{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://xoxo.zone/@artlung/113346478121804248",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>There will be an <a href=\"https://xoxo.zone/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> Camp in <a href=\"https://xoxo.zone/tags/SanDiego\">#<span>SanDiego</span></a> in December 2024. We would love to have you join or spread the word to folks with their own personal websites looking to do more with them! <a href=\"https://events.indieweb.org/2024/12/indiewebcamp-san-diego-2024-7C9aq9A4Zv9m\"><span>https://</span><span>events.indieweb.org/2024/12/in</span><span>diewebcamp-san-diego-2024-7C9aq9A4Zv9m</span></a> <a href=\"https://xoxo.zone/tags/SmallWeb\">#<span>SmallWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://xoxo.zone/tags/SlowWeb\">#<span>SlowWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "There will be an #IndieWeb Camp in #SanDiego in December 2024. We would love to have you join or spread the word to folks with their own personal websites looking to do more with them! https://events.indieweb.org/2024/12/indiewebcamp-san-diego-2024-7C9aq9A4Zv9m #SmallWeb #SlowWeb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T17:00:00+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42631553",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@countablenewt/113346028178318353",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>You can't have an open web that is both entirely free and has no ads, that's not how this works<br /><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/technology\">#<span>technology</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/socialmedia\">#<span>socialmedia</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/fediverse\">#<span>fediverse</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/openweb\">#<span>openweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "You can't have an open web that is both entirely free and has no ads, that's not how this works\n#indieweb #technology #socialmedia #fediverse #openweb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T15:05:35+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42630524",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://allthingstech.social/@countablenewt/113346000236307453",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>You can't have an open web that is both entirely free and has no ads, that's not how this works<br /><a href=\"https://allthingstech.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://allthingstech.social/tags/technology\">#<span>technology</span></a> <a href=\"https://allthingstech.social/tags/socialmedia\">#<span>socialmedia</span></a> <a href=\"https://allthingstech.social/tags/fediverse\">#<span>fediverse</span></a> <a href=\"https://allthingstech.social/tags/openweb\">#<span>openweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "You can't have an open web that is both entirely free and has no ads, that's not how this works\n#indieweb #technology #socialmedia #fediverse #openweb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T14:58:28+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42630155",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

Online Safety and the “Great Decentralization” – The Perils and Promises of Federated Social Media

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2024-10-21T13:19:28+00:00",
    "url": "https://werd.io/2024/online-safety-and-the-great-decentralization-the-perils-and-promises",
    "category": [
        "Fediverse"
    ],
    "bookmark-of": [
        "https://www.techpolicy.press/online-safety-and-the-great-decentralization-the-perils-and-promises-of-federated-social-media/"
    ],
    "name": "Online Safety and the \u201cGreat Decentralization\u201d \u2013 The Perils and Promises of Federated Social Media",
    "content": {
        "text": "[Samantha Lai and Yoel Roth at Tech Policy Press]\"Decentralized social media platforms offer the promise of alternative governance structures that empower consumers and rebuild social media on a foundation of trust. However, over two years after Elon Musk\u2019s acquisition of Twitter sparked an exodus of users seeking new homes on the social web, federated platforms remain ill-equipped to meet the threats of abuse, harassment, coordinated manipulation, and spam that have plagued social media for years. Given the porous nature of decentralized services, these limitations will not just affect individual servers, but reverberate through the social web.\"Most major decentralized and federated platforms don't have the necessary tooling \"for scalable management of harmful content and conduct \u2014 or even the enforcement of their own rules.\"\n\nFor some, of course, this is by design: the same version of \"free speech\" which animates Elon Musk and in effect prevents speech from anyone except for in-groups and the loud and powerful. To have truly free speech - where people from vulnerable communities can have a voice and real debate can be held without threat of violence - there must be trust and safety and moderation.\n\nThe piece rightly calls out IFTAS for the great work it's doing in this area. More must be done - which in part means convincing federated communities that these ideas are important. \n\nUnfortunately a common attitude is that \"we don't have these problems\" - a common refrain when your bias makes you blind to your lack of inclusion. As many Black users found when they joined Mastodon and were asked to hide the details of their lived experiences under content warnings, or when people told them that these were American-only experiences (which, of course, they aren't), a predominantly white and male Fediverse that seeks to maintain the status quo rather than learning and growing can be quite a conservative place.\n\nThis is an important piece, and an important finding, which everyone working on decentralized tech should pay attention to.\n#Fediverse\n[Link]",
