The Programmer's Fulcrum: 15 May, 2026
Here's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Fediverse development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism.
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Fediverse development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism.
As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism.
IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno Anarchist Manifesto to build your own site(s) to participate in the Open Media Network. Then you should share it (them) via Real Simple Syndication (RSS), the Fediverse, and possibly a newsletter or podcast. This approach is similar to what some call the IndieWeb and its POSSE philosophy.
The second best strategy is to have accounts on the Fediverse and use the hell out of them. And do the same with a RSS feed reader.
We publish TPF on Fridays so you can enjoy it over your weekend.
There's good stuff in all of our categories, so please take the time to enjoy and bookmark the items most relevant to your goals. We hope you are inspired to create new ones.
Or you can jump straight to your favorite section.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And may involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ´em.
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Featured Item(s)
Matt Duggan writes:
I am, mostly, grateful for the bounty the internet has provided. But there is something wrong, deeply wrong, with what we built. The wrongness was there at the start. It was baked into the foundation by people who told themselves a story about freedom, and that story was a lie, and we are all, every one of us, paying their tab.
The Intolerable Hypocrisy of Cyber-libertarianism
If you want to understand why 60 and up slightly anarchic punks like me feel, think, and act the way we do, read this.
Eirene Evripidou writes:
A poem on your own site can sit quietly for years and still feel alive. The same poem posted to a social platform is usually swallowed in hours, buried under trends, adverts, and the anxious theatre of relevance.
That is the real tension in open web vs social media. It is not only about where we publish. It is about who sets the conditions for attention, memory, authorship, and voice.
For artists, writers, and independent thinkers, this distinction matters more than the usual platform debates admit.
We also published an article this week. It’s in the Fediverse section under Bonfire.
CMSs
Josh Brody says:
We made this hard: over-engineering the web
A beautiful explanation of KISS. And as a 62 year old, I can relate.
Silex announces:
Silex is now officially an ow2 project
This may be worth checking out.
Pure Blog is:
Upgrading to v3.0.0 and Moving to Codeberg
Bon.
Grizzly Gazette shows us:
How to make your blog more accessible, and why you should care
pckt is:
Settling in, and looking ahead
Pica announces:
Password-protected Posts and Pages
Musa Al-hassy explores:
Blogging with Emacs & Org-mode
Simon Reep announces:
I wrapped up the initial, biggest part of the docs overhaul for Faircamp 2.0
Terence Eden shows us how to:
Find WordPress blog posts with missing featured images - and missing alt text - without a plugin
Useful.
Ghost
Ghost announces:
Great but unfortunately, this may only be for Pro plans.
Magic Pages announces:
AI Crawler Controls on Magic Pages
Same here.
Micro.blog
Micro.blog announces:
Back to top 👆🏼
Tools
Ben Werdmuller states:
AI may be the new gatekeepers, but human connection is more needed than ever
Yep. But, don't get discouraged. We have more tools to fight back with than ever.
Wladimir Wofty examines:
Non-paper by the Netherlands: an integrated approach for the EU tech sovereignty package
LibreOffice announces:
Projects selected for LibreOffice in the Google Summer of Code 2026
Chat
Signal announces:
Signal adds extra confirmations and education to help prevent phishing
Browsers
LibreWolf announces:
LibreWolf v150.0.2-1 is now available
Search
TugaTech announces:
xPrivo 4.0 lança índice de pesquisa europeu totalmente independente
Kagi shares:
Tips to get precise, more relevant results for academic work
Internet Exchange looks at:
Cloud
It's FOSS shares:
I Moved My Photos from OneDrive to Ente Photos, and I'm Not Going Back
Nextcloud reports:
Writing
Joplin shares:
The improved markdown editor significantly improves the writing experience.
Creative
Kdenlive announces:
Linux/Open Android
9to5Linux reports:
TUXEDO BM 15 Is an Upgradable Business Linux Laptop with Smartcard and 4G LTE
KDE Receives Over €1M from Sovereign Tech Fund for Software Development
This may have driven it to some degree:
EU OS proposes to equip public sector computers with KDE and distribute software also via Flatpak.
PostmarketOS has:
postmarketOS in 2026-04: new boot splash
New financed postmarketOS project: q6voice(d)
DTMF tones are broken on the PinePhone with latest ModemManager
Larvitz Blog explores:
FreeBSD Resource Monitoring, Accounting, and Troubleshooting
Juhani Lehtimäki notes:
The upcoming F-Droid 2.0 (in alpha release) UI is modern and easy-to-use
F-Droid shares:
Please check out Snowflake Volunteer.
Heise reports:
Google's new reCAPTCHA: Potential hurdle for Google-free Android variants
Golem has more:
Neue Recaptcha-Abfrage für Google-freie Smartphones problematisch
Just more of Google's c^ntness in destroying the internet.
Hosting / Serving
MakefileFeld says:
My Mail Hosting Has Come Full Circle
Probably Odyssey shows us how to:
Secure Home Server Access with Caddy, Tailscale, and Cloudflare
Local First
Prototype Fund examines:
The Road to a Local-First App Ecosystem
This week's featured OMN tool
Bludit
Bludit lets you create your own website in seconds. It's a simple, fast, secure, flat-file CMS.
