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This is missive number 6 of Dealgorithmed, the newsletter for the people who still love and care about the web. Created by Manu, and dispatched from somewhere in Italy on March 15, 2026, 1:32 p.m.
The other day Kevin sent me a link to one of Derek’s recent posts. He’ll not admit it, but he sends me these posts because he hates me and likes to see me getting all worked up.
My issues with the POSSE concept are not a secret since I wrote about it before, but I think it’s worth digging a bit deeper into the subject. A quick disclaimer: everything I’m about to say needs to be framed within the context of personal online presence. If you’re running a business, then these considerations can be thrown out the window because, in that case, the playbook should be entirely different.
In the context of a personal online presence, I see two fundamental ways to exist on the web, which I describe as PUSH mode and PULL mode. PULL is my default mode, the one I try to adopt. No content is automatically pushed in my direction unless I explicitly ask for that content to be delivered to me: I add an RSS feed to my reader, I visit a website, or I subscribe to a newsletter. There is a 0% chance for something that is not the content I want to be pushed to me algorithmically. The only mechanism through which content that’s external to my curation can reach me is if another human being decides something is worth sharing and they do it by hand. They can link to it on their sites, or they can send it directly to me via email or DM.
PULL is the mode I think is best for the personal web, which is why I offer my content in three distinct ways to people who want to follow it: Web, RSS, and Mail. I don’t put my content in the hands of 3rd party platforms that will then perform their song and dance and play the algorithmic game so that my content has the chance to be seen by people who never signed up for it to begin with. The chances of vitality are obviously low when you exist on the web in PULL mode, and that’s a feature, not a bug.
But for me, it’s both a matter of respect—you only get my content if you ask for it explicitly—and also a matter of pushing against social media platforms that, I think, are now doing more harm than good at various levels of society. POSSE was maybe a good idea 15 years ago when the social media landscape was considerably different, but I don’t think it is a good idea now. Again, that’s just me, and I tend to be a bit extreme.
PUSH, as a mode, is pretty much the opposite. PUSH is exactly the mode Derek described in his post, and it’s also part of what POSSE is all about (it’s my understanding that POSSE is slightly more complex since you should do two-way federation and not just push content out, but that’s beside the point). When you live on the web in PUSH mode, as a consumer, you want content to be pushed your way by the algorithmic flow, and you become part of that flow, as a creator, by pushing your content as wide as possible. The point is to be seen, the point is to reach people, doesn’t matter the consequences. PUSH is the game influencers play, and it’s also marketing applied to the personal web. PUSH is what you want to do if you run a business online: in that case, you want people to see your content because that’s how you make money. In that context, PUSH might make sense.
The justification for existing on the web in PUSH mode is usually that you want to be where people are. That’s a very convenient justification, and it’s also a big pile of bullshit. That’s precisely how we got to the shitty place where we are now, with social media being THE place where people get content. Sure, you might only distribute links to your content on those platforms and not the content itself, but guess what happens next? Platforms start throttling, blocking, or de-ranking posts with links. And all that is already happening.
Plus, PUSH mode carries the implicit admission that the web has lost and that the only way for people to find you and your content is to play by the rules set up by a bunch of mega corporations. Personally, I say fuck to that.
The web can only be healthy if we believe in its intrinsic quality of connecting content and people. I personally still believe in that quality, but I’m starting to feel like I’m part of a dwindling minority. And that’s ok.
— M.
Last week, I asked the question, «If you could obliterate from the face of the internet one website with the press of a button, which one would you pick and why?» and the few people who got in touch all had somewhat predictable answers: Facebook, Truth Social, Twitter. I was secretly hoping for some deep cuts.
I have two answers to that question, one serious, and one more chaos oriented. The serious one is, unsurprisingly, Google. I think it would have massive ramifications. Google—the company—would loose their primary money-printing machine, Apple would instantly lose the 20 or so billions it gets from Google to be the default search engine, and all the other various Google products would need to start making money because I don’t think you can sustain a Gmail or a Maps without Google Search money coming in.
The agent-of-chaos answer is YouTube. There is no direct replacement for YouTube. Where would all the creators move to? It would be such an interesting scenario to see unfold.
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The Internet Phone Book has opened submissions for their second edition. Such a lovely project. Can’t wait to get my hands on this second edition.
This month’s IndieWeb Carnival is still ongoing. Hosted by James, the topic is “Museum memories”.
The IndieWeb Book Club is also ongoing, and the book chosen by Nick is The Timeless Way of Building.
My name is Alberto and I love life in general, but I'm particularly passionate about photography, writing, travelling and hiking. I love anything that gets my mind or body moving.
I would probably say craigmod.com or sive.rs. I like them mostly for their content and ideas. They're really particular people.
I find Dunbar's number intriguing — we can only maintain 150 relationships, yet most people don't even reach that. What strikes me is that we give 40% of our attention to just 5 people, but the internet tricks us into spreading that attention across screens instead. I think that's why so many feel lonely despite being "connected" — they've replaced real time with their people for time with a screen.
I like everything from Tommy, but I particularly like this post: http://tommydixon.ca/p/how-to-end-your-extremely-online (that's the web for you, this is now offline apparently)
I suppose I would like a day without the internet. A day with the family, on a trip where we don't depend on technology to find our way. I liked it when we did this in the past. People seemed more present back then.
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Want to join the fun? Grab the 5 questions down below and email me your answers at hello@manuelmoreale.com.
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Always nice to click on a random link. That's what the web is for after all.
Thank you for reading Dealgorithmed. The web is better place when we do things together and you being here means a lot to me.
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This was issue #6 of Dealgorithmed. You can subscribe or unsubscribe.
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