Published 2026-11-03
tag(s): #yell-at-cloud #smallweb #blogging
I wrote recently about how open sourcing your code isn't only an altruistic act, and
there's a
component of ego about it.
In the same post I recall (from memory, because I don't have a link) a blog post that talked
about this in relation to blogging. I could be writing these thoughts in a text file, or in a
private journal, and still get a lot of value out of the activity. I make a choice when I
publish these lines. As I said in the closing of that other post, [...] publishing them
has a component of "here I am!!!". Let's all be honest about our intentions and
drivers.
In short, I want to make clear that I am not judging anyone from wanting to be discovered. It
is perfectly human. I would love to have an audience here.[1] Of
course I will be happy if someone takes the time to email me, or link to one of my posts in
their blog.
All that being said, and acknowledged...my opinion is that other than doing your thing on your
website/blog, there isn't much more to it.
We have to just try to let go of the ego part. Accept it, and move on. Anything other than
that is just complicating things. Let's see...
In the last couple months, I noticed a few posts reflecting (in some cases, complaining) about how Mastodon isn't the answer they were looking for. That it isn't a satisfying user experience, or the discourse is shallow, and a lot of the content is focused on tech, that it is too slow, that a few voices dominate.[2]
I was close to writing about it a couple times. But other than saying "why do we even keep
trying?", I didn't have much more to add.
Then I remembered that I already did a post on this! A while ago I
addressed something very
similar about BlueSky.
What I can add now, with these fresh thoughts on "ego and being seen", is that I think
we insist because the idea that we will put something out there and it can potentially reach
thousands of people, who can then "star" and celebrate our witticisms, is incredibly
appealing. It tickles ours brains.
But it's been proven again and again that these setups only reward the loudest voices, and
sooner or later turn into echo chambers. They aren't a place of healthy conversation.
Based on what I said in the previous paragraphs (and the post title, I guess) you can imagine that I am not a fan of the first two. I do use the last one, but I don't think it is strictly necessary. [3]
Why do I dislike POSSE and SocialSpec? Because they fall into the trap of solving problems with more tech. Is something is not working as I want it to? Let's add more tech to it. Is it a tech problem? No, but more tech ought to solve it! More XML! More files in servers! More integration via APIs!
"No one reads my blog!". Well, in a world where there's 893480398493708 things are
competing for your (potential) readers attention, yeah, it is hard for people to find your
writing. And in a world with 83948903809998 other blogs, it is very likely whatever you have
to say matters a lot less then you would like to think.
And that is perfectly fine. That doesn't mean you have to stop writing, publishing, etc. It
only means that it is very likely that your
"""content"""[4] won't be found for a long time,
or maybe ever. It is what it is.
Any attempt to fix discoverability using Mastodon, or Bubbles, or any other type of
"social", will sooner or later fall into the know problems of that type of
platform.
And trying to add more tech complexity than pushing a button and getting your text on a
web page somewhere, is also trading problems. Now your audience is people that bothered with
SocialSpec or that is on The Fediverse. That's a much more narrow audience that their
proponents realize.
It
was Widdershins
reply to Kev Quirk's critique of SocialSpec that prompted to me write these lines. But the
ideas have been tumbling in my head for a while. I think my reflection on open sourcing as act
of ego came from thinking about Bubbles, which in turn reminded me of POSSE (despite the posts
being published in reverse order).
We need to stop seeing all problems as tech problems. But also, some problems are
only perceived problems.
Of course, that's just my take on it. If someone feels like being discovered is worth the
complexity, who am I to stop them.
Personally, I think pre-baked but non-big tech platforms like Bear and Pika, and smaller
search engines like Wiby and Marginalia, do a lot more to make the web discoverable and
approachable than anything else.
Lets have more people participating (and as a consequence, a bigger potential audience),
instead of more "reach" and integrations.