This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum.
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
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. 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.
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.
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Featured Item(s)
The original article is in French, but I am summarizing in the English translation. Anyway, this is what we are up against. And we're definitely the underdog. 👿
Ploum writes:
For decades, I have been one of those people trying to alert you to the terrifying possibilities of technological blindness in which we are immersed.
I thought I had to explain, inform again and again.
I discover with dread that even those who understand what I am saying do not act. Even act in the opposite direction. Trump’s voters, for the most part, know very well what is going to happen. Artists defend Facebook and Spotify. The most left-wing politicians remain hooked on X as their only window to the world. Yet they are warned!
It’s just that they think they’re not concerned. It’s just that we naively think that it only happens to others. Whether we are, in one way or another, among those who will be privileged.
Don’t come and say you weren’t warned
Hamish Campbell writes:
A cohesive manifesto is needed as the world we inherited is fractured. Wealth, power, and knowledge are concentrated in the hands of the #nastyfew: platform owners, data hoarders, and corporate monopolies who extract value from our work, our attention, and our trust. Democracy has been hollowed out, captured and controlled by algorithms that decide what is knowable, profitable, and even true. Ecology, community, and care are sacrificed on the #deathcult altar of growth and consumption.
In this mess, the Open Media Network (#OMN) is a #KISS project that exists to reclaim the digital commons, reshape society, and redefine what is possible when power, knowledge, and technology are returned to the people.
Open Media Network: A Manifesto for the Digital Commons
This is how we can win. 😈
Open Media Network Site CMSs
The Torment Nexus explains:
Why blogging is better than social media
Great, great stuff. This is something we could have written. ;)
WordPress
WordPress.com is:
Introducing the Enhanced Code Block: Syntax Highlighting and More
WordPress.org announces:
A New Home for WordPress Education Programs
Developer WordPress has:
Streamlining block theme development with WordPress Playground and GitHub
This moves WP more toward DIY development for non-developers.
Make WordPress has:
What’s new in Gutenberg 22.4? (20 January)
Announcing the WordPress 7.0 Release Squad
Recap: WordPress 6.9 “Gene” Retrospective
The Repository reports:
WordPress 6.9.1 Scheduled for Early February as Bug Scrubs Begin
Ghost
Ghost has:
MagicPages has:
Fighting Ghost Magic Link Spam (and Rethinking My CDN)
Ghost og:image Not Showing? Check Your Privacy Settings
Drupal CMS
Dripyard has a great debugging example:
How an unclosed < em > broke Drupal’s JavaScript
Grav CMS
Grav has a:
Cookbook with Recipes for solving common problems
Write.as
Inferno shares:
Techno Anarchist / OMN Tools
Organic Maps shares:
XWiki announces:
Release Notes for XWiki 18.0.0-rc-1
Chat
Signal announces:
Signal is working on sending view-once photos and videos from Signal Desktop
Ploum explains:
Why there’s no European Google?
Browsers
Pale Moon announces:
Cloud
Internet Exchange says:
What Do We Want? To Stop Using Google Docs.
Great case study.
Nextcloud announces:
Creative
Speaking of creative, Chris Kirknielsen designed:
A no-AI icon for humans to use
There is a code block at the bottom of this post with Markdown and HTML code to link to the SVG on Chris's site.
Rep. Ro Khanna:
Introduces Resolution to Protect Creators in the Modern Platform-based Economy
It will go nowhere, but its a nice start.
Krita has its:
Programming Humor shares:
This Is Jehan Pages, The Top Developer Behind Gimp
Linux
Linux Journal reports:
Zorin OS 18 Crosses 2 Million Downloads, Cementing Its Appeal to New Linux Users
F-Droid has:
Three hundred reasons in two weeks
Wow. That's a lot of news. ;)
David Heidelberg explains:
Why I Will No Longer Contribute to postmarketOS
Drama.
