Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Fediverse development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism.
As usual, 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. And do the same with a RSS feed reader.
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.
There won't be TPFs the next two weeks as we're (mostly) done with the breakneck pace of settling into retirement in France. To celebrate we're taking a beach vacation. Although we will work on Manade's default implementation / configuration and probably an unrelated documentary script.
But, you can keep up to date by following our Fediverse account.
Featured Item(s)
Hamish Campbell writes:
The problem is not that institutions are involved (in the Fediverse), the problem is when institutional logic starts drowning out community logic to create a growing signal-to-noise problem.
The signal is people building infrastructure, running servers, writing code, creating culture, organising communities, and solving problems together.
The noise is the endless churn of reports, branding exercises, stakeholder management, conference panels, and “engagement” processes that consume energy without producing any substance.
The useful framing here might be:
- Fluffy: welcoming people in, building bridges, creating shared spaces, encouraging participation.
- Spiky: defending native values, challenging bad practice, calling out capture, and maintaining boundaries.
The Fediverse needs both, too much fluffy and everything gets absorbed into mainstreaming culture until the original values disappear. Too much spiky and you end up isolated, talking only to people who already agree with you. The challenge is maintaining a productive tension between the two.
The real debate isn’t institutions versus communities. It’s whether institutions can learn to work within open web culture rather than replacing it with the same management culture that has already failed across much of the closed web.
The signal is still there, the question is whether we can keep hearing it through the noise.
The Fediverse’s growing signal-to-noise problem – and who’s causing it
So, maximum building and minimum talking.
He follows up on a related note:
Nicenasty, the hidden power of soft obstruction
And how to combat the obstruction:
Working Groups, Horizontal Organising, and Getting Things Done
CMSs
Buttondown has some great advice:
Being weirder than AI is practicable and valuable
Mark Pitblado looks at:
Renting vs Owning in the digital era
Sander van Dragt announces:
Nice.
Skypress has:
Say hello to SkyPress (it's an alpha, and it's a playground)
Interesting with lots of potential.
Ghost
Ghost introduces:
This may be a useful tool for larger Ghost publishers:
Tools
Open Source Initiative says:
OSI welcomes the European Union’s “Tech Sovereignty” package
The Linux Foundation Europe shares:
FediVariety reviews the:
Status of the current Digital Sphere?
Internet Archive Europe says:
Signal has:
Surveillance Is Not Safety: A statement on the
UK's latest threat to privacy
Why is every large party in England working to turn the country fascist before the fascists even seize power?
Heather Burns offers the term:
Or as some have suggested SnitchTech and StasAI.
Chat / Team Chat
Delta Chat announces:
2.51+ releases are rolling into app stores
Wired reports:
Signal Alums Reveal ‘Encrypted Spaces,’ a System for Making Private Collaboration Apps
Signal shares a:
Signal Security & Privacy Guide
Browsers
Christian Visintin says / asks:
Ladybird won't accept public PRs anymore - what does it mean?
Tuan-Anh Tran has:
Some concerns about Ladybird's bylaws
I had forgot about Ladybird but still hope it succeeds.
Search
Later On explores:
Cloud
NextCloud has:
Nextcloud Summit 2026: Digital sovereignty comes of age
Nextcloud Hub 26 Spring: Built together, designed for the future
As a NextCloud customer I am not sure why you would use Euro-Office (as it's still tied to Microsofts' formatting) over fellow offering Collabora (unless you're boycotting England too). Collabra is based on LibreOffice BTW.
IMHO, if you are a small org or solo user, using LibreOffice independent of NextCloud would be the best option. And all of them beat the shit out of Office 360.
It's FOSS reports:
Collabora's CODE 26.04 Release Might Be Its Biggest One Yet
Writing
LibreOffice has:
An open letter to office suite users, just before the Euro-Office announcement
Euro-Office, open standards, and native ODF
LibreOffice project and community recap: May 2026
Creative
Kdenlive announces:
The second maintenance release of the 26.04 series is out
9to5Linux reports:
HandBrake 1.11.2 Video Transcoder Adds WebM MIME Type Support on Linux
Linux / Open Android
F-Droid shares:
Liliputing reports:
Juno Tab 4 is a Linux tablet with Intel Core i3-N300 and Core Ultra 5 115U options
As a tablet fan, this is encouraging to see.
Hosting / Serving
Nycki announces:
This week's featured OMN tool
Drupito
For individuals Drupito is a hands off, coding-optional, maintenance-free version of Drupal CMS built with Drupal under the hood. For small orgs it's even more.
