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Keep this #NoAI website, featuring software, communities, and more, without the use of any AI in the code bases or have an openly NoAI stance and policy https://noailist.org/ #AI
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Robert Kingett
@WeirdWriter@caneandable.social
mastodon 4.7.3I’m a blind and gay romance writer that loves fiction podcasts, audiobooks, cookies, and cats! I follow more hashtags than people. Because I take frequent social media breaks, the best way to reach me quickly is via my website or email rather than here.
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Joined October 08, 2024
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If there’s any indication that audiobooks count as reading, take a hard look at the current reading is dying or is a lost art discourse, and yet, audiobook listeners continue to have better reading comprehension than those that simply do not read at all. I came across a YouTube video a few years ago where this non-disabled guy is going through self help book after book struggling to read and all the discourse surrounding him was rooted in, of course, ableism, but actively angry at him for trying to improve himself. I am not a fan of any self help books at all but Maybe the cure to save this reading decline is not to shame others when they want to read anything or listen to something. #Reading #Education
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I just now realized why there are table of contents at the beginning of some blog posts. Sighted folk don’t have a way to jump to the first heading level 3 on the page, nor do they have the capability of bringing up a list of headings on the page and then jumping to a chosen heading the way we do. Gods, how do you all use such a limited form of navigation? I would think scrolling would get tiresome after a while. #WebDev
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If you really want to tell disabled people to use an open source or alternative thing instead of the proprietary thing, you better make damn well sure that open source or alternative thing is at least screen reader friendly as a bare minimum when it comes to disability access if you're the developer.
If you're a user of the open source or alternative thing, encourage the developer to do better than the proprietary developers on all disability developments, even when the developer tries to make the excuse that they are not a large corporation and can't afford the accessibility developments.
If you can't figure out why disable people continue to use proprietary thing when open source or alternative thing exist, shut the fuck up and do a lot more reading instead of replying.
#OpenSource #Accessibility
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Remember, their record profits are your unpaid wages
If you use this font to protect your text from AI, it also blocks *me, a human* because I use a screen reader. I did try the demo. If you want me to remove your RSS feed, this is the best font to prevent blind people from reading your blog/words. That timer is an inaccessible solution. https://shieldfont.org/#hero #AI #LLM #Accessibility #A11y
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There’s a good reason why I choose to never attend blindness conventions, or assimilate myself with a lot of the blindness groups here in the US. I prefer hanging around a smaller contingency of blind people rather than the larger groups. Aside from the fact that the blind community is often extremely racist towards disabled people of color, trans phobic and homophobic to the disabled LGBT plus members, ableist to other disability groups, the community as a whole participates in techno ableism. The community chides others for choosing to not willingly participate in capitalism any longer. The community values independence rather than interdependence. I do not see eye to eye on many of the single disability issues the community at large advocates for, especially as it relates to employment and accessibility access at the risk of my and others privacy. The community is too focused on getting others to assimilate and comply with a hostile capitalistic system rather than encouraging others to live their best blind and or disabled lives even if they do not work.
This is also why I prefer to hang around other disabled people and other disability groups outside of my blindness. They do not follow these same rigid desires.
I haven’t even touched on the internal discrimination I have seen from blind people to other blind people. I have repeatedly witnessed workplace discrimination that was a lot worse than none disabled bosses.
And that isn’t even the half of everything else.
#Disability #Ableism #Blind #Blindness
I'm a fierce LLM critic but I'm getting just as annoyed at all the LLM vigilante detectives in the book space. How about you all do something useful rather than speculating if Daggermouth was generated. Here's a hint. Read the book. It wasn't. I know it's not a nine second video clip but I believe in you! You have the power! In my personal life, I've had people just stop publishing things because an unusual metaphor told someone the thing was generated. And just LMAO at using LLM detection things. I never take you all seriously that use any form of LLM detection scams.
Every single one of these LLM vigilantes is doing marketing for them. just to fuck with you all, I'm going to use more Em Dashes because you are just as annoying.
It's not proof, it's marketing.
