IDG | Polygamer

Serenity Caldwell is the managing editor at iMore, a features and reviews site for all things Apple. As part of her mission to help Apple users get the most from their iPhones, Serenity has penned a definitive series of articles for playing Pokémon GO, the mobile game that launched on June 6 and has since amassed more users than Twitter and higher engagement than Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Tinder.

In this episode of Polygamer, Serenity and I theorize why Pokémon GO is so popular, especially compared to developer Niantic’s previous game, Ingress, and how covering the game aligns with iMore’s mission and Serenity’s beat. We also discuss the changing face of online journalism, as seen through our respective careers at sister publications Macworld and Computerworld; how all of Serenity’s jobs have come from Twitter, and how to get oneself noticed on that social network; effective strategies for both introverts and extroverts to be full-time telecommuters; stepping into the college classroom as a first-time educator; and roller derby, where Serenity is known as

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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For six years, I worked as an editor at Computerworld.com. Since 2013, I’ve been a freelance writer for the website, which published my anti-doxxing feature this past November. As a follow-up to that piece, editor Rebecca Linke dusted off my old blog, Techbits, and allowed me to offer the following editorial commentary on this week’s Polygamer interview with Zoe Quinn and Alex Lifschitz.

The Internet is becoming a more dangerous place, with trolls and pranksters able to escalate online grievances into real-world threats. Doxxing — the unauthorized publication of someone’s personal contact information or financial records — and swatting — anonymously reporting a fake threat in order to get a SWAT team sent to someone’s home — are two of the more alarming methods being used.

But the tide may be turning, as more intended victims start to fight back. The latest is Zoe Quinn, the original target of GamerGate, the disorganized movement ostensibly about ethics in games journalism but more commonly associated with misogyny and harassment. Quinn has been continuously harassed and threatened since last August. She has not been home in nearly six months, saying, “it’s no longer safe to be [there] while we try and figure out how to move on from this meteor hitting us and be people again.”

Enough is enough.

Continue reading at Computerworld.com »

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