Even bad news is still news... / Auch schlechte Nachrichten sind Nachrichten...
Deutsch im Anschluß...
Good evening, Dear Dreamers!
You may well remember that a few weeks ago I posted here, expressing my frustration and feeling rather demotivated. I was unhappy with the overall situation on Steem, particularly regarding what seemed like an inflation of AI-generated texts, and things weren’t going as we’d hoped within our Dream Steem Community either.
Then several wonderful things happened: conversations sprang up, almost like little think tanks. Suddenly, life returned to the house (if we think of the Community as a space sheltered from the wind and weather…
@soulfuldreamer, our moderator and much-loved author, has returned from her break from Steem: Hooray!! As always, she’s at her usual high standard and full of vigour.
@ladyaryastark presents us with the idea of an original and unusual competition, ‘Exquisite Corpse’, based on an offline version from the early 19th century, and has also agreed to organise it herself…
Shortly afterwards, she accepted my offer to join our Community’s team of moderators and has been fully committed from the very beginning.
She also launched a Halloween contest designed to inspire our authors to write spooky and terrifying stories.
@solperez adapted ‘Exquisite Corpse’ for poetry and made that a success too.
The three of you have been my saviours, at least as far as my Steem-related feelings are concerned!
The current competitions must be described as a success; a fair number of new authors have found their way to us, the output from these collaborative projects has been well worth reading, and yes, we’ve been enjoying our little literary kingdom again for the first time in a long while. We’ve been spoilt with support, and actually, things couldn’t be going any better…
Unfortunately, here comes the part that I find inexcusable in this context and which affects me on a very personal level. Because I – because we, as the team of moderators – are being taken for fools! Apparently, even…
Here’s something for you to ponder: as part of the horror contest, we’ve received, amongst others, five submissions (two of them even from the same author) that contain the following characteristics…
- It’s night-time, of course… A specific time is mentioned: either 2.14, 3.17 or 23.47…
- At that time, there’s a knock on the door three times (not twice, not four times…)
- The voice of a deceased relative asks to be let in (either the mother, the grandmother or the child who died tragically in an accident)
- You recall warnings that predict precisely this scenario and urgently urge you not to listen to the familiar voices…
- You open the door anyway (of course!, logically!)
- With slight variations, the whole thing then ends with you yourself becoming part of the horror and luring the next unsuspecting victim in this way…
What a coincidence! What an incredibly similar style, structure and imagination!
Yes, no. Hardly. In fact, not at all. At school, the kids would have been suspected of copying off one another. With a slight paraphrase, of course. Children do that sort of thing. They get caught and learn from it that it’s wrong and dishonest, so they stop doing it.
These days, well, these days nobody copies from anyone else anymore. These days, you simply ask your trusted AI for "a spooky text". You get three guesses (not two or four) as to which draft I’ll get when I ask ChatGPT for a story using exactly these few words…! Knock, knock, knock…
Folks – we don’t have many rules here. We don’t impose conditions on people. The only no-go for us is AI-generated text. Because we’re a community of writers. Not schoolchildren.
Has nobody else noticed this apart from us? Does anyone actually read the posts before voting or commenting? Or does it simply not matter, as long as the votes and delegations keep coming??
Incidentally, these five very similar texts mentioned aren’t the only ones where we’re certain that, at best, a human has simply copied and pasted them…
We are not amused. We find it brazen and unacceptable. I am deliberately not mentioning any names or titles; this is not about exposing anyone. The point is that you are slamming the door in your own faces: there will be no more competitions of this sort. We do not need publications at any price. If the Community is to die out – so be it. We can manage just fine on our own. We can write, and we’ve got plenty of material to keep us occupied! Goodness me: nobody’s being forced to post anything here!
Anyone who passes off someone else’s text as their own is, in my view, a fraud. It makes no difference if that ‘someone else’ is an AI.
But that’s not all the bad news… Soulfuldreamer will probably be stepping back again soon, for entirely personal reasons. Ladyarystark is considering stepping down from her role as moderator at Dream Steem after such a short time. This is also for personal reasons, which I may have contributed to.
There was unobjective criticism and attacks from a person perceived as all-powerful and influential, against whom I did not take a firm and clear enough stand. I admit that I wasn’t aware of the urgency of the situation. I’m very, very sorry about that.
But it doesn’t change the fact that things here will soon look rather dull and uneventful again. Shit happens, or: when karma knocks on the door three times…
Right. I’ve had enough of getting worked up about this; from now on, any text that appears here that is reasonably likely to have been generated by AI will be muted without further comment.