In this case, as just one example out of many, I hope the Atlantic gets sued for this garbage.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/07/daggermouth-novel-bestseller-ai/688067/
#Bookstodon #Books
the ai problem in publishing is bigger than mia ballard | publishers, power & who gets blamed
There’s one thing I’d like to add to this list. If an account is not necessary, do not make an account . Become worthless (to tech companies) • Cory Dransfeldt https://www.coryd.dev/posts/2026/become-worthless-to-tech-companies #Tech #Technology #Security #Privacy
I think Meta knows I do not use any of their garbage AI things so they’re asking me to send over proof of my identity because my activity is suspicious, according to them.
I of course have refused and now others are wondering, yet again, how to get a hold of me if I’m not on Facebook messenger. I posted a status to friends only giving out my VOIP phone number for SMS and calls but absolutely no one over there wants to keep my phone number, they just want to use Facebook messenger.
This has made me think no one actually wants to leave the walled gardens except for those of us that have already left.
I tried getting everyone into signal, or better yet, Delta Chat but I honestly quit trying and now just use SMS. I couldn’t care less if SMS isn’t the most private or secure, it was like having a root canal just trying to get others to SMS me alone, and I had even less success with trying to get others to use apps like Signal and Delta Chat.
I’m using #JMP as a Voip number via the fabulous #XMPP
I don’t understand why everyone likes those garbage walled gardons so much because ever since finding RSS again, and chronological timelines, I don’t get the appeal.
And that fucking interface. I do not understand how sighted people tolerate it. I’m sure it looks very pretty and polished, but it’s an absolute nightmare to use.
#Meta #Privacy #Communication
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Well, this is interesting! Sighted people in my life, some of them, are using software made for us such as #Paperback and stuff like #Fedra because they say they never have that visual bloat most software has today, and they like the speed of software like Paperback. Turns out sighted people *do* get tired looking at things. https://github.com/trypsynth/paperback #Books #Bookstodon #OpenSource
I am on the hunt for a public domain image I can use, well, everywhere, and I was thinking about this picture. I'd like an #Alt4Me though because the below alt text is generated, and is a tad excessively rambly for my taste. I am unsure if I can use this as my author picture, but if anyone has a better cat public domain image that exudes layers of hopeless romantic and snarky and lovable dread, would love suggestions!
I know #WebDev love their share buttons at the top of the post, but you know the one thing I consistently use 99.9% more than all of those, the copied to clipboard button. It honestly would be really nice if I could see a single button that says copy URL to clipboard at the top of posts rather than 999 share buttons I never ever use
Here's a small database of some of the fascists in tech. Although, what I’d do is just have a single page with giant bold letters that say, tech and the tech industry is fascist by design, but still, this is a good list to keep handy! https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/fashware #Tech #Technology
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Tech Bros are mad because everyone loves libraries, the only data center worth championing and keeping. #Library #Libraries #AI #LLMs
My pen pal neighbor and I are now gossiping about our newest neighbor that has every tech gadget known to man, including smart cameras and stuff. Every time loved neighbor knocks on my door to deliver one of our loved packages to each other, his fucking camera tracks this. For now, we're gossiping about how creepy his cameras are, but are there any lawyers on here that can defend me in court if I say, accidentally write a story where the protagonist sabotages one of these fucking cameras? For pure entertainment reasons, of course.
For those new followers, the good neighbor and I that write notes to each other have been doing this for months now. We met in my lobby. It was loud. It was chaotic. It was a place of pure anxiety.
It wasn't a place to talk and get to know each other. It was a place to hurry onto the next thing.
So—we exchange text files on a flash drive, dropped into a bag. The bag will also sometimes contain cookies, fun tiny flowers, interesting things from our time out in the world, to give the text in the text files some more context. We could just email, but we began this because our email inboxes were unruly at the time. We never stopped communicating since.
