Alison
@portamali.bsky.social
she/her
Into board games, books, and programming. Fan of, but unknowledgeable about, birds, space (⚳gang), and game design. Wife of a wonderful but blessedly offline wife.
Into board games, books, and programming. Fan of, but unknowledgeable about, birds, space (⚳gang), and game design. Wife of a wonderful but blessedly offline wife.
Based on their accounts, people from both "sides" of the larger fight (and Chiitan??) have liked this post, likely since they expect entirely different answers from Northsky. That just makes me more confident that Northsky should get into specifics sooner rather than later.
Generalities are nice, but moderation is a matter of specific cases. The TOS is defined by how it is actually enforced, not its raw words. So @transrights.northsky.social, if these two people feuding in your comments now were both Northsky users, what actions, if any, would the moderators take?
December 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Based on their accounts, people from both "sides" of the larger fight (and Chiitan??) have liked this post, likely since they expect entirely different answers from Northsky. That just makes me more confident that Northsky should get into specifics sooner rather than later.
Generalities are nice, but moderation is a matter of specific cases. The TOS is defined by how it is actually enforced, not its raw words. So @transrights.northsky.social, if these two people feuding in your comments now were both Northsky users, what actions, if any, would the moderators take?
December 11, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Generalities are nice, but moderation is a matter of specific cases. The TOS is defined by how it is actually enforced, not its raw words. So @transrights.northsky.social, if these two people feuding in your comments now were both Northsky users, what actions, if any, would the moderators take?
Reposted by Alison
Like sometimes you definitely need to push back against someone but a lot of the time I think we can safely ignore people
December 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Like sometimes you definitely need to push back against someone but a lot of the time I think we can safely ignore people
Reposted by Alison
if you ain't got orbs of forbidden knowledge to ponder, you gotta grow your own
December 10, 2025 at 10:38 AM
if you ain't got orbs of forbidden knowledge to ponder, you gotta grow your own
Reposted by Alison
for the stretch of my adult life where i wasn't going to the library, i just assumed nobody went to the library anymore.
now that i'm going to the library again, i have great news: everyone is at the library!
all thanks to me 😇
now that i'm going to the library again, i have great news: everyone is at the library!
all thanks to me 😇
December 9, 2025 at 11:46 PM
for the stretch of my adult life where i wasn't going to the library, i just assumed nobody went to the library anymore.
now that i'm going to the library again, i have great news: everyone is at the library!
all thanks to me 😇
now that i'm going to the library again, i have great news: everyone is at the library!
all thanks to me 😇
#JustFinishedABook (book*s* this time) Ancillary Sword+Mercy by Ann Leckie. My favorite part of these books is Breq seemingly being somewhat surprised and annoyed every time someone is racist or selfish, with her logic effectively being the Club Penguin "thats illegal people cant do that" meme.
December 9, 2025 at 3:51 AM
#JustFinishedABook (book*s* this time) Ancillary Sword+Mercy by Ann Leckie. My favorite part of these books is Breq seemingly being somewhat surprised and annoyed every time someone is racist or selfish, with her logic effectively being the Club Penguin "thats illegal people cant do that" meme.
Reposted by Alison
i've had so many people tell me this tweet got them to transition
Which is why you need to try both out. For the greater pursuit of knowledge, of course.
December 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
i've had so many people tell me this tweet got them to transition
Reposted by Alison
it's a mistake to compare the cost of your newsletter or podcast to a cup of coffee. that cup of coffee is the best treat i'm allowed to have every single day. no podcast is comparable to the beverage that justifies staying alive. instead market your newsletter as two thirds of a sweetgreen salad
December 8, 2025 at 2:37 PM
it's a mistake to compare the cost of your newsletter or podcast to a cup of coffee. that cup of coffee is the best treat i'm allowed to have every single day. no podcast is comparable to the beverage that justifies staying alive. instead market your newsletter as two thirds of a sweetgreen salad
Reposted by Alison
As a software producer with programming experience and nearly a decade in project management, I'd *love* to be shocked that the final solution here is "call an LLM to resolve every text field to an enum," but I've known too many developers who broke core systems to "fix" trivial personal annoyances.
To me, nowadays at least, the presence of a dropdown list instead of freeform input is almost always a sure sign of programmer laziness or incompetence. The worst offender is a dropdown that lists all years between 1800 and 2025 as potential birthdays.
1/7
1/7
December 7, 2025 at 5:13 PM
As a software producer with programming experience and nearly a decade in project management, I'd *love* to be shocked that the final solution here is "call an LLM to resolve every text field to an enum," but I've known too many developers who broke core systems to "fix" trivial personal annoyances.
Reposted by Alison
Future Anthropologists:
The mating rituals of the 2000s were complicated and superstitious. For example, burning CDs.
People would take their favorite music and burn it as a sacrifice to the music gods, hoping they’d bring good fortune in dating.
The mating rituals of the 2000s were complicated and superstitious. For example, burning CDs.
People would take their favorite music and burn it as a sacrifice to the music gods, hoping they’d bring good fortune in dating.
December 7, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Future Anthropologists:
The mating rituals of the 2000s were complicated and superstitious. For example, burning CDs.
People would take their favorite music and burn it as a sacrifice to the music gods, hoping they’d bring good fortune in dating.
