If I started fresh

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-05-08T15:53:16+00:00",
    "url": "https://werd.io/2025/if-i-started-fresh",
    "name": "If I started fresh",
    "content": {
        "text": "Erin and I stood at the front of the room, our seven-minute pitch slides for Known still projected above us. At the wooden table in front of us, investors and media executives prepared to give us unfiltered feedback about what we\u2019d just presented to them. Beyond them, an audience of entrepreneurs, more investors, and other enthusiasts were raising their hands.\n\n\u201cDoes your excitement outweigh your hesitations?\u201d Corey Ford asked the Matter audience. A spattering of hands shot up; most of the audience did not raise theirs.\n\nAt Matter, Design Reviews were a big deal: a structured, safe way to find out what investors and potential customers actually thought about your business. You would pitch; then the audience would vote on a handful of questions; then the panel would weigh in.\n\nCorey took a beat before asking his next question, microphone in hand. \u201cDoes this venture have the potential to change media for good?\u201d A few more hands shot up this time.\n\n\u201cDoes this venture have the potential to raise investment? If not, does it have the potential to raise alternative funding?\u201d No hands.\n\nThe panel eviscerated us.\n\nI\u2019d started writing the first version of Known while my mother recovered from her double lung transplant. My mother wanted people to talk to about her experiences, but she didn\u2019t trust the likes of Facebook to host those conversations. I\u2019d built the platform to provide an alternative. I cared about the platform deeply; I cared about the idea of communities that didn\u2019t yield their data to one of a handful of centralized services even more.\n\nIndieweb and open social web people seemed excited. But I couldn\u2019t tell the story in a way that resonated with people who weren\u2019t a part of those worlds. This was 2014, before Cambridge Analytica or the genocide in Myanmar. The most common question I was asked was, \u201cwhat\u2019s wrong with Facebook?\u201d\n\nA decade later, nobody\u2019s asking that question. We\u2019ve all seen what\u2019s wrong. The centralized social web has failed us; its owners treat their platforms as a way to spread propaganda and further entrench their power, often at the expense of democracy. Mark Zuckerberg likens himself to a Roman emperor even while his policies fail community after community. Under Elon Musk, X has been reinvented as a firehose of toxicity. Users are hungry for alternatives.\n\nIn my previous posts in this series, I discussed what I would do if I ran Bluesky and Mastodon. But now let\u2019s zoom out: what if I started fresh?\n\nThere are several ways you could approach building a new open social web platform. You could hope to be remembered for building a great open protocol, as Tim Berners-Lee is, but I believe today\u2019s need is more acute. Few people were asking for the web in 1989; it emerged anyway, changing peoples\u2019 minds, habits, and culture. For its first decade, it was a slow-burning movement. In 2025, great harms are being done to vulnerable communities, and the profits from centralized platforms are used in part to fuel global fascism. Building a great protocol isn\u2019t enough to get us where we need to go. We need to adopt a different mindset: one of true service, where we build an alternative to serve people\u2019s direct needs today.\n\nI think these principles are important:Any new product must be laser-focused on solving people\u2019s needs. The technical details \u2014 protocols, languages, architecture, approach \u2014 are all in service of creating a great solution to real human problems.\nThe perfect can never be allowed to obstruct the good. Ideological purity is next to impossible. The important thing is to build something that\u2019s better than what we have today, and continue iterating towards greatness.\nEveryone who works on such a platform must be able to make a good living doing so. Or to put it another way, nobody should be financially penalized for working on the open social web.\nThe platform must be sustainable. If you\u2019re making something people rely on, you owe it to them to ensure it can last.\nIn his post Town squares, backyards, better metaphors, and decentralised networks, Anders Thoresson points out that social media and social networks are two different things that have sometimes been conflated. Social media is the proverbial global town square. A social network is the web of relationships between people; these might span apps, the web, and in-person conversations alike.\n\nAs I wrote in my 2008 piece The Internet is people:Let\u2019s reclaim a piece of language: a social network is an interconnected system of people, as I\u2019ve suggested above. The websites that foster social networks are simply social networking tools. A social network doesn\u2019t live on the Web, but a website can help its members communicate and share with each other.I believe there\u2019s enormous value to be found in building new platforms to support social networks in particular. The goal shouldn\u2019t be to try and gather everyone in the world around a particular voice or algorithmic spectacle, as X now does with Elon Musk\u2019s account and ideas; it should be to support networks of people and help them connect with each other on their terms.\n\nFrom the same piece:The idea of a social networking tool is to make that network communicate more efficiently, so anything that the tool does should make it easier for that network to talk to each other and share information. The tool itself shouldn\u2019t attempt to create the network \u2013 although that being said, new network connections may arise through a purpose. Most of us have made new contacts on Flickr or Twitter, for example, because we enjoyed someone\u2019s content.Compare and contrast with Meta\u2019s latest strategy to fill its platforms with AI-generated users, literally creating the network.\n\nIf I were starting from scratch \u2014 grounded in these principles, and committed to serving real human networks \u2014 here\u2019s what I\u2019d build.\n\nAs I hinted at in my if I ran Mastodon piece, I believe there is a need for a private-by-default, federated platform designed for groups that already know each other or are actively building trust. Think mutual aid groups, local advocacy orgs, artist collectives, parent groups, cooperatives, or even small media orgs with deeply engaged communities.\n\nOn this platform, anyone can build a group with its own look and feel, set of features, rules, and norms. As a user, I can join any number of groups with a single account, and read updates on a dashboard where I can easily switch between types of content (long-form vs short-form), modes of engagement (conversations vs published pieces), and categories (topics, timely updates vs evergreen).\n\nBecause it embraces the open social web, a user can connect to these groups using any compatible profile, and if a user doesn\u2019t like the dashboard that the platform provides, perhaps because they don\u2019t like how it prioritizes or filters content, they can choose another one made by someone else. Over time, groups can be hosted by multiple platform providers \u2014 and users will still be able to interact, collaborate, and share content as if they were on the same system.\n\nLet\u2019s say I\u2019m part of three very different communities: a neighborhood mutual aid group, a nonprofit newsroom, and a writing collective. On this platform, each has its own space, with its own tone, style, and boundaries.\n\nThe local mutual aid group uses their space to coordinate grocery drop-offs, ride shares, and emergency needs. Everything is private, and posts are tagged by urgency. There\u2019s a shared resource library and a microblogging space for check-ins. Members can signal availability without having to explain.\n\nThe newsroom uses its space to share behind-the-scenes updates with engaged readers, collect community tips, and publish previews of investigations. It connects directly with their existing WordPress site and lets audience editors manage conversations without needing a developer.\n\nThe writing collective is weird and messy and fun. It has a public-facing stream of essays and poetry, but also a rotating \u201cwriting prompt room\u201d and a long-form thread space that acts like a slow-moving group zine. It\u2019s run as a co-op, and contributors vote on changes to how it\u2019s governed. The writing is mostly private for its members, but every so often the group makes a piece available for the outside world.\n\nEach of these groups lives in its own lane and can be accessed individually on the web, but I choose to keep up to date on all of them from a dashboard that reflects how I think and what I care about. I can configure it, but it also learns from my use over time, and even suggests new groups that I might want to be a part of. It also lets me search for people I know or ideas I want to hear more about and surfaces groups relevant to both. The dashboard is available on the web and as a clean, responsive mobile app with a best-in-class consumer-grade design.