The Butlerian Jihad is After Me

Well, it’s happened! There’s an active attempt to cancel me. 😃 I figured this would all interest and/or amuse you.

I’ve never made a secret about being pro-AI use. I’ve also been out there pointing out that AI is never an easy button, just a quick button. For very easy things, you can get AI to get you something you don’t know how to do; but past a certain point you get a steep cliff of diminishing returns unless you already know how to do it the long way. Between that and the rising cost of tokens, human expertise is not becoming obsolete. It’s just being reshaped.

As an editor, I’ve been recommending authors use the Patron Toolbox and also instructing them on how to prompt better. The idea is that if the easy editor stuff is handled before I get the manuscript, then it’s an easier job for me, a potentially lower cost for the author, and we all benefit. And I’ve been saying this for nearly a year now (at least in earnest rather than as speculation).

I’ve had some pushback, but never like this.

Two days ago, screenshots of this same advice shared in a private editor Discord server began circulating. Even though in the same screenshot I stated that I never run a manuscript through any AI tool without permission (and I’ve bent over backward to disable Copilot since it scrapes everything if I don’t, even though it makes things worse for my workflow), I’ve now been labeled as a scam artist faking my background.

For the record, I started as an editor in January 2010. A lot of the people saying I’m fake were literally wearing diapers back then. I’ve had an easily-traceable online presence since 2013, since that’s when my blog started.

I’m being smeared on (at least) the Progression Fantasy subreddit (which I’ve maybe left five comments in over the years, max). I’ve been banned from one author Discord server with no contact at all, and voluntarily left the editor server.

I do love how truthful that listed reason is. 😆

Right before I left the editor server, I saw the owner put up the first rule ever posted there: that while authors may use AI tools, no editor is allowed to touch them. So while I offered to leave on my own, it was already clear the owner wanted me gone. I was only in that server on his invitation, and specifically joined to help newbie editors learn the ropes. I think I was the only one there with more than about a year and a half of experience.

(Yes, the guy instigating it uses the online name “Buttopia.” It makes the use of the term “Butlerian Jihad” a bit punny.)

SLP is Shadow Light Publishing, which was a scam publisher that was preying on web novelists.

A mod in my favorite author Discord (the “RR Writers Guild”, RR being Royal Rod) opened up a ticket to investigate my “credentials,” because my website doesn’t list any, nor any testimonials. It’s fortunate that this was text only, since I would likely have been dipping into some Navy vocabulary otherwise. (I never served, but as the literal son of a sailor the colorful verbiage is in my salty blood.)

Incidentally, the three reasons why I don’t list testimonials or past clients on my are:

1) My job is to make the author look good. They are not there to make me look good. If they want to acknowledge me in their book, they can. I make absolutely zero requirements or requests. My job is to be invisible.
2) Their errors are not mine to share. I occasionally request permission to share details with interns. Only interns, with a direct contractual relationship with me.
3) Testimonials can be faked or curated. I prefer to show my expertise in other ways. Any old editor can slap up a website. I get most of my business from either word of mouth recommendations or because I chat in forums and authors can see for themselves that I know what I’m talking about.

After some terse exchanges where they admitted they’ve never done this for any other editor, I got an apology from the server owner.

(I’m not sharing screenshots of that because one of those mods was on Reddit defending me (despite not being pro-AI himself) and threatening to ban anyone sharing screenshots out of that server. Out of respect, I’m not sharing anything I collected from RR Writers Guild.)

The server owner also informed me that the Jihadists are trying to pull up my old social media posts and blog posts to get me canceled for my political opinions and religious affiliation.

I checked my blog stats and somehow I’ve gotten hits from 150 different countries in the last 48 hours, so I guess they’re all using VPNs. And the only ones with any unusual traffic are the ones on the Hugo Awards/Sad Puppies thing from over a decade ago. The server owner did mention that apparently there’s something I wrote in 2021 that’s circulating, but I didn’t ask what. Whatever it is, it’s nothing I’d feel the need to scrub. That’s the nice thing about being the same guy online that you are in real life. You don’t have to figure out which face you’re supposed to be wearing.

Now I just have to wait for the biiiiig cancel bucks to roll in . . . oh, wait, I’m an editor. I don’t provide a product, I am the product. Oh well. Um . . . I have a short story in an anthology with my name on the cover? Can I monetize that? 🤣

Anyway, it’s all very annoying and not a little bit stressful (especially since I’m currently wearing a two-week heart monitor; the doc’s going to have some good data!), but I’m determined to stay optimistic and laugh at them. They’re mostly in the litRPG space, and most of my clients come from trad or indie. As I informed the RRWG mods, I’m in their server because I enjoy it, not because it’s part of a business plan. I could leave it today and not see a single change in my business income.

On a related note, there’s a new, fourth reason why I don’t list past clients. If the Jihadists don’t know who they are, they can’t hound them.