Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

@magicariot.com

11K followers 930 following 9.4K posts

Author of trans magical girl novel “Magica Riot,” upcoming sequel "Magica Riot: Full Bloom,” and the Maidensong Magica universe. 43 year old trans lesbian from PDX. Lover of magical girls, sci-fi, anime, and games. SFWA member. She/her. magicariot.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · Jul 1

New trans girl Claire just found out the members of her fav Portland band are magical girls - and she's one, too! Now she’s out of the closet as the newest member of Magica Riot!

Check out the book Strange Horizons called "brilliant trans joy," in print, ebook, and audio. magicariot.com/magicariot

Artwork of the cover art of "Magica Riot," featuring protagonist Claire in her purple magical girl costuming posing in front of the St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Oregon. Across the top, artwork of her and the other four main characters in a park is placed. Around the book art are placed several blocks of text: "trans protagonist," "entirely queer cast," "found family energy," "thrilling action," "music-based magic," "goopy monsters," "useless lesbians," "modern-day Portland." A quote from Strange Horizons Magazine calling the book "Brilliant trans joy" comes next. Finally, text at the bottom reads: "Recommended if you like Sailor Moon, Symphogear, Pretty Cure, Power Rangers"

19 240 630

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 28m

this is exactly the kind of thing you love to see from a guy with a PhD in Italian Renaissance art who was also Robocop who was also Buckaroo Banzai

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Ben Bleything @bleything.net · 3h

I’ve been reading the protocol docs and there’s a lot of stuff in there that just feels kinda weird until you consider that the authors’ main reference for distributed systems is crypto

your #3 source for absurdist true crime 🔨 @davidgerard.co.uk · 6h

someone needs to do a thorough writeup of every clear tell of atproto as a blockchain project that pivoted, because their 2025 reflex is to deny it as hard as possible even though they're all coiners and so much of it reeks of blockchain

3 18 37

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 36m

important character going to make their visual media debut on the new book art

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 42m

The most important political thread of our time.

Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · Sep 8

working on a new unified theory of american reality i'm calling "everyone is twelve now"

22 110 1.1K

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Autumn Wolff | Lesbian Romance Author @autumnwolff.bsky.social · 1h

Just a little over three weeks until I make the move to Montréal, and I'm still raising funds to cover expenses and my future tuition.

Any help would be appreciated.

GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-autum...

Book bundle: itch.io/s/159177/the...

31 42

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1h

You made it halfway through the week *and* we still have free shipping? Sounds like the perfect time to treat yourself to a new book and support indie bookstores in the process. 📚

47 130

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 1h

Like, you have to be using zero community moderation tools, for their account to even be visible to you.

Like, did *you* know that Heritage Foundation was here? Probably not, if you use pretty much any community moderation tools.

8 100

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 1h

Note: if you use basically *any* community modlist, you won't even see their account. Very British Bigotry, Asuka, etc already block em for you.

You have to purposely expose yourself to all the worst fucking people around, for you to *even be able to see it*

1 13 110

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

I just did it last night, in part thanks to the helpful stuff you’ve made. Went totally smoothly. Thank you for all you’ve done!

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

Love it when AI-using hashtag resist weirdos get in my mentions being all “erm, following right-wing accounts doesn’t make you a right-winger”

Kara Buchanan @magicariot.com • 55s
→ Replied to Stop Peter Thiel
• she/her
Joined Jun '24
@ Musician
& Writer
* Changed Handle
de Wizard
Following multiple right-wing accounts while your
CEO engages in cutesy waffles memeing directly inspiring Jesse Singal is a bad sign.
Please don't lecture a trans woman about this stuff.
Thanks.
Kara Buchanan
@magicariot.com • 9s
• she/her
Joined Jun '24
Musician
& Writer
* Changed Handle
Wizard
Also your pinned post is an Al image, so I think we're done here. Goodbye, and enjoy the block.
个

1 15

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

Also your pinned post is an AI image, so I think we’re done here. Goodbye, and enjoy the block.

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

Following multiple right-wing accounts while your CEO engages in cutesy waffles memeing directly inspiring Jesse Singal is a bad sign.

Please don’t lecture a trans woman about this stuff. Thanks.

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 1h

The COO of bluesky, Rose, is following the heritage foundation account on bluesky.

Soyweiser @soyweiser.bsky.social · 2h

She is the COO en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_o... of bsky. This is worrying because after the 'we are turning waffles into an anti-trans thing' by the CEO the CEO started to follow a transphobe. Shows a pattern.

Wonder when we find out one of them follows the discovery institute.

5 130 320

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

Yeah that’s definitely not correct. I think they do plan to have a private community addon for Black users eventually but that won’t affect the general use of things.

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 1h

You can still use the Bluesky web site and mobile apps (just have to pick a custom server option at login) but you can also use blacksky.community. They don’t have their own mobile apps yet but it’s on the roadmap.

Eventually by using their site/apps you’d be able to have unique features and such

Blacksky

Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.

blacksky.community

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 9h

Rudy, I just wanted to say, with everything that's been going on I made the decision to move over to Blacksky and become a contributor. I'm really impressed with the clear and professional way you're handling everything. Keep up the great work!

1 4

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 9h

For what's been going down with the Bluesky staff, this blog post kinda gets into it: azhdarchid.com/jay-graber-c...

Jay Graber Confuses the Gas and Brake Pedals

As your new Head of Comms I advise you to please stop posting this shit.

azhdarchid.com

1 15

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 9h

So some folks are using migration tools to move over to Blacksky (ATproto migrations keep followers & posts). As Blacksky becomes more independent from Bluesky's systems, that means moderation decisions by Bluesky will have less and less ability to affect users on other services like Blacksky.

1 10

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 9h

Since Bluesky is theoretically just one way to access their ATproto federated system, the opportunity for non-Bluesky services gained a lot more attention. Right now the big one is Blacksky, by and for the Black community but now with a couple of options for non-Black users to join, too.

1 5

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 9h

so a *very* high-level summary: in the last several days, a lot of folks have been pointing out recent unprofessional behavior and questionable moderation decisions by the Bluesky CEO/devs/other staff. (Combined with some long-running issues.)

This has included some high-profile suspensions & bans.

1 6

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 10h

I went with myatproto.social (migrated using tektite.cc) and then re-linked my custom domain. Was really impressed with how smoothly it all worked.

3 4

Reposted by Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️

James GHOULizio @theswweet.blackskycomra.de · 17h

It sure would be great if literally any of the BlueSky staff would be approaching a fraction of this level of professionalism. Shout out to Rudy and everyone on the BlackSky team.

Rudy wants revolution. @rude1.blacksky.team · 17h

I hear and see your concerns. Over the weekend, a couple users hosted on Blacksky's PDS were banned from the Bluesky app and thus the Bluesky API servers. This was a weakness of our system I've been aware of and hoped we had more time to address before any kind of public incident. 1/11

3 81 490

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 10h

I just did it, and it went really smoothly!

1 1

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 10h

Yeah as far as I understand it there should be no difference at all to my followers

Kara Buchanan 🏳️‍⚧️ @magicariot.com · 10h

You can basically migrate to different PDSes as much as you want, as far as I know.

I am not an expert on how all this works but I basically followed leaflet.pub/70839372-f2b... and docs.blacksky.community/migrating-to...

How to Migrate to Blacksky

Given how Bluesky has been handling moderation recently (and not so recently...) I've seen many folks looking for alternatives to Bluesky. This How-To will be geared to the folks specifically in my co...

leaflet.pub

1 4