change; I wonder when that was introduced.

 

[SmilingLez]

Not true. All of my submissions (.txt files from a text editor) have been by upload, following which the preview button worked, even though there was nothing in the text field. The preview form has a "make changes" button, which brings you back to the submission form, this time with the text field filled in. I would then make changes in my local copy and upload again. I've never bothered with the text field.

Are you talking about importing the changed .txt file to the same draft (from the first import) and the new draft has the changed version? If so that is indeed (whispering) - a submission state desynchronization bug (backend failure). You shouldn't be able to import two different files to the same draft, it sounds like the system didn't recognize your first draft. But then again my opinion and YMMV

Side note - it might also be a second cousin once removed to the bug where the imported version did not match the live version of a story

 

[qidniz]

Are you talking about uploading the changed .txt file to the same draft and the new draft has the changed version?

Yes. The times I did this, I'd get a warning message that my (current) draft would be replaced by my new version (which I would preview before submitting.)

 

[SmilingLez]

Yes. The times I did this, I'd get a warning message that my (current) draft would be replaced by my new version (which I would preview before submitting.)

Then I take what I said back because you did get a pop-up message if you hadn't then it was definitely a bug

 

[qidniz]

The text field didn't do that before. That's a change; I wonder when that was introduced.

My first submission was in mid-January this year, so the change was introduced before then.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My first submission was in mid-January this year, so the change was introduced before then.

My frame of reference is twelve years, with a major upgrade about five or six years ago. You're the first person in all that time to mention that a file upload gets into the Text field and you can Preview. I wonder if it only works with .txt? Do italics and bold render correctly (if you use formatting)?

I used to use .doc(x), .doc, .rtf, and .txt until they all progressively stopped working. I suspect because Amazon stopped supporting my Kindle Fire (scumbags), and it slowly lost functionality with evolving internet protocols. Uploads have been 100% error free using the text box on the submission, which I started to do years ago.

 

[qidniz]

You're the first person in all that time to mention that a file upload gets into the Text field and you can Preview. I wonder if it only works with .txt? Do italics and bold render correctly (if you use formatting)?

The upload doesn't go into the text field: it stays blank. There's a field to hold the name of the file uploaded (filled in from the upload dialog.) That's what gets rendered in the preview form/page. (I've only used HTML italics, and they show up.) I confess that it occurred to me the first time that the preview button might not work with the text field blank, but I tried it anyway and it worked.

 

[jsmiam]

Remember to turn off “text prediction” and “show autocomplete suggestions”. While that is Microsoft Word specific advice assuming a current version of MS Word, other word processors and even just computers and browser windows may do the same thing. (Instructions to change this setting: “File menu”, then “options” at the bottom of the screen, then “advanced”, then nearish the top of the long list of options, within the “editing options” category.

The goal is for you to write everything yourself. It’s not that you can’t let a grammar checker spot your errors, but type or fix the error yourself, using your own words. And beware autocompletion and suggestions no matter how or where they are presented.

And I suspect more than one person is lulled into the convenience of accepting automatically generated suggestions, not realizing that’s part of introducing stuff you didn’t write yourself. Don’t!

In my opinion, people have lost sight of the real issue. I would worry less about metadata artifacts in your document, and more about doing everything to insure no auto-complete or auto-suggestion or proposed wording makes its way into your document.

Keep in mind this isn’t an accusation. Just an observation that technology sometimes oversteps its bounds. So at least some people out there who say “I didn’t use AI”, are in fact in the “I didn’t intentionally use AI” category.

So as a precaution, turn it all off.