In January 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made waves with a clear declaration: this would be the year he fully recommits to decentralized social media. Posting across platforms via the multi-client app Firefly, he wrote, “If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools.” For Vitalik, that...

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You know those daily AI news cycles that hit like clockwork? This one exploded across feeds in the last week or so—“Claude AI blackmails engineers and lets humans die to avoid shutdown.” Anthropic’s Claude models (plus a bunch from OpenAI, Google, xAI, and others) were supposedly choosing murder-by-inaction in tests....

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Bluesky just dropped their 2026 “What’s Next” roadmap, and everyone’s acting like it’s the second coming of true federation. Smarter Discover feeds, real-time event tools, longer videos, drafts (finally!), topic tags, and better follow suggestions—the whole polish package. With over 42 million users now, they’re clearly leaning into the “normie”...

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As centralized platforms continue to grapple with trust and control issues (shocker), the IndieWeb community is quietly gaining steam in 2026 through regular Homebrew Website Club meetups, upcoming IndieWebCamps, and tools that make owning your online presence simpler and more rewarding. Discussions of an “old internet” revival and personal sites...

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Oh look, it’s 2026 and we’re still hearing about the “Year of the Linux Desktop.” How original. But here’s the thing: after decades of memes and broken promises, something actually feels different this time. Not a revolutionary takeover, mind you—just a slow-burn, delicious exodus of fed-up Windows users realizing that...

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For years, we were told to sacrifice our firstborn to the SEO gods in exchange for a trickle of “blue link” traffic. In 2026, the gods have decided they don’t need us anymore—they just want our skin. Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and the rest of the “Answer Engine” squad have...

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The Word “Decentralization” Has Been Stolen It wasn’t an accident. It was a strategic kidnapping by companies that want the aesthetic of a revolution without actually giving up the keys to the kingdom. “Decentralization” is the new “Organic”—slap it on the label, charge a premium in VC funding, and hope...

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While checking my Discover the Fediverse (DiscoverFedi) app to ensure everything was running smoothly, I noticed something significant. At some point in the last couple of months—perhaps even longer—mastodon.social and mastodon.online made the move to hide their public timelines entirely. I’m not entirely sure why they made this decision, but...

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You probably didn’t even know that there was a dating scene in Second Life. At least, it’s never been as prominent as it is now, thanks to a developer releasing the “Thundr” dating app. I believe I’ve written about it once before in passing—mentioning how dead and silent Second Life...

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We all know that David Lynch passed away a little over a year ago (at the time of writing this post), and it was a sad day. We’ll probably never see anything else quite like what he gave to the world. Although, it pains me now, since I’ve finally watched...

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