Replying to
LMFAO! You really can't make this shit up at this point! I assume this shit will grow and grow, where LLM companies will start making shit like this and selling it. Honestly? The best route would be to go the way of Star Breaker, at starbreaker.org and just allow all the scrapes, all the ingestions, etc. @unkx@icosahedron.website
RE: https://is.nota.live/@beaiouns/117292968190158737
In case you missed it
Quoting
@marijn@mastodon.social this reminded me of a really amazing piece of writing that's along the same lines, by @WeirdWriter@caneandable.socialhttps://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/
i did a quick re-read to make sure i was grabbing the right link, and my eyes are fucking misty again
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Why Young Women Aren’t Ashamed Of Disability Anymore https://graniteandsunlight.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/why-young-women-arent-ashamed-of-disability-anymore/ #Disability #Pride
The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and you., Sightless Scribbles https://sightlessscribbles.com/disability-dongle/ #Disability #Accessibility #A11y
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Fuck my life. My country's social security system is the pits. I got survivors benefits because my abusive mother died. I didn't know social security counts that as extra income. I was getting the maximum amount on SSI. I was approved for survivors benefits but then they lowered my SSI payments because I'd have extra income. I know people don't like it when disabled people get things for free, but I wasn't going out and buying cars with it. Fuck.
Your new amount will be $125 unless you appeal.
Firstly, that number is way disproportionate to what I was getting before. The fuck? That's a 95% reduction rate! I hate this system. You bet your ass I'll appeal. I'm lawyering up. Why is it okay for a billionaire to hoard multiple houses but I can't hoard an extra, say, $100 monthly? Explain why billionaires are applauded for stashing cash and poor people like me are spat on because we maybe want to stay at home and write Fan fiction. Oh, is it because I'm not working in your myopic view of work? You don't have a clue what living with a disability is like.
News flash. Billionaires don't work either. Billionaires exploit others labor.
If you wanna help, Https://sightlessscribbles.com/tip/
Now that reddit requires everyone to login, can we go back to open forums now? Yes, your shit will be used to train an LLM, but I am at the point to where I want open access internet things more than I want people trying to prevent LLM training with pay walls and login gates. #Reddit #Enshittification #Forum #Forums
Quoting
p.s. I've just done a guide to this on the Fedi.Tips website, it answers some common questions related to this feature:
https://fedi.tips/how-to-add-alt-text-descriptions-to-your-mastodon-profile-picture-and-profile-banner/
Open quoted postUnable to work full time and need money for offline and online bills. I need all your support! https://sightlessscribbles.com/support/ @MutualAidNet@mastodon.social @MutualAidVisibility@mastodon.social @mutualaid@a.gup.pe @mutual_aid@starflower.space #MutualAid #Disability #DisabilityMutualAi…
Links below.
Seeing other authors suddenly putting DRM on their Kindle titles, saying they don't want to encourage sharing and encourage more buying.
I only buy DRM free EBooks, and while I do think this recent DRM free stance by #Amazon is a plot to train their fucking LLM and also to do something even worse down the road, it's either, I buy your DRM Free book or I don't read it nor talk about it since it's not available in any of my libraries.
This is where I typically buy DRM Free EBooks. This is my DRM free titles of note. https://bookshop.org/lists/kingett-s-drm-free-titles-of-note
Amazon documentation about this. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDXGH9VR22ACM8U #Books #Bookstodon #Author #Reading
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Checking out #Wafrn and any of my fellow blind people know if any of our blind clients can interact with it yet? Even a little? I don't need all their functions like biting. Great documentation, by the way.
SOCIALISTS AREN’T NAIVE ABOUT HUMAN NATURE https://jacobin.com/2026/07/socialism-human-nature-morality
hmm, wow, all these shit companies coming together? Can't be good for the major #Linux distros. Pretty soon, Linux Foundation will tell Microsoft to hold it's beer when it comes to ethics. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/07/nvidia-red-hat-cloudflare-the-linux-foundation-and-more-launch-the-open-secure-ai-alliance/
We were worried about the wrong aspects of AI https://webaligo.bearblog.dev/we-were-worried-about-the-wrong-aspect-of-ai/ #AI #LLM #Privacy
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This was a lot more fascinating than I initially thought . observing right-wingers for twelve days – suliman's blog https://blog.sulimans.space/observing-right-wingers-for-twelve-days/
Tapped this sign again many times this week, but i’m going to upgrade it to where it talks about #XMPP too https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/6552/ #Facebook
Replying to
@SRAZKVT@tech.lgbt Oh of course it does. Ugh, make this all stop!
