PSA: The Mastodon web app (web UI) v4.4.5+glitchsoc does not work well with iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 (see bug list below).

I'm including the GlitchSoc devs as well as Mastodon devs in this report, as I can't test without glitchSoc because of my instance. I am not using advanced mode. These bugs become increasingly obvious with minutes of use. I acknowledge these may also be Apple Webkit bugs, but web developers know that you still have to make your app work despite the bugs by version conditioning ame workarounds, and by reporting them on a dev account Radar.

I cannot recommend the web UI until these bugs are fixed; a Mastodon app will save you frustration.*

Please boost for visibility.

These problems showed all during the public beta of iOS and iPadOS 26, and only in Mastodon Web UI. Q/A testing for a major platform appears to have gotten short-shrift.

I am using both a Safari tab and the Safari page saved as a web app on the start screen. The issues show up in the original full screen windowing, and both of the stage manager and new windows manager scenarios. It is an ubiquitous bug.

PS: If you know how to submit the issues directly to the devs administering the web UI projects, please reply and I will forward.

#BoostingIsSharing

#glitchsoc #mastodon #bug #bugs #fediverse #apple #ipad #iphone #ios #ios26 #ipados #ipadOS26 #webapp #writer #author #programmer #code #writingCommunity #writersOfMaston #Bookstodon #psa

I am cc'ing you in the low chance this is an instance issue. Please forgive me for causing headaches. CC: @Barmaid @Sylvhem @amberage

@adriabailton #writephant A4: At times poorly. I'm easily distracted. My stories want to write themselves in the middle of the night when I need to sleep. I find myself writing on my iPad while the spouse drives, using a computer on the treadmill, or thumb typing stuff whenever I can squeeze in time and have a functioning brain cell left, and even when I don't! Choosing to write a web novel in 31 days, serializing like a crazy Charles Dickens (something I'd done once before and vowed never again, but here I am), it only exacerbates the situation. Really, I need to get the next chapter done, now....

Q4. How do you manage your writing time?

#author #writer #writingCommunity #writersOfMaston #SF

@schoolboy @seanpatrickphd
Axes, paper, wheels, and the microprocessor are tools that simplified human endeavor.

AI is a tool that makes pattern matching and searching for trending facts easier. Examples are systems that can summarize reports they are trained to "understand" by programmed logic. Chunking down insurance claims is an example of that. Another use is extraction of data by pattern matching that they are trained to "understand" by programmed logic. I've seen tech-support ticketing made better by this. I was going to write such an application but then retired.

Using AI to generate communication (in its unreasoning state exemplified by chatGPT implementations) ranges from distilling ideas that aren't yours into something you shouldn't be proud of that you can pass off as yours by carefully curating—to out-right malpractice, if you aren't paying attention to what you turn into your professor or press Send addressed to your boss.

What you learn by using AI like chatGPT to write is prompt creation, not writing. Thinking you are learning writing, or thinking that taking shortcuts will allow you to advance sooner is a path to ruin. If anything, know the difference and learn prompt creation AND writing without using AI.

Laziness is never an excuse.

#BoostingIsSharing
#ai
#genAi
#writing
#writer
#author
#LLM
#writingCommunity
#writersOfMaston
#fiction
#essay
#chatgpt
#ArtificialIntelligence
#Apple
#Intelligence

@schoolboy
Sadly, you are missing the point. AI isn't good or bad or low quality, and calling it "average" or "promoting mediocrity" as I may have implied isn't exactly it either. To the extent that AI like chatGPT or Apple Intelligence lifts the functionally illiterate up to functional literacy is like GIVING people fish, rather than teaching them HOW to fish. @seanpatrickphd had the right of it.

My point is that AI (as it is currently constituted) is predicated on the frequency of occurrence, not any ability to reason. This is especially true on constantly refreshed LLMs. How AI responds to your prompt is based on what is trending. To say what I said elsewhere, if book-banning and misogyny were trending, it will respond with that unless filtered. Hyperbolic, yes, but you get the idea.

The end user 1) needs to understand the subject to verify the facts versus trending misconception, 2) needs to understand the subtitles of vocabulary and grammar to understand what is implied, and 3) will learn very little about writing better because they did not get the practice of actually constructing what was written.

AI use is like watching TV, thinking you are getting practice writing a book or filming a screenplay. Better yet, watching basketball and thinking you're becoming a better player.

#BoostingIsSharing

#ai #genAi #writing #writer #author #LLM #writingCommunity #writersOfMaston #fiction #essay #chatgpt #ArtificialIntelligence #Apple #Intelligence

I turned off #Apple #Intelligence because not only did it write things resembling "My grandfather fell out of one of those things and died when he was a baby," they made it so that if you press the space bar twice (which used to insert a period) now will insert that frequently used phrase or sentence ending instead. If you're typing and not reading what you're typing, chances are you're gonna say some very strange things.

I could probably go up on a rant on this, but when did people decide that #writing ought to be dumbed down to what everybody else is saying, rather than using your brain to come up with something eloquent to move your audience? Are we really that lazy?

Yeah, I see the root causes: Greedy corporations wanting to jump onto the next big thing, Gullible #programmers racing to #code the killer feature and bonuses rather than judging the worthiness of the feature. It's a little bit like radium and watch dials, which I brought back for one of my stories with a twist. Madam Curie died because science didn't understand something essential about radioactivity, yet, and who knows how many cases of lung cancer resulted from the glow in the dark watches.

The problem with #AI and ethics is training, the source. A good writer takes training, and that includes willing teachers, reading, experience writing, and feedback. A good AI requires the same thing, they call the feedback "curation." That's "educating" it what is crap and what is gold. Moreover, the training ought be done on the writing of the person using the AI, or by willing and well paid teachers, and I really don't get why Apple didn't take this tack and create something truly useful to that writer.

My best guess why not? The psychology of their perceived user: The need for instant gratification. If we train each AI the way we train each human student, where's the ability to cut out the labor and mass produce writers?

I want the personally trained #AI that can fill in the missing word that's at the tip of my tongue, that can reliably flag my recurring grammar errors, that can complete my sentences with the accuracy of my spouse of decades. As an SF writer or as an essayist, it should recognize my idiosyncratic vocabulary and not autocorrect it, to the point of accepting new words or phrases. It astounds me that AI contribution isn't color-coded in a ADA safe way during composition to show where the writer might want to verify the generated contributions. That all auto correct auto complete doesn't do this is a serious set back to the technology.

Okay, I ranted.

A big thank you to @vextaur for the discussion I sourced this from.

#BoostingIsSharing #writer #writing #author #fiction #SF #sciencefiction #WritingCommunity #writersOfMaston #greed #economics #genai #chatgpt #openai

#TheBestNewTrueCrimeStories Crimes of Famous & Infamous Criminals #booktrailer #books #truecrime #bookstodon #BooksWorthReading #authors #authorsofmastodon #writersofmaston #writers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmpfxcT6sjg

The Best New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes & Mysteries with my contributor David Breakspear. Now on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHK7i7rL208

#books #truecrime #newbooks #bookrelease #thebestnewtruecrimestories #unsolvedcrimes #mobsters #mafia #criminology #nonfictionbooks #nonfiction #bookboost #booktalk #booklove #authors #writers #writingcommunity #authorinterview #interviews #authorsinconversation #bookstodon #authorsofmaston #writersofmaston