Subscription dilemmas

For many years of my journey with the internet, I used various services for free. By ‘free’, I mean there were no cash charges for access to apps, messages, services, and so on.

The internet was designed in such a way that, back then, practically everything on it was simply accessible. Especially from the perspective of my country. It was only later that the first subscription models began to appear. I don’t know if that’s actually how it was, or if I’ve simply remembered it that way, but I think the first time I heard about subscription models on the Internet was in the context of access to information. I’m referring to paywalls.

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Weeknotes #5

June got off to a really good start. I had time to write a few posts on the blog. After that, though, a lot was going on. All sorts of things. I had a lot of work and struggled to find time for other commitments. That’s why blogging took a back seat. This is perfectly illustrated by the Junited blogging event I took part in. I also had less time to read other bloggers’ posts and share the most interesting ones. Oh well.

I’m starting July with a few days off and I intend to spend them resting and reading, but I’ll definitely write something on the blog too. I don’t know how this month will turn out. Perhaps it’ll be a bit kinder and not quite as hectic as the last one?

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JulyReply 2026

Robert is a brilliant organiser of the blogging community. I love him for that. A month ago, he suggested I join the Junited campaign and spend the whole of June recommending other authors’ posts. The campaign was brilliant and I’m glad I took part, although the second half of June was very hectic for me in many ways and blogging had to take a back seat.

July, on the other hand – as I found out yesterday – is JulyReply, so another initiative. This time, it involves responding to other bloggers and joining in the discussion on their posts by writing your own posts on the same topic. It’s a brilliant way to engage in a debate.

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I watched the Nextcloud Hub 26 Spring video (link below), which showcases the numerous changes the team has introduced to this suite of tools. Not only has the look and feel changed, but new features have also been added. Nextcloud has really shifted up a gear, and I like it a lot. I've been thinking about using this tool for a while now, and I'm getting closer to deciding to go for it—and perhaps soon replacing the current solutions I use with it.

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Yesterday, I moved my podcast subscription list over to Reeder (by Silvio Rizzi). Now I've got website and blog RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube channels, and several Glass accounts all in one app. It's a brilliant aggregator. I'm going to give it all a proper test run now.

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Weeknotes #4

I've had a really interesting week which - aside from my professional life, which I don't share online - was largely focused on blogging. I'm taking part in the #Junited2026 campaign. The idea is that throughout June, bloggers recommend interesting posts by other authors, giving us a great opportunity to share valuable content and discover new blogs.

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List of blog aggregators

I was inspired to create this list by recent conversations and questions I've seen on Mastodon. More and more people are sharing and asking about blog aggregators, wanting to discover new sites and authors. It's a great example of how the blogosphere is thriving and how much it interests us - its own creators.

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Instagram Instants - what's the story behind it?

Abhigyan wrote about a new Instagram feature called ‘Instants’ on his blog. It’s some kind of side project from Meta. Here’s how it works:

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Re:We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World

I would never have thought that Pinocchio, a childhood fairy tale, could resonate so strongly in today's world of algorithms, polarisation, and post-truth.

Malik's post is incredible. The way he spotted the similarities between the 19th-century story written by Carl Collodi - the author of Pinocchio - and a modern world dominated by algorithms, convenience, entertainment, polarisation, and showmanship, meant that with every paragraph of his story, my eyes opened wider and wider.

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The next level of entshittification for the app is the change to notification content. Until now, every Messenger notification showed who sent the message. Now it just says “You have a new message”. On top of that, the app now flags EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE individually, rather than each unread conversation grouped by person (as it did before). So, if one person sends you 6 messages, you see the number “6” on the app icon. Before, you would have seen the number “1”, because the messages were sent by ONE person. Well done, Meta. Other big tech companies have plenty of inspiration to draw from for their own idiotic changes.

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Recommendations without algorithms are doing just fine

They tried to tell us that without the power of algorithms, we wouldn't gain any readers, no one would hear about us, and our sites wouldn't emerge from the depths of the Internet for even half a second. How wrong they were. Or perhaps they knew they were wrong, but were trying to prevent anyone else from finding out?

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Junited 2026

June is beginning, and it's a month when it's especially worth boosting the blogosphere and exploring it every day. For the second time, I'm joining the 'Junited' initiative. I took part two years ago, but I wasn't very active. That's why, when moving from one blogging platform to another, I deleted that post. This year, however, I intend to change that and actively promote interesting posts across the blogosphere.

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Weeknotes #3

I've changed the content of the blog menu. Until now, it consisted of the following elements: 'About', 'Articles', 'Notes', and links to Mastodon, a contact form, and a subpage with a list of RSS feeds. This week, I published the first photo on the blog, so I created a new category. There hadn't been a place for it in the menu until now. There was also no room for 'Weeknotes'. That's why I decided to change it. Instead of expanding the menu (I like minimalism), I scaled it back by creating a new 'Categories' subpage. That's where the list of all categories is located. I don't know if more will be created. For now, I'm happy with this layout.

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The world would be much more beautiful if every website, every category, and every author had a separate RSS feed. This would mean complete freedom in creating a truly bespoke digital magazine, accessible at any time from a single app.

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A May trip to Wrocław and a stroll by the Centennial Hall. Pictured is the Iglica monument standing next to the Hall.

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