Why Communal Living Might Be the Answer
When you hear the word “commune” or the term “communal living,” you might immediately think of 1960s counter-culture radicals living on a farm somewhere, or of a cult that ended…
Platforms Can Optimize for Metrics Beyond Engagement
Social media, news, music, shopping, and other sites all rely on recommender systems: algorithms that personalize what each individual user sees. These systems are largely driven by predictions of what…
What Web3 Can Learn From Archive of Our Own
Without context, fanworks might not seem like something worth preserving—a problem that long predates the web. Many fanzines and other collections have been lost forever; as the Fannish Estate Planning…
Can’t Decide What to Do About Twitter? Here Are Some Options
Not everyone is impressed with Mastodon. Some call it clunky and slow, some in the security world say it’s far from perfect, and because different servers may be run differently,…
Billionaires Are A Security Threat
These success stories are wonderful, but they all pale in comparison to Wikipedia, the greatest work of human knowledge of all time and the single most important thing ever created…
How to Get Started on Mastodon
The big difference, though, is the content warning system. This is a subtle thing to grasp but an important one. The early culture of the Fediverse and Mastodon were shaped…
Startups Have a Sellout Problem. There’s a Better Way
Onetime startups like Meta, Twitter, and Amazon are now part of the world’s infrastructure, acting as today’s local news, phone lines, and postal service. They don’t just drive economies; they’re…
Tech Companies Are Reconsidering an Old Enemy
As the midterm election season kicks into high gear, platforms across the web will begin rolling out enhanced protections to guard against digital threats to the democratic process. While every…
Could TikTok Charge Users to View Your Videos? The Law Says Yes
“At LinkedIn, we’re committed to respecting what’s yours,” says the narrator of a video titled “Who owns your content? You do.” They continue: “So we’ll always ask your permission before…
The Internet Needs You-Are-Here Maps
Many of us remember the feeling of running into a museum as a child, excited by the vast space and seemingly infinite possibility of finding that obscure dinosaur, or species…