        "html": "<p>[<a href=\"https://www.techpolicy.press/online-safety-and-the-great-decentralization-the-perils-and-promises-of-federated-social-media/\">Samantha Lai and Yoel Roth at Tech Policy Press</a>]</p><blockquote><p>\"Decentralized social media platforms offer the promise of alternative governance structures that empower consumers and rebuild social media on a foundation of trust. However, over two years after Elon Musk\u2019s acquisition of Twitter sparked an exodus of users seeking new homes on the social web, federated platforms remain ill-equipped to meet the threats of abuse, harassment, coordinated manipulation, and spam that have plagued social media for years. Given the porous nature of decentralized services, these limitations will not just affect individual servers, but reverberate through the social web.\"</p></blockquote><p>Most major decentralized and federated platforms don't have the necessary tooling \"for scalable management of harmful content and conduct \u2014 or even the enforcement of their own rules.\"</p><p>For some, of course, this is by design: the same version of \"free speech\" which animates Elon Musk and in effect prevents speech from anyone except for in-groups and the loud and powerful. To have truly free speech - where people from vulnerable communities can have a voice and real debate can be held without threat of violence - there must be trust and safety and moderation.</p><p>The piece rightly calls out <a href=\"https://about.iftas.org/\">IFTAS</a> for the great work it's doing in this area. More must be done - which in part means convincing federated communities that these ideas are important. </p><p>Unfortunately a common attitude is that \"we don't have these problems\" - a common refrain when your bias makes you blind to your lack of inclusion. As many Black users found when they joined Mastodon and were asked to hide the details of their lived experiences under content warnings, or when people told them that these were American-only experiences (which, of course, they aren't), a predominantly white and male Fediverse that seeks to maintain the status quo rather than learning and growing can be quite a conservative place.</p><p>This is an important piece, and an important finding, which everyone working on decentralized tech should pay attention to.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://werd.io/tag/Fediverse\" class=\"p-category\">#Fediverse</a></p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https://www.techpolicy.press/online-safety-and-the-great-decentralization-the-perils-and-promises-of-federated-social-media/\">Link</a>]</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Ben Werdmuller",
        "url": "https://werd.io/profile/benwerd",
        "photo": "https://werd.io/file/5d388c5fb16ea14aac640912/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "bookmark",
    "_id": "42629538",
    "_source": "191",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://ieji.de/@moksh/113345579583948976",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>added an emacs page to my site, because it is compulsory, an unbroken rule of the universe..</p><p><a href=\"https://moksh.codeberg.page/emacs.html\"><span>https://</span><span>moksh.codeberg.page/emacs.html</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://ieji.de/tags/emacs\">#<span>emacs</span></a> <a href=\"https://ieji.de/tags/untrusem\">#<span>untrusem</span></a> <a href=\"https://ieji.de/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://ieji.de/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "added an emacs page to my site, because it is compulsory, an unbroken rule of the universe..\n\nhttps://moksh.codeberg.page/emacs.html\n\n#emacs #untrusem #indieweb #smallweb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T13:11:30+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42629152",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@Themikina/113344095089374869",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p><span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://geekdom.social/@adastra\">@<span>adastra</span></a></span> While I only discovered <a href=\"https://mastodon.gamedev.place/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> literally today and didn't have time to properly explore that rabbit hole, if you're looking for CMS for a static website with FTP only, I have been having great success with <a href=\"https://gohugo.io/\"><span>https://</span><span>gohugo.io/</span><span></span></a> framework. Simple to use, can use .md files for content, and so far it worked well for everything I needed.</p><p>It might be required to rebuild the  site every time you add contenr, but I think Hugo does support deploy to FTP from the Hugo CLI.</p>\n<a class=\"u-mention\" href=\"https://geekdom.social/@adastra\"></a>",
        "text": "@adastra While I only discovered #indieweb literally today and didn't have time to properly explore that rabbit hole, if you're looking for CMS for a static website with FTP only, I have been having great success with https://gohugo.io/ framework. Simple to use, can use .md files for content, and so far it worked well for everything I needed.\n\nIt might be required to rebuild the  site every time you add contenr, but I think Hugo does support deploy to FTP from the Hugo CLI."
