I WRITE STUFF ABOUT ME: aka Sprackraptor, Rasha, elynne, Yahvahzensil, & etc. an anthropomorphic personification of a specific shade of the color green/grey. agender (they/them or zie/zir). currently ace/aro; historically polyamorous. intermittent writer, mostly of fanfic. lifelong depressive disorder, mostly in remission. statistically likely to be old enough to be your parent. about as easy as a nuclear war. deliberately cagey about personal details. fractally weird. alignment: chaotic generally-well-intentioned. INELOQUENT ASSHAT. CAUTION: bitey. sometimes I get angry and ranty; if you can't handle that, don't follow me. this tumblr has no theme, it is entirely for my own amusement, and I make no guarantees about content, except that if you want to follow me and ask for a particular trigger warning, I will strive to remember and use it. QUESTIONS?: sure, go ahead, ask me stuff. I may or may not answer, with whatever degree of truth tickles my whimsy at the moment.
I should post it here too! if you’re interested in trying the fediverse but have been put off by how difficult it is to get into, there’s an FFXIV-specific server, https://etheirys.masto.host and if you’d like to sign up for it here’s an invite link: https://etheirys.masto.host/invite/AKgD7GrV if you sign up through that link you’ll automatically be following my account--I have the same userpic on that one that I do here--and I’ll be happy to follow back, and answer any questions you have about fediversaring. please note: YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN POST NSFW CONTENT THERE, just mark it NSFW (per server rules) and put it behind a cut tag (common fediverse etiquette) and go to town! in fact I think I’ll make this my pinned post here...
ETA 3/1/24: given this place’s decision to scrape their users’ data for “AI” training, and other recent garbage from the guy who bought it, I’m winding down my activity here. I’ll post the last couple of Dreams of Dead Stars updates (not that anybody was following them from here lol), and then go back to not using this account. if you want to interact with me, I’m still active on the fediverse (my main account there is @[email protected] ), have a Pillowfort (cattybleeplepasta), also post DoDS to DreamWidth (my handle there is “elynne”), and... well, that’s about it really.
get on the fedibus, losers. it’s not that hard. get off the corporate social media garbage train. you deserve better than [handwaves] all this.
welp, the queue is empty, and I'm not going to restock it just to help keep the "firehose of content" flowing so Transphobic Guy Who Bought This Place can sell out harder for Number Go Up. let me know when 1. he's gone 2. the employees who care own the company 3. they've sworn off any kind of content farming to feed LLMs deal. I suspect none of those will happen. if you want to interact with me, find me on DreamWidth (elynne), Pillowfort (cattybleeplepasta), or the fediverse (@[email protected]). my fics will continue to be posted on AO3 (elynne), I've figured out a better way/place to host pictures, and I'll be setting those up and making posts about them on the other platforms.
Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.
Used an email mask to read the whole article, pasting it below the cut.
Quick important points:
The tweet content is a list of things that are currently included, but were not SUPPOSED TO BE, and engineers are working to scrub it.
Automattic is supposedly going to add an opt out option.
Automattic did not respond to a question from 404 Media about whether it could guarantee that people who opt out will have their data deleted retroactively.
Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to a source with internal knowledge about the deals and internal documentation referring to the deals.
The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed by 404 Media make clear that deals between Automattic, the platforms’ parent company, and OpenAI and Midjourney are imminent.
The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself. One internal post made by Cyle Gage, a product manager at Tumblr, states that a query made to prepare data for OpenAI and Midjourney compiled a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to. It is not clear from Gage’s post whether this data has already been sent to OpenAI and Midjourney, or whether Gage was detailing a process for scrubbing the data before it was to be sent.
