Summer of Love IF @summeroflove-if - Tumblr Blog

Update? Ish, I don't know

Okay, so two releases in a row have been plagued with AI accusations (I haven't posted half of them, btw), and while I am not using AI, it is fucking heartbreaking and it's quite frankly off-putting. It is making me not want to try, and I just can't imagine putting myself through this a hundred more times. I will resent this game, these characters, and I don't want that.

I don't really know what to do at this point. I can start over again, but I don't know if that will fix the issue, and I don't want to go in endless circles, so I am just going to take a break.

summeroflove-if

Just wanted to add a bit more to this, because I don't think "I'm taking a break" fully explains where my head's at.

I'm autistic. Autistic people get accused of using AI constantly, it doesn't matter what we make or how we make it, our writing gets flagged as "off" or "robotic" just because our brains work differently. So this isn't a one-off thing that'll go away if I change something about the game. It's something I'm going to be dealing with for as long as I'm doing this, and this project is planned for 100 chapters. That's not a small stretch of time to spend bracing for the same accusation over and over.

I'm restricting the game while I do another edit. Not because I think the writing needs to prove itself, but because I need to step back and actually remember why I started this, why these characters matter to me, before I can look at any of it without flinching. Right now I can't separate the game from the exhaustion of defending it, and I don't want that to be the thing that defines my relationship with my own work.

I know people mean well when they say "just turn off anon" or "it's probably just a few miserable people." Maybe that's even true. But it was never really about the number of people sending messages. It's the fact that for every person who says it, there are more who think it and just quietly stop supporting me. It's the fact that one report to itch over "undisclosed AI use" could get the game delisted. It's the fact that this could follow me into everything I make after this, regardless of what I do differently.

Some people have suggested I reach out to other authors who've been through this, and I will. But I want to be honest that talking to people isn't going to erase the underlying problem. It might help me cope with it. It won't fix it. And I think it's okay to admit that some things don't have a tidy solution, sometimes you just have to find a way to keep making the thing you love anyway, even when it costs you something to do it.

I'm not gone. I just need a minute.

summeroflove-if

Update? Ish, I don't know

Okay, so two releases in a row have been plagued with AI accusations (I haven't posted half of them, btw), and while I am not using AI, it is fucking heartbreaking and it's quite frankly off-putting. It is making me not want to try, and I just can't imagine putting myself through this a hundred more times. I will resent this game, these characters, and I don't want that.

I don't really know what to do at this point. I can start over again, but I don't know if that will fix the issue, and I don't want to go in endless circles, so I am just going to take a break.

summeroflove-if

Just wanted to add a bit more to this, because I don't think "I'm taking a break" fully explains where my head's at.

I'm autistic. Autistic people get accused of using AI constantly, it doesn't matter what we make or how we make it, our writing gets flagged as "off" or "robotic" just because our brains work differently. So this isn't a one-off thing that'll go away if I change something about the game. It's something I'm going to be dealing with for as long as I'm doing this, and this project is planned for 100 chapters. That's not a small stretch of time to spend bracing for the same accusation over and over.

I'm restricting the game while I do another edit. Not because I think the writing needs to prove itself, but because I need to step back and actually remember why I started this, why these characters matter to me, before I can look at any of it without flinching. Right now I can't separate the game from the exhaustion of defending it, and I don't want that to be the thing that defines my relationship with my own work.

I know people mean well when they say "just turn off anon" or "it's probably just a few miserable people." Maybe that's even true. But it was never really about the number of people sending messages. It's the fact that for every person who says it, there are more who think it and just quietly stop supporting me. It's the fact that one report to itch over "undisclosed AI use" could get the game delisted. It's the fact that this could follow me into everything I make after this, regardless of what I do differently.

Some people have suggested I reach out to other authors who've been through this, and I will. But I want to be honest that talking to people isn't going to erase the underlying problem. It might help me cope with it. It won't fix it. And I think it's okay to admit that some things don't have a tidy solution, sometimes you just have to find a way to keep making the thing you love anyway, even when it costs you something to do it.

I'm not gone. I just need a minute.

polyamorousmood

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summeroflove-if

Update? Ish, I don't know

Okay, so two releases in a row have been plagued with AI accusations (I haven't posted half of them, btw), and while I am not using AI, it is fucking heartbreaking and it's quite frankly off-putting. It is making me not want to try, and I just can't imagine putting myself through this a hundred more times. I will resent this game, these characters, and I don't want that.

