Spring on the Social Web

New life is blooming As a hayfever sufferer, spring isn't something I often look forward to. Even as I write this, I can smell the sickly sweet pollen from the very pretty blossoming trees across the street. I'm resisting the urge to itch my eyes. But,

Coming Together to Inspire Monumental Change on Social Media

Recarving the landscape of social media is a big ask. So, how do we do it? Together. Many of the people behind the open social web projects, whether admitted publically or not, have been struggling to stay inspired the last few months. We're all aware that, right now,

New Social: The Campaign, The Designer, & The Box

An improvise as you go classic. Once there were three adults whose names were Michael, Freddie, and Saskia. This story is about something that happened to them when they decided to do something to help raise awareness for New Social in the UK. When I started FORbetter, I never imagined

'Masculine Energy' & Social Media

Do women really control social media? After last week's announcement regarding moderation on Meta, Mark Zuckerberg has followed the trend of tech billionaires and somehow managed to make it worse. In my blog last week, I explored Meta and its relationship to decentralised social media now that it

Meta, Moderation & what it could mean for open social media

Mark Zuckerberg's latest announcement has shaken up social media in all the wrong ways. What a start to 2025. Trump is already threatening multiple nations with invasion and Musk is acting as his court jester, using X to poke at the snarling bears of European politics. Surprisingly (or

Looking back at 2024

Mostly good stuff that happened this year. 2024 is nearly over, which means this will be the last time I post on my blog this year. So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to look back. This year has been pretty monumental, for many good and some bad

Illogical vs logical: Fighting the fear of leaving X

Many have left X, but many more have stayed. Why? We need to admit something. No one knows what happens if life after X doesn't work out. If the platforms people move to fail. Rationally, when we introduce people to New Social, we point out the logical argument:

Every new platform is liberal

The psychology of trying new things. I don't think I'm being bold when I say that liberal people are more open minded. We have that statement backed up every time we read the news. Last week, I spoke about echo chambers. This blog post is somewhat

Would you let a wolf in? Echo chamber or community on social media

The echo chamber narrative is distracting us from our online community. It seems everyone has offered their 2 pence on the idea of X alternatives being an 'echo chamber'. So, here's mine. To clarify, an 'echo chamber' is a term for a space where

Even more Bluesky Growth

Bluesky is breaking ceiling after ceiling for open social media. It's getting a bit boring now isn't it? We've all heard about the success of Bluesky. I mean, even ITV News did a segment on it. Don't get me wrong, it is

X makes you complicit, it's time for nonprofits to act

Why remain on a platform that directly opposes your organisations morals? I'll start by admitting that I am angry. The thread that weaves between the lines of this blog is red and spiteful. But I think it's time we acknowledged our emotions. A week ago, Trump

Hope & The Power of a Year

It's been one year since the Newsmast app launched publically. A lot has changed. The thing with building in a decentralised space is that it's constantly changing. That can be hard to keep up with but, personally, I love it. Instead of one omnipotent platform, multiple

Building a platform that sticks

A cool platform isn't enough to make the biggest audience stick around. As we explore social alternatives, there's a feeling of uncertainty, a question. Will this one stick? To be successful, a social media platform shouldn't just onboard users, but keep them there -

Why you'll never have a 'town square' on most social platforms

Can open social platforms offer an alternative? Is 'town square' even the right metaphor? The 'digital town square' is an idea X seems to have their claws in. It's not a bad one either. The town square analogy plays on our emotion, it suggests

Marketing in Uncharted Territory

How do we 'sell' an idea of the social media future? The social internet is changing. We're turning our backs on the established micro-blogging platforms, the places that are feeling less platform and more Big Brother day-by-day. It won't happen overnight, but it has

Eyes on the Future: FediForum September 2024

FediForum Sep 24 saw some of the biggest names in the open social web come together. Imagine walking into a room and seeing people from Threads, Flipboard, Bluesky, WordPress, Mastodon and Ghost. Then imagine those people aren't just the outreach team sent to a conference, but the people

The Future of Social Media: Are Ethics Enough?

The idea of democratic and open Fediverse aligns with many nonprofits, NGOs, and activists - but is that enough? The Fediverse, a network of decentralised interoperable social media platforms, is seen by many as the future of social media. It's a return to what social media was meant

The 'X-odus' (UK Edition)

More and more people in the UK are leaving X, so where are they going? As I explored in my blog post Mojo Dojo Casa House: X & Masculinity - X has become a bit of a bin fire. It was further proven recently when, after three young girls were

All About Community: Newsmast 3.1.0

Newsmast introduces a string of new features, perfect for growing a community online. There is a vast array of Mastodon clients and Fediverse enabled social platforms - many of which have their own app. Each one serves a certain type of audience. Mammoth captures the sleek iOS feel, IceCubes has

The Fediverse just got some street cred, thanks to Threads

Threads (finally) took a brave step towards the Fediverse Yesterday, Threads used their platform to put spotlight on the Fediverse by inviting Block Party co-founder Tracy Chou and Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue to an AMA (ask me anything) on the Fediverse - hosted by the Threads brand account. With 4.

Rebellion of Machine Perfection

Machines scroll among us. Whilst on Threads recently, I saw a post by Ghost creator, John O'Nolan, wondering why a TikTok trend saw users intentionally miming audio out of sync. The reply, by Robert Stephens, inspired this blog. John O’Nolan (@johnonolan) on ThreadsI assume this makes me

Mojo Dojo Casa House: X & Masculinity

Say goodbye to the Twitter you knew, Musk's X is stomping on the grave. I've recently had the displeasure of going back to X (aka Twitter), a platform that continues to turn further and further from the light it once was. The platform is a lot

Influencing Influencers

How do you change the way the professionals do social media? Social media is a job. That is not up for debate. It's a complicated mix of marketing, design, and PR - surprisingly few people can do it. But what do you do when you want to influence

Laying the Rage Bait: Journalism on Social Media

Social media is a battlefield of information. More than ever, we are seeing news providers being beaten up by the current structure of information sharing online. There is a fight for relevance. Headlines, images, & NIBs are all crafted to pull in engagement. I want to explore how I think

Answering ARMY's Question: What is the Fediverse & How Do We Get Involved?

Since my last blog took off, thanks to BTS' ARMY, this one's for you and for anyone else curious about this Fediverse/Social Web/social-media-in-an-interconnected-network thing. If you missed it, I ended my last blog with an introduction to the Fediverse for ARMY new to Bluesky. Since