\n\nBecause it\u2019s all built on the open social web, I can take my identity and content with me if I ever leave. If there\u2019s a dashboard by another company that works better for me (or fits my ideals better, for example by not learning from my use automatically), I can switch to it seamlessly. If I want, I can move my profile and memberships to an account hosted by another provider. Even if I don\u2019t do those things, I can connect other apps to my account that give me new insights about the content and conversations I\u2019m interested in \u2014 for example to highlight breaking news stories, surface group events I might be interested in, or to give me extra moderation powers for communities I run.\n\nHere\u2019s the bit that might make open social web purists upset: all of this would be built by a for-profit public benefit company and run as a hosted service. At launch, there would be no open source component.\n\nGasp! I can already read the Mastodon replies to this post. But rather than a betrayal of open social web values, I see these things as a way to better support the needs of the platform and the values of the space. This isn\u2019t about profit above all else. It\u2019s about aligning incentives to support a healthy, values-driven product, and making that alignment resilient over time. (Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll get back to open source below.)\n\nSo far, most open source self-hosted platforms have prioritized engineering efforts. Resources haven\u2019t been available for researchers, designers, trust and safety teams, or for dedicated staff to foster partnerships with other projects. Those things aren\u2019t nice-to-haves: they\u2019re vital for any service to ensure that it is fit for purpose for its users, a delightful experience to use, and, crucially for any social platform, safe for vulnerable users to participate in. Building a financial model in from the start improves the chances of those things being available. If we want great design, we need to pay designers. If we want a safe, healthy community, we need to pay a trust and safety team. And so on.\n\nIn order to pay for the teams that make it valuable, the platform will charge for non-core premium features like SSO and integrations, offer a hands-on enterprise concierge service, and take a cut from marketplace transactions inside groups. Most importantly, the business model isn\u2019t based on reach, surveillance, or ads; the values of the business are aligned with the communities it hosts.\n\nIn its earliest stages, every platform needs to reduce the feedback loop between its users and builders as much as possible. Incubating it internally until the basic interaction models, look and feel, and core feature-set are right will allow that to happen faster. I\u2019ve found in the past that open source communities can muddy that feedback loop in the earliest stages of a project: there are people who will cheerlead something because it\u2019s open source and not because the product works for them in itself. There are also other people who will relentlessly ask for esoteric features that benefit only them \u2014 or will be abusive or disrespectful in the open source community itself. None of these is what you want if your focus is on building something useful.\n\nFinally, something happens when you release a project under an open source license: anyone can use it. It\u2019s a permissive ethos that sits at the core of the movement, but it also has a key downside for open source social platforms: someone may take a platform you\u2019ve put a great deal of work into and use it for harm. There is nothing to stop someone from taking your code and using it to support Nazis, child abuse, or to organize other kinds of real-world violence. In contrast, a hosted product can be vigilant and remove those communities.\n\nBy not releasing an open source project at first, the business has a chance to seed the culture of the platform. It can provide the resources, support, and vigilance needed to make sure the space is inclusive, respectful, and safe. Once the platform has matured and there are thriving, healthy communities, that\u2019s when we can release a reference codebase \u2014 not as a symbolic gesture, but as a foundation others can build on without compromise. That moment would come once the platform has proven its core use case, the community culture is thriving, and the financial base is strong enough to support long-term governance.\n\nIn the meantime, because it\u2019s all based on open social web protocols, other developers could have been building their own participating open source community platforms, dashboards, and libraries.\n\nLast thing: I haven\u2019t mentioned where I would run this from. Vulnerable communities are under attack in many parts of the world, notably the US, and it isn\u2019t clear that data will be safe from subpoenas or other legal threats. So the business would be headquartered in Switzerland, a traditional home for neutral parties and a jurisdiction that offers stronger protections for user data. While starting it would require raising investment \u2014 and, perhaps, grants for starting a mission-driven high-tech business from Switzerland, the EU, and elsewhere \u2014 it would not aim to be a venture-scale business, and would operate largely independently from the US tech ecosystem. It would inclusively hire talent from all over the world and offer hybrid work: remotely but with the opportunity to come to Zurich and collaborate in-person as the need arose.\n\nIt would, of course, be a business that invested heavily in DEI, with strong benefits. These policies would allow a more diverse staff to collaborate on building it, ensuring that a greater array of perspectives were involved in its design. This isn\u2019t just morally correct: along with the choice of location and business model, it represents a commitment to resilience.\n\nResilience, I hope you\u2019ll agree, is something we need in abundance.\n\nI began this series by asking how I\u2019d run someone else\u2019s platform. But the real question is: what should we build now, and how do we build it together? What are the mindsets that will provide a true alternative? And how can we ensure it succeeds?\n\nIf any of this resonates, I\u2019d love to chat. You can always email me at ben@werd.io or on Signal at benwerd.01.\n\nPreviously in this series: if I ran Bluesky Product and if I ran Mastodon.\u00a0Subscribe to get every post via email.\n\n\u00a0\n\nPhoto by Renzo D'souza on Unsplash",
        "html": "<p><img src=\"https://werd.io/file/681cd322274923c4e60cb702/thumb.jpg\" alt=\"A sapling breaking through dry ground.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" /></p><p><a href=\"https://werd.io/2016/stop-writing-specs-start-finding-needs---what-ive-learned\">Erin</a> and I stood at the front of the room, our seven-minute pitch slides for Known still projected above us. At the wooden table in front of us, investors and media executives prepared to give us unfiltered feedback about what we\u2019d just presented to them. Beyond them, an audience of entrepreneurs, more investors, and other enthusiasts were raising their hands.</p><p>\u201cDoes your excitement outweigh your hesitations?\u201d <a href=\"https://matter.vc/author/corey/\">Corey Ford</a> asked the <a href=\"https://knightfoundation.org/articles/announcing-matter-three/\">Matter</a> audience. A spattering of hands shot up; most of the audience did not raise theirs.</p><p>At Matter, Design Reviews were a big deal: a structured, safe way to find out what investors and potential customers actually thought about your business. You would pitch; then the audience would vote on a handful of questions; then the panel would weigh in.</p><p>Corey took a beat before asking his next question, microphone in hand. \u201cDoes this venture have the potential to change media for good?\u201d A few more hands shot up this time.</p><p>\u201cDoes this venture have the potential to raise investment? If not, does it have the potential to raise alternative funding?\u201d No hands.</p><p>The panel eviscerated us.</p><p>I\u2019d started writing the first version of Known while my mother recovered from her double lung transplant. My mother wanted people to talk to about her experiences, but she didn\u2019t trust the likes of Facebook to host those conversations. I\u2019d built the platform to provide an alternative. I cared about the platform deeply; I cared about the idea of communities that didn\u2019t yield their data to one of a handful of centralized services even more.</p><p><a href=\"https://indieweb.org\">Indieweb</a> and open social web people seemed excited. But I couldn\u2019t tell the story in a way that resonated with people who weren\u2019t a part of those worlds. This was 2014, before <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election\">Cambridge Analytica</a> or <a href=\"https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/\">the genocide in Myanmar</a>. The most common question I was asked was, \u201cwhat\u2019s wrong with Facebook?\u201d</p><p>A decade later, nobody\u2019s asking that question. We\u2019ve all seen what\u2019s wrong. The centralized social web has failed us; its owners treat their platforms as a way to spread propaganda and further entrench their power, often at the expense of democracy. Mark Zuckerberg likens himself to a Roman emperor even while his policies fail community after community. Under Elon Musk, X has been reinvented as a firehose of toxicity. Users are hungry for alternatives.</p><p>In my previous posts in this series, I discussed what I would do if <a href=\"https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-bluesky-product\">I ran Bluesky</a> and <a href=\"https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-mastodon\">Mastodon</a>. But now let\u2019s zoom out: what if I started fresh?