The genuine authors – of whom there are certainly quite a few – are very welcome to continue writing and being active here. However, there will probably be a lack of support, as, ironically, it is the AI-generated texts in particular that attract the most intense voting. Well… That doesn’t reflect well on readers in general.
So I’m deliberately leaving the future of this Community open – once again. Normally, the Adventiade (our infamous Advent quiz) is fast approaching; I don’t yet know whether I’ll find the motivation to organise it again…
Yours, @weisser-rabe
SHE stands lies above it all... / SIE steht liegt über den Dingen...
Deutsche Version:
Guten Abend, liebe Träumer!
Vielleicht erinnert Ihr Euch: vor einigen Wochen erschien hier ein Post von mir, in dem ich meiner Frustration und demotivierten Stimmung Ausdruck verlieh. Ich war unzufrieden mit der Gesamtsituation auf dem Steem, insbesondere bezüglich inflationär erscheinender KI-generierter Texte, und auch innerhalb unserer Dream Steem Community lief es nicht in der gewünschten Weise.
Dann passierten mehrere wunderbare Dinge: es entstanden Gespräche, fast wie kleine Ideenschmieden. Auf einmal kehrte wieder Leben im Haus ein (wenn wir die Community 'mal als gegen Wind und Wetter geschützten Raum ansehen…
@soulfuldreamer, unsere Moderatorin und gern gelesene Autorin, meldet sich aus ihrer Steem-Pause zurück: Juchu!! Wie immer auf gewohnt hochklassigem Niveau und voller Elan.
@ladyaryastark breitet die Möglichkeit eines originellen und ungewöhnlichen Wettbewerbs, Exquisite Corpse, vor uns aus, angelehnt an eine offline Version aus dem frühen 19. Jahrhundert, und erklärt sich auch bereit, ihn selbst zu veranstalten…
Kurze Zeit später nimmt sie mein Angebot an, zum Moderatorenteam unserer Community zu stoßen und hat sich von Beginn an voller Herzblut engagiert.
Sie etabliert zusätzlich einen Halloween-Wettbewerb, der unsere Autoren zu gruseligen und erschreckenden Geschichten inspirieren soll.
@solperez adaptiert Exquisite Corpse auf lyrische Texte und führt auch diesen zu einem Erfolg.
Ihr Drei seid, zumindest bezüglich meiner Steem-Befindlichkeit, meine Retter gewesen!
Als erfolgreich muß man die aktuellen Wettbewerbe betiteln; eine ordentliche Anzahl neuer Autoren fand den Weg zu uns, der Output dieser kollaborativen Arbeiten war sehr lesenswert und ja, wir haben seit langem wieder Freude in unserem kleinen literarischen Reich. Wir wurden mit Unterstützung verwöhnt und eigentlich könnte es nicht besser laufen…
Leider kommt jetzt der Teil, den ich in diesem Kontext unentschuldbar finde und der mich ganz persönlich trifft. Weil ich, weil wir als Moderatorenteam, für dämlich gehalten werden! Offensichtlich sogar…
Ich gebe Euch 'mal was zum Grübeln: im Rahmen des Horror-Wettbewerbs erhalten wir fünf Textbeiträge (zwei davon sogar vom gleichen Autor) , die folgende Merkmale beinhalten…
- Es ist nachts, klar… Eine bestimmte Uhrzeit wird genannt, wahlweise 2.14, 3.17 oder 23.47…
- Zu jener Zeit klopft es drei Mal an der Tür (nicht zwei Mal, nicht vier Mal…)
- Die Stimme eines verstorbenen Verwandten bittet um Einlaß (wahlweise die Mutter, die Oma oder das tragisch verunfallte Kind)
- Man erinnert sich an Warnungen, die genau dieses Szenario vorhersagen und dringend verhindern wollen, daß man auf die vertrauten Stimmen hört…
- Die Tür öffnet man trotzdem (klar!, logisch!)
- Leicht variierend endet das Ganze dann damit, daß man selbst zum Teil des Horrors wird und den nächsten Ahnungslosen auf diese Art verführt…
Was für eine Koinzidenz! Was für eine extrem ähnliche Schreibweise, Struktur, Fantasie!
Ja, nein. Wohl kaum. Also wohl gar nicht. In der Schule hätte man die Kids verdächtigt, voneinander abgeschrieben zu haben. Dabei leicht paraphrasiert. Kinder tun so etwas. Sie werden erwischt und lernen daraus, daß es unanständig und unehrlich ist und lassen es bleiben.
