Thoughts tagged "better web"

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On "What I learned in year four of Platformer"

Really cool to see Casey Newton's update on how things are going over at the Platformer newsletter after they left Substack. A lot of it resonates with my own experiences:

It also feels like more honest, durable growth than we saw in 2023. ...
 First and foremost, we have an honest-to-goodness website now. One where we can easily modify the design, add new features, and grow our offering over time. One reason why I write so often about the decline of the web is that I love websites as products. And our new setup gives us almost unlimited flexibility as Platformer evolves. ...
Another key benefit of leaving: We’re much less vulnerable to platform shifts than we were before. I had long worried that Substack’s unprofitable business would eventually lead it to make decisions that were not in the best interest of our readers or our business. (Besides not removing literal 1930s Nazi content, I mean.) I still have that worry for my friends who choose to build their businesses on Substack anyway. But whatever happens, it will no longer affect Platformer, and that gives me me real peace of mind. ...
It’s a decision I’m proud of — because it’s a decision we made as a community. ... Having principles can be annoying and expensive. (And make you insufferable to talk to at parties.) But it beats the alternative.

It's also cool to hear that Platformer has enjoyed solid growth, which I know a lot of people worried about when leaving the promised network effects of the Substack ecosystem:

I’m proud to report that despite leaving Substack, revenue was up about 11 percent year over year. 

Not many newsletters operate on the scale of Platformer (mine certainly included), so I'm sure their experience is unique in many ways, but it's great to have another success story from a newsletter choosing to go the even more independent route.

"What I learned in year four of Platformer".
Casey Newton in Platformer.
Ever since Platformer left Substack in January, readers have been asking us how it’s been going. Today, in keeping with our annual tradition of anniversary posts (here are one, two, and three), I’ll answer that question — and share some other observations on the state of independent media over the past year.

XOXO and that feeling

At the recent XOXO conference, I spoke about that burning feeling I get right in my upper abdomen when I’m overwhelmed with excitement or inspiration or drive to do something.

I mentioned that I’ve been feeling this a lot over the last few years, even as I too am witnessing what many of us think about as “the web” rotting right in front of our eyes. Working outside of that rot pile, and perhaps motivated by it, there are so many people who are excited about the potential for a better web.

I don’t travel much, partly because even short trips sap my energy in a way that requires a long recovery. But even as my low battery alarm is beeping away, I am feeling that burning feeling very intensely. I met so many people at XOXO who feel it too (whether about the web or a different passion).

I wish I could bottle the feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of people like this. People like Erin Kissane, who will just do the thing that needs doing because no one else is doing it. People like Gita Jackson at Aftermath, the people at 404 Media, and all of the others who are writing what needs writing, even if it means using a model for their businesses that people told them couldn’t possibly work. The too many people to name who I talked to who also feel the feeling of needing to write or draw or film or paint or code or sing or dance or photograph or tell stories because they too fear their heads might explode if they don’t.

XOXO, Molly

P.S. For those who weren’t able to attend, the video of my talk should be available online shortly.

This was one of the best podcast episodes I’ve listened to in a long time. Put it on if you’re feeling despair about the state of the internet and tech industry.

"Enzittification with Cory Doctorow & Brian Merchant".
Ed Zitron in Better Offline.
In the third live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron is joined in-studio in Los Angeles by Cory Doctorow and Brian Merchant to talk about the forces that have turned the tech industry away from innovation - and how we might turn the tide against them.
There’s people who are really angry about a lot of tech stuff who disagree with each other about everything, including whether or not they really even have a problem. But all of their problems start with the fact that there’s a lot of commercial surveillance. So these people might disagree about everything else, but they will agree that their problem could be solved if we could do something about commercial surveillance.
So if you think Mark Zuckerberg made grampy into a QAnon, or if you think Insta made your teenager anorexic, or if you think that TikTok is convincing millennials to quote Osama bin Laden, right? Or if you think that it’s ugly that red state attorneys general are following teenagers into out-of-state abortion clinics, or that Google reverse warrants reveal the identity of everyone in a black lives matter demonstration or for that matter, the January 6th riots, or if you are worried about deep fake porn, or if you’re worried that people of color are having the surveillance data captured about them mobilized to discriminate against them in employment and financial products, right? All of these different things all start with cutting off the supply of surveillance data.
– Cory Doctorow
"Cory Doctorow Coined "Enshittification." He Sees 4 Ways to End It." (Podcast).
Ethan Zuckerman in Reimagining the Internet. Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at UMass Amherst.

just realized i've had the mollywhite.net domain for over 10 years(!!)

related sneak peek into an upcoming piece: i firmly believe that if you're going to spend money on one thing online it should be a domain, particularly as online identity gets more fragmented. as platforms come and go, you can always find me there.

So excited to hear that the Ghost blogging software is going to support federation via ActivityPub! https://activitypub.ghost.org/

If you sign up for updates, they have a survey where they're asking for feedback. Now's your chance to get your suggestions in!

Cool to see Ghost taking this step, while Substack is over there trying to build walls around their product to trap people in.

Ghost's post is also how I learned that Buttondown is working on ActivityPub support! 🙌 Exciting times.