WordPress Reader Is Criminally Under Marketed

I must admit that I’ve known about Reader, which is the WordPress.com tool for following blogs, for years now, but never realised it worked for sites that were not hosted on WordPress infrastructure. It actually allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and import OPML files.

When you follow as many sites and blogs as I do, a good RSS Reader is the only way to fly.

I only discovered this functionality today when I decided to have a poke around after spying a post about a new feature called “Recommended Blogs”. It’s essentially a blogroll for your Reader profile.

Now I feel like a bit of an idiot for ignoring Reader for the past few years. Not only can I import all of my subscriptions from my current RSS reader, but I can easily reblog (republish or quote) parts of them on my own blog directly from within the interface, and can even write a post from within the feed.

I don’t have to switch to another service to find content to write about, and it’s all available on the web and in the Jetpack app on my phone.

I’m going to have to spend a few days actually using it as my main RSS reader to decide if the convenience is worth jumping ship for, but for now, I’m pretty impressed.

It needs a dark mode, though.

#RSS #tools #WordPress

WordPress Reader Is Criminally Under Marketed

I must admit that I’ve known about Reader, which is the WordPress.com tool for following blogs, for years now, but never realised it worked for sites that were not hosted on WordPress infrastructure. It actually allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and import OPML files.

When you follow as many sites and blogs as I do, a good RSS Reader is the only way to fly.

I only discovered this functionality today when I decided to have a poke around after spying a post about a new feature called “Recommended Blogs”. It’s essentially a blogroll for your Reader profile.

Now I feel like a bit of an idiot for ignoring Reader for the past few years. Not only can I import all of my subscriptions from my current RSS reader, but I can easily reblog (republish or quote) parts of them on my own blog directly from within the interface, and can even write a post from within the feed.

I don’t have to switch to another service to find content to write about, and it’s all available on the web and in the Jetpack app on my phone.

I’m going to have to spend a few days actually using it as my main RSS reader to decide if the convenience is worth jumping ship for, but for now, I’m pretty impressed.

It needs a dark mode, though.

#RSS #tools #WordPress

Summer/Autumn 2025: Little coding, but lots of socializing and planning

At the first October weekend I ( @linos) was attending the Berlin FediDay 2025. It was a meetup of the Berlin and German community, developers of Fediverse applications, and representatives of German speaking media institutions. It was great to see old friends again and meet some online contacts for the first time. We were discussing the future and the role of the Fediverse, which was super motivating. #FediDay

Two weeks later, I travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria, to attend this year’s OpenFest, give a talk and lead a workshop on how the Fediverse can help announce and discover events. Unfortunately, the talk didn’t attract much attention, as LLMs are currently drawing more of an audience. But the discussions with those in attendance were very interesting. The workshop was mainly about trying out #Gancio, #WordPress and #Mastodon and learning about the possibilities for local communities by trying out the applications themselves. I simply provided real test instances, created a list of tasks, including minor pitfalls, and, of course, answered all the questions that came up – and there were quite a few! And a big thank you to the crew and the organizing team, who were so friendly and simply wonderful throughout. #OpenFest

Yesterday, I had an awesome online meeting with the incredibly cool folks behind LAUTI, a free and open-source software for hosting small event calendars. #LAUTI is aimed at small and medium-sized communities and has a big focus on social, cultural and activist stuff. The instance for the Stuttgart area, run by the collective that develops it (@klasse_methode@chaos.social), can be found at https://eintopf.info. The developers are in the process of exploring the potential of #ActivityPub and the #Fediverse. I’m very excited and think this could be really great! In case you’ve been wondering: I see LAUTI kind of in between #Mobilizon and #Gancio. In my opinion, it would not be a competitor to them, but it could be a great addition to the Fediverse by filling this gap.

I will be at the #SFSCON in Bolzano, Italy, in two weeks. There will be a whole afternoon focusing on the Fediverse! So in case you’re there you’re invited to join my short talk about Interoperability of Events in the Fediverse: status quo and vision. Or you’re welcome any time to say hello and let’s have a chat.

After that, it’s time to sit down and get back to programming. But it’s very important to me to continually evaluate and understand what the priorities are, and to remind myself why it’s so important that we all continue our work in this area.

#ActivityPub #FediDay #Fediverse #Gancio #Lauti #Mastodon #Mobilizon #OpenFest #SFSCON #WordPress

Hackers are launching mass attacks, exploiting websites using outdated WordPress plugins. WordPress security firm Wordfence says that it blocked 8.7 million attack attempts against its customers in just two days, October 8 and 9.