Heute, nun ja, heute schreibt niemand mehr vom anderen ab. Heute bittet man einfach die KI des Vertrauens um "einen gruseligen Text". Ihr dürft drei Mal (nicht zwei Mal oder vier Mal) raten, welchen Entwurf ich bekomme, wenn ich bei ChatGPT mit genau diesen sparsamen Worten um eine Geschichte bitte…! Klopf, klopf, klopf…
Leute – wir haben nicht viele Regeln hier. Wir stellen keine Bedingungen an die Leute. Das einzige No Go bei uns sind KI generierte Texte. Weil wir eine Gemeinschaft von Schreibern sind. Keine Schüler.
Ist das denn niemandem aufgefallen außer uns? Liest überhaupt jemand die Beiträge vor dem Voten oder Kommentieren? Oder ist es einfach egal, solange Votes und Delegationen fließen??
Diese genannten fünf sehr ähnlichen Texte sind übrigens nicht die einzigen, bei denen wir sicher sind, daß ein Mensch sie bestenfalls kopiert und eingefügt hat...
Wir sind nicht amüsiert. Wir finden es dreist und unmöglich. Ich nenne bewußt keine Namen oder Titel; es geht nicht darum, jemanden bloßzustellen. Es geht darum, daß Ihr Euch selber die Tür vor der Nase zu macht: es wird keine solchen Wettbewerbe mehr geben. Wir brauchen keine Publikationen um jeden Preis. Wenn die Community aussterben soll – bitteschön. Wir kommen auch solo klar. Wir können schreiben und uns fällt auch genug Stoff ein, mit dem wir uns beschäftigen! Meine Güte: es wird doch niemand gezwungen, hier etwas einzustellen!
Wer einen fremden Text als seinen eigenen ausgibt, ist in meinen Augen ein Betrüger. Es ändert nichts, wenn der Fremde eine KI ist.
Aber damit noch nicht genug der schlechten Nachrichten… Soulfuldreamer wird sich vermutlich bald wieder zurückziehen, aus ganz persönlichen Gründen. Ladyarystark erwägt, die Position als Moderatorin bei Dream Steem schon nach so kurzer Zeit niederzulegen. Auch aus persönlichen Gründen, die ich ggf. mit verursacht habe.
Es gab unsachliche Kritik und Angriffe von einer als übermächtig und einflußreich wahrgenommenen Person, gegen die ich nicht strikt und eindeutig genug Partei ergriffen habe. Ich gebe zu, daß mir die Dringlichkeit nicht bewußt war. Das tut mir sehr, sehr leid.
Ändert aber nichts an der Situation, daß es hier bald wieder recht öde und ereignislos aussehen wird. Shit happens, oder: wenn das Karma drei Mal an die Tür klopft…
Okay. Ich habe keine Lust mehr, mich grün zu ärgern; was künftig an hinreichend wahrscheinlich KI-generierten Texten hier auftaucht, wird ohne weiteren Kommentar gemutet.
Die echten Autoren, deren es durchaus so einige gibt, sind herzlich willkommen, weiter bei uns zu schreiben und präsent zu sein. An Support wird es dann allerdings vermutlich mangeln, da ironischerweise vor allem auf die KI-generierten Texte besonders intensiv gevotet wird. Tja… Das spricht dann gegen die Leser im allgemeinen.
Ich lasse also die Zukunft dieser Community – wieder einmal – bewußt offen. Normalerweise nähert sich die Adventiade mit großen Schritten (unser berühmt-berüchtigtes Advents-Quiz); ich weiß noch nicht, ob ich irgendwo den Antrieb wiederfinde…
Euer @weisser-rabe
Well, reading this post I have mixed feelings. First of all, thank you for the kind words. It feels good to be back, even if I am still finding my way around after such a long break... and everything else happening in my life..
It is incredibly disheartening to read about this misuse/ abuse of AI, but your frustration is completely justified! I wish we could do something about it...
@weisser-rabe, Please don't beat yourself up too much about not handling the "all-powerful" critic perfectly. Leadership on decentralised platforms is exhausting, especially when you have to deal with all sorts of people.
Well, I don't do mentions... Learnt it the hard way. Lol. Put my foot in my mouth and whatnot. Looking back, I can laugh about the things I did out of ignorance, not understanding the nuances of the platform and all that. But here comes another mention @ladyaryastark! You are doing such a brilliant job. Well, I wasn't even half as good a moderator as you. You have done so much in this capacity, and you really have a way with words!