</p><p>There are several ways you could approach building a new open social web platform. You could hope to be remembered for building a great open protocol, as Tim Berners-Lee is, but I believe today\u2019s need is more acute. Few people were asking for the web in 1989; it emerged anyway, changing peoples\u2019 minds, habits, and culture. For its first decade, it was a slow-burning movement. In 2025, great harms are being done to vulnerable communities, and the profits from centralized platforms are used in part to fuel global fascism. Building a great protocol isn\u2019t enough to get us where we need to go. We need to adopt a different mindset: one of true service, where we build an alternative <em>to serve people\u2019s direct needs today</em>.</p><p>I think these principles are important:</p><ul><li>Any new product must be laser-focused on solving people\u2019s needs. The technical details \u2014 protocols, languages, architecture, approach \u2014 are all in service of creating a great solution to real human problems.</li>\n<li>The perfect can never be allowed to obstruct the good. Ideological purity is next to impossible. The important thing is to build something that\u2019s better than what we have today, and continue iterating towards greatness.</li>\n<li>Everyone who works on such a platform must be able to make a good living doing so. Or to put it another way, nobody should be financially penalized for working on the open social web.</li>\n<li>The platform must be sustainable. If you\u2019re making something people rely on, you owe it to them to ensure it can last.</li>\n</ul><p>In his post <a href=\"https://anders.thoresson.se/post/2025/05/town-squares-backyards-better-metaphors-and-decentralised-networks/\">Town squares, backyards, better metaphors, and decentralised networks</a>, Anders Thoresson points out that social <em>media</em> and social <em>networks</em> are two different things that have sometimes been conflated. Social media is the proverbial global town square. A social network is the web of relationships between people; these might span apps, the web, and in-person conversations alike.</p><p>As I wrote in my 2008 piece <a href=\"https://benwerd.com/2008/12/04/the-internet-is-people/\">The Internet is people</a>:</p><blockquote><p>Let\u2019s reclaim a piece of language: a social network is an interconnected system of people, as I\u2019ve suggested above. The websites that foster social networks are simply social networking tools. A social network doesn\u2019t live on the Web, but a website can help its members communicate and share with each other.</p></blockquote><p>I believe there\u2019s enormous value to be found in building new platforms to support social networks in particular. The goal shouldn\u2019t be to try and gather everyone in the world around a particular voice or algorithmic spectacle, as X now does with Elon Musk\u2019s account and ideas; it should be to support networks of people and help them connect with each other on their terms.</p><p>From the same piece:</p><blockquote><p>The idea of a social networking tool is to make that network communicate more efficiently, so anything that the tool does should make it easier for that network to talk to each other and share information. The tool itself shouldn\u2019t attempt to create the network \u2013 although that being said, new network connections may arise through a purpose. Most of us have made new contacts on Flickr or Twitter, for example, because we enjoyed someone\u2019s content.</p></blockquote><p>Compare and contrast with Meta\u2019s latest strategy <a href=\"https://www.ft.com/content/91183cbb-50f9-464a-9d2e-96063825bfcf\">to fill its platforms with AI-generated users</a>, <em>literally</em> creating the network.</p><p>If I were starting from scratch \u2014 grounded in these principles, and committed to serving real human networks \u2014 here\u2019s what I\u2019d build.</p><p>As I hinted at in my <a href=\"https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-mastodon\">if I ran Mastodon</a> piece, I believe there is a need for a private-by-default, federated platform designed for groups that already know each other or are actively building trust. Think mutual aid groups, local advocacy orgs, artist collectives, parent groups, cooperatives, or even small media orgs with deeply engaged communities.</p><p>On this platform, anyone can build a group with its own look and feel, set of features, rules, and norms. As a user, I can join any number of groups with a single account, and read updates on a dashboard where I can easily switch between types of content (long-form vs short-form), modes of engagement (conversations vs published pieces), and categories (topics, timely updates vs evergreen).</p><p>Because it embraces the open social web, a user can connect to these groups using any compatible profile, and if a user doesn\u2019t like the dashboard that the platform provides, perhaps because they don\u2019t like how it prioritizes or filters content, they can choose another one made by someone else. Over time, groups can be hosted by multiple platform providers \u2014 and users will still be able to interact, collaborate, and share content as if they were on the same system.</p><p>Let\u2019s say I\u2019m part of three very different communities: a neighborhood mutual aid group, a nonprofit newsroom, and a writing collective. On this platform, each has its own space, with its own tone, style, and boundaries.</p><p>The local mutual aid group uses their space to coordinate grocery drop-offs, ride shares, and emergency needs. Everything is private, and posts are tagged by urgency. There\u2019s a shared resource library and a microblogging space for check-ins. Members can signal availability without having to explain.</p><p>The newsroom uses its space to share behind-the-scenes updates with engaged readers, collect community tips, and publish previews of investigations. It connects directly with their existing WordPress site and lets audience editors manage conversations without needing a developer.</p><p>The writing collective is weird and messy and fun. It has a public-facing stream of essays and poetry, but also a rotating \u201cwriting prompt room\u201d and a long-form thread space that acts like a slow-moving group zine. It\u2019s run as a co-op, and contributors vote on changes to how it\u2019s governed. The writing is mostly private for its members, but every so often the group makes a piece available for the outside world.</p><p>Each of these groups lives in its own lane and can be accessed individually on the web, but I choose to keep up to date on all of them from a dashboard that reflects how I think and what I care about. I can configure it, but it also learns from my use over time, and even suggests new groups that I might want to be a part of. It also lets me search for people I know or ideas I want to hear more about and surfaces groups relevant to both. The dashboard is available on the web and as a clean, responsive mobile app with a best-in-class consumer-grade design.</p><p>Because it\u2019s all built on the open social web, I can take my identity and content with me if I ever leave. If there\u2019s a dashboard by another company that works better for me (or fits my ideals better, for example by <em>not</em> learning from my use automatically), I can switch to it seamlessly. If I want, I can move my profile and memberships to an account hosted by another provider. Even if I don\u2019t do those things, I can connect other apps to my account that give me new insights about the content and conversations I\u2019m interested in \u2014 for example to highlight breaking news stories, surface group events I might be interested in, or to give me extra moderation powers for communities I run.</p><p>Here\u2019s the bit that might make open social web purists upset: all of this would be built by a for-profit public benefit company and run as a hosted service. At launch, there would be no open source component.</p><p>Gasp! I can already read the Mastodon replies to this post. But rather than a betrayal of open social web values, I see these things as a way to better support the needs of the platform and the values of the space. This isn\u2019t about profit above all else. It\u2019s about aligning incentives to support a healthy, values-driven product, and making that alignment resilient over time. (Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll get back to open source below.)</p><p>So far, most open source self-hosted platforms have prioritized engineering efforts. Resources haven\u2019t been available for researchers, designers, trust and safety teams, or for dedicated staff to foster partnerships with other projects. Those things aren\u2019t nice-to-haves: they\u2019re vital for any service to ensure that it is fit for purpose for its users, a delightful experience to use, and, crucially for any social platform, safe for vulnerable users to participate in. Building a financial model in from the start improves the chances of those things being available. If we want great design, we need to pay designers. If we want a safe, healthy community, we need to pay a trust and safety team. And so on.</p><p>In order to pay for the teams that make it valuable, the platform will charge for non-core premium features like SSO and integrations, offer a hands-on enterprise concierge service, and take a cut from marketplace transactions inside groups. Most importantly, the business model isn\u2019t based on reach, surveillance, or ads; the values of the business are aligned with the communities it hosts.