by Richard S. Crawford, publisher and editor-in-chief
Welcome!
Readers, writers, and friends of Daikaijuzine, welcome to Destroyah, Release 17! In this issue we have plenty of quality science fiction, fantasy, and poetry, by some very talented creators. Please do take a look around, read it all, and if you enjoy it, let us know!
Up First: Of the Naming
We seem to be running out of Kaiju names for this 'zine. As it goes on through various releases, I am searching high and low for ever more obscure creatures I can name each release after. I'm thinking that after the next one, I might start naming issues after dinosaurs. We shall see what happens.
Up Second: Of AI and Daikaijuzine
I wanted to take a moment to mention that Daikaijuzine has a very strong position against the use of generative AI, or Large Language Models, in creating fiction. It's in our submission guidelines. It's in our contract with writers: if we find publish a piece and then find that it was generated in whole or in part by a generative AI tool such as ChatGPT or SudoWrite, the contract will be voided, the piece removed from publication, and the author blacklisted from further submissions. That may seem harsh, but it appears to be industry standard; we lifted the policy whole from Clarkesworld and other top publications.
We also take a strong stance against the scraping of websites by LLMs for content; in this case, we've done everything in our power, with the aid of certain symbolic magics (and Apache commands on the web server) to make sure we block as many AI content scrapers as possible.
Daikaijuzine is and always will be for humans, by humans.
Finally...
We know things are rough all over these days. Daikaijuzine is a labor of love, and we run the servers and pay the creators out of our own pockets. So any financial or moral support you, the reader, can offer will be more than appreciated.
And now... ENJOY!