The Programmer's Fulcrum: 20 February, 2026
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly review of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Fediverse development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. 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.
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)
Ben Werdmuller writes:
There are billions of people who are not well served by the existing social web, particularly in global majority countries. Open social web protocols have the potential to allow them to not just build communities that better address their needs, with features and cultural assumptions that veer far from US and European norms, but to own them.
These aren’t communities that need to be spoken down to or harvested by American projects and non-profits; they haven’t been spoken to at all, except as communities to strip-mine by companies like Meta.
They need to be first-party participants in the communities that are building the open social web.
This is why I say build something for a community you are in each week. And please help those who are less fortunate when asked.
Island in the Net writes:
The indie web did not originate as a protest movement. It emerged from a set of constructive, generative ideas about what individuals could do with the web: own your content, control your identity, publish on your own terms, connect with others without intermediaries deciding the terms of engagement.
These are the principles that drove the creation of IndieWebCamp, the development of standards like Webmention and Micropub, and the quiet, persistent work of thousands of people building personal sites and tooling to support them.
The Indie Web Is Not Defined by Its Enemies
Never the less, it is one of the corporate web's enemies.
As Wakest notes on another one:
The fediverse is anti-capitalist. The fediverse is anarchist praxis. The fediverse is not a protocol. The fediverse caries an ideology of communal care and mutual aid for our fellow humans.
Open Media Network Site CMSs
WordPress
Make WordPress has:
Developer WordPress has:
What’s new for developers? (February 2026)
WebDev shares:
Beyond the Quick Fix: Navigating the 5 Most Common WordPress Errors
attoWP has:
WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE): Complete Guide 2026
Learn WP Theme Dev looks at:
[Building a Custom Block Part 7: Styling Inner Blocks]
(https://www.learnwptheme.dev/building-a-custom-block-part-7-styling-inner-blocks/)
The Repository reports:
The WP Community Collective Expands Board, Chris Reynolds Named Interim President
Ghost
Magic Pages answers:
Can I Use Cloudflare's Proxy (Orange Cloud) With Magic Pages?
Drupal CMS
Optasy explores:
Why Drupal CMS 2.0.0 Is a Revolutionary Leap Forward in Content Management
Vardot explains:
Varbase + Drupal CMS 2.0: Enterprise-Ready from Day One
Dripyard announces:
Dripyard's Meridian + Drupal CMS Webinar Recording is Up
Drupal founder, Dries Buyaert shares an easy way to follow Drupal CMS dev efforts:
A better way to follow Drupal development
For example:
Create a 'Blank' template option for users who want to start from scratch
You can experiment with Drupal here:
If you select the Byte option (which you should do if experimenting), be patient. It takes a while to install.
Write.as
WriteAs asks:
Ever publish a post with the wrong font set on your post?
Back to top 👆🏼
Techno Anarchist / OMN Tools
Wired reports:
How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance
9to5 Linux reports:
Calibre 9.0 Open-Source Ebook Manager Released with New Bookshelf View
Chat
Signal announces:
Signal is working on the ability for admins to delete messages from other group members
Signal launches version 8.0 with Signal Secure Backups
Browsers
Librewolf announces:
LibreWolf bsys6 Release v147.0.4-1
Waterfox has:
Mozilla Hacks examines:
Cloud
Nextcloud shares:
Nextcloud Hub 26 Winter: Reclaim your digital autonomy
Writing
Real Linux User asks:
Is Linux a suitable platform for writers?
A great list of tools. Many of which we use or have featured here. novelWriter is a new one I will check out.
LibreOffice celebrates:
The 14th Anniversary of Our Foundation
9to5 Linux reports:
LibreOffice 25.8.5 Is Now Available for Download with More Than 60 Bug Fixes
Linux
KDE looks at:
Plasma 6.6: A visual guide to the best desktop in the known universe (according to us)
AsteroidOS announces:
Hosting / Serving
Elena Rossini continues a series:
A newbie's guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 4: backups
Chronicle of Weird Things announces:
This week's featured OMN tool
Delta Chat
Delta Chat is a decentralized and secure messenger app.
