Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It originally appeared on The Fulcurm.
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.
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.
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.
Featured Item(s)
First, we are featuring our debut article published on The Fulcrum this week.
We write:
It's our view that Bonfire not only has the potential to revolutionize the Fediverse and Open Social Media but the internet as well.
With it we can create digital spaces we fully control. There is no need to tolerate billionaires, algorithms, or enshittification. We, the individual citizens of the world can shape our own open social web.
Grab a seat at our Bonfire: the revolutionary community platform
Be sure to read it because IMHO Bonfire is one of the most important platforms we cover here.
Anil Dash writes:
It can be easy to feel overwhelmed at such an unprecedented time in the industry, especially when there’s so much change happening. But there are concrete actions you can take to have agency over your own career, and to insulate yourself from the bad actors and maximize your own opportunities — even if some of those bad actors are your own bosses.
How the hell are you supposed to have a career in tech in 2026?
My unsolicited advice is to still treat AI like the horseshit 95% of it is, but work in the governmental, non-profit, or small business areas. Fuck big tech and tech bro startups.
Open Media Network Website CMSs
Kevin Blades is back with:
The New Digital Counter-Culture
Denis Petitclerc has:
Votre formulaire contact marche bien ou pas
WordPress
WordPress has:
How to Build an Interactive WordPress Theme Demo with Playground Blueprints
A Year in the Plugins Team – 2025
How to Choose WordPress Hosting: A Guide for Any Skill Level
Be Accessible shows us:
How to Make Your WordPress Website Accessible
And Drazin Bebic shows us:
How to Add Settings Pages to WordPress Plugins: A Developer's Guide
WordPress plugins are important. Just look at ActivityPub. But lets minimize our use of them.
Haurand shares:
Block Theme: Template-Teil in Template einfügen
FAIR announces:
Discover, trust, install: FAIR 1.0 is here
Give explores:
Fundraising on WordPress: the complete guide for nonprofits
Ghost
MagicPages has:
Enhanced Security Layer with CrowdSec WAF
Ghost Redirects Not Working? Here's Why (And How to Fix It)
Cathy Sarisky examines:
Abusing the split helper for "short codes" in Ghost
Synthetic Horizons shows us how to:
Deploy Ghost on Scaleway Serverless Containers: A Production-Grade, Stateless Deployment Guide
Lochy announces:
Private RSS for paid newsletters
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Drupal CMS
Florida DrupalCamp promotes:
The state of JavaScript Code Components in Drupal Canvas
Be sure to watch this when the audio and slides are released. Unless you are one of the lucky few attending the camp.
Grav CMS
I didn't come across anything this week on Grav
CMS. So, I'm sharing this previous article of mine.
Building a Simple Grav CMS Theme with Twig, PHP, and CSS
Micro.blog
Manton Reece explains:
I am thinking of starting an experimental Micro.blog site.
Techno Anarchist and OMN Tools
Signal reports:
Signal massively downloaded amid rising tensions, number one in Denmark
Framasoft looks at:
Les Accords du Lion d’Or, un tiers-lieu à dimension culturelle en cours de dégafamisation
Great case study.
CoMaps shows us:
Browsers
Alternative To shares:
Our honest take on the best Firefox-based web browsers for top privacy and customization
I use Zen, Librewolf, and Waterfox personally.
Cloud
Nextcloud has:
Four reasons to consolidate collaboration for your online workspace
Writing
It’s FOSS has:
I Thought this Wikipedia App for Linux was Pointless (I Was Wrong)
Linux
PostmarketOS reports:
postmarketOS Tweaks integrated into Phosh Mobile Settings
DistroWatch has its latest:
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1154, 5 January 2025
This week's featured OMN tool
Web Components is a suite of different technologies allowing you to create reusable custom elements — with their functionality encapsulated away from the rest of your code — and utilize them in your web apps.
Be sure to read the great article from LogRocket below.
OMN Programming
Hamish Campbell says:
We fucked up… and that matters because we still have agency
Lionel Dricot explores:
How Github monopoly is destroying the open source ecosystem
A little dramatic. But still, no GitHub peeps.
Cory Doctorow shares:
Pluralistic: Code is a liability (not an asset)
Absolutely.
Uwe FRIEDRICHSEN has:
This is about IT. But, it also applies to programming. K.I.S.S.
HTML
W3Tutorials asks:
SelfHTML says:
SELFHTML hält sich an Webstandards!
HTMX
Del Rosario explains:
HTMX in 2026: Why Hypermedia is Dominating the Modern Web
This seems to be a good explainer. Personally, I would stay away from the AI recommendations.
CSS
Adam Argyle explores:
4 CSS Features Every Front-End Developer Should Know In 2026
FrontendMasters shows us:
How to @scope CSS Now That It’s Baseline
Cool.
Popover Context Menus with Anchor Positioning
CSS Tricks examines:
This will be really cool, once it's baseline.
Kristoff Zerbe looks at:
ChartsCSS - Without a single line of JavaScript
JavaScript
GNU Operating System explores:
Or just use all vanilla JS and not have to worry about it.
Speaking of, LogRocket has this fantastic article:
Anti-frameworkism: Choosing native web APIs over frameworks
Other
I ran across this:
Markdown Presentation Ecosystem
This week's featured programming tool
Pear is an installable Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Runtime, Development & Deployment platform.
Build, share & extend unstoppable, zero-infrastructure P2P applications for Mobile, Desktop & Terminal.
ActivityPub
Alex Masters looks at:
Self-Hosting my Social Media Profile using WordPress and ActivityPub
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
ActivityPub Academy is a learning resource for ActivityPub. The protocol is brought to life by showing Activities sent between different instances in real time!
Fediverse
IFTAS announces:
The 2025 Social Web Trust & Safety Report Is Here
NodeBB announces:
Cross-posting is coming to NodeBB!
Jonathan Kamens looks at:
The why and how of backing up your Mastodon data
Very nice WordPress site, Jonathan.
Michael Thomas demonstrates:
Adding Plausible to Mastodon Using nginx sub_filter
This week's featured Fediverse Platform/Tool/Resource
NodeBB aims to be a better forum platform for the modern web.
More
Fabio Manganiello has:
Webmentions are an often forgotten W3C recommendation
Webmentions implementation on Madblog
Matrix has:
This Week in Matrix 2026-01-05
Sharing a safety tool: announcing policyserv
RSS
On Discourse, Arya K. says:
RSS feeder auto-discovery can miss topic-specific feeds
Robert Alexander reviews:
RSS feed discovery with FeedLand
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Bridgy Fed announces:
Friends, you should also learn what a H1 header is and use it.
Speaking of Bridgy Fed, ATProto Community has:
Anuj Ahooja: Bridges, The Last Network Effect
And:
Ms Boba: Yearning for the Open Protocols
Democracy Tech
The Institute of Development Studies shares:
Voice or Chatter? Case Studies
decidim.barcelona, Spain
Tabular lists:
10 Substack Alternatives That Will Increase Your Revenue Today
I would say reach instead of revenue and recommend Ghost or Beehive. Fuck Substack.
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
- Follow us on Flipboard or at @thefulcrum@thefulcrum.dev on the Fediverse for daily coverage.
- Read, live, and share The Techno Anarchist Manifesto!
And please build something for a community!
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