</p><p>In its earliest stages, every platform needs to reduce the feedback loop between its users and builders as much as possible. Incubating it internally until the basic interaction models, look and feel, and core feature-set are right will allow that to happen faster. I\u2019ve found in the past that open source communities can muddy that feedback loop in the earliest stages of a project: there are people who will cheerlead something because it\u2019s open source and not because the product works for them in itself. There are also other people who will relentlessly ask for esoteric features that benefit only them \u2014 or will be abusive or disrespectful in the open source community itself. None of these is what you want if your focus is on building something useful.</p><p>Finally, something happens when you release a project under an open source license: anyone can use it. It\u2019s a permissive ethos that sits at the core of the movement, but it also has a key downside for open source social platforms: someone may take a platform you\u2019ve put a great deal of work into and use it for harm. There is nothing to stop someone from taking your code and using it to support Nazis, child abuse, or to organize other kinds of real-world violence. In contrast, a hosted product can be vigilant and remove those communities.</p><p>By not releasing an open source project <em>at first</em>, the business has a chance to seed the culture of the platform. It can provide the resources, support, and vigilance needed to make sure the space is inclusive, respectful, and safe. Once the platform has matured and there are thriving, healthy communities, that\u2019s when we can release a reference codebase \u2014 not as a symbolic gesture, but as a foundation others can build on without compromise. That moment would come once the platform has proven its core use case, the community culture is thriving, and the financial base is strong enough to support long-term governance.</p><p>In the meantime, because it\u2019s all based on open social web protocols, other developers could have been building their own participating open source community platforms, dashboards, and libraries.</p><p>Last thing: I haven\u2019t mentioned <em>where</em> I would run this from. Vulnerable communities are under attack in many parts of the world, notably the US, and it isn\u2019t clear that data will be safe from subpoenas or other legal threats. So the business would be headquartered in Switzerland, a traditional home for neutral parties and a jurisdiction that offers stronger protections for user data. While starting it would require raising investment \u2014 and, perhaps, grants for starting a mission-driven high-tech business from Switzerland, the EU, and elsewhere \u2014 it would not aim to be a venture-scale business, and would operate largely independently from the US tech ecosystem. It would inclusively hire talent from all over the world and offer hybrid work: remotely but with the opportunity to come to Zurich and collaborate in-person as the need arose.</p><p>It would, of course, be a business that invested heavily in DEI, with strong benefits. These policies would allow a more diverse staff to collaborate on building it, ensuring that a greater array of perspectives were involved in its design. This isn\u2019t just morally correct: along with the choice of location and business model, it represents a commitment to resilience.</p><p>Resilience, I hope you\u2019ll agree, is something we need in abundance.</p><p>I began this series by asking how I\u2019d run someone else\u2019s platform. But the real question is: what should we build now, and how do we build it together? What are the mindsets that will provide a true alternative? And how can we ensure it succeeds?</p><p>If any of this resonates, I\u2019d love to chat. You can always email me at <a href=\"mailto:ben@werd.io\">ben@werd.io</a> or on Signal at <a href=\"https://signal.me/#eu/_ehMeopT5JeELrkt2lSk-R0V6d1AsGt_3Q98UOJhgBMTal5EGTdNIbZHB9H9CqBn\">benwerd.01</a>.</p><p><em>Previously in this series: <a href=\"https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-bluesky-product\">if I ran Bluesky Product</a> and <a href=\"https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-mastodon\">if I ran Mastodon</a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https://newsletter.werd.io\">Subscribe to get every post via email.</a></em></p><p>\u00a0</p><p><em>Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@renzods?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Renzo D'souza</a> on </em><a href=\"https://unsplash.com/photos/green-plant-on-brown-soil-nJMUGwkqHqg?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\"><em>Unsplash</em></a></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": "44751949",
    "_source": "191",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@mariobianchi/114473906636873793",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>One of the most fascinating aspects of tennis is that a player can win a match by winning fewer points and/or fewer games than their opponent. [...]<br />While thinking that all points have the same value helps maintain high concentration, this is intuitively false. </p><p><a href=\"https://www.mariobianchi.dev/title/not-all-points-are-created-equal-the-true-value-of-tennis-points\"><span>https://www.</span><span>mariobianchi.dev/title/not-all</span><span>-points-are-created-equal-the-true-value-of-tennis-points</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/tennis\">#<span>tennis</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/sport\">#<span>sport</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/sports\">#<span>sports</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "One of the most fascinating aspects of tennis is that a player can win a match by winning fewer points and/or fewer games than their opponent. [...]\nWhile thinking that all points have the same value helps maintain high concentration, this is intuitively false. \n\nhttps://www.mariobianchi.dev/title/not-all-points-are-created-equal-the-true-value-of-tennis-points\n\n#tennis #sport #sports #indieweb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T19:39:54+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44751466",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@reillypascal/114473894702373569",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>The way I filter the webmentions is with a filter in Eleventy that either uses this line or the negation of this line to categorize the mentions:</p><p>.filter((mention) =&gt; mention[\"wm-source\"].includes(\"<a href=\"https://brid.gy/\"><span>https://</span><span>brid.gy/</span><span></span></a>\") || mention[\"wm-source\"].includes(\"<a href=\"https://bsky.brid.gy/\"><span>https://</span><span>bsky.brid.gy/</span><span></span></a>\"))</p><p>If \"wm-source\" does include either of those, the mention is via Bridgy &amp; Mastodon/Bsky; if not, it's directly from someone's site</p><p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/Eleventy\">#<span>Eleventy</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/11ty\">#<span>11ty</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/WebDev\">#<span>WebDev</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/JavaScript\">#<span>JavaScript</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "The way I filter the webmentions is with a filter in Eleventy that either uses this line or the negation of this line to categorize the mentions:\n\n.filter((mention) => mention[\"wm-source\"].includes(\"https://brid.gy/\") || mention[\"wm-source\"].includes(\"https://bsky.brid.gy/\"))\n\nIf \"wm-source\" does include either of those, the mention is via Bridgy & Mastodon/Bsky; if not, it's directly from someone's site\n\n#Eleventy #11ty #WebDev #JavaScript #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T19:36:52+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44751467",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://dmv.community/@jcrabapple/114473886079011590",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Early review of Sleep Token\u2019s \u201cEven In Arcadia\u201d</p><p><a href=\"https://blog.shrediverse.net/posts/early-review-of-sleep-tokens-even-in-arcadia\"><span>https://</span><span>blog.shrediverse.net/posts/ear</span><span>ly-review-of-sleep-tokens-even-in-arcadia</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://dmv.community/tags/music\">#<span>music</span></a> <a href=\"https://dmv.community/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://dmv.community/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Early review of Sleep Token\u2019s \u201cEven In Arcadia\u201d\n\nhttps://blog.shrediverse.net/posts/early-review-of-sleep-tokens-even-in-arcadia\n\n#music #indieweb #smallweb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T19:34:40+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44751468",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@reillypascal/114473882943585729",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I've updated how I display webmentions to be a little MMMMricher</p><p>If you scroll to the bottom of e.g., this post (<a href=\"https://reillyspitzfaden.com/posts/2025/01/displaying-webmentions/\"><span>https://</span><span>reillyspitzfaden.com/posts/202</span><span>5/01/displaying-webmentions/</span></a>) I now have mentions I received directly (i.e., not via Bridgy &amp; Mastodon/Bsky) displaying as comments, with links to the original post and a blockquote of the first 175 characters (if applicable)</p><p>This is in contrast to previously, when I just lumped everything together and displayed a number each for likes, reposts, and comments. I still have a line below the \u201cdirect\u201d webmentions displaying the number of each category received over Bridgy</p><p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/WebDev\">#<span>WebDev</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/Eleventy\">#<span>Eleventy</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/11ty\">#<span>11ty</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/HTML\">#<span>HTML</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/CSS\">#<span>CSS</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/JavaScript\">#<span>JavaScript</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/Webmentions\">#<span>Webmentions</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/Bridgy\">#<span>Bridgy</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I've updated how I display webmentions to be a little MMMMricher\n\nIf you scroll to the bottom of e.g., this post (https://reillyspitzfaden.com/posts/2025/01/displaying-webmentions/) I now have mentions I received directly (i.e., not via Bridgy & Mastodon/Bsky) displaying as comments, with links to the original post and a blockquote of the first 175 characters (if applicable)\n\nThis is in contrast to previously, when I just lumped everything together and displayed a number each for likes, reposts, and comments. I still have a line below the \u201cdirect\u201d webmentions displaying the number of each category received over Bridgy\n\n#WebDev #Eleventy #11ty #HTML #CSS #JavaScript #Webmentions #IndieWeb #Bridgy"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T19:33:53+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44751469",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@sn0n/114473691238633899",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I've been a fan of <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Nanogen\">#<span>Nanogen</span></a> for my <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/staticsitegenerator\">#<span>staticsitegenerator</span></a> for years now.. it's simple. </p><p>The main reason I use it? <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/html\">#<span>html</span></a> includes basically, header, footer, etc.. it uses <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/ejs\">#<span>ejs</span></a> for that. It also does some <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/markdown\">#<span>markdown</span></a> by processing <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/md\">#<span>md</span></a> files. <br />The output is a basic HTML only site without all that extra <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/stuff\">#<span>stuff</span></a> that the modern web likes.... </p><p>Guess that makes me a <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/dev\">#<span>dev</span></a> ? Idk, but definitely give it a look.</p>",
        "text": "I've been a fan of #Nanogen for my #staticsitegenerator for years now.. it's simple. \n\nThe main reason I use it? #html includes basically, header, footer, etc.. it uses #ejs for that. It also does some #markdown by processing #md files. \nThe output is a basic HTML only site without all that extra #stuff that the modern web likes.... \n\nGuess that makes me a #indieweb #dev ? Idk, but definitely give it a look."
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T18:45:07+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44750995",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://musicians.today/@carliermusic/114473102316358595",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Finished copying over 300 posts from my (closing soon) <a href=\"https://musicians.today/tags/Patreon\">#<span>Patreon</span></a> to my <a href=\"https://musicians.today/tags/website\">#<span>website</span></a>  \ud83d\ude05 </p><p>Closing my Patreon at the end of the month.</p><p><a href=\"https://shortsongs.ca/blog/\"><span>https://</span><span>shortsongs.ca/blog/</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://musicians.today/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://musicians.today/tags/bearblog\">#<span>bearblog</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Finished copying over 300 posts from my (closing soon) #Patreon to my #website  \ud83d\ude05 \n\nClosing my Patreon at the end of the month.\n\nhttps://shortsongs.ca/blog/\n\n#indieweb #bearblog"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T16:15:21+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44749349",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

On moving to Micro.blog

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Manton Reece",
        "url": "https://www.manton.org/",
        "photo": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2024/02/3.jpg"
    },
    "url": "https://www.manton.org/2025/05/08/on-moving-to-microblog.html",
    "name": "On moving to Micro.blog",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p><a href=\"https://kevquirk.com/blog/goodbye-fosstodon\">Thanks to Kev Quirk for the kind words</a> about migrating his Mastodon account to Micro.blog. Micro.blog is always a work in progress, and our fediverse support will continue to improve, but it\u2019s gratifying to read that our approach is resonating with him:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Thinking of it in this way has really cleared the Micro.blog fog in my mind. People can visit the front-end of the site to see my microblog posts (you can also see them on the notes section here), but if I want to interact with the other blogs on Micro.blog, or accounts on the fedi, I need to use the back-end CMS for that. It\u2019s pretty obvious, really and works in a similar way to Ghost\u2019s ActivityPub implementation - website at the front, \u201csocial feed\u201d at the back in the CMS.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Blogs as the foundation for a new kind of platform has been our north star since the beginning. Social media can be a mess \u2014 there\u2019s no single fix for that \u2014 and yet we can chip away at the edges of the problem, hopefully encouraging a quieter, less exhausting timeline.</p>\n<p>More from Kev:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I also like that there\u2019s no in-your-face notifications. There\u2019s a place where I can check where I\u2019ve been mentioned, but there\u2019s no bubbles when I login, so I do it when <em>I</em> want to, rather than when the software wants me to.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Micro.blog must be the only social platform that doesn\u2019t have any unread badges for notifications. That bothers some people, because they miss replies until later. That\u2019s okay. Very few things on the web are actually urgent. The blog posts and mentions will be here when you get back.</p>\n<p>(We have talked recently about an opt-in email summary once a week for replies you might have missed. Assuming we can do that in the least-Facebook-y way possible.)</p>\n<p>In the end, Kev\u2019s post is also a testament to the work the Mastodon team has done on account portability. You can easily imagine a future where it will be fairly normal to switch between Micro.blog, Mastodon, Ghost, and WordPress, with your identity and content intact. And that means each platform can lean into what makes it unique.</p>",
        "text": "Thanks to Kev Quirk for the kind words about migrating his Mastodon account to Micro.blog. Micro.blog is always a work in progress, and our fediverse support will continue to improve, but it\u2019s gratifying to read that our approach is resonating with him:\n\nThinking of it in this way has really cleared the Micro.blog fog in my mind. People can visit the front-end of the site to see my microblog posts (you can also see them on the notes section here), but if I want to interact with the other blogs on Micro.blog, or accounts on the fedi, I need to use the back-end CMS for that. It\u2019s pretty obvious, really and works in a similar way to Ghost\u2019s ActivityPub implementation - website at the front, \u201csocial feed\u201d at the back in the CMS.\n\nBlogs as the foundation for a new kind of platform has been our north star since the beginning. Social media can be a mess \u2014 there\u2019s no single fix for that \u2014 and yet we can chip away at the edges of the problem, hopefully encouraging a quieter, less exhausting timeline.\nMore from Kev:\n\nI also like that there\u2019s no in-your-face notifications. There\u2019s a place where I can check where I\u2019ve been mentioned, but there\u2019s no bubbles when I login, so I do it when I want to, rather than when the software wants me to.\n\nMicro.blog must be the only social platform that doesn\u2019t have any unread badges for notifications. That bothers some people, because they miss replies until later. That\u2019s okay. Very few things on the web are actually urgent. The blog posts and mentions will be here when you get back.\n(We have talked recently about an opt-in email summary once a week for replies you might have missed. Assuming we can do that in the least-Facebook-y way possible.)\nIn the end, Kev\u2019s post is also a testament to the work the Mastodon team has done on account portability. You can easily imagine a future where it will be fairly normal to switch between Micro.blog, Mastodon, Ghost, and WordPress, with your identity and content intact. And that means each platform can lean into what makes it unique."