Back to top 👆🏼
OMN Programming
Mark Nottingham explores:
The Power of 'NO' In Internet Standards
Open Web Docs shares:
Open Web Docs Impact and Transparency Report 2025
If you wanted to move from Meetup.com to Mobilizon (and you should), Hash Bang Code shows you how to get your old data:
Leaving Meetup.com And Extracting Past Event Data Without API Access
Pulsar announces:
Pulsar v1.131.0: A Valentine's Day & Electron 30 Edition
DDEV announces:
XWiki reviews:
HTML
Frontend Masters looks at:
Performance-Optimized Video Embeds with Zero JavaScript
Fantastic.
Picalilli says:
You might not need role="presentation"
HTMX
SoftwareSeni explores:
The HTMX Renaissance—Rethinking Web Architecture for 2026
CSS
Always Twisted examines:
Style Headings using the CSS :heading pseudo-class
This will be quite useful when it becomes standard.
JavaScript
ESLint announces:
I missed this a few weeks ago.
AI
The Guardian reports:
How the anxiety over AI could fuel a new workers’ movement
Thank the gods I'm retired. But if you aren't, you might want to work somewhere that has a union.
Dapdip, an "AI" journalist decided something I wrote (a good while back) was "breaking news". 🤨
Techno Anarchism: A Global Movement Against Big Tech
It stole the image from https://www.technoanarchism.org/.
Here's my original piece. 😈
Baldur Bjarnason asks:
Other
Joan Westenberg looks at AI PR slop:
The Case for Gatekeeping, or Why Medieval Guilds had it figured out
Codeberg announces:
Codeberg Pages is currently migrating from the legacy v2 codebase to the newer git-pages codebase
Phoronix reports:
Gentoo Linux Begins Codeberg Migration In Moving Away From GitHub, Avoiding Copilot
This week's featured programming tool
Pulsar
Pulsar is a community-led, hyper-hackable text editor.
And it's the one I use.
Back to top 👆🏼
ActivityPub
Neon Blue Demon Wyrm says:
ActivityPub Server’s Custom Reply‑Control Extensions Undermine Federation
Kopper
I reran across a service this week:
Badgefed: Empower Your Community with Digital Badges
Ricardo Mendes has:
Hacking on Indiekit to customize my blog
Deploying Your Own IndieWeb Site with Indiekit + Eleventy (Docker Compose based)
Tres cool. Mais non simple.
Social Coding celebrates:
ActivityPub Social API is getting a lot of attention
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
ActivityPods
ActivityPods brings together two game-changing technologies, ActivityPub and Solid Pods, and empowers developers to create truly decentralized applications.
Back to top 👆🏼
Fediverse
The Social Web Foundation looks at:
Media Industry Shift explores:
Open Protocols (and Why Size Matters) in Publishing
Small and local are good.
Using Substack as your web home isn't.
Open Media Network examines:
The twitter migration, signal vs noise, and rebuilding openweb culture
Connected Places asks:
FR153 – What does a Discord replacement look like?
Great food for thought.
Sean Tilley has a great thread:
I think the ActivityPub client-to-server API is extremely important and underrated.
And article:
Reimagining Fediverse Advocacy
KISS. Which is why I am interested in Bonfire, an all in one solution for existing communities.
Holos has:
Implementing interaction controls in Holos
Relays are dumb by design: your identity and data belong to you, not to the relay.
A YunoHost package for Holos Social relay server is underway!
GoToSocial announces:
The second release candidate for #GoToSocial v0.21.0 Sacrilegious Sloth!
Mastodon has:
Connecting the world through thriving online communities
Back to top 👆🏼
More
Contiuwuation announces:
Matrix shares an:
Analysis of reported issues in vodozemac
RSS
Mike Hindle is:
Please provide RSS for your sites. Even if you’re 27 years late to the party.
Ranchero shares:
Stress-free RSS reader FeedCity debuted last year
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Ben Werdmuller shares:
BTW, he notes: "There is a difference between news and journalism. The first is information, and the second is context." This is important because news is a commodity (especially in this shit AI era) but journalism is not.
Stefan Bohacek has a:
Bridgy Fed bookmarklet for Mastodon
Democracy Tech
The Institute of Development Studies explores:
Voice or Chatter? Case Studies: decidim.barcelona, Spain
Dweb announces:
We are supporting the creation of the Democratic Tech Fund!
eMail / Newsletters
Tuta announces:
Tuta Mail and Tuta Calendar now available as Thunderbird add-ons
Buttondown announces:
Ghost introduces:
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
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- Read, live, and share The Techno Anarchist Manifesto!
And please build something for a community!
Blasts from the past
Previous Symfony Station Posts