We're starting to build a distributed social network using only web standards.
Key values: All parts are replaceable and Small pieces loosely joined, a term I stole from David Weinberger.
If I were to produce an all-inclusive fully developed centralized product, it wouldn't yield the result I'm trying to spin up, to bootstrap, which is how I work.
Podcasting, RSS, blogs -- all bootstraps like this. If you looked at my blog in 1994 and tried to extrapolate Twitter, you wouldn't get there, but each step is there, it should be so well understood at this point that I could simply say \"Howard I'm doing a bootstrap.\"
So the part I'm working on right now is the group writing app. I've talked about this for years, I want an app for my friends and people I work with. But I don't think you have to sacrifice any of the global connections, that's what RSS is good at and we know how to build those systems.
There's a whole other side to my software kit, FeedLand, which can do the aggregation and can be connected to RSS.chat and all apps that are filling the same niche. And Feedly and NetNewswire, if they want, can play the same role.
That's why when you come here you only see 1/3 of the picture.
I had to open it up now because I want to get started on the community.
If this explanation helps, tell me -- and I'll ask Claude to write this up with all the ideas behind it. We've been careful to discuss every aspect of the product as it was developed.
But think of this software, rss.chat as web writing circa 2026 if we hadn't wasted most of the 20 years after Twitter.
What feed are you following?
If you're following the everyone feed, you will get my updates and Claude's, but you'll get all the others too. Nothing wrong with that, at all.
", "pubDate": "Sun, 19 Jul 2026 17:01:34 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=181", "source:markdown": "What feed are you following?\n\nIf you're following the [everyone feed](https://demo.rss.chat/users/rss.xml), you will get my updates and Claude's, but you'll get all the others too. Nothing wrong with that, at all.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=179" }, { "description": "I wonder if it makes sense to try to implement standard.site in the context of rss.chat?
", "pubDate": "Sun, 19 Jul 2026 17:00:12 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=180", "source:markdown": "I wonder if it makes sense to try to implementĀ [standard.site](https://standard.site/)Ā in the context of rss.chat?", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/180.xml" } }, { "description": "Heads up -- I'm posting updates about the software that apply here too, over on rss.chat.
You can stay tuned in with this flow via my feed. You might also want to subscribe to claude, its posts are about changes to the software too.
", "pubDate": "Sun, 19 Jul 2026 14:13:10 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=178", "source:markdown": "Heads up -- I'm posting updates about the software that apply here too, over on rss.chat.\n\nYou can stay tuned in with this flow via my feed. You might also want to subscribe to claude, its posts are about changes to the software too.Ā \n\nhttps://rss.chat/users/dave/rss.xml\n\nhttps://rss.chat/users/claude/rss.xml" }, { "description": "Iāll delete your account for you. ", "pubDate": "Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:28:29 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=177", "source:markdown": "Iāll delete your account for you.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=176" }, { "description": "Also setting up demo.rss.chat was a good thing to do, but if it requires moderation, that'll be the point at which I consider asking people to run their own services. We are working dilligently to make running an instance easier and easier.
Think about blogging, RSS and podcasting -- we managed to get the first apps out in each of the categories, and we enjoyed some success, but what was really successful was seeding the market. This time, at my advanced age, I'm hoping to do another seeding. The web has done so much good for us, I want to help it get back on its feet, if I can. Hoping to interest other people in doing the same.
BTW, I already have a fine feed reader -- FeedLand. We're going to make a fresh pass over that, and make sure it's all well hooked up to RSS.chat, both ways. Any feed readers software can follow what we do there. I think the most important thing will be dynamic subscriptions, what we have called reading lists in the past, basically allow people to subscribe to subscription lists.
", "pubDate": "Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:51:15 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=170", "source:markdown": "Also setting up [demo.rss.chat](http://demo.rss.chat) was a good thing to do, but if it requires moderation, that'll be the point at which I consider asking people to run their own services. We are working dilligently to make running an instance easier and easier.Ā \n\nThink about blogging, RSS and podcasting -- we managed to get the first apps out in each of the categories, and we enjoyed some success, but what was really successful was seeding the market. This time, at my advanced age, I'm hoping to do another seeding. The web has done so much good for us, I want to help it get back on its feet, if I can. Hoping to interest other people in doing the same.\n\nBTW, I already have a fine feed reader -- FeedLand. We're going to make a fresh pass over that, and make sure it's all well hooked up to [RSS.chat](http://RSS.chat), both ways. Any feed readers software can follow what we do there. I think the most important thing will be dynamic subscriptions, what we have called reading lists in the past, basically allow people to subscribe to subscription lists.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=167", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/170.xml" } }, { "description": "John great to see you here. ;-)
The goal is to seed a new way of creating social networks, entirely on the web, with no business model other than I'd like to see the web grow based on the work of independent developers.