I don't really know what to do at this point. I can start over again, but I don't know if that will fix the issue, and I don't want to go in endless circles, so I am just going to take a break.

summeroflove-if

Just wanted to add a bit more to this, because I don't think "I'm taking a break" fully explains where my head's at.

I'm autistic. Autistic people get accused of using AI constantly, it doesn't matter what we make or how we make it, our writing gets flagged as "off" or "robotic" just because our brains work differently. So this isn't a one-off thing that'll go away if I change something about the game. It's something I'm going to be dealing with for as long as I'm doing this, and this project is planned for 100 chapters. That's not a small stretch of time to spend bracing for the same accusation over and over.

I'm restricting the game while I do another edit. Not because I think the writing needs to prove itself, but because I need to step back and actually remember why I started this, why these characters matter to me, before I can look at any of it without flinching. Right now I can't separate the game from the exhaustion of defending it, and I don't want that to be the thing that defines my relationship with my own work.

I know people mean well when they say "just turn off anon" or "it's probably just a few miserable people." Maybe that's even true. But it was never really about the number of people sending messages. It's the fact that for every person who says it, there are more who think it and just quietly stop supporting me. It's the fact that one report to itch over "undisclosed AI use" could get the game delisted. It's the fact that this could follow me into everything I make after this, regardless of what I do differently.

Some people have suggested I reach out to other authors who've been through this, and I will. But I want to be honest that talking to people isn't going to erase the underlying problem. It might help me cope with it. It won't fix it. And I think it's okay to admit that some things don't have a tidy solution, sometimes you just have to find a way to keep making the thing you love anyway, even when it costs you something to do it.

I'm not gone. I just need a minute.

hi hi! i wanted to say i really really like your demo!! i remember playing the og version of it in like 2023 ish during the height of my love island obsession lmfao. back then i think haoyu was my fav, but this time i think i like noah more lolol. the struggles/benefits of getting older i guess (it was like only two or three years im exaggerating)

i noticed you’ve been getting like a ton of ai accusations, which i think are very much bullshit tbh. i really like your writing style actually, particularly the way mc seems to analyse people (at least the type of mc i played did), and i like that noah also seems to have that trait too! anyways, this is a somewhat random ish question, but who’s your fav RO of the ones we currently know of?

I think it's hard to define a favourite because it depends on what aspects. Like if I was playing the game, my favourites to romance would be Haoyu or Mattie, but writing favourites is currently torn between Amber, Scarlette and Izzie, all for very different reasons.

I recommend turning off anon asks (ironic for an anon). The people making the accusations are probably doing it because they know it will upset you at this point - it's why they're anonymous. If they actually worried about ai they wouldn't feel the need to hide their faces. A lot of authors are being harassed in variety of different ways: some get ai accusations constantly, others get accused of being assholes to their readers, some are getting hate for giving choices in their work, others get insulted for having poly romances or not having them, or because the ROs aren't to someones taste or something else stupid.

I am 100% certain it's either one person or a small group of miserable buddies who think making authors feel bad is funny, because they themselves are a bunch of miserable, pathetic cuntbags. ☺️

Prioritise your own comfort and happiness!

I am someone who despises AI, and even though I do agree that the messages might only be from a handful of people, I am sure that many people will have read my game and decided not to support me any longer because they think it's AI. If people are bold enough to say it, there are also others thinking it, and that's what matters to me.

It's not about just people sending hate, it's the bigger picture. It's about potentially getting delisted on itch for not disclosing ai use, about losing people who've supported me for years, about having this tainting everything else I might make.

It's bigger than hate messages.

Update? Ish, I don't know

Okay, so two releases in a row have been plagued with AI accusations (I haven't posted half of them, btw), and while I am not using AI, it is fucking heartbreaking and it's quite frankly off-putting. It is making me not want to try, and I just can't imagine putting myself through this a hundred more times. I will resent this game, these characters, and I don't want that.

I don't really know what to do at this point. I can start over again, but I don't know if that will fix the issue, and I don't want to go in endless circles, so I am just going to take a break.

summeroflove-if

Feedback Form

Chapter 2 has been out for two-ish days now, which means it's a good time to ask: how's it going?