Programming
Bailey's Retrospective explores:
Missed Fundamentals In Web Development
Git
Forgejo shares its:
Forgejo monthly report - May 2026
404 Media reports:
Microsoft Hacked to Deliver Malware to Claude and Gemini Users
You deserve what you get if you're amoral and dumb enough to use AI.
HTML
Moh Kohn shows:
How building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight
This x 10,000.
Adam Silver explains:
Why the accept attribute degrades file upload UX
HTMX
Sachin Sharma examines:
Architecting Zero-Dependency HTMX Applications in 2026: Bypassing NPM and Bundlers Completely
HTMX features:
The Subtractive, Constraining Engineer is a good approach if you are forced to use horseshit AI.
CSS
Always Twisted demonstrates:
Alex looks at:
Rendering a chat thread in CSS and JavaScript
Webkit is:
Introducing the Field Guide to Grid Lanes
JavaScript
NoLoJS has a resource to:
Reduce the JS Workload with No- or Lo-JS options
Use it.
AI
Dries Buyaert has:
Friction, abstraction, and verification
I find it amusing that the papa of Drupal (who I have met, shared a beer with, and respect) is writing about ease of use.
Hence a few days later:
Do AI coding agents recommend Drupal?
I ran across this project this week:
Apertus is Switzerland’s first large-scale, fully open, multilingual language model.
It will be interesting to see where this leads. Although I assume it still has the same environmental concerns. But, maybe Switzerland has shit tons of windmills and hydroelectric power.
Mashable reports:
The AI vibe shift is real: Why the backlash is growing
Bon.
Not to be outdone by their cunterparts at Google, 404 Media reports:
'Sloppenheimer:' Amazon Employees Mock the Company’s AI on Slack
Somehow the lickspittles still manage to work for the techno feudalist overlords.
Other
OpenProject announces:
We have released OpenProject 17.4.1 and 17.3.3
XWIKI shares its:
April and May Pro Apps updates
This week's featured programming tool
Codeberg
A community-led effort that provides Git hosting for free / open-source projects.
And if you don't qualify for use, please self-host Forgejo. And fuck ShitHub!
ActivityPub
Kopper shares:
Interesting.
Matt explains:
Fixing my ActivityPub and WebMention comments to make them play nicely.
Holos' Tom enables:
Following conversations across the Fediverse
Great stuff.
Mastodon shares:
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
Emissary
Emissary is a Fedi server built for end users, developers, and admins.
Fediverse
Pure Web Hosting makes:
A case for organisations running their own ActivityPub servers
Jose Murilo has:
Bom, bom, bom.
HootOS opines:
The Bubble Wrap Conundrum; or, The Balkanization Of Social Media Didn't Solve Social Media
IT Notes notes:
ActivityPub's papa, Evan Prodromou celebrates:
Mastodon now has a filtering option for notifications from bots
Elk announces:
I ran across Harmony this week:
This looks promising for larger existing communities. I like that it's a progressive web app.
Internet Exchange
Due Process: Why Fair Moderation Builds Healthier Communities
Betula is:
Holos announces:
Having lists that mix accounts and hashtags is now possible in Holos Social 1.9.0
Owncast belatedly posts its:
Owncast Newsletter May/June 2026
Bonfire
FediForum shares:
Bonfire was the only ActivityPub-focused winner. And that's because it's the most innovative thing in the Fediverse.
More
LoRes Mesh explores:
Your web apps, talking peer-to-peer
Very interesting.
Matrix
Element announces:
RSS
Seventeen year-old Frost shares:
RSS And The Difference Between Displaying A Standard And Living Inside One
Great stuff, Frost.
Giulio Magnifico (magnificent name) explores:
XMPP
XMPP has:
Mathieui announces:
Other Federated Social Media
Mirthe Valentijn covers:
This one is worth using your browser's translate function. Unless you can read Dutch.
EuroSky Social announces:
Today we’re switching on a high-reliability relay: relay1.eurosky.network
eurosky.social announces mu.social, a new ATProto microblogging app with editing capabilities
Tres bon.
Bluesky announces:
Group chats are rolling out in v1.124 update
Sounds like a clusterfuck.
Uhm, no.
Ege examines:
Integrating standard.site with My Hugo Blog
Daniel's Leaflets continues a series:
Permissioned Data Diary 6: Boring Auth
Mozzius show us:
eMail / Newsletters
Andre Chaperon looks at:
Which after the printing press and the typewriter is the greatest technology of all time.
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
- Follow us on Surf or at @thefulcrum@thefulcrum.dev on the Fediverse or at @thefulcrum.eurosky.social on ATProto for daily coverage.
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And please build something for a community! We're building Manade.
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