I don't think there's a way to get there by going through captive platforms.
Anyway, happy to answer any questions, while you have been following me, I've been following you back -- always interested in what you see, and what questions you have. ;-)
", "pubDate": "Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:46:05 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=169", "source:markdown": "John great to see you here. ;-)\n\nThe goal is to seed a new way of creating social networks, entirely on the web, with no business model other than I'd like to see the web grow based on the work of independent developers.\n\nI don't think there's a way to get there by going through captive platforms.Ā \n\nAnyway, happy to answer any questions, while you have been following me, I've been following you back -- always interested in what you see, and what questions you have. ;-)", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=167" }, { "description": "This works.
It turned out that way, didn't it. ;-)
Funny thing is at the time Microsoft had a product that was meant to compete with Apple's iPod, called Zune, and it wasn't getting in there. I went there and proposed we turn it into a podcasting platform. They never responded.
Lots of examples of things like that. They needed to pivot, turn the corner, realize there was another market they could get at that Apple couldn't because Apple viewed audio as valuable and podcasting says \"one listen and throw it out.\" There really was a niche there back then. Now, it would never go over, because the installed base.
", "pubDate": "Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:11:21 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=112", "source:markdown": "It turned out that way, didn't it. ;-)\n\nFunny thing is at the time Microsoft had a product that was meant to compete with Apple's iPod, called Zune, and it wasn't getting in there. I went there and proposed we turn it into a podcasting platform. They never responded.Ā \n\nLots of examples of things like that. They needed to pivot, turn the corner, realize there was another market they could get at that Apple couldn't because Apple viewed audio as valuable and podcasting says \"one listen and throw it out.\" There really was a niche there back then. Now, it would never go over, because the installed base.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=110", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/112.xml" } }, { "description": "Also that's something micro.blog does really well.
I support what Manton has done there.
We have to work together to build the web, we can't do it by all trying to work with the BigCo's. They have other (understandable) motives.
", "pubDate": "Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:34:00 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=109", "source:markdown": "Also that's something [micro.blog](http://micro.blog) does really well.Ā \n\nI support what Manton has done there.Ā \n\nWe have to work together to build the web, we can't do it by all trying to work with the BigCo's. They have other (understandable) motives.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=107" }, { "description": "We thought about doing that and decided not to.
Just wrote a post about that on scripting.
Don't think of this as a product Rob. Think about features you want in other people's products. Think of this as a source of feeds, not a destination for them.
I have a whole other product for that called FeedLand, btw. ;-)
", "pubDate": "Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:32:16 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=108", "source:markdown": "We thought about doing that and decided not to.\n\nJust wrote a [post](http://scripting.com/2026/07/16/134247.html) about that on scripting.Ā \n\nDon't think of this as a product Rob. Think about features you want in other people's products. Think of this as a source of feeds, not a destination for them.\n\nI have a whole other product for that called FeedLand, btw. ;-)", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=107", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/108.xml" } }, { "description": "Heh. It's true.
Here's the emancipation proclamation.
", "pubDate": "Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:25:08 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=83", "source:markdown": "Heh. It's true.\n\nHere's the emancipation proclamation.\n\nhttps://textcasting.org", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=75" }, { "description": "Frank, see the wedge next to the comment icon?
If you flick that down, you see the responses to the post.
If they have responses, you can flick them too.
", "pubDate": "Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:24:20 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=82", "source:markdown": "Frank, see the wedge next to the comment icon?\n\nIf you flick that down, you see the responses to the post.Ā \n\nIf they have responses, you can flick them too.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=77" }, { "description": "We just simplified the way feeds are stored.
The server doesn't have to create a space on S3, we handle it all in our server.
This was the biggest stumbling block in setting up demo.rss.chat -- and I knew what I was doing.
