In which I answer questions about blogging.
I’ve put a copy of this on my own site too.
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
People and Blogs: Jeremy Keith
An interview about my blog, originally published on the website People and Blogs in April 2025.
Matt Mullenweg
• Matt
Greatest Hits
I’ve been blogging now for approximately 8,465 days since my first post on Movable Type. My colleague Dan Luu helped me compile some of the “greatest hits” from the archives of ma.tt, perhaps some posts will stir some memories for you as well: Where Did WordCamps Come From? (2023) A look back at how Foo … Continue reading Greatest Hits →
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
‘The goal of a protest song is to make people feel strong and alive’: Ani DiFranco on Broadway, Fugazi and 30 years of activism
[Ani DiFranco interviewed by Kate Hutchinson in The Guardian]
Ani DiFranco, the artist I've seen live more than any other, answered my question as part of this Guardian Q&A. It's about a sobering topic, but still, this made me very happy.
Here's what I a...
Marvel: Avengers Endgame is the most ambitious crossover event in history. Adrian Tchaikovsky: Hold my beer. Literally.
Marvel: Avengers Endgame is the most ambitious crossover event in history.
Adrian Tchaikovsky: Hold my beer. Literally.
I keep coming back to this -- ChatGPT is a vast library that comes with its own librarian. And the librarian has read and digested all of it, and can give you useful and usually exactly right summaries (despite what the critics say) in an instant. I've been using libraries my whole life, going back to when I was a child. I worked with card catalogs and non-virtual book collections. Archives of news on film. View ChatGPT on that timeline and you'll see its significance. You didn't write it, I didn't. Each of us may have contributed a little, and isn't that what we want? To help build the base of human knowledge? It gives our lives meaning. Sometimes I wonder how much value people place on themselves and so little on progress. I think we all want our lives to have meaning. Well here you go, it doesn't get more meaningful than this.
One reason I want to bring blogging and social media together is so I don't have to think about where I will post stuff. This is really important. I want my blog to be a complete record of everything I write publicly. The way our online writing world has been siloized, basica...
I got a US Mail notice to answer a Census form, so being a good American I did. It was a .gov address, and looked like a government form. The initial questions were standard census questions, then they started getting into personal things that I didn't like answering. Then they asked if I was born in the US. That's a really shitty question to ask now. I was glad to see that I could just click Next without answering any question, and they got worse, more invasive, esp considering who the president is, and who he brought with him, so I just closed the page and wrote this post. I would, if I had it to do over again, not answered any of their questions, or maybe stopped at the standard Census questions from years past.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
DOGE Is Building a Master Database to Surveil and Track Immigrants
[Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott at WIRED]
The Holocaust was organized on IBM punch cards. Hitler gave the head of IBM, Watson, a medal for his services; they met in person so that Watson could receive the award. Later, they named their AI tech after him. ...
New laptop sticker, from Vintage bookstore and wine bar. Booksellers not algorithms. 🍷
Thinking about AGI. The big step that is missing is personal AI being able to learn when it answers a question. So if I use deep research and my AI goes off and spends 10 minutes researching an answer, all of that should be fed back into the model for later.
This Week in the IndieWeb
April 11-18, 2025
Recent Events
From events.indieweb.org/archive:
Homebrew Website Club - Americas
Wednesday, April 16 at 6:00pm
Homebrew Website Club Europe/London
Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00pm
foss-north 2025
April 14 - April 15
GOTHENBURG, Västra Götalands län...
To me, Objective-C has always felt expressive and capable, doubly so when I first started using it.
After Swift became popular, I felt kind of guilty still using Objective-C so heavily, but I’m over it. Micro.blog for Mac is all Objective-C. I did two new releases this week.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
If I ran Mastodon
A community platform for a vibrant, diverse social web.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
If I ran Mastodon
This is the second part in a three-part series. Part one was about Bluesky. To make sure you get part three, make sure you’re subscribed.
In 2011, I sat on a panel at SXSW Interactive with Blaine Cook, the former Twitter CTO who had demonstrated an decentralized integration...
La De Da 20 Years Later
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Trump Halts Data Collection on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change, More — ProPublica
[Alec MacGillis at ProPublica]
The statistics that help us navigate our world are under thread:
"Every year, year after year, workers in agencies that many of us have never heard of have been amassing the statistics that undergird decision-making at all lev...
Finished upgrading a server. Some things should be faster! (And some won’t be.) I’ll continue to look for places to optimize.
IndieWeb Blog Carnival — “Renewal”
reillyspitzfaden.com/posts/2025/04/indieweb-blog-carnival-renewal/
I'm working on a baseline theme for WordLand-authored sites. I want to show people how to get a good result with WordLand, even if they have plenty of experience with WordPress, but especially if they don't. I want people to look at a user's site and think "Hey I want one of those!" Not too fancy, just get out of the way and let the writer's writing stand out and look great. This is a replay of the work we did on Manila and then Radio. I hope we're able to start a designer community as vibrant and productive as the one we had a few years ago.