Replying to
Looking for additional narrators of any gender and indie producers to record Sightless Scribbles posts. Sean is still narrating them and producing them, but I need someone else I can call upon, say, when I want to try a Duette style narration with a post featuring a lot of dialog between my friend Kelly that listens to her inner organs rather than any religion, or when I write about my British friend I spilled tea on one day. Most likely, you should be open to work-swaps and installments in payments, etc. Contact me with links to your website or narrator page on Audible, or at least an easy place I can hear your voice. https://sightlessscribbles.com/contact/ #VoiceOver #Voiceover #Audiobook #GetFediHired
Re: Why I Left Wordpress for BearBlog https://onlinegoddess.net/2026/07/re-why-i-left-wordpress-for-bearblog/ #Wordpress #Blog #Blogs
This recent hashtag TikTok discourse wherein they belittle authors for using words that have more than three syllables, arguing that large word usage is ableism, has a whiff of racism to it. I know that there are aspects of relying on the written word has ties to white supremacy, but there’s just something about this discourse that rings like racism to me and none of the Youtubers I’ve seen talking about this issue have been pointing out the racism.
For those not in the know, a lot of TikTok readers across multiple genres are saying that authors are ablest if we use words that contain more than three or four sylables.
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Because I wanted a way to syndicate my stuff to the #Fediverse without having comments on my website, I’m syndicating a different way.
You can follow Sightless Scribbles Syndicated multiple ways.
The Wordpress way, @blindjournalist.wordpress.com
The WriteFreely way, @weirdwriter@write.as#ActivityPub
Got an invite to go test out one of these new LLM startup things because I am on a shit load of tech PR lists. Thinking about putting on the journalism hat and attending, but in the Sightless Scribbles style, because I don't have to answer to an editor, I'm thinking it would be hilarious if I can somehow get them to put me on stage so I can sneak in my prompt that will instruct their LLM to broadcast instructions to the whole entire stadium via their PA system, “how to unionize because your boss hates you and wants you dead.” Can they arrest me for crashing their demo?
Is there a #Blacksky but for blogs? Like a collective of minority bloggers? A database/webring? I know I can add Bluesky folks to my RSS reader, but I enjoy reading longer form stuff
Replying to
This is why I always maintain the best way is to go the other way, allow all scraping ingestion etc etc etc even though your server may take a huge hit from the traffic, but this blogger does it and he doesn't have a high bill https://starbreaker.org/colophon.html @raulmatias@mstdn.social
Replying to
Sadly, we've been here before. Multiple times. This is a different tactic to eliminate reading *for everyone* they tried it with POC decades ago and are refining their tactics after learning why they "failed at keeping those folk from reading!" . @susankayequinn@wandering.shop
This #LibreOffice MASTER TECHNICAL ACCESSIBILITY REPORT is, uh, interesting. https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/accessibility/msg01311.html #Accessibility #A11y
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/max-weber/the-protestant-ethic-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism/talcott-parsons #Bookstodon #Books
Replying to
You can say that again! @aedan@serrebiradio.com
New from Social Audio Description
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Hi new followers! I would advise you to read my pinned toot, but this is going to be a short message on how I generally operate this account I often share interesting or unique or awesome things I read or listen to or watch online. I have #IFTTT share my website things to here because Mastodon does not natively support RSS imports. Not everything I share will be authored by me. If I’m sharing anything from the Sightless Scribbles domain, that is by me. If there are a lot of replies to one of my posts, I will probably mute the conversation because after a certain number of replies, the conversations become way too incomprehensible. I have my account set to automatically delete unless it gets a certain number of likes and or boosts. You can read all about me at https://sightlessscribbles.com/about/ #Intro #Introduction
Latest mailing list update, newsletter updates and serializing audiobooks. https://buttondown.com/weirdwriter/archive/podcast-updates/ #Blog #Blogs