TechGlow reviews:
The Jolla Phone Proved We’ve Been Using Smartphones Wrong All Along
Murena announces:
e/OS 3.4 version available for Official or Community builds
Hosting / Serving
Speaking of hosting, I moved all my sites from U.S.-based, A2 Hosting (who I never had a problem with) to Iceland-based, 1984 Hosting. Which is a great name.
The host I use for this site made a great decision:
A Small Change Behind the Scenes: EUR-Based Pricing
Kinsta asks:
What happens when one site gets hacked on shared hosting?
cPanel announces:
Good news about the HTML editor.
This week's featured OMN tool
Framatoolbox
Using Framatoolbox is the first step on the road to your digital autonomy.
OMN Programming
Dries Buyaert explores:
Funding Open Source for Digital Sovereignty
This times 100.
CSS Tricks examines the:
HTML
Google announces:
Smashing Mag looks at:
Rethinking “Pixel Perfect” Web Design
HTMX
HTMX has a case-study:
Building Critical Infrastructure with htmx: Network Automation for the Paris 2024 Olympics
CSS
Frontend Masters reports:
JavaScript
jQuery announces:
Nice.
ESLint announces:
It now lints CSS and HTML as well as Markdown, JSON, and of course JavaScript.
AI
Hamish Campbell says:
There is no intelligence in AI – and no path to any
Platformer explores:
The Guardian and Cory Doctorow share:
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage
TechPolicy Press reports:
AI Agents are Rewriting the Web’s Rules of Engagement. Here’s a Way to Fix it.
404 Media reports:
How Wikipedia Will Survive in the Age of AI
Other
Nothing stood out here this week.
This week's featured programming tool
HTMX
HTMX allows access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets and SSE directly in HTML.
ActivityPub
Nothing this week. :(
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
The name is self-explanatory.
Fediverse
Hamish Campbell shares:
Europe, the Fediverse, and the story we failed to tell
These are the types of things that may have led the W project to choose ATProto over ActivityPub.
IFTAS examines:
Behind the Numbers: Who Moderates the Social Web?
Vernissage announces:
[Vernissage 1.29.0 is out!]
https://mastodon.social/@vernissage/115914983027268250
It is PixelFed for professional photographers.
Nation Cymru reports:
Welsh social network launches campaign inspired by Dewi Sant
Sandra De Jong asks:
Hoe wordt Mastodon jouw plek? (als mens en als ondernemer) – Een stappenplan
GoToSocial has:
Bonfire
Bonfire announces:
Bonfire 1.0.1: Building Momentum
Thanks to the Bonfire for mentioning my article, Grab a seat at our Bonfire: the revolutionary community platform.
Ozoned shares:
Light Up the Net: Step‑by‑Step Bonfire Installation
I will definitely be checking this out.
This week's featured Fediverse Platform/Tool/Resource
Mbin (successor to Kbin) is a federated content aggregator, voting, discussion, and microblogging platform.
More
Matrix has:
This Week in Matrix 2026-01-16
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
9 to 5 Mac reports:
Threads will start showing ads to all users next week
Threads started as shit and will always be shit.
A New Social announces:
A better response to Bluesky's becoming a Nazi bar is to make BridgyFed compatible with Blacksky, Northsky, Pinksky, etc.
I ran across this earlier this week:
Free Our Feeds has more:
Free Our Feeds - Update #7, January 2026
We have to keep our eyes on this to make sure it goes the way it should.
ATProto Community has:
Erin Kissane: People In Protocols, a Research Update
Nick Gerakines: Smoke Signal, a journey in building open ecosystems for communities
Well, Bluesky has decided which side of the fascism fence it's on, so it's more important than ever for non-bluesky devs to build non-bluesky ATProto projects.
Like:
And I never had much hope for Bluesky (it was doomed to enshittification from the start), but it's off The Fulcrum's Ghost site now.
eMail Newsletters
Buttondown has:
Ask a Nerd: What are good open, click, and response rates for an email newsletter?
CTAs
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And please build something for a community!
Blasts from the past
Previous Symfony Station Posts
<img src="https://chriskirknielsen.com/assets/img/no-ai.svg" alt="No AI SVG" width="75px">
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