This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum.
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social 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), Open Social, 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 open social 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 scroll down to your favorite section.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And may involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck´em.
We will be on vacation with friends for the next few weeks so there will not be any The Programmer's Fulcrums. But, we will be doing some curation on open social. See the CTAs section below for links.
Featured Item(s)
We are tooting our own horn this week with two items.
The first is too short for an article and too long for an open social post, so it's going here.
A review of WordCamp Bretagne
Even though I am all in on the flat file CMS train now (they aren't as overlycomplicated, insecure, and susceptible to ensloppification) I attended WordCamp Bretagne last week.
And I am glad I did if only for the opportunity to scout the wonderfully scenic city of Rennes for a summer home. It has an incredible variety of architecture. And it's like Paris, except less crowded and you can easily get around in it.
But, I also enjoyed the camp. These days I only use WordPress as a backup for the Ghost-based "The Fulcrum". My client work days are over. But there were several sessions with generic topics still relevent to our work here.
The Gutenberg, Playwright, and accessibility presentations were informative (even with my half-ass French skills). I also saw a oven mitt as swag for the first time. This is France after all. You don't want to burn your hand when taking your Le Creuset roasting pan out of the oven.
The camp was in a fantastic location in the Convent du Jacobins in Rennes' centre. It's very photogenic and has nice furnishings. And there was plenty of caffeine available which is vital at a tech conference.
My favorite presentation was "WordPress est un logiciel politise" as it was a good overview of WordPress' political mission. Which is still vital in spite of its founder devolving into a bit of a techcunt and the trend of trying to enterprisize the software.
The community is strong and more importantly decentralised and global. It's still commited to making publishing more democratic even if it's no longer the standout choice available to site owners.
Some observations (which match my experience at DrupalCamp Grenoble earlier this year):
French camps are not as commercialised as U.S. ones (not surprising)
They are not as beginner-friendly or non-developer-friendly
The attendees are more varied in age. It's good to see young people at a PHP-focused event. I noted the same at SymfonyCon 2024. Open standards and mastering them are still important.
Attendees are there to learn rather than to network. They pay attention to the presentations and ask questions. I think it's because they have job security as compared to the U.S. where you can be thrown out on your ass in a split second.
There are still long morning, lunch, and afternoon breaks (again this is France) where you can network if you want.
WordPress' community is more AI-sceptical as compared to Drupal.
Unfortunately, Drupal's founder is all in on it. WordPress' founder is too busy being a lunatic, so that works to its advatage in this one instance.
My only criticism is that WC Bretagne could up their sign game a little. Expecially their exterior signs.
But, overall it's an experience I recommend.
We also have a new Bonfire article exploring the account migration process.
Migration Expectations: Coming Home to Bonfire
Sabot Media created a fantastic resource:
Autistici/Inventati's shutdown is the historical catalyst for this manual, but the lesson is larger than any one project.
Movements and community organizations need to understand the systems they depend on well enough to map them, maintain them, back them up, move them, preserve what matters, and pass that knowledge on.
CMSs
Alex Hoyau is:
Sounds great.
Typemill announces:
Typemill 2.27.0: Soloprint Theme
And Faircamp announces:
The Guardian reports:
These journalists share vital reporting with thousands of US immigrants – all by text and WhatsApp
Brilliant strategy, but they are flying under the radar on these corporate platforms. And their access could be cut off in a technofascist second. They should have an active open social alternative(s) in place for when that happens.
Juha-Matti Santala shows us how to:
Make your website printable - a short guide
Good stuff.
WordPress
Matthias Pfefferle announces a blog roll plugin:
[Blog role](https://notiz.blog/2026/09/23/blogrolle
Matthias is the genius behind the WordPress ActivityPub and Atmosphere plugins.
IndieWeb
Dead Parrot BBS explores:
[Why Personal Websites Are Coming Back]%28https://deadparrotbbs.com/why-personal-websites-are-coming-back/%29
Ghost
Synaps Media has:
Give integrations only what they need: Introducing Protected API Keys
I would assume this is for paid plans.
Build Awesome / 11ty
Simon Cox examines:
Filtered Topic Supplementary Posts
A good HTML lesson.
Tools
Holo Ventures examines:
Decent Infrastructure in an Authoritarian World
Great stuff.
Igalia celebrates:
Congratulations to the most impactful, important, and innovative opensource organization there is.
Chat / Team Chat
Daniel Gultsch is:
Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free
Browsers
Gianni Rosato makes:
The case against JPEG XL (in browsers)
9to5Linux reports:
Mozilla Firefox 156.0.1 Is Now Available for Download with Various Bug Fixes
Remember to use one of the Firefox forks: Zen, LibreWolf, or Waterfox.
Waterfox announces version:
6.7.4 — RSS returns and AI search controls
Cloud
Nextcloud shares:
Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer: collaboration bringing Euro-Office to the desktop
If you are an individual (as opposed to a team member), LibreOffice is still the better option.
Writing
LibreOffice has:
Software Freedom Day 2026: What Freedoms Does Libreoffice Offer
Creative
Aria Salvatrice says:
Let's stop debating the Gnu Imp Manipulation Program
Linux / Open Android
F-Droid announces:
F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom
I missed this last month, but Furi Labs announces:
Face Unlock Arrives on FuriOS for the FLX Range
And Jolla details:
A planning day that turned into a hackday
Maemo Leste announces its:
Rust in Peace shares:
The GNOME LLM Policy That I Want
Witty blog name. ;)
Hosting / Serving
Keith reports:
DigitalOcean has $3 million for DHH (fascist linux) and nothing for CSS-Tricks
This week's featured OMN tool
Normal Tools
Open a tool, do the thing, leave. No account, no download, and nothing between you and the answer.
