What do you mean by “mainstreaming”? https://hamishcampbell.com/what-do-you-mean-by-mainstreaming-2/ It’s what happens when people take grassroots energy and repackage it in #NGO boxes or #dotcon business plans. The result? We end up feeding the monster we’re supposed to be fighting.

What do you mean by “mainstreaming”? https://hamishcampbell.com/what-do-you-mean-by-mainstreaming-2/ It’s what happens when people take grassroots energy and repackage it in #NGO boxes or #dotcon business plans. The result? We end up feeding the monster we’re supposed to be fighting.

Building Networks (Ecosystems)

Balance means prioritising the roots - not exclusively, but deliberately - to counter the dominance of traditional and #NGO media.

The corporate #dotcons, the “social media” mess — we KISS use and abuse what's left as compost.

The #openweb, foundation of transparency and federation ( #4opens).

#Nostr is a classic “me-too” project caught in the #geekproblem loop. It won’t move forward until it learns to value community as core infrastructure.

#Bluesky, meanwhile, is already drifting into the hands of VC-funded #fluffy elitists who turn every commons into a brand. It’s a likely dead-end for real change or challenge — which is exactly why the #mainstreaming, #blocking, #NGO, and #fashernista crowds flock to it.

#Nostr is a classic “me-too” project caught in the #geekproblem loop. It won’t move forward until it learns to value community as core infrastructure.

#Bluesky, meanwhile, is already drifting into the hands of VC-funded #fluffy elitists who turn every commons into a brand. It’s a likely dead-end for real change or challenge — which is exactly why the #mainstreaming, #blocking, #NGO, and #fashernista crowds flock to it.

This reboot is designed to keep that accountability local, transparent, and collective, rebuilding a public sphere rooted in care and plurality, not hierarchy.

We’re not inventing from scratch — we’re restoring what worked before it was torn apart by #NGO capture, sectarian politics, and right-wing hostility. The model is simple: trust-based publishing circles, not gatekept paths.

There’s a bad cultural fear of challenge. In many #NGO or “fluffy” tech spaces, disagreement is treated as rudeness, and critique as aggression. So rather than compost conflict, people hide it under layers of “process” or “kindness theatre.” The result is stagnation — projects that look good, but go nowhere.

There’s a bad cultural fear of challenge. In many #NGO or “fluffy” tech spaces, disagreement is treated as rudeness, and critique as aggression. So rather than compost conflict, people hide it under layers of “process” or “kindness theatre.” The result is stagnation — projects that look good, but go nowhere.

This reboot is designed to keep that accountability local, transparent, and collective, rebuilding a public sphere rooted in care and plurality, not hierarchy.

We’re not inventing from scratch — we’re restoring what worked before it was torn apart by #NGO capture, sectarian politics, and right-wing hostility. The model is simple: trust-based publishing circles, not gatekept paths.

#OMN and its projects represent one of the few remaining native paths to rebuild a free, trustworthy, and cooperative grassroots #openweb — from the ground up, not from the boardroom down. In a time when every #dotcons platform, #NGO, and state initiative wants to manage people into compliance, #OMN offers the opposite: a framework where people manage themselves through open code, shared trust, and transparent governance.

#Indymedia Reboot: Remembering Our Roots

It’s good to remind ourselves that what we’re doing is not starting something new, but rebooting an existing project - Indymedia - as it was before being ripped apart by competing agendas and external pressures.

We already have the processes and working practices agreed upon from those early, strong years. The core idea is simple and enduring: wherever we face a choice between open and closed, we build a switch — On / Off / Moderate. We do not force one single way of being; instead, we choose a default and leave it to the trust or affinity groups who run each instance to decide where to set their switches.

The foundation project, the Open Media Network ( #OMN), and the example instance we’re rebooting as Indymedia, both stand firmly on two shared roots:

the #4opens — open data, open process, open source, open access

And the PGA (Peoples Global Action) hallmarks — horizontalism, direct democracy, and solidarity across struggles.