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T06:53:58+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42626263",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://toot.cat/@zkat/113343943207869288",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Reading through the <a href=\"https://toot.cat/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> wiki to learn stuff and get inspired and I was feeling pretty good about it for a minute there but every time they show examples of folks doing their thing, it\u2019s always dudes, and almost always white guys in particular. I keep looking for anyone else and they just don\u2019t seem to be there?</p><p>It really makes me think that this sort of thing just isn\u2019t for people like me. If it weren\u2019t for the fact that I already know multiple top-notch women propping this thing up (and they are, in fact, how I learned about it), I probably wouldn\u2019t touch this community with a ten foot pole.</p><p>Now imagine if I wasn\u2019t white, on top of that</p>",
        "text": "Reading through the #IndieWeb wiki to learn stuff and get inspired and I was feeling pretty good about it for a minute there but every time they show examples of folks doing their thing, it\u2019s always dudes, and almost always white guys in particular. I keep looking for anyone else and they just don\u2019t seem to be there?\n\nIt really makes me think that this sort of thing just isn\u2019t for people like me. If it weren\u2019t for the fact that I already know multiple top-notch women propping this thing up (and they are, in fact, how I learned about it), I probably wouldn\u2019t touch this community with a ten foot pole.\n\nNow imagine if I wasn\u2019t white, on top of that"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T06:15:20+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42625960",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://masto.ai/@nothingistrue/113343750126625791",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p><a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Cooking\">#<span>Cooking</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Reading\">#<span>Reading</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Zines\">#<span>Zines</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Empathy\">#<span>Empathy</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Curiosity\">#<span>Curiosity</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/SlowTravel\">#<span>SlowTravel</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Octopi\">#<span>Octopi</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Creativity\">#<span>Creativity</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Feminism\">#<span>Feminism</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/IndustrialMusic\">#<span>IndustrialMusic</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Punk\">#<span>Punk</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Art\">#<span>Art</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Occult\">#<span>Occult</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Humanism\">#<span>Humanism</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/AntiCapitalism\">#<span>AntiCapitalism</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/AntiFacism\">#<span>AntiFacism</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/FuckTrump\">#<span>FuckTrump</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/FuckNazis\">#<span>FuckNazis</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/FuckSpotify\">#<span>FuckSpotify</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/ClimateTech\">#<span>ClimateTech</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Design\">#<span>Design</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Film\">#<span>Film</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Movies\">#<span>Movies</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/IndieMusic\">#<span>IndieMusic</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Tacos\">#<span>Tacos</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/SonoranMexicanFood\">#<span>SonoranMexicanFood</span></a> <a href=\"https://masto.ai/tags/Magazines\">#<span>Magazines</span></a></p>",
        "text": "#Cooking #Reading #Zines #Empathy #Curiosity #SlowTravel #Octopi #Creativity #Feminism #IndustrialMusic #Punk #Art #Occult #Humanism #AntiCapitalism #AntiFacism #FuckTrump #FuckNazis #FuckSpotify #ClimateTech #Design #Film #Movies #IndieWeb #IndieMusic #Tacos #SonoranMexicanFood #Magazines"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T05:26:14+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42625746",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://social.rossabaker.com/@ross/113343626654569079",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Ich habe f\u00fcr den Indieweb Karneval auf Deutsch geschrieben.  Das Thema ist Mehrsprachigkeit im Web.  Ich hoffe es ins Spanische \u00fcbersetzen.</p><p><a href=\"https://rossabaker.com/blog/mehrsprachigkeit_im_globalen_web/\"><span>https://</span><span>rossabaker.com/blog/mehrsprach</span><span>igkeit_im_globalen_web/</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://social.rossabaker.com/tags/Indieweb\">#<span>Indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.rossabaker.com/tags/IndiewebCarnival\">#<span>IndiewebCarnival</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Ich habe f\u00fcr den Indieweb Karneval auf Deutsch geschrieben.  Das Thema ist Mehrsprachigkeit im Web.  Ich hoffe es ins Spanische \u00fcbersetzen.\n\nhttps://rossabaker.com/blog/mehrsprachigkeit_im_globalen_web/\n\n#Indieweb #IndiewebCarnival"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T04:54:50+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42625602",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://social.lol/@mihobu/113342941412102112",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>\ud83e\udd16 I posted to my photography weblog.</p><p><a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/POTD\">#<span>POTD</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.lol/tags/photography\">#<span>photography</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://than-no.photo/potd-2024-10-21\"><span>https://</span><span>than-no.photo/potd-2024-10-21</span><span></span></a></p>",