I read some of the comments, and I just want to say that I have been there. You could say it was much worse in my case. I'm not comparing the two situations here, just sharing my experience. And I agree that, whilst I don't mind constructive criticism either, there's a difference between genuine criticism and criticism that comes from a rather wretched place. At least, that's how I perceived it at the time. I could be wrong, but I still remember trying my level best to accommodate the person and explain how things worked. How stupid of me! I was trying to be a good Samaritan when, in fact, the person was just teasing me and testing my limits. Lol.
The thing is, when you are in the middle of such a situation, you don't always see it for what it is. You keep thinking that perhaps if you explain yourself a little better, choose your words more carefully, or make one more attempt to resolve things, the other person will finally understand. And sometimes, they do. But sometimes, all that effort is wasted because the other person isn't really interested in a resolution. That's something I had to learn the hard way.
What people don't understand is that the moderators especially those like ladyaryastark volunteer their time and energy because they care about a community and want to see it thrive. They won't always get everything right, and disagreements are bound to happen, but that doesn't give anyone the right to make personal attacks or undermine their efforts. Criticism is one thing; making someone regret taking on a responsibility is another.
Anyways... the point is, don't let anyone put you off something you genuinely enjoy. No one is worth that. I hope you don't lose heart. The platform needs people who genuinely care about its communities and the effort that goes into creating original content.
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My girl! ;-)))
Even though you’re being very modest (you’ve launched some brilliant initiatives here!) – to put it simply. Thank you so much for your motivational message and your empathy. That’s all we can do.
Ah, if only we could resteem or reblog comments… Can we? Could we?
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There are some people on this platform who become so dear to you that you end up cherishing their comments and conversations for years to come. These are the people who make this platform worth returning to, even after long breaks. And I will take this opportunity to say: love you, @chriddi.
I wish I could resteem most of her comments!
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Haha
Mauled by love?
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Greetings, my dear @weiseer-rabe.
News, whether we like it or not, will always be just that: news of an event or a possible event. Frankly, I’d really like @ladyaryasyark to continue the work she’s been doing… I think she’s doing an excellent job, one that’s truly bringing a breath of fresh air to the community. To be honest, those comments about passing the baton (words) to participate in the “exquisite corpse” contest—well, I never actually received the words, and that’s why I’m complaining… By the way, I can say that in this ecosystem or habitat we call Steemit, no cat is worth more than a mouse or any other user on the platform… Therefore, to me, she’s just as equal as the others, and in this case, I can say that both of them are completely respectable, just like the rest of the users who are active here.
And, well, my dear, that’s not the only thing I wanted to mention… It has to do with the posts you’re referring to. Well, I did notice the time stamps—something that really caught my attention. In fact, I think I asked one of the writers, just out of curiosity, “Why that specific time?” Also, among the many posts I read, I know there was one where the plot seemed very similar to “The Child Girl of the House,” which I wrote for Dream Steem’s “Keyword of the Week” last year—though only in small details (Note: this isn’t an accusation).
Well, in my latest post (not very good, by the way—I wasn’t satisfied with it myself), I also used that device with the times (4:00 to 5:00 a.m.) and the “tick-tick” sound, but it had nothing to do with sophisticated TV scripts; I’m always inspired by a real-life detail or a few phrases, and coincidentally, those are the ones from that piece... Besides, as I always say, I write in Spanish, and my words—my authentic lines—are never translated correctly by translation programs, and they’ll always be available to anyone who has questions.
I know full well that I’m not the one with the doubt (or rather, the one who’s certain), but for me, it’ll always be better to talk about myself than about someone else.
As long as I can, and as my schedule allows (you know what I do for a living), I’ll always be here on Dreeam Steem—whether there are contests available or not.
I think I went on a bit too long in this comment today... But I noticed that no one else had dared to leave one.
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Thank you so, so much! You’re a clever guy, of course – I also think that the Steemit ecosystem only works because of its sheer number of individuals, and that everyone is equally important, or equally unimportant… But I also understand that one can feel personally attacked and then find it hard to shake off that feeling… We’ll see; I never admit defeat too quickly in a battle ;-)) I hope that Arya will place her trust in us once more and carry on with what she’s started so perfectly.
Of course, you’re one of those who are neither doubted nor reprimanded. You’re welcome to drop by whenever your schedule allows (I believe there are a few challenges at the moment?) and please stay on good terms with us ;-)))
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