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Jay Neely

@jayneely.bsky.social

Boston (Somerville) and web explorer. Thinking about news, media business models, and the attention economy. Formerly the creator of Boston Startups Guide, co-organizer of Startup Boston, and Digital Community Builder at Boston Globe Media.

85 Posts61 Follower46 Folgt
Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · last mo.

I've been a Meetup.com member for over 20 years, but it is TRASH since Bending Spoons acquired it. Desperately needs a good alternative; Heylo's almost exclusively running-clubs and has poor discoverability, Partiful isn't good for groups. 🙁 People are craving in-person connection again.

Graph from Google Trends showing a massive spike in interest in "local events" in 2026 compared to the previous four years.
DrSinBin@drsinbin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz@igallupd.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Better search API and private lists would be so much more useful for building custom feeds than lazy, prompt-and-pray AI crap. Bluesky's search capabilities are still so inferior to Twitter's: bsky.social/about/blog/0... docs.x.com/x-api/posts/... Throw this garbage away & build features we want.

Attie@attie.ai · 4mo ago

1/ Today, we’re excited to introduce Attie, currently as an invite-only closed beta. Attie is the first agentic social app on atproto. It’s something completely new—an experiment in making building on the protocol more accessible.

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Annnnd now Digg has shut down, without even a word of warning to let users export or archive content. techcrunch.com/2026/03/13/d... My previous, unfortunately brief review of social news alternatives quoted below. 👇

Digg lays off staff and shuts down app as company retools | TechCrunch

Digg laid off a significant number of staff and shut down its app, but says it's not giving up on the startup.

techcrunch.com

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I did a fresh look through social news alternatives. Lemmy has been a good replacement for daily Reddit news checking + general discussion, but it hasn't grown more niche humanities communities. Probably the lack of UX & strong open source grognard vibes are off-putting to a lot of folks.

Screenshot from the front-page of lemmy.world, January 23rd, 2026.
Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I did a fresh look through social news alternatives. Lemmy has been a good replacement for daily Reddit news checking + general discussion, but it hasn't grown more niche humanities communities. Probably the lack of UX & strong open source grognard vibes are off-putting to a lot of folks.

Screenshot from the front-page of lemmy.world, January 23rd, 2026.
Senator Bernie Sanders@sanders.senate.gov · 12mo ago

The playbook of demagogues like Trump is to protect the Oligarchs by dividing us up based on race, religion, place of birth or sexual orientation. They want us to hate each other while they laugh all the way to the bank. Don’t fall for it.

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 12mo ago

I wonder if there's any good methodology for estimating what % of a social platform's "Monthly Active Users" # that they report to investors is just outright fraud from intentionally de-prioritizing spam account prevention.

Screenshot of multiple spammers in Facebook comments.
Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 2y ago

Huge deal for independent bookstores: www.retailtouchpoints.com/topics/retai... I see local shops like @portersqbooks.bsky.social & @lovestruckbooks.bsky.social doing a great job with curation and community-building; no longer missing out on ebook consumers' purchases could be a nice boost.

Bookshop.org Ratchets Up Battle Against Amazon with Addition of E-book Sales - Retail TouchPoints

Bookshop.org's latest salvo in its battle against Amazon is a new e-book platform for independent bookstores.

retailtouchpoints.com

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 2y ago

Boston's actual geographic bounds make the strict residency requirement for all city jobs absurd. A Brighton (neighborhood) resident is eligible; a Brookline (town) resident—geographically BETWEEN Brighton and Boston—is not. 🤦‍♂️ Cambridge & Somerville right next door? Sorry, not allowed. #BostonMA

Google maps screenshot of Greater Boston with the City of Boston limits highlighted.
Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 2y ago

Any advice for someone catching up on 6 years of WordPress development? 😬 Trying to wrap my head around how Full Site Editing / Block themes work, what I should evaluate when choosing them, how to extend them with other block patterns, and how their template system works with custom post types.

Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 2y ago

Went to a social meetup for a walk around Beacon Hill. After seeing house after house with tasteful arrangements of decorative gourds, really enjoyed seeing this guy as the sole decoration on one stoop. 😆

Decaying jack-o-lantern looking like a grumpy demon that's given up as it sags in on itself.
Jay Neely@jayneely.bsky.social · 2y ago

Loving the new #Gastronauts show from #Dropout. Comedians coming up with cooking challenges for professional chefs? Ridiculously creative food + funny heckles? Yes please. Hope this runs for for as long as Chopped so someday I can binge watch while I binge eat. 😆

Chef Jessica Tiffany Luevano, one of the contestants on the first episode of Dropout's new cooking competition show, Gastronauts.Dish for Izzy Roland's bread & butter challenge.Jordan Myrick, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Izzy Roland, and Oscar Montoya prepare for foodgasms.