Happy 25th anniversy to A Dao Of Web Design by John Allsopp:
https://alistapart.com/article/dao/
Still relevant after all these years!
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
I don’t delete my blog posts… even when it would be easier for me if I did. For longer posts I might add a note at the end to correct something, but most of the time I let it stand, or hope that replies on the post are enough clarification. The blog as a whole is the work.
Went for a stroll around The Shire this afternoon.
Went for a stroll around The Shire this afternoon.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
What was Quartz?
[Zach Seward]
I first met Zach Seward when he was running Quartz, the news startup with the quippy haiku notifications that had, at the time, captured a lot of the media world's attention. It was really good. This piece, by Zach, is written on the heels of t...
Of all the harm I was expecting from Trump’s second term, I did not expect a market crash this soon. We basically put everything we had into the house down payment when we moved this year. I’m sure there are people who had savings and investments ready for a similar move who are now facing disaster.
Ah, Shopify! Where would Breitbart be without you? Now the CEO of Shopify demands that every developer there uses “AI” to enable swastika merchants to make even more moolah. (Hi to my “friends” who work there!)
Ah, Shopify! Where would Breitbart be without you?
Now the CEO of Shopify demands that every developer there uses “AI” to enable swastika merchants to make even more moolah.
(Hi to my “friends” who work there!)
AI at Shopify
Tobias Lütke, in a memo to employees at Shopify, re-posted on Twitter / X:
Using Al effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify. It’s a tool of all trades today, and will only grow in importance. Frankly, I don’t think it’s feasible to opt out of lea...
Hillary Clinton makes a very important point. "Republicans in Congress can put a stop to this at any time." By this, she means the crashing US economy. And even if you believe they'll "never do it" -- it's still the right thing to repeat this over and over -- people should know they could. This should be repeated until enough people get it, this is being done on purpose by the Repubs. This isn't about winning elections, it's about understanding who's doing this to you and how deliberate it is.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Social Security’s website keeps crashing, as DOGE demands cuts to IT staff
[Lisa Rein, Hannah Natanson and Elizabeth Dwoskin at The Washington Post]
More "efficiency" from DOGE:
"Retirees and disabled people are facing chronic website outages and other access problems as they attempt to log in to their online Social Security accou...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The Tumblr revival is real—and Gen Z is leading the charge
[Eve Upton-Clark at Fast Company]
I love this. Tumblr is so back:
"Thanks to Gen Z, the site has found new life. As of 2025, Gen Z makes up 50% of Tumblr’s active monthly users and accounts for 60% of new sign-ups, according to data shared with Business Ins...
ooh.directory blog
• Phil Gyford
The most linked-to domains
It's been over a year since the previous update. Last year was a difficult one here, but the site kept ticking over and I'm now getting back on top of things. As a result, here's the first new little feature for some time.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
How X Is Benefiting as Musk Advises Trump
[Kate Conger in The New York Times]
Here's one way Elon Musk is gaining from his involvement in the current administration:
"The positioning of X as a powerful government mouthpiece has helped bolster the platform, even as the company continues to struggle."...
A question on GitHub: Is OPML the native file format for Drummer? It's better to first use the product or read the docs or search on web or use an AI chatbot before getting humans involved. Anyway, the answer is yes, OPML is the native file format of Drummer. It's the reason...
Once Again From the Top • Jason Santa Maria
Welcome back, Jason!
Denial
The Wikimedia Foundation, stewards of the finest projects on the web, have written about the hammering their servers are taking from the scraping bots that feed large language models.
Our infrastructure is built to sustain sudden traffic spikes from humans during high-in...
I’m sitting comfortably in my chair at home while my brother is running a 300 mile race through Arizona. https://trackleaders.com/monster25i.php?name=Eoin_Keith
I’m sitting comfortably in my chair at home while my brother is running a 300 mile race through Arizona.
A pragmatic browser support strategy | Go Make Things
- Basic functionality should work on any device that can access the web.
- Extras and flourishes are treated as progressive enhancements for modern devices.
- The UI can look different and even clunky on older devices and browsers, as long as it doesn’t break rule #1.
Snook Dreams of the Web - Snook.ca
snook.ca/archives/accessibility_and_usability/snook-dreams-of-the-web
If we were to follow Jiro’s and his apprentices’ journeys and imagine web development the same way then would we ask of our junior developers to spend the first year of their career only on HTML. No CSS. No JavaScript. No frameworks. Only HTML. Only once HTML has been mastered do we move onto CSS. And only once that has been mastered do we move onto JavaScript.
AI ambivalence | Read the Tea Leaves
Here’s the main problem I’ve found with generative AI, and with “vibe coding” in general: it completely sucks out the joy of software development for me.
I hate the way they’ve taken over the software industry, I hate how they make me feel while I’m using them, and I hate the human-intelligence-insulting postulation that a glorified Excel spreadsheet can do what I can but better.
ArtLung
• Joe Crawford