Erin K. Maher
@erinkmaher.bsky.social
Academic copyeditor, line editor, and indexer in the arts and humanities. PhD in musicology, UNC Chapel Hill (2016). She/her/Dr. It's pronounced "mar."
Solidarity high-five to any other freelancers working today because you'll get way behind if you don't.
(Or is it just me? Oh no, maybe it's just me.)
(Or is it just me? Oh no, maybe it's just me.)
November 27, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Solidarity high-five to any other freelancers working today because you'll get way behind if you don't.
(Or is it just me? Oh no, maybe it's just me.)
(Or is it just me? Oh no, maybe it's just me.)
I've made it my whole personality the past couple years - I've been to 23 concerts so far this year and 20 were by myself, with one more coming up (last year was 20/20). I get to see what I want, feel my feelings, and sometimes travel weird distances without roping anyone else into it!
Have yall ever gone to a concert by yourself? How was it?
November 27, 2025 at 12:28 AM
I've made it my whole personality the past couple years - I've been to 23 concerts so far this year and 20 were by myself, with one more coming up (last year was 20/20). I get to see what I want, feel my feelings, and sometimes travel weird distances without roping anyone else into it!
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
Some are suggesting you deliberately write inaccurate or confusing alt text, because they say this confuses AI scrapers that are analyzing images.
The purpose of alt text is to help people who cannot see the image. Deliberately misrepresenting the image is a gross misuse of alt text. Don't do it.
The purpose of alt text is to help people who cannot see the image. Deliberately misrepresenting the image is a gross misuse of alt text. Don't do it.
November 26, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Some are suggesting you deliberately write inaccurate or confusing alt text, because they say this confuses AI scrapers that are analyzing images.
The purpose of alt text is to help people who cannot see the image. Deliberately misrepresenting the image is a gross misuse of alt text. Don't do it.
The purpose of alt text is to help people who cannot see the image. Deliberately misrepresenting the image is a gross misuse of alt text. Don't do it.
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
I’m calling the cliffhanger police
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I’m calling the cliffhanger police
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
In which Zack Budryk perfectly captures the feeling many #ActuallyAutistic people feel in this particular moment of RFK Jr.'s resurgence: We felt like we were turning the corner on autism acceptance. And now we are seeing that door closed off.
www.welcometohellworld.com/i-will-not-g...
www.welcometohellworld.com/i-will-not-g...
I will not give up that which I have tasted
Promotion of the myth
www.welcometohellworld.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:54 PM
In which Zack Budryk perfectly captures the feeling many #ActuallyAutistic people feel in this particular moment of RFK Jr.'s resurgence: We felt like we were turning the corner on autism acceptance. And now we are seeing that door closed off.
www.welcometohellworld.com/i-will-not-g...
www.welcometohellworld.com/i-will-not-g...
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
I wonder how many people are gonna catastrophically fuck up thanksgiving by using chatgpt for their recipes
November 25, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I wonder how many people are gonna catastrophically fuck up thanksgiving by using chatgpt for their recipes
I have this memory of doing dissertation research at the Library of Congress, seeing references to him in letters, and getting the Raffi earworm *hard* ("A peanut butter sandwich made with jam / One for me and one for David Amram"). It might even have been where I learned that he was a real person??
Really nice profile of horn player/composer David Amram. His Blues and Variations for Monk is a standard in my studio because it’s a good intro to jazz style for horn players, alongside extended techniques. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/a...
At 95, David Amram Still Makes Music. And Nobody Can Put Him in a Box.
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:11 PM
I have this memory of doing dissertation research at the Library of Congress, seeing references to him in letters, and getting the Raffi earworm *hard* ("A peanut butter sandwich made with jam / One for me and one for David Amram"). It might even have been where I learned that he was a real person??
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
November 24, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
About to email the promo team at @princetonupress.bsky.social and see if we can get “Painful but effective” added to the Praise tab on The Book Proposal Book homepage 😍
I don’t do hyperbolic blurbs, but I do credit The Book Proposal Book with having gotten me a book contract and 2 fellowships. It forced me to figure out what I was trying to do. Painful but effective.