Programming
Patrick Brosset has:
My favorite Interop 2027 proposals
Blurry before beautiful: image previews for the web
Ideally, you will have minimized your use of images, optimized them, and have a fast website; so this is not necessary.
Git
Mark Phillip is:
Mirroring the JUnit repository to Codeberg
HTML
Manuel Matuzovic shares:
19½ things you didn’t know about accessibility in HTML and CSS
And Alec Lomas shares:
Terence Eden has:
Some thoughts on HTML's proposed previewsrc attribute
CSS
Martin Michálek has a good review:
CSS selectors: a complete guide to selectors and combinators
Geoff Graham shares his thanks:
The Front-End Community is Still Alive and Beautiful
Piccalilli shows us how to:
Stop buttons triggering zoom when they’re double tapped
Useful.
Matuzo Vic says:
Your Grid Lanes will likely fail WCAG 2.4.3
Interesting, but should be a very rare use case.
Web Components
Burton Smith looks at:
AI
Tech Policy Press shares:
What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI
Lionel Dricot aka Ploum has:
David Bushell explains:
This is why you should not buy Apple hardware. Use a de-googled Android phone or tablet for now (Linux options are almost there) or a Linux computer.
Here’s how to deshittify this part of your Apple experience.
And for desktop.
This week's featured programming tool
Markdown
Write for your website.
ActivityPub
Oscar details the:
Mastodon BOFHers update to 4.7.2
This is what updating a Mastodon instance entails.
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
Social Docs
Docs for ActivityPub.
Permanent aside here (unfortunately)
This is a perpetual pet peeve because many people aren't able to comprehend ⬇️:
The Fediverse is for communities (private, semi-private, formal, informal, or otherwise)
and the Atmosphere is for the masses (unwashed, washed, or otherwise).
and corporate social media is for naive fools and intentional techcunts.
So, recognize their natures and don't ask the two protocols to go against them. This is also why we have accounts on both platforms and use them differently.
Fediverse
The Social Web Community Group announces:
LOLA Portability for ActivityPub (0.3)
Toots.io is:
Introducing Waterhole: an open-source collaborative moderation tool built specifically for Mastodon
Great idea.
MakerTube announces:
MakerTube got upgraded to PeerTube version 8.3.0
And xWiki announces:
ActivityPub Extension 1.7.12 Released
Bonfire
Bonfire reposts:
Making Community Governance Legible: A Semester with Bonfire
More
Flotisserie explores:
Connected Places explains:
The Algorithm, Apparently Chronological
ATProto
Meri's Missives details:
(Re)building Roomy in 6 months
I think Roomy is going to be another nail in the coffin of my vision for the Manade project. But, that's OK.
Plus, Blacksky announces:
50 Shades of Protocol presents:
Atmosphere in a Box - All your sandbox needs
David Bushell is:
Boris Mann examines:
LaSuite Apps + Atmosphere Accounts
Tres cool.
Charlotte Som looks at:
Designing a storage engine for AT Protocol backlinks
Atmosphere
Blacksky is:
Building a Culture of (Digital) Safety
ATProto announces:
MySky: Open, Controllable Feed Infrastructure for the Atmosphere
P2P
Worm-Blossum announces:
The Random Consortium has:
"My Data, My Business Avengers" — The Privacy Suite that Fights Back
I don't know if this is revolutionary or batshit crazy. :)
Webrings
Zachery Huang says:
We are members of the two Webrings in our footer.
Webmentions
Matthew Weier O'Phinney looks at:
Konstantin explores:
Webmentions: the nice things we have
XMPP
Daniel Gultsch asks:
Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?
Movim shares:
Movim 0.35.1, time to upgrade!
Matrix
Matrix answers:
Element reports:
Tres bon.
Sky’s (whoever the fuck they are) Blog shares:
A Thousand Newlines: Matrix Spam, #3 — We are so back!
Peeps, on your site please explain who you are. Websites aren't anonymous.
Democracy Tech
Slow News shares:
The Good Ideas of Solidarity Tech
If you can, attend:
From the Decidim, a Techno Political Network for Participatory Democracy: Philosophy, Practice, and Autonomy of a Collective Platform in the Age of Digital Intelligence (what a title) book:
... contemporary societies face the double challenge of the crisis of representative democracy and the rise of new forms of capitalism.
Under platform capitalism (techno feudalism), tech corporations have a growing influence on people's lives. If access and control to and online activities are key assets, algorithms turn them into wealth and power over people and institutions, challenging democracy as we know it.
This is what we call "algorithmic governance": a growing form of technologically mediated technocratic governance of social and economic life, frequently with a neoliberal (heading toward fascist) purview.
The value of Decidim stands out in a context where common collective intelligence, democracy and participatory governance face the challenge of corporate artificial intelligence, oligarchy, and algorithmic governance. A context where public and common institutions require democratic infrastructures to overtake market-driven innovation in solving the complex challenges of our times.
Decidim contributes to the strengthening of innovative forms of commons-oriented economy, public-common partnerships, and participatory democracy.
This is a perfect illustration of what we are up against. So bookmark or save the illustration for future reference. We need to move from the top right corner to the bottom left corner.
Decidm is a tool for local governments, public organizations, unions, cooperatives, higher education, and other large non-profit groups to combat algorithmic governance, big tech, oligarchs, and authoritarians.
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto is a resource to help you as an individual achieve similar results.
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 the Atmosphere for daily coverage.
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And please build something for a community! We're painfully nurturing Manade.