I posted this on Bluesky earlier, and just wanted to entrench it here for everyone!

I was engaged in a private conversation on how unreliable AI "detectors" are and also that publications that utilize them could be infringing on the writer's intellectual property rights by "feeding" an unpublished story into a machine to "check" it. (Please don't do this, fellow editors.)

So for full transparency, when [RECORDED] opens to submissions, I will *NEVER* utilize any "AI detectors" for any reason. Your work will not be run through any detector program or third party software. (I'll be opening submissions in Word, on a computer, and not utilizing the online version of MS Office.)

I ask for no gen-AI written/assisted stories. If you tell me you didn't use it, I believe you. I choose to work from a starting point of trust and good will. I respect your intellectual property.

Rejected stories will be get deleted after they are read; I have set up our Duosuma account to automaitcally purge all rejected submissions after 30 days.

All submissions are *only* going to be read by myself and my wonderful first reader, V. Astor Solomon (@howsweetthewords.bsky.social)—two humans! (Stories may possibly seen by my cats, but they don't actually read, I think we're okay.)

As the editor, I'll be the one sending out all final decisions (acceptance or rejection). That's it. 

I thank y'all in advance for trusting us to read your words, and I can't wait to see what kind of wildly unhinged stories you come up with! <3

—Merc

P.S. This is Crouton, being "helpful" per usual.