Gage wrote:
“the way the data was queried for the initial data dump to Midjourney/OpenAI means we compiled a list of all tumblr’s public post content between 2014 and 2023, but also unfortunately it included, and should not have included:
private posts on public blogs
posts on deleted or suspended blogs
unanswered asks (normally these are not public until they’re answered)
private answers (these only show up to the receiver and are not public)
posts that are marked ‘explicit’ / NSFW / ‘mature’ by our more modern standards (this may not be a big deal, I don’t know)
content from premium partner blogs (special brand blogs like Apple’s former music blog, for example, who spent money with us on an ad campaign) that may have creative that doesn’t belong to us, and we don’t have the rights to share with this-parties; this one is kinda unknown to me, what deals are in place historically and what they should prevent us from doing.”
Gage’s post makes clear that engineers are working on compiling a list of post IDs that should not have been included, and that password-protected posts, DMs, and media flagged as CSAM and other community guidelines violations were not included.
Automattic plans to launch a new setting on Wednesday that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and internal documents. A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states that “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.”
404 Media has asked Automattic how it accidentally compiled data that it shouldn’t share, and whether any of that content was shared with OpenAI, but did not immediately hear back from the company. 404 Media asked Automattic about an imminent deal with Midjourney last week but did not hear back then, either.
Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?”
Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.” Automattic did not respond to a question from 404 Media about whether it could guarantee that people who opt out will have their data deleted retroactively.
News about a deal between Tumblr and Midjourney has been rumored and speculated about on Tumblr for the last week. Someone claiming to be a former Tumblr employee announced in a Tumblr blog post that the platform was working on a deal with Midjourney, and the rumor made it onto Blind, an app for verified employees of companies to anonymously discuss their jobs. 404 Media has seen the Blind posts, in which what seems like an Automattic employee says, “I'm not sure why some of you are getting worked up or worried about this. It's totally legal, and sharing it publicly is perfectly fine since it's right there in the terms & conditions. So, go ahead and spread the word as much as you can with your friends and tech journalists, it's totally fine.”
Separately, 404 Media viewed a public, now-deleted post by Gage, the product manager, where he said that he was deleting all of his images off of Tumblr, and would be putting them on his personal website. A still-live post says, “i've deleted my photography from tumblr and will be moving it slowly but surely over to cylegage.com, which i'm building into a photography portfolio that i can control end-to-end.” At one point last week, his personal website had a specific note stating that he did not consent to AI scraping of his images. Gage’s original post has been deleted, and his website is now a blank page that just reads “Cyle.” Gage did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media.
Several online platforms have made similar deals with AI companies recently, including Reddit, which entered into an AI content licensing deal with Google and said in its SEC filing last week that it’s “in the early stages of monetizing [its] user base” by training AI on users’ posts. Last year, Shutterstock signed a six year deal with OpenAI to provide training data.
OpenAI and Midjourney did not respond to requests for comment.
Dreams of Dead Stars, ch. 31: The Voice of Authority
Hades is given a gift and a message, but not much time to ponder either before the Scions are brought before the rulers of Sharlayan to answer various charges.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Living with a sentient object is unique experience, but when it comes to Hank Horkin and his friend Britto, the living water filter pitcher, things are working out. Hank loves having fresh water, and Britto cares deeply about his duties as a filtration system.
But problems start to arise as Britto’s obsession with the perfect drink spiral out of control. Soon enough, the sentient water filter has found himself in a rough spot, forcing Hank to step in.
As these two confide in one another, they begin to realize there’s more to their connection than a simple friendship. Now they’re learning that sometimes it’s okay to get a little dirty.
This erotic tale is 4,000 words of sizzling human on gay sentient water filer pitcher action, including anal, blowjobs, rough sex, and filtration system love.
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enjoy new tingler UNFILTERED: POUNDED IN THE BUTT BY MY LIVING WATER FILTER PITCHER WHO LEARNS THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN THE RELENTLESS AND UNATTAINABLE PURSUIT OF “PERFECTION” out now on amazon and on top tier patreon
sy sable (left), arguably the father of the furry fandom, died peacefully in his sleep this morning at 71 -- he co-founded Confurence, organized our very first room parties and the first furry BBS, and provided housing to displaced furs since 1980. please keep his partner, friends and family in your thoughts today and remember the passion and effort your community was built on
Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.
