Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Updates for ShareOpenly

I made some updates to ShareOpenly this weekend: * The design now puts the shortlist of social networks you’re most likely to share to at the top. * Firefish and Misskey are now supported. * There are now instructions for adding “share to” ShareOpenly links to your site. I also added “share

06 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

Here's the column Meta doesn't want you to see

"On Thursday I reported that Meta had blocked all links to the Kansas Reflector from approximately 8am to 4pm, citing cybersecurity concerns after the nonprofit published a column critical of Facebook’s climate change ad policy. By late afternoon, all links were once again able to be posted on

06 Apr 2024

72

It’s my mother’s birthday. She would be 72 today. The week we lost her, I wrote this piece, which I re-read today. In it, our friend Anita Hurrell remembered her like this: One time you drove us in the van to the seaside and we ate sandwiches with

03 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

Why we invented a new metric for measuring readership

"One particular piece of the journalism model that is broken? How news organizations measure their readership." Pageviews are not a million miles away from hits - which is how we measured success in 2003. This is much-needed innovation from The 19th. Alexandra Smith, who wrote this piece and

03 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

A ProPublica Lawsuit Over Military Court Access Moves Forward

From my colleagues: "ProPublica has “plausibly alleged that the issued guidelines are clearly inconsistent with Congress’ mandate.” This is most apparent, the judge said, in the allegation that the Navy denies the public access to all records in cases that end in acquittals." ProPublica continues to do great

03 Apr 2024

My Edinburgh

A friend asked me to recommend some places to visit in Edinburgh — not the big stuff (Arthur’s Seat, for example), but the small haunts and little delights that I used to love. I lived there for a long time, and think back on the city with a lot of

02 Apr 2024

Replicators

I’d love to read about the early days of the Star Trek replicator. It’s a sometimes-useful macguffin in the context of Star Trek: The Next Generation and later shows: a device that can recreate virtually any object on command, from food to electronics. By the time ST:TNG

02 Apr 2024

Nonfiction

Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, by Jordan Mechner

Just fabulous. Maybe it's because his family history is not a world of different from mine, or maybe it's because his journey and interests feels intertwined with my own, but I wept openly as I read the final third of this. It's beautiful and

30 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

With 'Cowboy Carter,' Black country music fans are front and center, at last

"In interviews with The 19th, a dozen Black fans of country discussed reconciling their love for the music with its racist, misogynistic past, as well as the pervasive image of White men who continue to dominate the mainstream industry. They are hopeful that Beyoncé and “Cowboy Carter,” released Friday,

29 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Facebook let Netflix see user DMs, quit streaming to keep Netflix happy: Lawsuit

"By 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of “Facebook Extended API” agreements, including a so-called “Inbox API” agreement that allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s users' private message inboxes, in exchange for which Netflix would “provide to FB a written report every two weeks that

28 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Russell T. Davies on Why Doctor Who's Disney Partnership Is So Important

"You’ve also got to look at the long-term, at the end of the BBC, which somehow is surely undoubtedly on its way in some shape or form. What, is Doctor Who going to die then?" This is a pretty clear-eyed quote from Russell T Davies. And there&

28 Mar 2024
An intrusive thought about Trump 2024

An intrusive thought about Trump 2024

I come from families of forced migrants. On one side, my father’s earliest memories are of the unspeakable horrors he endured in a concentration camp in Indonesia. On the other, my great grandfather’s Ukrainian village was burned down by the White Army as part of a vicious pogrom.

28 Mar 2024
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

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Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.