    },
    "summary": "Quoting from Kev Quirk\u2019s post about migrating to Micro.blog and what makes the platform unique on the fediverse.",
    "published": "2025-05-08T10:49:33-05:00",
    "category": [
        "Essays"
    ],
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "44749092",
    "_source": "12",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://social.anoxinon.de/@philipp/114472500163112469",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I have a new \"NOW\" Page \ud83d\ude0d </p><p><a href=\"https://plunch.de/now/\"><span>https://</span><span>plunch.de/now/</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://social.anoxinon.de/tags/indieWeb\">#<span>indieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.anoxinon.de/tags/personalWebsite\">#<span>personalWebsite</span></a> <a href=\"https://social.anoxinon.de/tags/smallWeb\">#<span>smallWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I have a new \"NOW\" Page \ud83d\ude0d \n\nhttps://plunch.de/now/\n\n#indieWeb #personalWebsite #smallWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T13:42:13+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44747767",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://indieweb.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://indieweb.social/@thesmallweb/114472340621918351",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>\ud83d\udc9a Thread Thursday #9 \ud83d\udc9a </p><p>What's a feature on someone else's website that you want to implement on yours?<br />What makes this feature stand out to you? Let us know! \ud83d\udc47</p><p><a href=\"https://smallweb.thecozy.cat/blog/%F0%9F%92%9A-thread-thursday-9-%F0%9F%92%9A/\"><span>https://</span><span>smallweb.thecozy.cat/blog/%f0%</span><span>9f%92%9a-thread-thursday-9-%f0%9f%92%9a/</span></a></p><p><span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/indieweb\">@<span>indieweb</span></a></span> <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/smallweb\">@<span>smallweb</span></a></span> <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/neocities\">@<span>neocities</span></a></span> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/neocities\">#<span>neocities</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/nostalgia\">#<span>nostalgia</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/oldweb\">#<span>oldweb</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/smallweb\">#<span>smallweb</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/webdesign\">#<span>webdesign</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/webdev\">#<span>webdev</span></a> #<a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/webrevival\">#<span>webrevival</span></a> <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/Nekoweb\">#<span>Nekoweb</span></a></p>\n<a class=\"u-mention\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/indieweb\"></a>\n<a class=\"u-mention\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/neocities\"></a>\n<a class=\"u-mention\" href=\"https://a.gup.pe/u/smallweb\"></a>",
        "text": "\ud83d\udc9a Thread Thursday #9 \ud83d\udc9a \n\nWhat's a feature on someone else's website that you want to implement on yours?\nWhat makes this feature stand out to you? Let us know! \ud83d\udc47\n\nhttps://smallweb.thecozy.cat/blog/%f0%9f%92%9a-thread-thursday-9-%f0%9f%92%9a/\n\n@indieweb @smallweb @neocities ##indieweb ##neocities ##nostalgia ##oldweb ##smallweb ##webdesign ##webdev ##webrevival #Nekoweb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T13:01:39+00:00",
    "photo": [
        "https://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/114/472/340/550/299/406/original/78f8d34ea0e50b43.jpg"
    ],
    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "44747219",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#webmention",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/webmention",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@ttntm/114471092536606267",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/til\">#<span>til</span></a> that it seems like <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/bridgy\">#<span>bridgy</span></a> doesn't send a <a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/webmention\">#<span>webmention</span></a> for a reply that's marked as \"unlisted\". </p><p>I couldn't find anything 100% specific about that in their docs, but it clearly states that \"Bridgy only shows and sends webmentions for fully public posts and responses\".</p>",
        "text": "#til that it seems like #bridgy doesn't send a #webmention for a reply that's marked as \"unlisted\". \n\nI couldn't find anything 100% specific about that in their docs, but it clearly states that \"Bridgy only shows and sends webmentions for fully public posts and responses\"."