#Tech #InfoSec #Wordpress #Computing #TechNews #Blog #Science #Technology #News #CyberSecurity #Business #Engineering #Markets #USA #EU #Asia #Africa #SocialMedia #Mastodon #Fediverse

Hackers are launching mass attacks, exploiting websites using outdated WordPress plugins. WordPress security firm Wordfence says that it blocked 8.7 million attack attempts against its customers in just two days, October 8 and 9.

#Tech #InfoSec #Wordpress #Computing #TechNews #Blog #Science #Technology #News #CyberSecurity #Business #Engineering #Markets #USA #EU #Asia #Africa #SocialMedia #Mastodon #Fediverse

Summer/Autumn 2025: Little coding, but lots of socializing and planning

At the first October weekend I ( @linos) was attending the Berlin FediDay 2025. It was a meetup of the Berlin and German community, developers of Fediverse applications, and representatives of German speaking media institutions. It was great to see old friends again and meet some online contacts for the first time. We were discussing the future and the role of the Fediverse, which was super motivating. #FediDay

Two weeks later, I travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria, to attend this year’s OpenFest, give a talk and lead a workshop on how the Fediverse can help announce and discover events. Unfortunately, the talk didn’t attract much attention, as LLMs are currently drawing more of an audience. But the discussions with those in attendance were very interesting. The workshop was mainly about trying out #Gancio, #WordPress and #Mastodon and learning about the possibilities for local communities by trying out the applications themselves. I simply provided real test instances, created a list of tasks, including minor pitfalls, and, of course, answered all the questions that came up – and there were quite a few! And a big thank you to the crew and the organizing team, who were so friendly and simply wonderful throughout. #OpenFest

Yesterday, I had an awesome online meeting with the incredibly cool folks behind LAUTI, a free and open-source software for hosting small event calendars. #LAUTI is aimed at small and medium-sized communities and has a big focus on social, cultural and activist stuff. The instance for the Stuttgart area, run by the collective that develops it (@klasse_methode@chaos.social), can be found at https://eintopf.info. The developers are in the process of exploring the potential of #ActivityPub and the #Fediverse. I’m very excited and think this could be really great! In case you’ve been wondering: I see LAUTI kind of in between #Mobilizon and #Gancio. In my opinion, it would not be a competitor to them, but it could be a great addition to the Fediverse by filling this gap.

I will be at the #SFSCON in Bolzano, Italy, in two weeks. There will be a whole afternoon focusing on the Fediverse! So in case you’re there you’re invited to join my short talk about Interoperability of Events in the Fediverse: status quo and vision. Or you’re welcome any time to say hello and let’s have a chat.

After that, it’s time to sit down and get back to programming. But it’s very important to me to continually evaluate and understand what the priorities are, and to remind myself why it’s so important that we all continue our work in this area.

#ActivityPub #FediDay #Fediverse #Gancio #Lauti #Mastodon #Mobilizon #OpenFest #SFSCON #WordPress

Arrived in Ottawa for #WCEH2025! #WordPress Contributor Day tomorrow, then #WCEH! I'll be speaking on software supply chain security in a decentralized federated ecosystem. Looking forward to @scripting.com @ma.tt @evan.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy Jill Binder & others! canada.wordcamp.org/2025/about/s...

Arrived in Ottawa for #WCEH2025! #WordPress Contributor Day tomorrow, then #WCEH! I'll be speaking on software supply chain security in a decentralized federated ecosystem. Looking forward to @scripting.com @ma.tt @evan.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy Jill Binder & others! canada.wordcamp.org/2025/about/s...

Evan Prodromou on OpenChannels.FM

A quick note that Evan is interviewed by WordPress social networking lead Matthias Pfefferle on the OpenChannels.FM podcast about the history of the Fediverse and where we’re going next. How Decentralized Social Platforms Grew from Identica to Modern-Day Mastodon covers a 15+-year period as the Fediverse was born and developed. The shownotes alone are extremely detailed and a great resource.

Evan Prodromou on OpenChannels.FM

A quick note that Evan is interviewed by WordPress social networking lead Matthias Pfefferle on the OpenChannels.FM podcast about the history of the Fediverse and where we’re going next. How Decentralized Social Platforms Grew from Identica to Modern-Day Mastodon covers a 15+-year period as the Fediverse was born and developed. The shownotes alone are extremely detailed and a great resource.