The mating rituals of the 2000s were complicated and superstitious. For example, burning CDs.
People would take their favorite music and burn it as a sacrifice to the music gods, hoping they’d bring good fortune in dating.
Apparently the reason my bank kept sending me cards with the wrong name is that they updated my legal name when i asked them to, but not my "preferred" one.
December 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Apparently the reason my bank kept sending me cards with the wrong name is that they updated my legal name when i asked them to, but not my "preferred" one.
Reposted by Alison
Biological woman? What if alchemical woman?
December 6, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Biological woman? What if alchemical woman?
Reposted by Alison
So a lot of people are saying Google's space-datacenters idea is stupid, but have you considered that every time something like this gets proposed, I see an uptick in sales of my book on space?
December 4, 2025 at 12:46 PM
So a lot of people are saying Google's space-datacenters idea is stupid, but have you considered that every time something like this gets proposed, I see an uptick in sales of my book on space?
Reposted by Alison
Reactionaries and authoritarians are all more threatened by immigration than anything else. They are putting up walls and creating apartheids between citizens and subjects. They are destroying their own economies by making capital less mobile in a desperate play to make labor less mobile.
December 2, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Reactionaries and authoritarians are all more threatened by immigration than anything else. They are putting up walls and creating apartheids between citizens and subjects. They are destroying their own economies by making capital less mobile in a desperate play to make labor less mobile.
#JustFinishedABook Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie. Recommend by @klara5.myatproto.social after I liked The Raven Tower, and it looks like my local library has a Leckie fan affecting buys, since almost all of her books are on the shelf, so easy to grab this one.
December 1, 2025 at 11:01 PM
#JustFinishedABook Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie. Recommend by @klara5.myatproto.social after I liked The Raven Tower, and it looks like my local library has a Leckie fan affecting buys, since almost all of her books are on the shelf, so easy to grab this one.
Reposted by Alison
Oh my GOD I just beat Outer Wilds and holy shit.
What an ending.
One of the best games I've ever played. One of those times a game rises above being just a game and becomes a story worth remembering.
What an ending.
One of the best games I've ever played. One of those times a game rises above being just a game and becomes a story worth remembering.
November 30, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Oh my GOD I just beat Outer Wilds and holy shit.
What an ending.
One of the best games I've ever played. One of those times a game rises above being just a game and becomes a story worth remembering.
What an ending.
One of the best games I've ever played. One of those times a game rises above being just a game and becomes a story worth remembering.
Reposted by Alison
My nephew: Are you a girl or a boy?
Me: a boy, I used to look more like a girl but then I turned into a boy
Nephew: How???
Me: I went to the doctor and they gave me some medicine
Nephew: …
Nephew, bragging now: I’M a boy and I didn’t even HAVE to go to the doctor
Me: a boy, I used to look more like a girl but then I turned into a boy
Nephew: How???
Me: I went to the doctor and they gave me some medicine
Nephew: …
Nephew, bragging now: I’M a boy and I didn’t even HAVE to go to the doctor
November 27, 2025 at 3:41 PM
My nephew: Are you a girl or a boy?
Me: a boy, I used to look more like a girl but then I turned into a boy
Nephew: How???
Me: I went to the doctor and they gave me some medicine
Nephew: …
Nephew, bragging now: I’M a boy and I didn’t even HAVE to go to the doctor
Me: a boy, I used to look more like a girl but then I turned into a boy
Nephew: How???
Me: I went to the doctor and they gave me some medicine
Nephew: …
Nephew, bragging now: I’M a boy and I didn’t even HAVE to go to the doctor
Type in my google search, pause, then move the cursor back to put "in agricola" in front of "can you cook newborns?"
November 27, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Type in my google search, pause, then move the cursor back to put "in agricola" in front of "can you cook newborns?"
Reposted by Alison
Growing out your hair is a roguelike
November 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Growing out your hair is a roguelike
Reposted by Alison
jrr tolkein a) inventing modern fantasy elves and b) doing problematic age gap immediately is so fucking good. also, aragorn / eowen is *also* a problematic age gap but aragorn turns her down in rotk... wonder if he's like "is that how arwyn sees me?"
November 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
jrr tolkein a) inventing modern fantasy elves and b) doing problematic age gap immediately is so fucking good. also, aragorn / eowen is *also* a problematic age gap but aragorn turns her down in rotk... wonder if he's like "is that how arwyn sees me?"
Reposted by Alison
You forget sometimes that at the top of the page it says "A webcomic of romance"
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
You forget sometimes that at the top of the page it says "A webcomic of romance"
Reposted by Alison
the best post-ot star wars media is star trek (2009) send tweet
July 11, 2024 at 4:39 PM
the best post-ot star wars media is star trek (2009) send tweet
Very funny my library has a "Human-alien encounters" tag encompassing Urusei Yatsura and Rendezvous with Rama, along with a few dozen books whose covers make it very clear that the alien is hot, and he fucks.
November 24, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Very funny my library has a "Human-alien encounters" tag encompassing Urusei Yatsura and Rendezvous with Rama, along with a few dozen books whose covers make it very clear that the alien is hot, and he fucks.
Hey, that's the name of the comic! (almost) @dresdencodak.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Hey, that's the name of the comic! (almost) @dresdencodak.com