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T07:44:14+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44744944",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/114470298544797156",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>If you liked Pointy Chances, my feed URL is <a href=\"https://sightlessscribbles.com/\"><span>https://</span><span>sightlessscribbles.com/</span><span></span></a> <a href=\"https://caneandable.social/tags/RSS\">#<span>RSS</span></a> <a href=\"https://caneandable.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "If you liked Pointy Chances, my feed URL is https://sightlessscribbles.com/ #RSS #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T04:22:19+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44743961",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@TheIdOfAlan/114470068787064655",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>y'all. check this shit out:</p><p><a href=\"https://shellsharks.com/scrolls/\"><span>https://</span><span>shellsharks.com/scrolls/</span><span></span></a></p><p>\"weekly newsletter / link roundup / information digest at the intersection of the IndieWeb and the Fediverse, with a splash of Cybersecurity stuff\" </p><p>RSS available too if you're into that kinda thing</p><p>from <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://shellsharks.social/@shellsharks\">@<span>shellsharks</span></a></span> </p><p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>\n<a class=\"u-mention\" href=\"https://shellsharks.social/@shellsharks\"></a>",
        "text": "y'all. check this shit out:\n\nhttps://shellsharks.com/scrolls/\n\n\"weekly newsletter / link roundup / information digest at the intersection of the IndieWeb and the Fediverse, with a splash of Cybersecurity stuff\" \n\nRSS available too if you're into that kinda thing\n\nfrom @shellsharks \n\n#IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T03:23:53+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44743678",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://pony.social/@axxuy/114469663332324640",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I love the casualness of having a blog. Not sure what to write? Just write about that! <a href=\"https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/indecision/\"><span>https://</span><span>axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/inde</span><span>cision/</span></a><br /><a href=\"https://pony.social/tags/Blog\">#<span>Blog</span></a> <a href=\"https://pony.social/tags/Blogging\">#<span>Blogging</span></a> <a href=\"https://pony.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://pony.social/tags/PersonalWebsite\">#<span>PersonalWebsite</span></a> <a href=\"https://pony.social/tags/PersonalBog\">#<span>PersonalBog</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I love the casualness of having a blog. Not sure what to write? Just write about that! https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/indecision/\n#Blog #Blogging #IndieWeb #PersonalWebsite #PersonalBog"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-08T01:40:46+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44743197",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://mindly.social/@earth_walker/114469119824130937",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Working on a fun personal website in React, so far I have a gallery of artwork of my sona, a home page that displays my latest mastodon post/repost, and some links to cool websites. The whole thing looks like an orange sherbet with sprinkles on top. I'll probably add in a collapsable nav menu for mobile and maybe some interactive widgets to spice it up a little. What else should I put in it?</p><p><a href=\"https://mindly.social/tags/webDev\">#<span>webDev</span></a> <a href=\"https://mindly.social/tags/webDesign\">#<span>webDesign</span></a> <a href=\"https://mindly.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Working on a fun personal website in React, so far I have a gallery of artwork of my sona, a home page that displays my latest mastodon post/repost, and some links to cool websites. The whole thing looks like an orange sherbet with sprinkles on top. I'll probably add in a collapsable nav menu for mobile and maybe some interactive widgets to spice it up a little. What else should I put in it?\n\n#webDev #webDesign #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-07T23:22:33+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44742500",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://piipitin.fi/@ojrask/114469046491323462",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I picked Redis for my personal website storage initially because it seemed simple. Just push docs and JSON blobs in and it Just WorksTM.</p><p>Right now I'm converting to MariaDB, in case you wanna know how I feel about my original storage decision right now.</p><p><a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/Redis\">#<span>Redis</span></a> <a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/MariaDB\">#<span>MariaDB</span></a> <a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/MySQL\">#<span>MySQL</span></a> <a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/NoSQL\">#<span>NoSQL</span></a> <a href=\"https://piipitin.fi/tags/RDBMS\">#<span>RDBMS</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I picked Redis for my personal website storage initially because it seemed simple. Just push docs and JSON blobs in and it Just WorksTM.\n\nRight now I'm converting to MariaDB, in case you wanna know how I feel about my original storage decision right now.\n\n#Redis #MariaDB #MySQL #IndieWeb #NoSQL #RDBMS"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-07T23:03:54+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44742426",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

Running For Re-election in the 2025 W3C Advisory Board (AB) Election

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-05-07 10:21-0700",
    "url": "http://tantek.com/2025/127/b1/running-for-w3c-advisory-board-ab-election",
    "name": "Running For Re-election in the 2025 W3C Advisory Board (AB) Election",
    "content": {
        "text": "Foreword\nThe World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is holding its regular annual Advisory Board (AB) election this month. \nI was elected two years ago after being elected to a \nsix month term \n(See full AB members history). \nThis is my 2025 AB election nomination statement posted on my blog, in addition to the \nofficial \n Nominations and Statements for W3C Advisory Board 2025 Election page.\n\nTantek \u00c7elik is nominated by Mozilla Foundation. \n\n    Nomination statement from Tantek \u00c7elik:\nHi, I'm Tantek \u00c7elik and I'm running for the W3C Advisory Board (AB) to build on the momentum the AB has built with transitioning W3C to a community-led and values-driven organization. I have been participating in and contributing to W3C groups and specifications for over 25 years.\n    I am Mozilla\u2019s Advisory Committee (AC) representative and previously served on the AB for several terms, starting in 2013, with a two year break before returning in 2020. In early years I drove the movement to shift W3C to more open licenses for specifications, and more responsiveness to the needs of open source communities and independent website publishers.\n    Most recently on the AB I led the AB\u2019s Priority Project for a W3C Vision as contributor and editor, taking it through wide review, and consensus at the AB to a vote by the AC to adopt the Vision as an official W3C Statement.\n    Previously I also co-chaired the W3C Social Web Working Group that produced several widely interoperably deployed Social Web Standards. Mastodon and other open source software projects built a social network on ActivityPub and other social web specs which now require maintenance from implementation experience. As such, I have participated in the Social Web Incubator Community Group and helped draft a new charter to restart the Social Web Working Group and maintain these widely adopted specifications.\n    With several members stepping down, the AB is experiencing much higher than usual turnover in this election.\n    I am running for re-election to both help with continuity, on the Vision project and other efforts, and work with new and continuing Advisory Board members to build a fresh, forward looking focus for the AB.    \n    I believe governance of W3C, and advising thereof, is most effectively done by those who have the experience of actively collaborating in working groups producing interoperable specifications, and especially those who directly create on the web using W3C standards. This direct connection to the actual work of the web is essential to prioritizing the purpose & scope of governance of that work.   \n    Beyond effective governance, the AB has played the more crucial role of a member-driven change agent for W3C. While the Board and Team focus on the operations of keeping the W3C legal entity running smoothly, the AB has been and should continue to be where Members go to both fix problems and drive forward-looking improvements in W3C to better fulfill our Vision and Mission.   \n    I have Mozilla's financial support to spend my time pursuing these goals, and ask for your support to build the broad consensus required to achieve them.  \n    I post on my personal site tantek.com. You may follow my posts there or from Mastodon: @tantek.com@tantek.com   \n    If you have any questions or want to chat about the W3C Advisory Board, Values, Vision, or anything else W3C related, please reach out by email: tantek at mozilla.com. Thank you for your consideration.\n\nAddendum: More Candidates Blogged Nomination Statements\nSeveral other candidates (all new candidates) have also blogged their nomination statements, on their personal websites, naturally. This is the first AB election I know of where more than one candidate blogged their nomination statement. Ordered earliest published first:\nTess O\u2019Connor: \nCandidate Statement for the 2025 W3C Advisory Board (AB) election\n\nHidde de Vries: Running for the AB \n\nAnd one more candidate blogged about why he is running:\n\nDaniel Appelquist: Why am I running for W3C Advisory Board?",