        "text": "\ud83e\udd16 I posted to my photography weblog.\n\n#POTD #IndieWeb #photography\n\nhttps://than-no.photo/potd-2024-10-21"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T02:00:34+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42624727",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://jawns.club/@travissouthard/113342897199835539",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I added a <a href=\"https://jawns.club/tags/webring\">#<span>webring</span></a> to my personal website! It's very much a list, but \"done is better than perfect\"</p><p><a href=\"https://travissouthard.com/blog/building-the-web-i-want-to-see.html\"><span>https://</span><span>travissouthard.com/blog/buildi</span><span>ng-the-web-i-want-to-see.html</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://jawns.club/tags/webdev\">#<span>webdev</span></a> <a href=\"https://jawns.club/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://jawns.club/tags/solarpunk\">#<span>solarpunk</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I added a #webring to my personal website! It's very much a list, but \"done is better than perfect\"\n\nhttps://travissouthard.com/blog/building-the-web-i-want-to-see.html\n\n#webdev #indieweb #solarpunk"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-21T01:49:20+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42624603",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

Helping to build the open social web

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2024-10-20T23:01:59+00:00",
    "url": "https://werd.io/2024/helping-to-build-the-open-social-web",
    "name": "Helping to build the open social web",
    "content": {
        "text": "As regular readers know, I care a lot about growing the open social web: the rapidly-growing decentralized network of interoperable social platforms that includes Mastodon, Threads, Ghost, Flipboard, and many other platforms, both emerging and established. This is for a few reasons, including but not limited to:\n\nSupport for strong communities\nSupport for niche interests and diversity: Smaller, independent communities can flourish without the pressure to appeal to mass audiences, leading to richer, more diverse conversations and interactions. But these aren\u2019t silos: any member from one community can easily follow someone from any other.\n\nCommunity-driven moderation: Instead of top-down moderation, communities set their own rules and guidelines, which can lead to healthier and more relevant interactions. Community health isn\u2019t subject to a single corporation\u2019s policies and motivations.\nBetter developer experience\nAn easier way to build social apps: Shared libraries, tools and protocols let developers get started faster. And developers no longer have to worry about their social products feeling empty: every new product can plug into communities of millions of people.\n\nDeveloper stability: Developers don\u2019t need to ask anyone for permission to build on open social web protocols. Nobody will suddenly turn off the open social web and charge developers to access it: just like the web itself, it\u2019s open and permissionless, forever. The result is a less risky playing field for new entrants.\nRespect for users\nDecentralized governance: Users have more control over their data, identity, and interactions, without reliance on a single corporation or platform.\n\nFreedom from corporate algorithms: No algorithm-driven feeds prioritize ads or engagement-maximizing content, allowing for more authentic and community-driven interaction (and significantly less election interference, for example).\n\nData ownership and portability: Users have greater control over their data and are not at the mercy of corporate interests. The open social web has the potential to connect every social platform, allowing anyone to be in conversation. And users can move from provider to provider at any time without losing their communities.\n\nReduced surveillance: Federated systems are often less focused on advertising and surveillance-based business models, reducing targeted ads and invasive data collection.\n\nA more ethical ecosystem: It\u2019s far easier for developers to build ethical apps that don\u2019t hold user data hostage.\nI\u2019d love to be more involved in helping it grow. Here are some ways I\u2019ve thought about doing that. As always, I\u2019d love to hear what you think.Acting as an advocate between publishers and vendors.Status: I\u2019m already doing this informally.\n\nOpen social web vendors like Mastodon seem to want to understand the needs of news publishers; there are already lots of advantages for news publishers who join the open social web. There\u2019s some need for a go-between to help both groups understand each other.\n\nPublishers need to prove that there\u2019s return on investment on getting involved in any social platform. Mastodon in particular has some analytics-hostile features, including preventing linked websites from knowing where traffic is coming from, and stripping the utm tags that audience teams use to analyze traffic. There\u2019s also no great analytics dashboard and little integration with professional social media tools.\n\nMeanwhile, the open social web already has a highly engaged, intelligent, action-oriented community of early adopters who care about the world around them and are willing to back news publishers they think are doing good work. I\u2019ve done work to prove this, and have found that publishers can easily get more meaningful engagement (subscriptions, donations) on the open social web than on all closed social networks combined. That\u2019s a huge advantage.\n\nBut both groups need to collaborate \u2014 and in the case of publishers, need to want to collaborate. There\u2019s certainly work to do here.Providing tertiary services.Status: I built ShareOpenly, but there\u2019s much more work to do.\n\nThere are a lot of ways a service provider could add value to the open social web.\n\nAutomattic, the commercial company behind WordPress, got its start by providing anti-spam services through a tool called Akismet. Automattic itself is unfortunately not a wonderful example to point to at this moment in time, but the model stands: take an open source product and make it more useful through add-ons.\n\nThere\u2019s absolutely the need for anti-spam and moderation services on the open social web (which are already provided by Independent Federated Trust And Safety, which is a group that deserves to be better-funded).