We’re nine days into 2025, and it’s already full of exhausting levels of controversy before we’ve even had a turnover in power in my home country of the United States. We’ve seen resignations of world leaders, wars continuing and getting worse and worse (you know where), the owner of Twitter continuing his tirade of lunacy and demonstrating why the billionaire class is not to be revered, California ablaze with a horrendous and large wildfire, right wing thinktanks developing plans to out and attack Wikipedia editors as any fascist-friendly organization would do, Meta rolling out and rolling back GenAI profiles on its platforms, and, just yesterday, the same Meta announcing sweeping changes to its moderation policies that, in a charitable reading, encourage hate-based harassment and abuse of vulnerable populations, promotion and support for disinformation, and other problems, all of which are so profound that people are talking about a mass exodus from the platform to…somewhere. It’s that last thing that brings me back to the blog today. Since the takeover at Twitter, social networks have been in a state of chaos. Platforms have risen and fallen — or only risen so much — and nothing I would call stability has formed. Years ago, I (and many others far more popular than me) remarked that we’ve ceded the territory of self-owned or small-scale third party spaces for massive third party platforms where we have minimal to no control or say and which can be stripped away in a tech-scale heartbeat. By putting all our ducks into a bin of unstable chaos, we’re also expending our time and energy on something that won’t last, requiring us to expend more time and energy finding alternatives, rebuilding communities, and then repeating the process again. In the present environment, that’s impossible to ignore.1 This is all rather reductive, but this post is not the place to talk about all the ways that social networks have impacted control over our own spaces and narratives. Another time, perhaps. I similarly don’t have space to talk about the fact that some of the platforms we currently have, however functional they may be, have placed many of us in a moral quagmire, as in the case of Meta’s recent moderation changes. Another time… ↩
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14 Responses
I just sometimes show up when you post a link on twitter. 🙂
Well, that's a good enough reason for me. Welcome and thanks for stopping by!
Ive commented a few times, I like the writing prompts…and really most of what I've read so far. I either found you on twitter, or was passed your link…
Either reason is good for me. Glad you've started reading and hopefully I'll keep you entertained for a long time to come!
Joel, Brisbane Australia. Found your blog when Stumble upon served up your cliche post.
Maybe you could do more anylsis of common tropes in fantasy. Like why is feudalism so popular.
My theory is deep in everyone's heart we want to be a prince/ess.
Oh and G'day.
Scott Parker, Houston, TX.
Can't recall how I found your site but I've been enjoying it quite a bit since I launched my second blog, SF Safari. A crime writer/reader, I'm getting back into my childhood genre of choice, science fiction and fantasy, and blogging at it at http://sf-safari.blogspot.com.
gijoel: Welcome to the site from the land down under! I'll take your suggestions into consideration. Hope you stick around for a while. It's nice having people from outside of the U.S. around here.
Scott: Awesome. Thanks for the link and hopefully your summer hasn't been too hot. I'll be passing through there in about three weeks on my way to Florida :S.
Hi, in the UK subscribed i think through the genre fic blog meme a while back. I read my reader everyday but clearly not able to visit each site to comment on each of 200 odd posts a day. We have spoken before. 🙂
Not really sure where I found your site. I also read through a reader and am not able to comment on all the Blogs I read. I am however, also a Slug and enjoy reading a blog from someone local.
drey, WI. I don't remember when I started following, or where I found you… =) Needless to say, I read a lot & write not-so-much. I blog at drey's library…
Hagelrat: Yup, you've been around for a bit, and you certainly don't have to comment all the time. Once in a while is fine by me :). Thanks for reading!
~Em: Unfortunately I won't be in SC much longer. I'm going to graduate school in Florida. But I'll always be a Slug! Two years of UCSC brings some find memories!
drey: Ah, well, at least you're reading. I suspect you found me through a book giveaway you did some time back. Thanks for reading nonetheless!
You don't bite? Explain that to the chunk missing from my hand.
–Croc
I bite you only because you deserve it, Croc.
Touche.