So if I understand this correctly, Bluesky is essentially giving each community its own (simplified) version of an ATProto network with a simplified protocol in what they call "Atproto Spaces" https://atproto.com/blog/atproto-spaces-alpha. "You can think of an atproto space as a miniature […]

OH: "The global townsquare is showing cracks."

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/117117221397911074 The "Powered by Mastodon", putting the identity of the instance ahead of the software, is the exact right direction to go. It conveys "this is the xyz neighborhood of an overall network", and conveys a sense of locality and local culture […]

Mastodon@mastodon.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d ago

After publishing the results of Discovery Week, we can now give you a first sneak peak at Mastodon 5.0, our next big version. It will bring a new visual look to your screens, a refreshed and calmer layout, as well as a new composer […]

Rabble is having fun! Divine is clearly wanting to be a mainstream social media product (Taco Bell!) but still avoid the negative parts of commercial media! https://about.divine.video/blog/divine-app-opens-to-public-and-announces-first-brand-collaboration/

One thing I'd love to discuss at the next #FediForum is how well we do in the Fediverse and the ATmosphere on the issues that Meta is now being sued over for hundreds of billions of dollars in California court. I hope we are doing well.

The fact that this gigantic lawsuit exists and all the attention that will be paid to it ($200 billion in damages! Maybe over a trillion if Meta is right!) represents an amazing promotion opportunity for all of us working on better forms of interacting online than closed social media platforms. 1/5

It would be worthwhile to go through the Meta charges in this mammoth lawsuit one charge at a time and determine where various open social web projects stand in comparison. And if we do well — which I hope — use that to promote what we do as better alternative […]

Hey everyone who just followed me from the workshop! #SWF is hosting a #Fediverse #meetup TONIGHT Aug 14, 2026 at 7PM at the Irish Exit inside Penn Station. Come by and hang out with other Fediverse fans. Look for the crudely-drawn F3DIV3RS3 sign and #ActivityPub logo. (Others in NYC, please […]

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/corporate-power-approaches-escape

If you have an interest in Silicon Valley beyond the tech, this is totally fascinating. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/029be00b491e487e860620342e0ae22a

Watching Our Watersheds (WOW) Historic Santa Clara Valley

A project to map the creeks, urban drainage network, watersheds, baylands, and points of interest in Santa Clara Valley.

storymaps.arcgis.com

https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/dismantling-big-tech-supremacy-one-interoperability-at-a-time/

Mark Zuckerberg writes: "Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes." Count me speechless. https://www.meta.com/thefutureisforeveryone/

Hadn’t been sure I needed a bowl to bring when getting the eggplant from the back yard. Well!

What will happen when Trump realizes he / the US is now subject of blackmail by the Iran regime forever due to the mess he got us all in? Because I don’t think he realizes this yet and nobody has had the guts to tell him.

@toni.bsky.team Hi from the other side!

In a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movie we would consider this non-credible. "An airport employees noticed the drone... He got the drone to crash from the air into the ground by [wait for it] kicking it with his foot." […]

Very interesting tidbits from the research @imanijoy performed recently. Such as: "Respondents said they still commonly use other platforms often seen as antithetical to the fediverse – including YouTube (61%), Instagram (34%), WhatsApp (30%), and Facebook (15%)." What if we designed our open […]

“both hypernormalization and AI struggle to generate radically new futures.” https://zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/business-cost-of-enshittification

Stop Enshittifying Yourself

A national survey on the impacts of businesses deprioritizing consumers for growth

zine.kleinkleinklein.com

Interesting interview with new Bluesky CEO @toni.bsky.team@bsky.brid.gy by The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/podcast/974387/bluesky-toni-schneider-interview-ai-atproto-atmosphere

I’m going to adopt this, this is a cool shape. And it explains the iOS icons. #superellipse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superellipse

Our government has a perfect score! Of misplacing countries!! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countries

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil

theguardian.com

"Worse on Purpose" is great. It focuses on consumer products, and their relentless decline in quality as brands get absorbed by enshittification-happy financial manipulators. But the site also tells you who's NOT wrecking things -- who you can still trust. https://www.worseonpurpose.com/ (I'm […]

Debian is trying to decide its AI policy. 4 very different proposals on the table. https://www.debian.org/vote/2026/vote_002

The number of needed trips to the hardware store is always N+1.

I'm looking at NLNet's site, and it seems the fund that has funded so much of Fediverse development is no more and has not been replaced by something similar. Am I reading this right? https://nlnet.nl/funding.html

I'm attempting to figure out what exactly France is banning for minors. Facebook etc? Mastodon? Bluesky? Forums? ...? I found the legal text https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/l17b3069_texte-adopte-commission but it references a bunch of definitions in other places which I've […]

My (single) slide from the panel at the EU office in San Francisco yesterday. It must have resonated because the other panelists also kept referring to it in their remarks!

Made a slide. Collected some thoughts. Have handouts. Seems I’m ready to talk to the policy people at the San Francisco office of the European Commission tonight about all the marvelous things the community is building that address the needs and wants of what people want from social media, but […]

At the hardware store waiting for a long time for the only person trained to cut a plywood sheet. Who then proceeded, and i kid you not, to attempt to cut the sheet with the saw blade at 90 degrees from the direction of the cut. And was very surprised that the blade would make contact but […]

Every year we ask admins, moderators, community builders, to tell us how things are going, what they need, and generally take the pulse of the open social web. So far this year we've had responses from 22 countries. If you're not on the list, nudge your admin to take the 5 minute survey today […]