\n\nMy tiny contribution so far is ShareOpenly, a site that provides \u201cshare to \u2026\u201d buttons for websites that are inclusive of Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms. A few sites, like my own blog and Tedium, include ShareOpenly links on posts, and it\u2019s been used to share to hundreds of Mastodon instances. (I don\u2019t track links shared at all, so don\u2019t have stats about that.) But, of course, it could be a lot bigger.\n\nI think there\u2019s potential in anti-spam services in particular: unlike trust and safety, they can largely be automated, and there\u2019s a proven model with Akismet.Rebuilding Known to support the Fediverse \u2014 or contributing to an existing Fediverse platform.Status: I just need more time.\n\nMy publishing platform Known could be rewritten to have a new, faster, cleaner architecture that is Fediverse-first.\n\nIt\u2019s not clear to me what the sustainability model is here: how can I make sure I continue to have the time and resources to work on it? But I do think there\u2019s a lot of potential for it to be useful \u2014 particularly for individual bloggers and smaller publishers \u2014 once it was built.\n\nAnd of course, there are many other open source Fediverse platforms (like Mastodon) that always need extra hands. The question remains: how can I find the time and resources to be able to make those contributions?\n\n(I\u2019ve already tried: funding as a startup, consultancy services, donations, and a paid hosting service. If you\u2019ve got other ideas, I\u2019d love to hear them!)An API engine for the FediverseStatus: idea only, but validated with both experts and potential customers. Would need to be funded.\n\nActivityPub, the underlying protocol underneath the Fediverse, can sometimes be hard to implement. Unlike many web apps, you often need to set up asynchronous queues and process data in potentially expensive ways when both publishing and reading data from other instances.\n\nSo why not abstract all of that away? Here smaller communities and experimental developers can rely on shared infrastructure that handles inboxes and queues automatically behind a simple RESTful API with SDKs in every modern language. Rather than have to build out all that infrastructure to begin with, developers can start with the Fediverse API, saving them a bunch of time and allowing them to focus on their unique idea.\n\nIt would start out with a free tier, allowing experimentation, and then scale up to affordable, use-based billing.\n\nAdd-on services could provide the aforementioned anti-spam, and there could be plugins from services like IFTAS in order to provide real human moderation for communities that need it.\n\nSuddenly, developers can build a fully Fediverse-compatible app in an afternoon instead of in weeks or months, and know that they don\u2019t need to be responsible for maintaining its underlying ActivityPub infrastructure.A professional open social network (Fediverse VIP)Status: idea only, but validated with domain experts.\n\nA first-class social network with top-tier UX and UI design, particularly around onboarding and discovery, built explicitly to be part of the Fediverse. The aim is to be the destination for anyone who wants to join the Fediverse for professional purposes \u2014 or if they simply don\u2019t know what other instance to join.\n\nThere is full active moderation and trust and safety for all users. Videos are supported out of the box. Images all receive automatic alt text generation by default (or you can specify your own). There is a first-class app across all mobile platforms, and live search for events, TV shows, sports, and so on. Posts can easily be embedded on third-party sites.\n\nYou can break out long-form posts from shorter posts, allowing you to read stories from Ghost and other platforms that publish long-form text to the Fediverse.\n\nIf publishers and brands join Fediverse VIP, profiles of their employees can be fully branded and be associated with their domains. A paid tier offers full analytics (in contrast in particular to Mastodon, which offers almost none) and scheduled posts, as well as advanced trust and safety features for journalists and other users from sensitive organizations. Publishers can opt to syndicate full-content feeds into the Fediverse. This becomes the best, safest, most feature-supported and brand-safe way for publishers to share with the hundreds of millions of Fediverse users.\n\nFinally, an enterprise concierge tier allows Fediverse VIP to be deeply customized and integrated with any website or tool, for example to run Fediverse-aware experiments on their own sites, do data research (free for accredited academic institutions and non-profit newsrooms), build new tools that work with Fediverse VIP, or use live feeds of content on TV or at other events.What do you think?Those are some ideas I have. But I\u2019m curious: what do you think would be most effective? Is this even an important goal?\n\nI\u2019d love to hear what you think.",
        "html": "<p><img src=\"https://werd.io/file/67158bdb987c5755960192b2/thumb.jpg\" alt=\"A very literal illustration of a construction site\" width=\"1024\" height=\"746\" /></p><p>As regular readers know, I care a lot about growing the open social web: the rapidly-growing decentralized network of interoperable social platforms that includes Mastodon, Threads, Ghost, Flipboard, and many other platforms, both emerging and established. This is for a few reasons, including but not limited to:</p><p><strong>Support for strong communities</strong></p><ul><li>\n<strong>Support for niche interests and diversity:</strong> Smaller, independent communities can flourish without the pressure to appeal to mass audiences, leading to richer, more diverse conversations and interactions. But these aren\u2019t silos: any member from one community can easily follow someone from any other.</li>\n<li>\n<strong>Community-driven moderation:</strong> Instead of top-down moderation, communities set their own rules and guidelines, which can lead to healthier and more relevant interactions. Community health isn\u2019t subject to a single corporation\u2019s policies and motivations.</li>\n</ul><p><strong>Better developer experience</strong></p><ul><li>\n<strong>An easier way to build social apps:</strong> Shared libraries, tools and protocols let developers get started faster. And developers no longer have to worry about their social products feeling empty: every new product can plug into communities of millions of people.