Feedback form is here. It covers both chapters, your MC, the love interests, the coupling, Never Have I Ever, the whole of Day 1 so far. If you've played multiple times, either focus on the playthrough that stood out, or submit multiple times, one per run (there's a shorter questionnaire at the end of the linked one for the people who want to do multiple runs). There's a shorter additional playthrough form linked at the end for that.

If you played the original, the main form has a section for you. If you didn't, it works without that context.

No pressure, genuinely, but if you have thoughts, I want to hear them.

zmpl

before we start posting that july is gay wrath month let’s consider that july is disability pride month first and foremost. the “be gay do crimes” memes can wait

zmpl

before this post breaches containment and people start going “why not both hehehe” i want you to seriously consider the very long history of disabled people’s existence being pushed aside and/or seen as secondary. i promise you it’s not going to hurt to hold onto the memes and give disabled people space for visibility and celebration.

i say this as a disabled trans person whose trans identity is made front-and-center to the (mainly cis) people who know i’m trans but my identity as a disabled person is brushed off by the very same people.

summeroflove-if

Feedback Form

Chapter 2 has been out for two-ish days now, which means it's a good time to ask: how's it going?

Feedback form is here. It covers both chapters, your MC, the love interests, the coupling, Never Have I Ever, the whole of Day 1 so far. If you've played multiple times, either focus on the playthrough that stood out, or submit multiple times, one per run (there's a shorter questionnaire at the end of the linked one for the people who want to do multiple runs). There's a shorter additional playthrough form linked at the end for that.

If you played the original, the main form has a section for you. If you didn't, it works without that context.

No pressure, genuinely, but if you have thoughts, I want to hear them.

russianblush

no ai usage over here. you’re gonna get my shitty authentic writing whether you like it or not

#Love seeing this on my feed in light of today's messages

i said “if you don’t use ai” meaning “if you’re being accused of using it when you actually don’t”. i genuinely don’t understand how else you interpreted that sentence but it’s clearly a misunderstanding. but i can understand, it’s not fun being accused of something this insulting on multiple occasions, but that wasn’t my doing.

i totally agree with you when it comes to the ai detector part, however it wasn’t my only “evidence”, as you put it.

you can’t rely expressly on describing characters through comparisons, 1) because that’s what AI does (which could lead to the kind of situation we’re in atm), 2) because it doesn’t read well. “looser at the edges, the kind you only get once…” “unhurried, with the ease of someone…” “gesturing with her glass in a way that seems…” all in the same page, it takes you out of it.

using a succession of descriptive words/sentences, which happens all throughout the IF, is also something genAI does, it’s a figure of speech used for dramatic effect, and it tends to overdo it. “sits well in context— reasonable; honest-sounding, straightforward” “sat down — cataloguing, assessing, running that steady, precise attention”

some sentences just don’t make any sense. saying “he started thinking — the real thinking.” what is the real thinking? what is a “most carefully, specifically honest answer”? or “something he does deliberately—reads where the walls are and finds a different way around” why use walls in that context?

another structure ai does is over explain or feel the need to give meaning to every single little action: “you’re holding it out to him— just a small practical gesture that means you’ve been seen, you’re welcome here…” “she stops talking […], not composing her next thing, just listening.” “she reaches out and pats your arm, the kind of touch that communicates i hear you and i’m also glad it’s not me”

there are probably other things to note that made me, and other people, feel like it was ai-generated, but i stopped reading, especially considering all those happened before i even got to meet all the contestants and it’s already a lot.

last thing! your answer implies that i’ve disrespected you with my ask. i’m a reader but also a writer myself. never will i disrespect anyone, especially considering how hard it is to make an IF. i’ve never said anything disrespectful to you, i simply said something you didn’t like very much and that’s just not the same

Fair, and I'll take that on its own terms, that's a reasonable way to have meant it, and I was reading it less charitably than I probably should have. I'll say the flip side honestly too: even read that way, "it's fine to work on it a little more" still landed as a bit patronising. That's a tone thing, not an accusation of rudeness, and I don't think you were being disrespectful, at least not intentionally.

The actual examples are a different conversation, and I want to engage with them properly instead of waving them off, because you clearly didn't skim this.

