So, given WP is willing to sell all its users down the river for some quick "AI" buzz, what fedi-enabled alternatives exist for human-centric websites?
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@coop I mentioned write.as in my toot; @writefreely is of course the software running that site (and others). Thanks for the correction

I called them 'ascetic', because WP and its host of themes seem more accommodating for image content and customisation. But the writefreelies may still be a viable alternative, with some extra work.
And another vote for Ghost. Will give that a more serious look, too.
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So, given WP is willing to sell all its users down the river for some quick "AI" buzz, what fedi-enabled alternatives exist for human-centric websites? https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-ai-team-outlines-vision-for-ai-as-a-fundamental-part-of-wordpress
I know of write.as, plume. They're too ascetic to match the brief. ClassicPress could be an option, provided the WP-ActivityPub add-on works with that.
#wordpress #ActivityPub #CMS #noAI #fediverse
cc @davidgerard@haverholm@radikal.social how about Ghost?
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@manualdousuario @haverholm @davidgerard Anyone have a link to a good noob guide to options for posting from a WP install to a mastodon account... like a way to make a dedicated category that perhaps doesn't get included in the home page or rss feed (can do that with functions.php already)?
Or, does anyone have a self-hostable masto version, that can work within the scale of resource use of WP, perhaps with no global feed, just for a single user to read and post?
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So, given WP is willing to sell all its users down the river for some quick "AI" buzz, what fedi-enabled alternatives exist for human-centric websites? https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-ai-team-outlines-vision-for-ai-as-a-fundamental-part-of-wordpress
I know of write.as, plume. They're too ascetic to match the brief. ClassicPress could be an option, provided the WP-ActivityPub add-on works with that.
#wordpress #ActivityPub #CMS #noAI #fediverse
cc @davidgerard@haverholm @davidgerard nobody asked for Gutenberg and nobody asked for this
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@manualdousuario @haverholm @davidgerard Anyone have a link to a good noob guide to options for posting from a WP install to a mastodon account... like a way to make a dedicated category that perhaps doesn't get included in the home page or rss feed (can do that with functions.php already)?
Or, does anyone have a self-hostable masto version, that can work within the scale of resource use of WP, perhaps with no global feed, just for a single user to read and post?
@metaning Read the room, please. @manualdousuario @davidgerard
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@metaning Read the room, please. @manualdousuario @davidgerard
@haverholm @manualdousuario @davidgerard Yes, it contains people who don't like the new WP direction (and are talking about alternate fediverse WP posting bridges). I'm still on 4.x and probably going to migrate to ClassicPress, because Gutenberg is a flaming bag of excrement. Hence why asking.
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@haverholm @manualdousuario @davidgerard Yes, it contains people who don't like the new WP direction (and are talking about alternate fediverse WP posting bridges). I'm still on 4.x and probably going to migrate to ClassicPress, because Gutenberg is a flaming bag of excrement. Hence why asking.
@metaning @manualdousuario @davidgerard And I reply, again, this is not the right thread to ask.
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So, given WP is willing to sell all its users down the river for some quick "AI" buzz, what fedi-enabled alternatives exist for human-centric websites? https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-ai-team-outlines-vision-for-ai-as-a-fundamental-part-of-wordpress
I know of write.as, plume. They're too ascetic to match the brief. ClassicPress could be an option, provided the WP-ActivityPub add-on works with that.
#wordpress #ActivityPub #CMS #noAI #fediverse
cc @davidgerard@haverholm I'm glad you asked because I was wondering the same thing. Yesterday I posted about how infuriating it was to spend hours doing normal tasks and after I finally got a blog post up, Wordpress sent me a questionnaire asking how they could improve it. I told them to get rid of AI and read Ed Zitron and Cory Doctorow. Or I suggested they offer the old non-AI version as a option. Here's something I wrote about AI:
proustsaidthat.blog/2025/05/11the-microsoft-doom-loop/ -
@haverholm I'm glad you asked because I was wondering the same thing. Yesterday I posted about how infuriating it was to spend hours doing normal tasks and after I finally got a blog post up, Wordpress sent me a questionnaire asking how they could improve it. I told them to get rid of AI and read Ed Zitron and Cory Doctorow. Or I suggested they offer the old non-AI version as a option. Here's something I wrote about AI:
proustsaidthat.blog/2025/05/11the-microsoft-doom-loop/@nspsegal I think there's a slash missing in your URL: https://proustsaidthat.blog/2025/05/11/the-microsoft-doom-loop/ Giving it a read now.
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@julian Could be. How far along is their fediverse implementation?
Also, do you have experience migrating large-ish sites from one to the other? Because I'm involved with one group blog that would need to have 15 years or so worth of posts and podcast series moved from an ancient WP install...
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@nspsegal I think there's a slash missing in your URL: https://proustsaidthat.blog/2025/05/11/the-microsoft-doom-loop/ Giving it a read now.
@nspsegal Not a bad piece. I try to avoid Microsoft as much as possible, but they deliver infrastructure for my day job. It has been so depressing to follow how they just forced Copilot on *their paying customers*.
Suddenly the entire educational institution has implemented guidelines and advice on how students and staff can use "AI" in their work. Not guidelines *against* it, because it has been normalised through the software the workplace provides.
See also https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself
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@nspsegal Not a bad piece. I try to avoid Microsoft as much as possible, but they deliver infrastructure for my day job. It has been so depressing to follow how they just forced Copilot on *their paying customers*.
Suddenly the entire educational institution has implemented guidelines and advice on how students and staff can use "AI" in their work. Not guidelines *against* it, because it has been normalised through the software the workplace provides.
See also https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself
@nspsegal Me, I dodge the bullet by using Linux and open source software. So far, LibreOffice hasn't drunk the "AI" kool aid.
Wordpress straying down that path is not a great sign of things to come, but I remain hopeful of a not entirely idiotic future.
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@julian @haverholm
Hubzilla is an option, too. -
@julian @haverholm
Hubzilla is an option, too. -
@haverholm @julian
It's indeed usable as CMS. There's of course not that supply of themes and fancy stuff like for WP. -
@haverholm @julian
It's indeed usable as CMS. There's of course not that supply of themes and fancy stuff like for WP. -
@haverholm @julian
I saw some amazing sites people have built on their Hubs.BTW ... what is the magic that this thread is located in the activitypub.space #nodebb forum? Didn't the conversation start with a common Mastodon post?
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@haverholm @julian
I saw some amazing sites people have built on their Hubs.BTW ... what is the magic that this thread is located in the activitypub.space #nodebb forum? Didn't the conversation start with a common Mastodon post?
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@haverholm @julian
Indeed it is. Viva La FΓΆderation!

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