Back to top 👆🏼
Programming
LibreOffice looks at:
Why a digital document is a piece of software, and what that means for your freedom
Great article.
Anna Filina says:
You heard of enshittification. I propose its spiritual successor: ensloppification.
And Mat Marquis says:
No web standard should require you to agree to an advertising company’s “terms of use.”
See my Google comment above.
Lucas Cantor has an Eleventy ( now Build Awesome) case study:
Great stuff, Lucas.
Kevin Boone shares:
Git
Tao Bojlén explores:
Forgejo announces:
Forgejo 15.0.2 and 11.0.14 were just released
Not to be outdone by GitHub's fiasco, GitLab announces:
GitLab is officially becoming ShitLab.
Markdown
Rob Hoeijmakers examines:
Markdown, the WD-40 of Digital Information
An apt metaphor.
HTML
Frank Taylor says:
One to bookmark.
Olivier Forget announces:
Interesting side project. But, I think a Hotwire derivative is what he's looking for.
Jim Nielsen
Out With the JS, In With the HTML
Let's all out with the JS as much as possible.
CSS
Speaking of, LLBBL looks at:
Three CSS Features That Finally Let Us Delete the JavaScript
vtbag explores:
View Transition Names and Generated Pseudo-Elements
CSS Wizardry examines:
Better Browser Caching with No-Vary-Search
Ahmad Shadeed looks at:
Frontend Masters demonstrates:
Repeating Square Dots Backgrounds in CSS
It's overkill, but still an interesting effect.
Web Components
Xoron continues a series:
AI
Where's your Ed at? explores:
Premium: AI's Circular Psychosis
By the gods, this horseshit can’t collapse soon enough. Thunor my Lord, strike them dead! 🌩️💀
The Register reports:
Anthropic’s bug-hunting Mythos was greatest marketing stunt ever, says cURL creator
This week's featured programming tool
Zeroform
Zeroform is a static and dynamic online form generator.
Back to top 👆🏼
ActivityPub
Rasterweb explores:
Fedify announces:
Fedify security updates: 1.9.10, 1.10.9, 2.0.16, 2.1.12, and 2.2.1
BotKit security updates: 0.3.2 and 0.4.1
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
Emissary
Emissary is a Fedi server built for end users, developers, and admins.
Back to top 👆🏼
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
FR 162 – EU Regulation Won’t Save Open Social Networks
Well fuck. :(
Jaz-Michael King continues a series:
There Are a Million Fediverses. Some of Them Are Louder than Others.
There are some good points here.
Forge CMS announces:
Forge-social: scheduling social posts from your Forge CMS
FediForum announces:
The Fediverse now has its own link-in-bio, with new project FediProfile
Elefeed announces:
Elefeed was created to experiment with new ways to manage and view content on Mastodon
Fedilab Apps has:
CastLab supports FCast because it is an open source casting protocol
Holos announces:
MMMX has recommendations:
Vernissage announces:
We released #Vernissage 1.36.0
Steve Mookie Kong shares:
After three months and 1.6k posts later on snac ...
Engadget reports:
Threads users are pissed they can't block Meta's new AI chatbot
Inevitable enshittification for people shitty enough to use or federate with it.
Stefan Bohacek shows us:
How to make a website in 5 minutes: (Almost) No code version
For the few non-developers reading this.
Bonfire
We published:
It's Time to Savor the Flavours of Bonfire
Back to top 👆🏼
More
Arstechnica has:
RIP social media. What comes next is messy.
Prosocial Design promotes:
Quality Scores: Increase engagement with high quality content
Great idea, if you could actually implement it.
A New Social (the BridyFed, Bounce peeps) has:
Webrings
scientiac::syntropy shares a generic:
Merci!
RSS
Rob Fahrni explores:
Mijndert Stuij examines:
Fixing headline-only RSS feeds with rss-fulltext
WaspDev advises:
Avoid using < ![CDATA[ ... ]] > in RSS
FreshRSS announces:
And Terry Godier announces:
Current v1.0.14 is rolling out now
XMPP
Movim shares:
Other Federated Social Media
Hamish Campbell shares:
A fluff view of current tech we need to compost
More on the bullshit that is W Social.
The Internet Review says it's:
Time for Another Bluesky Vibe Check (and Happy 10th Birthday, Mastodon!)
Stefan Bohacek shares:
Latinsky and Medsky, brought to you by Blacksky's Acorn system, coming VERY soon
Daniel's Leaflets asks:
Permissioned Data Diary 5: What’s in a Name?
Charlotte Som has:
Plox: lazy-trust verifiable, on-PDS bulk did:plc operation archival
Democracy Tech
The Waving Cat announces:
New publication: The Little Book of Public Interest Technology
Bert Hubert reviews:
The First Democratic Tech Alliance Assembly
eMail / Newsletters
The Verge reports:
Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax
Note it's not the Nazi bar aspect, it's the fees. 😱 Fuck Substack. And its users.
Applied Cartography looks at:
CTAs
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And please build something for a community!
Blasts from the past
Previous Symfony Station Posts