You're right that I lean on describing people through comparison, "the kind of person who," "unhurried, with the ease of someone who," that whole family of construction, and you're right that stacking several of those close together on one page is a real problem, not a stylistic quirk I get to keep just because it's mine. Same with the compounding descriptive runs, "cataloguing, assessing, running that steady, precise attention" is exactly the kind of thing that reads as dramatic escalation past the point of usefulness. I'm not going to pretend that's not there.

Where I'd push back slightly: some of what you're pointing at as "doesn't make sense" is meant to gesture at something the POV character can't fully articulate, "the real thinking" as opposed to performed thinking, the walls line as metaphor for a specific character's habit of deflection, which is intentional, if maybe not landing the way I want it to. That's useful to know regardless, because if it's not reading as intentional, it's not doing its job, whatever the reason I wrote it. And you're right about the over-explaining, spelling out what a gesture "means" instead of trusting the gesture is a real habit of mine, and one I know I still do more than I should.

Here's the boundary I do need to set, though: chapter one is already down from 469k to 439k words off the first round of this exact feedback. I've been through it once specifically to cut this stuff, and multiple people have told me chapter two is a meaningful step up from it. I believe that, and I'm glad it's true. But I'm not going back into chapter one for another full pass. Not because the feedback isn't valid, it clearly is, but because at some point continuing to reopen it stops being editing and starts being a way to make sure I never finish anything, and I'd rather carry these specific notes forward into future chapters than go in circles on one I've already revised once and am done revising.

So: noted, genuinely, and it'll show up in what I write next. Chapter one's staying where it is, though.

summeroflove-if

Feedback Form

Chapter 2 has been out for two-ish days now, which means it's a good time to ask: how's it going?

Feedback form is here. It covers both chapters, your MC, the love interests, the coupling, Never Have I Ever, the whole of Day 1 so far. If you've played multiple times, either focus on the playthrough that stood out, or submit multiple times, one per run (there's a shorter questionnaire at the end of the linked one for the people who want to do multiple runs). There's a shorter additional playthrough form linked at the end for that.

If you played the original, the main form has a section for you. If you didn't, it works without that context.

No pressure, genuinely, but if you have thoughts, I want to hear them.

What is it with people who keep accusing you of using AI? Do they know that it is TRAINED on people's writing? That the 'repetitions' and the signals that these "detectors" use are... based on human's writing and styles?

"Too much active voice, too much repetitions"... There are writers who write like that, who had their work STOLEN and USED to TRAIN AI MODELS.

This witch hunting is tiring, because it keeps punishing writers as a whole. And I hate it, I hate generative AI and what it brought us, the mistrust and the theft and paranoias, but the way these asks and anons act isn't the way.

How they're going is just to push and punish you for the way you write, for your style and prose. It isn't constructive criticism, as you have said, it's just putting you down and doubt you, your hard work and words.

If they don't trust what you're saying, your writing, all they can do is one thing: don't play your IF and be on their way.

These models of Generative AI have been trained on human's writing, and some favor the 'repetitions' or the the em dash and guess what? So do people! Some—like me—love to use them, even at times it might not be grammatically correct and guess what? It's ok, it's a creative choice and AI is mimicking it, nothing more.

I'm really sorry this keeps happening to you, I really like your writing and the way you want to reach out to us readers to perfect your craft.

I still have to catch up on the update and I hope to do so soon!

In the meantime I want to send you all the good vibes and I hope these accusations will stop to come and I hope too that they will not bring you down—and I know it isn't easy, because most don't know how deep these accusations and "criticisms" cut.

♥

Thank you for this, all of it, more than I can really fit into a reply.

You're right that the mechanics of it get skipped over constantly, these detectors, and a lot of the discourse around them, are pattern-matching against human writing, because that's the only writing that exists to train on. Em-dashes, repetition, active voice, all of it is a human habit first. Something being common in generated text doesn't make it evidence of generation, it makes it evidence that generation is built out of us. That distinction keeps getting flattened and it's writers who eat the cost of the flattening, especially anyone whose natural voice happens to overlap with what a detector's been tuned to flag.

And you're right about the shape of it, too: it isn't actually about proving or disproving anything at that point, it's just a way to needle at someone's style under a nicer name. I'd rather have someone tell me my prose is repetitive and mean it as a craft note than dress "your style itself is suspicious" up as concern.

