A few things for you:

• The Pudding is a growing collection of visual essays. Journalism funded in new and different ways is only a good thing.
• Roel Willems likes words. It’s difficult to disagree with what he has to say here and encouraging to see yet another voice added to the pro side of simple, lightweight websites.
• The Season of Stuff. A classic article from Patrick Rhone, just in time for the end of the year.
• Christina Warren maintains a host of podcasting resources. This is a good starter pack for most people.
• Microgram is a clever tool for adding a photo grid to your hosted Micro.blog site. Jonathan LaCour has now helped to bring a welcome slice of Instagram functionality to Micro.blog, aided by the continued work of Manton Reece.
• IndieMap is a public social graph for IndieWeb sites. Ryan Barrett shows that you don’t need to destroy privacy to make interesting things with data.
  • h/t Manton Reece
• Miraz Jordan caught the moon blushing at night. A great shot of a beautiful sight.
• Wind Guide You is a very well put together collection of Skyrim environment scenes, backed by Jeremy Soule’s amazing score. After seven years it still looks so good.
• Apple’s holiday advert for this year is pretty damned good. Magical, even.
• DOGS. ON. NETFLIX.

Enjoy your weekend!

I still don’t get how they keep getting away with it.

– John Philpin, Facebook’s Dirty Tricks …

John is as concerned as I am with regard to the depth of vile incompetence at which both the Big Tech and political entities of our societies are allowed to operate at, and continue to thrive in the process.

The one thing that continues to surprise me is just how surprised so many online commenters are about this; as if corruption has not been at the heart of our so-called democracies for, well, ever.

If there’s one thing commenters can do, especially with the reach of Kottke and the like, is help build the alternatives and shine a light on the ways in which things can be improved. I understand that what’s in the news is what gets people’s eyeballs but at some point we all have to be accountable for improvement rather than mere observation.

A few things for you:

• Patrick Rhone’s One More Thing… newsletter is back. I was not a subscriber the first time around but delighted to both see it back and have access to the archive.
• Speaking of newsletters, Sameer Vasta has Weekend Reading. I’ve linked to his writing in this series more than once so you can guess how strongly I recommend the subscription.
• Brad Enslen has a question about blogging. Unsurprisingly it’s a question worth asking, and one that we ought be able to more easily answer. Brad is working on these kinds of problems with people in mind and that’s exactly why you ought to pay attention to what he has to say, just as those who have replied to him did so.
• There’s a new directory for websites on Neocities: Districts. This kind of curated work is one of the best ways we can counter the algorithm-centred mainstream web.
  • h/t Brad Enslen
• The folks at The Criterion Collection are launching a streaming service and you can become an early subscriber. Having a dedicated service for these films is an excellent idea; I am looking forward to watching films that I had not previously been aware I could access at all, let alone so easily.
• De Dag Original Series Soundtrack on SoundCloud. David Martijn has created two tracks reminiscent of the excellent score for The Social Network.
  • h/t Kohan Ikin
• Koritsimou has some excellent advice for those who snort when laughing and I am in full agreement. :)
• Speaking of excellent advice, this post on Tumblr from KiwianAroha includes a tl;dr that ought to be on signs everywhere.
  • h/t Kelly Joule
• Last but very much not least: puppies + snow = bliss.

Enjoy your weekend!

I think pushback against Instagram is coming, as more people who have already left Facebook also remember that Instagram has the same leadership, and the platform is far enough off track that even the founders have left. It’s a good time to be posting photos to your own blog instead of Instagram.

– Manton Reece, Breaking up Facebook is up to us

One of the things that always keeps me away from going back to the “easy” option of just using social media is the reminder that the same people who like to brag about “indpendent thought” and “independent speech” also use Facebook heavily for promotion and the like. A platform that so readily allows this illogical behaviour to thrive, and cause so much destruction, is never a platform any actual independently motivated person ought to invest in let alone trust.

I look forward to the continued growth of a diverse, independent ecosystem of small and flexible platforms to replace mainstream social media. Now more than ever we need the people making these platforms to understand that people do use these big platforms for real, practical reasons and the only way to move power away from such deeply flawed platforms is to provide usable alternatives.

We are only at the beginning of these efforts but speed is of the essence; the mainstream platforms hold sway over enough of the right people to damage the lives of millions of people, and those of us privileged enough to be born into the ill-gotten wealth of the tech-heavy Western world must lead the charge for higher standards across the board.

A few things for you:

• To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men. Jean MacDonald with poignant words, in Protest.
• WordPress moves one way, Micro.blog the other. Jack Baty hitting that nail squarely on its head.
  • h/t Jonathan LaCour
• The Rain Is Here in DiplomaticDiva’s mesmerising photograph. You can answer her question right here.
• Analytics without tracking or data storage is an intriguing idea. Hopefully Fathom is the real deal.
  • h/t Jack Baty
• Turns out you very much can disable Pocket from Firefox!
  • h/t Chris Neale
• Is Wernigerode even real? Alex Savin captured a photo that may be proof but is still unbelievable to behold.
• A sun-touched dog can be majestic. Thankfully James Griffin caught this moment as proof of exactly that.
• Micro.blog Community and Progress. Earlier this year Manton Reece and Jean MacDonald spoke about Micro.blog at the IndieWeb Summit. It’s a great talk that pairs well with the recently released intro video. ⭐

Enjoy your weekend!