2026-01-28 03:50:27
NetNewsWire 7 is out with a UI update for Liquid Glass. Don’t worry, it fits well on macOS 26 without going too far with the design. All the menu icons are also hidden, which I like.
2026-01-28 00:56:34
Growing the Open Social Web, an un-workshop from the FediForum folks with a new format:
Prior to the un-workshop, we invite participants to submit a short post or position paper that summarizes their own perspectives on the subject. […] In advance of the event, we distribute a (lightly curated) set of these position papers to other participants of the un-workshop for preparation.
I like this. I’m traveling that day so might miss it, but maybe some Micro.blog people would like to participate.
2026-01-28 00:27:19
Bethany blogging about a GoFundMe in Minneapolis:
Many people have not been able to work for the past month or more, either because they are personally afraid to leave their homes, or their workplaces have closed (out of caution or because too many employees have been taken to continue operating), or because a wage-earner in their household has been taken. If you’re looking for a very specific, focused place to give, please consider this GoFundMe which is to give rent relief to some of these families in the Twin Cities, primarily South Minneapolis.
2026-01-27 22:59:50
I’ve been working on a few blog post drafts that I can’t seem to finish. Sometimes editing makes a post better and sometimes worse. This is part of the appeal of microblogging… Less chance of overthinking simple ideas.
2026-01-27 21:58:24
Another good Jimmy Kimmel show last night. It says something about the time we are living in when a comedy monologue does not even attempt to be funny for like 10 minutes.
2026-01-26 22:58:47
Daniel Supernault had a series of posts over the weekend promoting Loops, his TikTok-inspired app focused on short-form video, but open source and connecting to the fediverse. This one sentence stood out to me:
If it’s not open source, you’re not the user, you’re the product being sold.
I don’t agree with this. It’s like an extreme version of the classic “you’re the product” line about ad-based platforms.
I’ve noticed a trend in the fediverse of thinking there’s nothing except open source and VC-backed companies. But there is so much in between. I love small, bootstrapped companies that just charge a fair price to users without outside funding or ads.
Some of my favorite apps and services are like that. Acorn, MarsEdit, Nova, Feedbin, Day One. You can prefer open source, but there’s no way that I’m “the product being sold” by using Acorn.
Open source is great. All of the Micro.blog apps are open source. But for platforms, open APIs have always been more important to me than open source. Mastodon is open source yet has no way to import posts, so it’s not well suited as a place where you can own your content in the way a blog enables.
Bluesky’s approach with AT Protocol also enables new options for social web portability. It’s a fascinating paradox because while VC-funded, it is the most open large platform ever built, with an almost IndieWeb-inspired view of usernames and ownership.
The fediverse has been a great step forward for the web. It doesn’t need to be the final destination, in its current form. We can do more with identity and content ownership. Maybe one day we’ll see a blending of the technologies currently powering the social web.
Open source gives power to developers. An open platform gives power to everyone. The web needs business models that can sustain both.