        "html": "<h2>Foreword</h2>\n<p>The World Wide Web Consortium (<abbr>W3C</abbr>) is holding its regular annual Advisory Board (<abbr>AB</abbr>) election this month. \nI was <a href=\"https://tantek.com/2023/158/t1/congrats-elected-w3cab-members\">elected two years ago</a> after being elected to a \n<a href=\"https://tantek.com/2022/334/b1/running-for-w3c-advisory-board-special-election\">six month term</a> \n(See <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2002/ab/history/\">full <abbr>AB</abbr> members history</a>). \nThis is my 2025 <abbr>AB</abbr> election nomination statement posted on my blog, in addition to the \n<a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2025/04/ab-nominations\">official \n Nominations and Statements for <abbr>W3C</abbr> Advisory Board 2025 Election page</a>.\n</p>\n<h2>Tantek \u00c7elik is nominated by <a href=\"https://www.mozilla.org/\">Mozilla Foundation</a>. <br />\n    Nomination statement from Tantek \u00c7elik:</h2>\n<p>Hi, I'm <a href=\"https://tantek.com/\">Tantek \u00c7elik</a> and I'm running for the <abbr>W3C</abbr> Advisory Board (<abbr>AB</abbr>) to build on the momentum the <abbr>AB</abbr> has built with transitioning <abbr>W3C</abbr> to a community-led and values-driven organization. I have been participating in and contributing to <abbr>W3C</abbr> groups and specifications for over 25 years.</p>\n    <p>I am Mozilla\u2019s Advisory Committee (<abbr>AC</abbr>) representative and previously served on the <abbr>AB</abbr> for several terms, starting in 2013, with a two year break before returning in 2020. In early years I drove the movement to shift <abbr>W3C</abbr> to more open licenses for specifications, and more responsiveness to the needs of open source communities and independent website publishers.</p>\n    <p>Most recently on the <abbr>AB</abbr> I <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/2025_Priorities#Vision\">led the <abbr>AB</abbr>\u2019s Priority Project for a <abbr>W3C</abbr> Vision</a> as contributor and editor, taking it through wide review, and consensus at the <abbr>AB</abbr> to a vote by the <abbr>AC</abbr> to adopt <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/w3c-vision/\">the Vision</a> as an official <abbr>W3C</abbr> Statement.</p>\n    <p>Previously I also co-chaired the <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/wiki/Socialwg\"><abbr>W3C</abbr> Social Web Working Group</a> that produced several widely interoperably deployed <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/wiki/Socialwg#Recommendations\">Social Web Standards</a>. Mastodon and other open source software projects built a social network on ActivityPub and other social web specs which now require maintenance from implementation experience. As such, I have participated in the Social Web Incubator Community Group and helped draft a new charter to restart the Social Web Working Group and maintain these widely adopted specifications.</p>\n    <p>With several members stepping down, the <abbr>AB</abbr> is experiencing much higher than usual turnover in this election.</p>\n    <p>I am running for re-election to both help with continuity, on the Vision project and other efforts, and work with new and continuing Advisory Board members to build a fresh, forward looking focus for the <abbr>AB</abbr>.</p>    \n    <p>I believe governance of <abbr>W3C</abbr>, and advising thereof, is most effectively done by those who have the experience of actively collaborating in working groups producing interoperable specifications, and especially those who directly create on the web using <abbr>W3C</abbr> standards. This direct connection to the actual work of the web is essential to prioritizing the purpose &amp; scope of governance of that work.</p>   \n    <p>Beyond effective governance, the <abbr>AB</abbr> has played the more crucial role of a member-driven change agent for <abbr>W3C</abbr>. While the Board and Team focus on the operations of keeping the <abbr>W3C</abbr> legal entity running smoothly, the <abbr>AB</abbr> has been and should continue to be where Members go to both fix problems and drive forward-looking improvements in <abbr>W3C</abbr> to better fulfill our Vision and Mission.</p>   \n    <p>I have Mozilla's financial support to spend my time pursuing these goals, and ask for your support to build the broad consensus required to achieve them.</p>  \n    <p>I post on my personal site <a href=\"https://tantek.com/\">tantek.com</a>. You may follow my posts there or from Mastodon: @tantek.com@tantek.com</p>   \n    <p>If you have any questions or want to chat about the <abbr>W3C</abbr> Advisory Board, Values, Vision, or anything else <abbr>W3C</abbr> related, please reach out by email: tantek at mozilla.com. Thank you for your consideration.</p>\n\n<h2>Addendum: More Candidates Blogged Nomination Statements</h2>\n<p>Several other candidates (all new candidates) have also blogged their nomination statements, on their personal websites, naturally. This is the first AB election I know of where more than one candidate blogged their nomination statement. Ordered earliest published first:</p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://tess.oconnor.cx/2025/04/AB\">Tess O\u2019Connor: \nCandidate Statement for the 2025 W3C Advisory Board (AB) election\n</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://hidde.blog/ab/\">Hidde de Vries: Running for the AB </a></li>\n</ul><p>\nAnd one more candidate blogged about why he is running:\n</p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://www.torgo.com/blog/2025/05/why-am-i-running-for-w3c-advisory-board.html\">Daniel Appelquist: Why am I running for W3C Advisory Board?</a></li>\n</ul>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
        "url": "https://tantek.com/",
        "photo": "https://tantek.com/photo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "44742350",
    "_source": "1",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://hachyderm.io/@brunoarine/114468888003888248",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I've stumbled upon the IndieWeb, and now I'm tempted to \"indiewebfy\" my online presence.</p><p>My first move should be a change in how and where I create content. For instance, instead of publishing on the Fediverse first, I should publish on my own microblog and THEN syndicate/replicate it to the Fediverse.</p><p><a href=\"https://indieweb.org/principles\"><span>https://</span><span>indieweb.org/principles</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://hachyderm.io/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "I've stumbled upon the IndieWeb, and now I'm tempted to \"indiewebfy\" my online presence.\n\nMy first move should be a change in how and where I create content. For instance, instead of publishing on the Fediverse first, I should publish on my own microblog and THEN syndicate/replicate it to the Fediverse.\n\nhttps://indieweb.org/principles\n\n#indieweb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-07T22:23:36+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44742129",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/114468882900128173",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Pointy Chances <a href=\"https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/6331/\"><span>https://</span><span>sightlessscribbles.com/posts/6</span><span>331/</span></a> <a href=\"https://caneandable.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
        "text": "Pointy Chances https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/6331/ #IndieWeb"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-07T22:22:18+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44742130",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "#indieweb",
        "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://einbeck.social/@christian/114468668477353787",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>First post about the rabbit hole, I fell in while I attended the <a href=\"https://einbeck.social/tags/eh22\">#<span>eh22</span></a>:</p><p>Welcome to the IndieWeb: <a href=\"https://serverless.industries/2025/05/07/welcome-to-indieweb.en.html\"><span>https://</span><span>serverless.industries/2025/05/</span><span>07/welcome-to-indieweb.en.html</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://einbeck.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://einbeck.social/tags/blog\">#<span>blog</span></a> <a href=\"https://einbeck.social/tags/PersonalSites\">#<span>PersonalSites</span></a></p>",
        "text": "First post about the rabbit hole, I fell in while I attended the #eh22:\n\nWelcome to the IndieWeb: https://serverless.industries/2025/05/07/welcome-to-indieweb.en.html\n\n#IndieWeb #blog #PersonalSites"
    },
    "published": "2025-05-07T21:27:46+00:00",
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "44741814",
    "_source": "8007",
    "_is_read": false
}