Matt Baer

Matt Baer

@baer.works

words, photos, decentralized social networks. founder @write.as, developer @ writefreely

266 followers266 following48 posts

Sooo I might be launching a new publishing platform soon -- at least as an experiment. It's basically what I'd build if I was starting @write.as in 2026 instead of 2015. (And well, if Write.as didn't already exist.)

Cross-protocol from the start (ATproto + ActivityPub), fully social, made for the less tech-savvy, compatible with the WriteFreely API, and generally incorporates the biggest lessons from running @write.as over a decade.

I saw something a while ago that was some "ATproto operating system" but lost it inside 800 browser tabs 🫣 Anyone know the name of it?

Matt Baer reposted

We're celebrating 11 years on the web, with a sale on our Pro plan that will last you for the next half-decade, and a discount on our WriteFreely iOS app! Read all about it on our Deals newsletter: write.as/deals/celebr... @writefreely.writing.exchange.ap.brid.gy #WriteAs #WriteFreely #sale

write.asCelebrating 11 Years on the Web! 🥳We launched Write.as on this day way back in 2015 — eleven years ago! To celebrate, for the next two weeks ending February 16, we're havi...

Matt Baer reposted

We've just released #WriteFreely v0.16, with a ton of improvements for the fediverse, including support for Likes, the Creator tag, and better look for your articles on microblogging platforms! Read about all the new changes and grab the latest version on our blog: blog.writefreely.org/version-0-16

blog.writefreely.orgVersion 0.16WriteFreely v0.16 is finally here, and it brings a ton of improvements, especially for the fediverse! We've also fixed some long-standing...

On my way to #FediCon in Vancouver! Excited to see friends both old and new in person. If you'll be there, let me know -- I'd love to make sure we meet up.

praying to my ultra-sentient AI god while on the phone with my AI therapist doing couples therapy with my AI girlfriend about how my AI ceo laid me off to replace me with AI. been a tough week, y'all

after having a long heart-to-heart with my AI best friend, i am now AI-generating my resume to send to the AI hiring manager of a new AI company. the resume showcases how absolutely stoked i am about AI

Matt Baer reposted

I love reading serious stories about guys who believe AGI is real, it feels like a bunch of millionaires plotting to find and capture Santa Claus

Matt Baer reposted

Twitter is never coming back. It was a moment of time. Microblogging is a bad modality in a world flooded with malicious velocity, algorithmic distortion & frankly patterns we rewarded w attention in the peak twitter era. We need to invent new forms, probably lots of them.

the future is just us sitting by while a bunch of bros with no taste whatsoever post AI-generated bullshit and chant, "it's getting so good, so fast"

our networks are tightly coupled with our media formats, so something that should be a blog post instead comes out as this unwanted mutant child of maybe-photo, maybe-video, maybe-text — ground up and processed into this unappetizing content soup for us to begrudgingly slurp

Honestly bring back timed programming and put it in streaming services. Curate channels and let me pick one. Sometimes I just wanna watch *something* without thinking too hard about it.

Verrry interesting 🤔

Dylan Freedman@dylanfreedman.nytimes.com

Bluesky's clearly thought of this. You can manage many sub-domain handles at once without needing domain records for each one! (Happy to advise any news organization interested in implementing this.) bsky.social/about/blog/4...

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For one, being able to leverage moderation already in bsky would be absolutely huge. Having to build all that functionality from scratch is the single thing keeping us from already having ActivityPub-enabled comments on blogs.

Verrry interesting 🤔

Dylan Freedman@dylanfreedman.nytimes.com

Bluesky's clearly thought of this. You can manage many sub-domain handles at once without needing domain records for each one! (Happy to advise any news organization interested in implementing this.) bsky.social/about/blog/4...

So implementing this on @write.as is trivial. But all it really does is verify that you own your Write.as blog. That's great, but especially with our ActivityPub integration, I think people will expect it to do more, like send out your posts from that handle.

I'd like to experiment with adding ATproto support alongside ActivityPub in @write.as, but where do I start? Assuming all blog posts would be hosted in our PDS, and we'd provide identity so people can have e.g. @myblog.write.as

I'm just having trouble finding these components in bsky's repos. Luckily our backend is in Go too, so hopefully it's relatively straightforward

Matt Baer reposted

Today's newsletter is about how social networks only succeed by accepting the chaos and weirdness of the human condition - and how Meta's Threads is already unravelling by trying to sell the Kidz Bop of Social Networking. https://tinyurl.com/wyat72123

tinyurl.comThreadbareThe problem with making a new social network is that (as I’ve related before) you are only really selling a place. While you can stomp your feet and yell that you’re providing a service and that t...

Matt Baer reposted

BlueSky: Trans person makes a joke replying to Jake Tapper, immediately illustrated by comic artist, liked by AOC. Everything gets nine likes. Threads: Ellen DeGeneres hosts a rap battle between Frito-Lay and Cheez-Its riddled with "chedda," avoiding hard-R. The CIA buys all the data.

this part of the apple announcement killed me "because you can see the world around you, you can glance at a notification"

can't wait to be that dweeb watching a movie on this thing in the airport, while my wide eyes stare lifelessly at the person sitting across from me

It's kinda strange how tech people running social platforms see it as some kind of like crusade for free speech instead of like, running a bar.