</li>\n<li>\n<strong>Developer stability:</strong> Developers don\u2019t need to ask anyone for permission to build on open social web protocols. Nobody will suddenly turn off the open social web and charge developers to access it: just like the web itself, it\u2019s open and permissionless, forever. The result is a less risky playing field for new entrants.</li>\n</ul><p><strong>Respect for users</strong></p><ul><li>\n<strong>Decentralized governance:</strong> Users have more control over their data, identity, and interactions, without reliance on a single corporation or platform.</li>\n<li>\n<strong>Freedom from corporate algorithms:</strong> No algorithm-driven feeds prioritize ads or engagement-maximizing content, allowing for more authentic and community-driven interaction (and significantly less election interference, for example).</li>\n<li>\n<strong>Data ownership and portability:</strong> Users have greater control over their data and are not at the mercy of corporate interests. The open social web has the potential to connect every social platform, allowing anyone to be in conversation. And users can move from provider to provider at any time without losing their communities.</li>\n<li>\n<strong>Reduced surveillance:</strong> Federated systems are often less focused on advertising and surveillance-based business models, reducing targeted ads and invasive data collection.</li>\n<li>\n<strong>A more ethical ecosystem:</strong> It\u2019s far easier for developers to build ethical apps that don\u2019t hold user data hostage.</li>\n</ul><p>I\u2019d love to be more involved in helping it grow. Here are some ways I\u2019ve thought about doing that. As always, I\u2019d love to hear what you think.</p><h3>Acting as an advocate between publishers and vendors.</h3><p><em>Status: I\u2019m already doing this informally.</em></p><p>Open social web vendors like Mastodon seem to want to understand the needs of news publishers; there are already lots of advantages for news publishers who join the open social web. There\u2019s some need for a go-between to help both groups understand each other.</p><p>Publishers need to <em>prove</em> that there\u2019s return on investment on getting involved in any social platform. Mastodon in particular has some analytics-hostile features, including preventing linked websites from knowing where traffic is coming from, and stripping the <code>utm</code> tags that audience teams use to analyze traffic. There\u2019s also no great analytics dashboard and little integration with professional social media tools.</p><p>Meanwhile, the open social web already has a highly engaged, intelligent, action-oriented community of early adopters who care about the world around them and are willing to back news publishers they think are doing good work. I\u2019ve done work to prove this, and have found that publishers can easily get more meaningful engagement (subscriptions, donations) on the open social web than on all closed social networks <em>combined</em>. That\u2019s a huge advantage.</p><p>But both groups need to collaborate \u2014 and in the case of publishers, need to <em>want</em> to collaborate. There\u2019s certainly work to do here.</p><h3>Providing tertiary services.</h3><p><em>Status: I built <a href=\"https://werd.io/2024/share-openly\">ShareOpenly</a>, but there\u2019s much more work to do.</em></p><p>There are a lot of ways a service provider could add value to the open social web.</p><p>Automattic, the commercial company behind WordPress, got its start by providing anti-spam services through a tool called <a href=\"https://akismet.com/\">Akismet</a>. Automattic itself is unfortunately not a wonderful example to point to <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272867/automattic-employee-buyout-wordpress-drama\">at this moment in time</a>, but the model stands: take an open source product and make it more useful through add-ons.</p><p>There\u2019s absolutely the need for anti-spam and moderation services on the open social web (which are already provided by <a href=\"https://about.iftas.org/\">Independent Federated Trust And Safety</a>, which is a group that deserves to be better-funded).</p><p>My tiny contribution so far is <a href=\"https://shareopenly.org\">ShareOpenly</a>, a site that provides \u201cshare to \u2026\u201d buttons for websites that are inclusive of Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms. A few sites, like <a href=\"https://werd.io\">my own blog</a> and <a href=\"https://tedium.co/\">Tedium</a>, include ShareOpenly links on posts, and it\u2019s been used to share to hundreds of Mastodon instances. (I don\u2019t track links shared at all, so don\u2019t have stats about that.) But, of course, it could be a lot bigger.</p><p>I think there\u2019s potential in anti-spam services in particular: unlike trust and safety, they can largely be automated, and there\u2019s a proven model with Akismet.</p><h3>Rebuilding Known to support the Fediverse \u2014 or contributing to an existing Fediverse platform.</h3><p><em>Status: I just need more time.</em></p><p><a href=\"https://werd.io/2024/revisiting-known\">My publishing platform Known</a> could be rewritten to have a new, faster, cleaner architecture that is Fediverse-first.</p><p>It\u2019s not clear to me what the sustainability model is here: how can I make sure I continue to have the time and resources to work on it? But I do think there\u2019s a lot of potential for it to be useful \u2014 particularly for individual bloggers and smaller publishers \u2014 once it <em>was</em> built.</p><p>And of course, there are many other open source Fediverse platforms (like Mastodon) that always need extra hands. The question remains: how can I find the time and resources to be able to make those contributions?</p><p>(I\u2019ve already tried: funding as a startup, consultancy services, donations, and a paid hosting service. If you\u2019ve got other ideas, I\u2019d love to hear them!)</p><h3>An API engine for the Fediverse</h3><p><em>Status: idea only, but validated with both experts and potential customers. Would need to be funded.</em></p><p>ActivityPub, the underlying protocol underneath the Fediverse, can sometimes be hard to implement. Unlike many web apps, you often need to set up asynchronous queues and process data in potentially expensive ways when both publishing and reading data from other instances.</p><p>So why not abstract all of that away? Here smaller communities and experimental developers can rely on shared infrastructure that handles inboxes and queues automatically behind a simple RESTful API with SDKs in every modern language. Rather than have to build out all that infrastructure to begin with, developers can start with the Fediverse API, saving them a bunch of time and allowing them to focus on their unique idea.