The big news this week in the pen community is the release of the Diamine Inkvent Purple edition colors in full -sized bottles and Lamy announcing a summer collection of Safari pens. However, in the online community, Meta’s AI policy is causing quite a flutter. Many creative folks are abandoning or transitioning away from Instagram and Facebook following the announcement that Meta will be using creator content to train their AI engines and there is no clear way to opt out — at least not in the US. I can understand the impulse to leave these platforms as they continue to use work of creators for their own benefit. Where do you stand on this issue?
Link of the Week:
- What is the Cara app, and why are artists deleting Instagram for it? (via Fast Company)
Pens:
- Your fountain pen exploded on a plane: now what? (via Extra Fine Writing)
- Nib Comparison: Pilot Capless F, FM, M (via Line Variation)
- uniball Jetstream Lite Touch Ballpoint Pen Review (via The Pen Addict)
- Fountain Pen Review: 2024 Lamy Safari Special Edition Pink Cliff and Violet Blackberry (via Rants of The Archer)
- It’s a new month, what’s in your pen cup? (via Chronicles of a Fountain Pen)
- Early thoughts on the Stabilo EASYbirdy fountain pen. (via Fountain pen blog)
- Fountain Pen Basics: Don’t Be Scared of Broad Nibs! (via The Gentleman Stationer)
- Yard-O-Led Grand Victorian Unboxing and Review (via Penultimate Dave)
- Pen Review: Skogsy Pens Low Volume Eyedropper (via The Gentleman Stationer)
- A Fountain Pen Rainbow (via Rachel’s Reflections)
Ink:
- Ink Review #2548: Journalize Elphaba (via Mountain of Ink)
- Lennon Tool Bar Hoo-koo-po (via Inkcredible Colours)
- Ink is all about the appearance (via Chronicles of a Fountain Pen)
- Inkvent Inks I’ve Purchased (via Rachel’s Reflections)
- Diamine Purple Edition Inks (via Writing at Large)
- Ink Review #814: Scribo Rosso Melograno (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
Notebooks & Paper:
- Considering binders: Why not? (via Stationery Pizza)
- Smythson Featherweight A5 Spiral Bound Refill Notebook Review (via BLAKE’S BROADCAST)
Art & Creativity:
- REVIEW: Etchr Watercolour Postcards (via Doodlewash)
- The problem with small sketchbooks (via Liz Steel)
- Drink & Draw: It’s a Thing! (via Fueled by Clouds & Coffee)
- On My Table: Beginning of June 2024. (via Apple-Pine)
- Episode 476: Gosh, I love a good kit. (via The Corner of Knit & Tea)
- Sunroom’s experimental Risograph prints are sent by snail mail (via It’s Nice That)
- A history of colour is a history of us: Inside the new Taschen book on four centuries of colour theory (via It’s Nice That)
- Artist of the Week: She was a Victorian Rockstar Photographer (via Messy Nessy Chic)
Other Interesting Things:
- Brats, a Documentary Film About the 80s Hollywood Brat Pack (via Kottke.org)
- Spaciousness of Blank Pages // Love Letter, June 2024 (via Baum-kuchen)
- Comfortable with the Collection (via Dime Novel Raven)
- How Did Egyptians Build Pyramids? New Study Suggests Answer (via My Modern Met)
We are (ALL) real creators. We don’t use AI and neither do our cats. We eat real food. Help support us and our ventures by joining our Patreon or buying some of our goods in our shop or on Etsy. Your patronage supports this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!
Uncontrolled AI bothers me. Too much of what we see already is not real. I’m even more bothered with the uncontrolled gathering of user data from on line sites. It’s why I will never play a game or answer “innocent” questions in on line surveys and questionnaires.
I’m surprised that so many people are still using IG and Facebook, to be honest. I left both in 2016 after the fallout re: allowing researchers access to user data without explicit permission and allowing bad actors to spread misinformation and disinformation so easily. Despite Congressional hearings and all kinds of press statements, I came away with the impression that Facebook prioritizes user privacy only to the extent that it doesn’t interfere with their desire to “own” the web via a private space that they fully control, and the twin goal of capturing as much revenue as possible. They’ve done little to prove otherwise in the last 8 years, and I’ve no reason to believe they’ll ever change. They’re a corporation — they’re never going to love us.
In a way I’m glad that this is leading folks to flee the platform, and I hope that the bleeding continues. I would love blogging to come back: people own their spaces, fully control their corner of the web, and can take their toys elsewhere (via site migrations, domain migrations, etc.) whenever they choose. Of course, I’m biased haha (I work for WordPress.com) but open source and the open web is the strongest weapon we have against the continued privatization of the internet.
But on a different note, yay, purple inks!
And yeah to WordPress as they’ve been the power behind this site for over 10 years!
I wish anything that is AI would be labeled as such for as long as it is on our screens.
I’ve never been on IG because Meta owns it. Please, all who love photography, come or come back to Flickr. It’s never included in giveaways, but if more people go to Flickr, maybe it will be. In a Karas Kustoms’ email, it was lamented that IG was increasingly unsearchable. I replied to the email that Flickr was searchable. I did get a reply, but deleted it.
No to Facebook and Instagram.