#franzis thoughts

Listen up podcast fans, because that's what you do best!

The fantastic cast behind Rusty Quill's Stellar Firma - so Tim and Ben Meredith, Imogen Harris, and Jenny Haufek - are making a new podcast together, this time supported by the fabulous voice of Amy Dickinson as well!

The fundraiser for the first season will be launched on Friday, and one of the fundraising goals will be high quality transcripts! How do I know they'll be high quality? Why, I'll be writing them!

[ID: A screenshot of a post's notes showing 16 replies, 936 reblogs, and 1626 likes. The reblog bubble map shows multiple branches spreading out from the original post and clustering more reblogs together before branching further. /end ID]

A "popular" fandom post I made in 2023:

[ID: A screenshot of a post's nots showing 2 replies, 190 reblogs, and 1028 likes. The reblog bubble map shows that the vast majority of reblogs were made from the original post and the longest reblog chain extends just four blogs in a line that only branches off once at the second level. /end ID]

I realise the notes aren't yet at an equal footing, but the ratio of reblogs to likes is so fucking skewed nowadays.

I know that AO3 cannot ban AI generated texts, because even though all AI generated text is inherently infringing on a copyright - as all AI text engines are trained on stolen data - it is nearly impossible for any one person to satisfactorily prove that their data was stolen to train the specific engine used to create the text in question. Perhaps eventually wholly AI generated texts without any kind of human editing will eventually be banned under the copyright issue.

I know that AO3 even more cannot ban AI generated texts on a moral/philosophical basis because that would be a slippery slope to any kind of content moderation that we do not want on AO3.

But as a (fanfic) author and avid (fanfic) reader, it just saddens me to see this.

As a reader, I wonder why I should bother reading a text that nobody bothered to write. I wonder why I should read a text that isn't based on passion and creativity. I wonder how I should expect humanity in machine generated characters.

[ID: A tweet by Maddy Searle (@Maddy_abstract), posted on October 14th, around 3 pm BST. It reads “Sadly, I am among some staff cuts at Rusty Quill, so I am available for work in podcast/radio sound design, production, directing. 3+ years experience with clients including Stripped Media and Picturehouse Cinema. Links to my work below.” followed by aforementioned link with a headshot of Maddy /End ID]

So Maddy is leaving RQ, citing “staff cuts” and thereby implying it wasn’t her decision, following a rather surprising hiatus at Rusty Quill which affected Chapter & Multiverse, Trice Forgotten, as well as Patreon Bonus content, such as Problemagicians and Compulsory Film Appreciation.

At the same time, RQ is putting out multiple updates daily for their stupid little TMA ARG. teasing “The Magnus Archives 2″.

What. The actual fuck. Is going on in this company.

They’re Rusty Quill. Not “The Magnus Archives Incorporated”. They have other shows that have fans. They have other shows that could make them money, if they only promoted them decently.

The Magnus Archives had a great ending, stop milking a dead cow and instead focus on the ones that are still alive.

Stop shooting yourself in the foot.

Can’t believe I’m supporting this shit show with a patreon subscription. I am seriously going to reevaluate this decision.