</p><p>It would start out with a free tier, allowing experimentation, and then scale up to affordable, use-based billing.</p><p>Add-on services could provide the aforementioned anti-spam, and there could be plugins from services like IFTAS in order to provide real human moderation for communities that need it.</p><p>Suddenly, developers can build a fully Fediverse-compatible app in an afternoon instead of in weeks or months, and know that they don\u2019t need to be responsible for maintaining its underlying ActivityPub infrastructure.</p><h3>A professional open social network (Fediverse VIP)</h3><p><em>Status: idea only, but validated with domain experts.</em></p><p>A first-class social network with top-tier UX and UI design, particularly around onboarding and discovery, built explicitly to be part of the Fediverse. The aim is to be the destination for anyone who wants to join the Fediverse for professional purposes \u2014 or if they simply don\u2019t know what other instance to join.</p><p>There is full active moderation and trust and safety for all users. Videos are supported out of the box. Images all receive automatic alt text generation by default (or you can specify your own). There is a first-class app across all mobile platforms, and live search for events, TV shows, sports, and so on. Posts can easily be embedded on third-party sites.</p><p>You can break out long-form posts from shorter posts, allowing you to read stories from Ghost and other platforms that publish long-form text to the Fediverse.</p><p>If publishers and brands join Fediverse VIP, profiles of their employees can be fully branded and be associated with their domains. A paid tier offers full analytics (in contrast in particular to Mastodon, which offers almost none) and scheduled posts, as well as advanced trust and safety features for journalists and other users from sensitive organizations. Publishers can opt to syndicate full-content feeds into the Fediverse. This becomes the best, safest, most feature-supported and brand-safe way for publishers to share with the hundreds of millions of Fediverse users.</p><p>Finally, an enterprise concierge tier allows Fediverse VIP to be deeply customized and integrated with any website or tool, for example to run Fediverse-aware experiments on their own sites, do data research (free for accredited academic institutions and non-profit newsrooms), build new tools that work with Fediverse VIP, or use live feeds of content on TV or at other events.</p><h3>What do you think?</h3><p>Those are some ideas <em>I</em> have. But I\u2019m curious: what do you think would be most effective? Is this even an important goal?</p><p>I\u2019d love to hear what you think.</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Ben Werdmuller",
        "url": "https://werd.io/profile/benwerd",
        "photo": "https://werd.io/file/5d388c5fb16ea14aac640912/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "42623880",
    "_source": "191",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Manton Reece",
        "url": "https://www.manton.org/",
        "photo": "https://micro.blog/manton/avatar.jpg"
    },
    "url": "https://www.manton.org/2024/10/20/ben-werdmuller-has.html",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Ben Werdmuller has <a href=\"https://werd.io/2024/helping-to-build-the-open-social-web\">several ideas for building on the fediverse</a>, including add-on services, SDKs, rebuilding his platform Known, and a \u201cfediverse VIP\u201d for professionals.</p>",
        "text": "Ben Werdmuller has several ideas for building on the fediverse, including add-on services, SDKs, rebuilding his platform Known, and a \u201cfediverse VIP\u201d for professionals."
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T18:34:20-05:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42623860",
    "_source": "12",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://dice.camp/@arestelle/113342306341505525",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>What <a href=\"https://dice.camp/tags/rss\">#<span>rss</span></a> readers are good? Don't want to create an account anywhere so that probably means desktop. <a href=\"https://dice.camp/tags/RSSReader\">#<span>RSSReader</span></a> <a href=\"https://dice.camp/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "What #rss readers are good? Don't want to create an account anywhere so that probably means desktop. #RSSReader #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T23:19:04+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42623736",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://woof.tech/@Frisk/113341844748230835",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Owning an Internet domain is probably one of the best things I've done to help me with my self-expression to the world.</p><p>I feel freedom to do most of the things I want to do there, I truthfully feel like I have my own place on the Internet.</p><p>And sure, it might feel like screaming to a void, probably. But it doesn't matter this much to me, I'm not doing it for views, not doing it for money, I'm not constrained by those things. It's me saying - hey, I exist here. I'm my own person, with my garbage opinions, weird quirks, wants and needs.</p><p>Sometimes it's a card I can pass to someone, sometimes it's a place where I can vent, sometimes it's a place where I can have fun.</p><p>Also, I feel very small but visible return to glory of individual domains (hopefully leading to small websites?) with AT Protocol approach for verifying domains to be part of a handle or authorization using domains like on Owncast. Perhaps this will spread further? Time will tell.</p><p><a href=\"https://woof.tech/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Owning an Internet domain is probably one of the best things I've done to help me with my self-expression to the world.\n\nI feel freedom to do most of the things I want to do there, I truthfully feel like I have my own place on the Internet.\n\nAnd sure, it might feel like screaming to a void, probably. But it doesn't matter this much to me, I'm not doing it for views, not doing it for money, I'm not constrained by those things. It's me saying - hey, I exist here. I'm my own person, with my garbage opinions, weird quirks, wants and needs.