Hi everybody! My favorite day has arrived, the day I can look in the rearview and watch the holiday season diminish into the west. (Sorry, I rewatched LotR this week.)
So, the position I'd held for 30yrs was eliminated by D*G* back in July, and I've been scrambling to get my official retirement set up AND just healing from the shock since then. I find myself starting 2026 in a good place. I'm inspired and setting up for a new project, starting today. Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose. 😊
Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The Post-American Internet; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/
1/
The dystopia moves fast.
March 3: LA Times launches Insights feature. "Now the voice and perspective from all sides can be heard, seen and read —no more echo chamber," says publisher Pat Soon-Shiong.
March 4: Insights feature removed after trying to defend Ku Klux Klan, reports The Daily Beast.
Miss Brown to You at the Jazz Lab this Saturday, March 8th!
8:00 PM. We probably won't sell out but if you want to reserve a table click here:
https://calendar.uco.edu/jazz-lab/event/8862-miss-brown-to-you
We'll have our quartet; Roger Kimball, sax and Todd Balcom, drums. Some Joni Mitchell tunes on the list!
Today Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new, European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control. #MastodonNonProfit
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/
It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control.
In the early days of #WordPress, I had a plugin in the official repository that was moderately popular.
Despite it being open source, I got a couple of offers to sell it. Anyone could fork it, so what I'd be selling was the power to publish a 1-click update to thousands of sites.
This is why Automattic's fork of #WPEngine's ACF plugin is not just a fork. A fork would not automatically replace the original. They're abusing their power to replace one of the ecosystem's most popular products.
Cory Doctorow
God 
A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck 🦆
Patrick O'Keefe
Mary Catherine Reynolds
Taylor Lorenz
Mastodon
Roy Tanck