I appreciate you sitting with the nuance here instead of picking a side and going quiet on the rest of it, because you clearly hate what generative AI has done to trust in creative spaces just as much as I do, and you're not letting that curdle into being unkind to actual writers over it. That's a harder position to hold than either extreme and I notice when people hold it.

Take your time catching up, there's no rush. Thank you for the good vibes, I mean that.

generative ai copies people. it's not the people who need to "get better," it's ai that needs to fuck off. also detectors are shit and usually feed ai, anyway. sorry. wanted to beat that one anon with a flip flop.

anyway, on to more important matters:

i love this story. sometimes these kinds of stories REALLY stress me out, but these characters are so... WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THEM, THEY'RE ADDICTIVE

especially theo. he meshes so well with my main character and they have their heart set on getting to know him (and falling head over heels in love)

im so excited for more, thank you for all the work you put into this and for sharing it!!

I'm framing "detectors are shit and usually feed AI" and hanging it somewhere.

And thank you, this is so sweet. Theo has a way of doing that to people, quiet guys with big feelings under the surface tend to wreck everyone who gets close. I hope your MC's doing okay, because I don't think Theo makes that easy for anyone. Thank you for reading, for the enthusiasm, all of it. More coming.

I personally think that there was a noticeable change from the first upload to the most recent. The well meaning criticism was clearly noticed and applied.

That means a lot, genuinely. I take the useful stuff seriously when it's actually useful, and it's nice to hear it landed rather than just feeling like busywork on my end. Thank you for noticing.

well if you don’t use ai then i would suggest working on your writing! especially with repetitions and use of active voice, your sentences use the same structure in every paragraph which is why people are saying it’s ai, and they also get a high percentage of ai detected on ai detectors. it’s understandable that you’re frustrated for getting the same accusations but maybe you should question why so many people have the same thought when reading your work, it’s fine to work on it a little more

Leading with "if you don't use AI" and closing with "it's fine to work on it a little more" doesn't make this constructive criticism. It makes it the accusation with better manners.

Here's the thing you're implying without saying: that I'm defensive, that I won't hear it, that I'm too precious about my own prose to look at it honestly. So let's actually check that, because I have the receipts.

When someone pointed out that I was over-analyzing every RO's body language on first meeting to the point of unnatural repetition, I said they were right, that I'd overcorrected trying to fix the opposite problem, and that I'd be adjusting it going forward. When someone else sent me a genuinely long, detailed breakdown of specific patterns--continuity slips, my overuse of "not X, just Y", I agreed the continuity errors were real errors worth fixing, and even where I pushed back (that sentence construction is just how I've written for years, accusation or not), I still took the broader note that varying structure more is fair editing advice. Neither of those people came in with "if you don't use AI." They came in with actual examples. I engaged with both, at length, in public, on this blog.

And I'm not just taking notes when they're handed to me, I go looking for this stuff myself. Chapter two's tighter on most of what people flagged in chapter one, the repeated adjectives, that whole category is mostly gone, and I know that because I went back and ctrl+f'd the specific words I know I overuse and most of them roughly halved (like when you scale the wcs down). But I know I probably didn't fix the underlying habit, I think it shifted. I stopped leaning on certain words and started leaning harder on describing people through comparison, "the kind of person who," "like someone who already knew", same instinct, different outfit. That one's harder to catch because it doesn't repeat a word, it repeats a move and that's harder to ctrl+f. I'm telling you this, not because someone flagged it, because I noticed it myself.

That's not a hypothetical willingness to have this conversation, it's a demonstrated one, including the parts nobody made me say.

What I'm not doing is treating "an AI detector gave a high percentage" as evidence of anything, because those tools have a well-documented false positive problem, especially on writing with consistent structure or a strong personal cadence, and "the machine that's bad at its job said so" isn't a standard I'm going to start writing toward. And I'm not going to "question why" on command every time someone repeats an accusation I've already spent real time and real edits responding to. Repetition of a claim isn't new evidence for it.

So: if you've got a specific line, a specific pattern, something you actually noticed rather than a detector score, I've shown, repeatedly, that I'll sit with that. That offer's still open. This particular framing just isn't it.

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