Katherine Alejandra Cross

In other news, I'm also doing game reviews for Australia's Only Good Newspaper, The Saturday Paper.

This week, I take a look at I Was a Teenage Excolonist, which might just be the best visual novel I've ever played--with all the loveliest refinements of that genre, but the scope of something far larger and grander, to tell a sci-fi story that's somewhere between a LeGuin philosophical novel and Edge of Tomorrow.

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/games/2023/12/02/i-was-teenage-exocolonist#mtr

Hello, fellow Mastholes! It's my latest Wired piece, fresh forged between the hammers of controversy and praise.

Herein I critique both Reddit and Bluesky for undermining good moderation practise. Reddit corporate forced a minor correction on something that wasn't worth fighting over--but it is clear that their vision of volunteer moderation is, for now, diverging sharply from that of the moderators who have built the site.

Bluesky, meanwhile, well... read on.

https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-bluesky-moderation/

Hello, Wandering Shoppers! Preorders are live for my forthcoming book, "Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix," my critical look at why a lot of online activism tends to fail, and how most social media tends to cause us to dissolve into drama-mongering--which we, in turn, pretend is activism.

Is this all the praxis that posting was supposed to be? No, and the failures of the last decade make that clear. But, hope remains in logging off more often!

https://www.littlepuss.net/logoff

Got an article about content moderation failures on Reddit and Bluesky coming out tomorrow.

By the way, if you're *on* Bluesky and want to find me, I'm @quinnaemoon.bsky.social

I'm trying to participate in the life of all sites I'm on, but I'm finding that I have less time/inclination? And that feels like a good thing.

Also, my fellow Mastodonians, my good friend (who, mysteriously, has never been seen in the same room as me) Serena Thorne, has put forth a sci-fi erotica series called Cosmic Odyssey that's a loving send up of Star Trek with a sexy twist. I would... I mean, *she* would appreciate a look-in at her Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/CosmicOdyssey

Whew, it's been a minute! A hell of a busy quarter at UW, and more than a little futzing around with Bluesky.

But also... I've been writing [SECRET PROJECT] and also writing a massive sci-fi project. The latter truly makes me feel like I, at last, truly belong on Wandering Shop!

Sorry I've not been around much; I've been absorbed in writing, BG3, more writing, and a dash of Star Trek Online.

My latest on Wired is up!

This one is a little riskier in terms of its premise, but I'd been planning this one for a while. Analogising all the Twitter clone sites to the many, often failed attempts to clone World of Warcraft.

I ask how these situations are alike, how they're different, and what we can learn.

The gist is that rather than getting a true Twitter *replacement*, the age of microblogging may be well and truly over.

https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-threads-platforms-games/

Are you ready for the phrase "serving cunt" to become totally meaningless as it's pile-driven into the ground?

Because it's about to join the ranks of words like "triggered," "gaslight," and about 36% of AAVE in having its meaning utterly appropriated and destroyed by runaway meme culture.

I see Bluesky has entered its "Welcome to Hell, motherfuckers! *cackles wildly*" stage.

The 'ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' theory of social media remains undefeated.

I think I've truly arrived as a Wandering Shopper now that I've got some actual spec fic to share (and to hawk, as well).

@attacus@aus.social Oh hey! Thank you so much. <3 Yes, I'm reviewing games for TSP now.

Really enjoying it so far! It's my favourite newspaper in the country and I'm so chuffed to be able to write for them.

@stavvers@masto.ai (I'm something else)

@alis@orphaned.monster There is! You just have to preorder from regional retailers. We're working on Australian/NZ distribution, but Aussies have successfully preordered from British retailers like Blackwell's.