i love choccy milk

Whoever spends in the way of Allah is like a grain that grows seven ears; in every ear are a hundred grains. And God multiplies for whom He wills.

I am your brother, Mahmoud Al-Qassas from Gaza. I kindly ask for your help in repaying a debt I took on to cover the funeral expenses of my 5-year-old son.

My son passed away after falling from the fourth floor. He had been looking out of the room’s window to see how high our apartment was, and he fell from that height. As everyone knows, we are suffering in Gaza, and since I had no money, I borrowed $1,500 to cover the funeral expenses. The amount was spent as follows:

$750 went toward grave digging, the shroud, washing the deceased, and transportation for the burial.

The remaining $750 covered the costs of the condolence gathering for three days.

The person who lent me the money is now asking for it back, and I have nothing to repay him. Therefore, I kindly ask for your help in settling this debt, and I humbly ask you to extend a helping hand to us.

Please help us by donating via PayPal.

Historical Fiction Winner 🏆 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Affairs of the Heart

It was an incredible pleasure to interview @doriana-gray-games, author of the overall winner in the historical fiction category for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Affairs of the Heart. It's an IF with incredible writing, most lovable characters, and swoon-worthy romance.

Doriana has been a truly amazing, uplifting presence in the IF community for so many years now, and this interview contains... a relic from 2021, mentions of witches in ancient Egypt, and if you read nothing else today, let it be this.

See the full list of winners in this category here.

About the author

I am not British! This comes up a lot… 😅 I’m Swedish, and I learnt English through video games. I knew the English word vehicle before I knew the word cardigan. I host guide and working dogs in training 🥰 So I usually have a Labrador or two around. One did, once, eat my homework…

About the game

Play as your own Sherlock Holmes, but it’s a romance.

Tell me more about your journey into interactive fiction

Sure! I think I’ve told this story a few times, but I don’t mind re-rambling once more. I started this project (aaoth - the full title is far too long) as an interactive writing exercise. I was in the early days of a software engineering degree (that I only took to make games and have a steady backup profession… Ask me how the IT industry is doing for juniors now lol…)

Anyway, I had been sitting on this other RPG game idea for like 2 years. Far too ambitious in hindsight. And when covid hit, I finally had time to sit down and do something with it. I wrote my first scene and… God. It was shit. I thought, like most ignorant people probably do, that writing would be the easy bit in making a game.

Ha!

So, fast-forwarding a bit, I decided to teach myself creative writing + branching dialogue. Gave myself about a year. I had been reading Wayhaven a lot at the time, and loved it, and I decided that ChoiceScript could be a great little way to practice.

[Imagine a montage of writing and reading here] 😌 ✨

I did some really tedious writing exercises, and I skimmed some very long books on writing. I began the project during the late summer of 2020, and I posted my first demo and chapter in the summer of 2021. I had showed it to no one. I didn’t really know Tumblr was a thing at that point, so I didn’t have one. The only person who read it before I posted was one user on the forums, a few hours before I put it up. I think I asked in some writing support thread…

HOLD ON IM SKIMMING MY OLD POSTS AND DMS, I found it:

I posted this, and someone very nice DM'd me. And they were complimentary enough of my demo that I posted it publicly like an hour later. With very shaky hands.

And, the rest, as they say, is history!

Everyone was so nice about it that I very quickly moved it from an exercise in my mind to something much more. Thankfully, I had already done all my outlining and planning as part of my learning process 🥰

I want to end this part on an unusual note.

My journey into writing was a strange one, and in many ways quite late in life. I always thought only a certain type of person was a writer—someone born with a pen in hand, who speaks eloquently and has read Tolstoy in multiple translations. AS I NOW KNOW THIS ISN’T TRUE, I can say that anyone can do it if they are ready to work on it, and do the hard work and practice ❤

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Facebook

Instagram

X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)

Threads

Pro Writing Aid

Grammarly

Duolingo

Google Docs

Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.

Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)

Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.

Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)

Canva Takes and feeds their machine.

Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.

Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.

Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.

Neutral ground:

Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai

Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.

Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).

Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/

Use cloudflare:

Use Nightshade:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

Use Glaze:

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

Book Two of my webcomic The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya is beginning its rerun! Read the first 6 pages now on the fancy new site! (<-link)

Zeynel prepares for a business trip that will change his life forever.