The pale is growing
We Need To Rewild The Internet
The internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture. But we can revitalize it using lessons learned by ecologists.
The Boring Internet
The internet you grew up on isn't dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.
The Boring Internet
The internet you grew up on isn't dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.
Millions of Volunteers Are Keeping the Internet Human. For Now.
We’re never going back to the human internet we had. But we can hope for a better internet than the AI-dominated one that is emerging, writes Sarah Gilbert.
The Internet Transition
The Internet is allowing us to build a richer, more complex society but the way in which we Internet today is failing to support the governance systems that a more complex world requires. I take a look at why these issues are related, try to develop an intuition for a way forward, and point at the emerging field that is coming together to build that future.
Bluesky
Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.
Bluesky
Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.
How the small web is creating an anti-slop internet
What is the small web? A new crop of platforms are answering algorithmic fatigue with a return to human-curated basics.
Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet
The internet’s largest stockpile of free knowledge is under threat from MAGA, A.I. and foreign autocrats. A bibliophile ex-ambassador is here to help.
What We Lost When We Quit Using Crappy Old Web Forums
Old web forums were poorly coded and rough around the edges, but maybe we gave up on them too quickly in the social media era.
I Hate The Way We Talk Online
Jason Toney on algorithm-speak, main character energy, and why a simple question about music charts revealed how badly we've forgotten how to talk to each other online."
Blue Sky Thinking, European Infrastructure: Internet Archive Europe Has Moved to Eurosky - Internet Archive Europe
We've moved our Bluesky presence. Our account looks the same. Our data now lives somewhere different, on European infrastructure, under European law. Here's why we made that choice. What changed and what didn't When you use Bluesky, your posts, followers, and interactions live on a server. By default, that server belongs to Bluesky. Moving to
Build the web you want to see
My website, James’ Coffee Blog, is now over five years old. I seldom thought about how old my website was until recently, when I looked and realised that years had passed since the single black-and-white HTML page that comprised my site. “Hyperlinks are my friend,” I said, in a playful tone whose message foreshadowed my deepening appreciation for the web and what the web could be. Five years on, I find myself as invigorated about the web as I was at the beginning. I started what would become James’ Coffee Blog interested in blogging, seeing a personal website as a way to share words on the web. Those words would help me nurture my passion for writing. My website could, I learned, be a place for me to grow and experiment as a writer. Having a website encouraged me to ask the question what could I write today? Whether or not I published what I wrote, I was writing. I was making something. I was proud. My passion for the web is fuelled not only by my own experiences writing, but by seeing what others make. Seeing others’ websites, I have asked myself questions like How did they make that?, spurring my interest in web design. Web design is a topic I would later find the motivation to study in greater depth. I have been delighted by stories that people have shared, eliciting reactions in me from I see myself in this to That was fascinating! Blog posts on personal websites have made me curious, they have made me feel seen, they have satisfied my interest in learning – they have opened up new worlds, from the technical to the poetic, from the introspective to the collaborative. When I was thinking what would be a good fit for The Good Internet Magazine – a publication whose very existence makes me excited about the future of the web – a question came to mind: “what have I learned over the years that a new web weaver would find interesting?” Here is my answer to that question.