The Book Proposal Book ebook is 30% off right now at @princetonupress.bsky.social and so is Make Your Manuscript Work!
Use code PUP30 at checkout
Tell your friends & nemeses!
press.princeton.edu/our-authors/...
Use code PUP30 at checkout
Tell your friends & nemeses!
press.princeton.edu/our-authors/...
November 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
About to email the promo team at @princetonupress.bsky.social and see if we can get “Painful but effective” added to the Praise tab on The Book Proposal Book homepage 😍
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
November 24, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
Turns out everyone on Twitter were from like a few countries outside the US.
Meanwhile, most of BlueSky is from the greatest country in the world: Philadelphia
Meanwhile, most of BlueSky is from the greatest country in the world: Philadelphia
November 23, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Turns out everyone on Twitter were from like a few countries outside the US.
Meanwhile, most of BlueSky is from the greatest country in the world: Philadelphia
Meanwhile, most of BlueSky is from the greatest country in the world: Philadelphia
I'm having a little AMS-L flashback
(the American Musicological Society listserv got on a "listing train songs" kick once and there were so many emails)
(the American Musicological Society listserv got on a "listing train songs" kick once and there were so many emails)
November 23, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I'm having a little AMS-L flashback
(the American Musicological Society listserv got on a "listing train songs" kick once and there were so many emails)
(the American Musicological Society listserv got on a "listing train songs" kick once and there were so many emails)
majored in music composition because no one told me not to --> nerded out over my senior thesis so much that I switched to musicology for grad school --> no success on the academic job market (because there aren't enough jobs) --> became a freelance editor and got very attached to self-employment
November 22, 2025 at 9:21 PM
majored in music composition because no one told me not to --> nerded out over my senior thesis so much that I switched to musicology for grad school --> no success on the academic job market (because there aren't enough jobs) --> became a freelance editor and got very attached to self-employment
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
good morning, logging on to catch up on what i missed on a serene autumn saturday morning
November 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM
good morning, logging on to catch up on what i missed on a serene autumn saturday morning
my East-coast-morning-person morning routine goes like "wake up at 6:15, doomscroll, start work at 7," which is often a mistake and *definitely* a mistake today
East coast morning people with no idea what horrors await them
November 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
my East-coast-morning-person morning routine goes like "wake up at 6:15, doomscroll, start work at 7," which is often a mistake and *definitely* a mistake today
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
Excited for it just to mean Magic the Gathering again. A return to basics
November 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Excited for it just to mean Magic the Gathering again. A return to basics
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
sent the typo "midwets" and I think that's my new name for the Great Lakes tbh
November 22, 2025 at 1:26 AM
sent the typo "midwets" and I think that's my new name for the Great Lakes tbh
I went to see my forever fave Vienna Teng tonight and I see I missed some more stuff.
November 22, 2025 at 4:25 AM
I went to see my forever fave Vienna Teng tonight and I see I missed some more stuff.
FYI, pals in the EFA, if you haven't gotten the rate survey email, check your spam folder - I wouldn't have gone looking for it if I hadn't seen this post!
Help us keep the EFA Rate Chart updated by taking the 2025 Rate Survey! Members should have received a unique survey link via email on Nov. 17. We also invite editorial freelancers outside the EFA to take the public survey: https://twp.ai/4it3B8
November 21, 2025 at 7:48 PM
FYI, pals in the EFA, if you haven't gotten the rate survey email, check your spam folder - I wouldn't have gone looking for it if I hadn't seen this post!
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
"Autism Speaks figured it out? This is embarrassing."
November 21, 2025 at 3:12 PM
"Autism Speaks figured it out? This is embarrassing."
Reposted by Erin K. Maher
We are back. Our provider found and repaired a fiber issue last night and traffic has returned. We are sorry for the disruption.
The Wayback Machine, openlibrary.org, and some other archive.org functions are offline because some network gear has failed.
We apologize and are working on it. More as it happens.
We apologize and are working on it. More as it happens.
November 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We are back. Our provider found and repaired a fiber issue last night and traffic has returned. We are sorry for the disruption.