\n\nSometimes it's a card I can pass to someone, sometimes it's a place where I can vent, sometimes it's a place where I can have fun.\n\nAlso, I feel very small but visible return to glory of individual domains (hopefully leading to small websites?) with AT Protocol approach for verifying domains to be part of a handle or authorization using domains like on Owncast. Perhaps this will spread further? Time will tell.\n\n#indieweb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T21:21:40+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42622810",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@readbeanicecream/113341526766394730",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Quick shout to Virtual Curiosities on it's <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/rss\">#<span>rss</span></a> series. If you missed it, I have the list posted at <a href=\"https://the-rss-review.surge.sh/blog/2024/10/20/virtual-curiosities-rss-series/\"><span>https://</span><span>the-rss-review.surge.sh/blog/2</span><span>024/10/20/virtual-curiosities-rss-series/</span></a></p><p>You definitely follow Virtual Curiosities via RSS! It has great content!</p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/rssfeed\">#<span>rssfeed</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/rssclients\">#<span>rssclients</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/socialmedia\">#<span>socialmedia</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/technology\">#<span>technology</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Quick shout to Virtual Curiosities on it's #rss series. If you missed it, I have the list posted at https://the-rss-review.surge.sh/blog/2024/10/20/virtual-curiosities-rss-series/\n\nYou definitely follow Virtual Curiosities via RSS! It has great content!\n\n#rssfeed #rssclients #indieweb #smallweb #socialmedia #technology"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T20:00:48+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42622107",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@inautilo/113341333566520983",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Business\">#<span>Business</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Guides\">#<span>Guides</span></a><br />You should be using an RSS reader \u00b7 \u201cRSS will nudge the whole internet towards a better state.\u201d <a href=\"https://ilo.im/160hnd\"><span>https://</span><span>ilo.im/160hnd</span><span></span></a></p><p>_____<br /><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/SocialMedia\">#<span>SocialMedia</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Publishing\">#<span>Publishing</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Subscription\">#<span>Subscription</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/WebFeed\">#<span>WebFeed</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Syndication\">#<span>Syndication</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/RSS\">#<span>RSS</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/SmallWeb\">#<span>SmallWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/BigWeb\">#<span>BigWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Enshittification\">#<span>Enshittification</span></a></p>",
        "text": "#Business #Guides\nYou should be using an RSS reader \u00b7 \u201cRSS will nudge the whole internet towards a better state.\u201d https://ilo.im/160hnd\n\n_____\n#SocialMedia #Publishing #Subscription #WebFeed #Syndication #RSS #IndieWeb #SmallWeb #BigWeb #Enshittification"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T19:11:40+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42621875",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://toot.lqdev.tech/@lqdev/113341287910977508",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Build your own self-hosted live streaming application with Owncast and .NET Aspire <a href=\"https://toot.lqdev.tech/tags/owncast\">#<span>owncast</span></a> <a href=\"https://toot.lqdev.tech/tags/dotnet\">#<span>dotnet</span></a> <a href=\"https://toot.lqdev.tech/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://www.luisquintanilla.me/posts/build-your-own-live-streaming-app-owncast-dotnet-aspire?utm_medium=feed\"><span>https://www.</span><span>luisquintanilla.me/posts/build</span><span>-your-own-live-streaming-app-owncast-dotnet-aspire?utm_medium=feed</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Build your own self-hosted live streaming application with Owncast and .NET Aspire #owncast #dotnet #indieweb https://www.luisquintanilla.me/posts/build-your-own-live-streaming-app-owncast-dotnet-aspire?utm_medium=feed"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T19:00:04+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42621734",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@TheIdOfAlan/113340753884584959",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>It's that time again. Firing up the stream to do some coding on Neopoligen for building personal websites</p><p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/LiveStream\">#<span>LiveStream</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/LiveCoding\">#<span>LiveCoding</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/Rust\">#<span>Rust</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> </p><p><a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/theidofalan\"><span>https://www.</span><span>twitch.tv/theidofalan</span><span></span></a></p>",
        "text": "It's that time again. Firing up the stream to do some coding on Neopoligen for building personal websites\n\n#LiveStream #LiveCoding #Rust #IndieWeb \n\nhttps://www.twitch.tv/theidofalan"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T16:44:15+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42620735",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@jelloeater/113340697895445348",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>\"I can navigate to places that I'm not supposed to go\" <a href=\"https://embedded.substack.com/p/elan-ullendorff-how-did-you-find-me\"><span>https://</span><span>embedded.substack.com/p/elan-u</span><span>llendorff-how-did-you-find-me</span></a><br /><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "\"I can navigate to places that I'm not supposed to go\" https://embedded.substack.com/p/elan-ullendorff-how-did-you-find-me\n#smallweb #indieweb"
    },
    "published": "2024-10-20T16:30:01+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "42620586",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}