Together, these give us a simple, low-politics mission: To rebuild the grassroots media commons where people can publish, share, and collaborate.

This is about trust-based infrastructure - composting the old conflicts, avoiding the #NGO-style traps, and growing something alive again.

#Indymedia Reboot: Remembering Our Roots

It’s good to remind ourselves that what we’re doing is not starting something new, but rebooting an existing project - Indymedia - as it was before being ripped apart by competing agendas and external pressures.

We already have the processes and working practices agreed upon from those early, strong years. The core idea is simple and enduring: wherever we face a choice between open and closed, we build a switch — On / Off / Moderate. We do not force one single way of being; instead, we choose a default and leave it to the trust or affinity groups who run each instance to decide where to set their switches.

The foundation project, the Open Media Network ( #OMN), and the example instance we’re rebooting as Indymedia, both stand firmly on two shared roots:

the #4opens — open data, open process, open source, open access

And the PGA (Peoples Global Action) hallmarks — horizontalism, direct democracy, and solidarity across struggles.

Together, these give us a simple, low-politics mission: To rebuild the grassroots media commons where people can publish, share, and collaborate.

This is about trust-based infrastructure - composting the old conflicts, avoiding the #NGO-style traps, and growing something alive again.

The moment one side silences the other, the culture starts to rot.

The second-best path, if balance isn’t yet possible, is to shift the #NGO-style fluffy language — soften its domination reflex — so it stops sounding like control disguised as kindness.

That’s how care can evolve into openness rather than enclosure.

@andypiper @yala @hamishcampbell @cbase

The real solution is to respect and build from the fluffy/spiky debate. The second best is to shift the #NGO #fluffy language to be less obviously bad https://hamishcampbell.com/keeping-conversations-open-the-fluffy-spiky-debate/

The worst outcome is for this blinded narrowness to continue, it's simply silent damage.

#socialhub destroyed itself through this path... you guys as individuals will be fine, but the social tech damage you push is real.

How can people try not to be prats about this conversation?

@andypiper @yala @hamishcampbell @cbase

The real solution is to respect and build from the fluffy/spiky debate. The second best is to shift the #NGO #fluffy language to be less obviously bad https://hamishcampbell.com/keeping-conversations-open-the-fluffy-spiky-debate/

The worst outcome is for this blinded narrowness to continue, it's simply silent damage.

#socialhub destroyed itself through this path... you guys as individuals will be fine, but the social tech damage you push is real.

How can people try not to be prats about this conversation?

@cbase

https://hamishcampbell.com/live-at-c-base-a-fluffy-fediverse-conference/ You likely need a shovel to work on composting. Or if you want to continue with this then clearer naming the events for the minority they invite and host would help to make less mess, a few #NGO groups have started to do this like #FediForum and the #SWF now have less imperialistic language, which is at least is a little less blinded.

https://hamishcampbell.com/live-at-c-base-a-fluffy-fediverse-conference/ You likely need a shovel to work on composting. Or if you want to continue with this kind of mess making then clearer naming the events for the minority they invite and host would help to make less mess, a few #NGO groups have started to do this like #FediForum and the #SWF now have less imperialistic language, which is at least is a little less blinded.

The #mainstreaming is hallucinating. Let’s be very blunt, these people are not important as individuals. What matters is the path they push us down. The “commonsense” they sell is poison. Every time we let them set the frame, our spaces collapse back into #stupidindividualism or #NGO capture. https://hamishcampbell.com/the-mainstreaming-communication-is-hallucinating/

The #mainstreaming is hallucinating. Let’s be very blunt, these people are not important as individuals. What matters is the path they push us down. The “commonsense” they sell is poison. Every time we let them set the frame, our spaces collapse back into #stupidindividualism or #NGO capture. https://hamishcampbell.com/the-mainstreaming-communication-is-hallucinating/