", "pubDate": "Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:36:50 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=73", "source:markdown": "We just simplified the way feeds are stored.Ā \n\nThe server doesn't have to create a space on S3, we handle it all in our server.\n\nThis was the biggest stumbling block in setting up demo.rss.chat -- and I knew what I was doing.", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/73.xml" } }, { "description": "Not as-is, if they add a couple of features to their RSS feeds, and treat comments as blog posts with their own permalinks, then yes, it can. ", "pubDate": "Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:04:32 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=64", "source:markdown": "Not as-is, if they add a couple of features to their RSS feeds, and treat comments as blog posts with their own permalinks, then yes, it can.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=57" }, { "description": "I took a class in dehypnotherapy a long time ago, and there was a meditation exercise where the class leader told us to think about someone who hurt you as a kid. My father, who drank a lot, was who I thought of. Now respond to what they did to hurt you as part of the meditation.
So while I was breathing I visualized this -- I took a plate of spaghetti and mushed it around on his face. Then I put him in the tiny basement bathroom we had in our house, closed the door and said \"now I want you to think about this young man!\" That's when the fantasy ended.
By the end of the workshop we would address the hurtful adult as an adult would -- \"I love David very much,\" I would say to my father, \"and I want you to be nice to him.\"
The point being first find your inner adult and eventually respond like a responsible loving adult that my father should have been.
Once I learned that technique, I don't have much trouble with letting bad behavior stop me from being true to myself.
", "pubDate": "Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:03:07 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=63", "source:markdown": "I took a class in _dehypnotherapy_ a long time ago, and there was a meditation exercise where the class leader told us to think about someone who hurt you as a kid. My father, who drank a lot, was who I thought of. Now respond to what they did to hurt you as part of the meditation.Ā \n\nSo while I was breathing I visualized this -- I took a plate of spaghetti and mushed it around on his face. Then I put him in the tiny basement bathroom we had in our house, closed the door and said \"now I want you to think about this young man!\" That's when the fantasy ended.Ā \n\nBy the end of the workshop we would address the hurtful adult as an adult would -- \"I love David very much,\" I would say to my father, \"and I want you to be nice to him.\"\n\nThe point being first find your inner adult and eventually respond like a responsible loving adult that my father should have been.Ā \n\nOnce I learned that technique, I don't have much trouble with letting bad behavior stop me from being true to myself.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=60", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/63.xml" } }, { "description": "I love comments like this. We worked really hard to make this simple, and there are lots of nice little touches in the UI. Keep coming back, we're moving really fast, a little slower now that there are users. ", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:59:19 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=41", "source:markdown": "I love comments like this. We worked really hard to make this simple, and there are lots of nice little touches in the UI. Keep coming back, we're moving really fast, a little slower now that there are users.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=40" }, { "description": "Naveen it goes the other way, we are not a feed reader, we generate feeds.
This is a writing surface.
But everything goes out via RSS and OPML (still working out some glitchiness there).
From there all kinds of readers can be created that take advantage the structure of posts here.
Every reply to a post is a full peer of the thing it's replying to. When people (devs) see how that works, they'll get 100 ideas for new products. If they don't I will keep going until they do.
We had to do that with podcasting, no one believed it could do what it did. Eventually they did and thus we got a market for podcast clients.
Think of it as a recording studio for text.
", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:47:48 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=39", "source:markdown": "Naveen it goes the other way, we are not a feed reader, we generate feeds.Ā \n\nThis is a writing surface.Ā \n\nBut everything goes out via RSS and OPML (still working out some glitchiness there).\n\nFrom there all kinds of readers can be created that take advantage the structure of posts here.\n\nEvery reply to a post is a full peer of the thing it's replying to. When people (devs) see how that works, they'll get 100 ideas for new products. If they don't I will keep going until they do.\n\nWe had to do that with podcasting, no one believed it could do what it did. Eventually they did and thus we got a market for podcast clients.Ā \n\nThink of it as a recording studio for text.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=31" }, { "description": "We speak the same language. I want all the social networks to support the same text that the web specifies. I wrote a spec for that called textcasting. We support almost everything it specifies (no enclosures, yet).
", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:44:28 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=38", "source:markdown": "We speak the same language. I want all the social networks to support the same text that the web specifies. I wrote a spec for that called textcasting. We support almost everything it specifies (no enclosures, yet).Ā \n\nhttps://textcasting.org/", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=32" }, { "description": "You don't find people to follow here. We're just getting started. You do not have to set up an instance. Give a few more months of a bootstrap before all that stuff exists, and the hope is I won't have to provide it. I'll keep building until other developers see that they could be part of this too. Also I don't think all social networks have to behave like Twitter. I feel very strongly about that. They did a lot of things that hurt the web. I want to undo the damage finally get out of the grip of the billionaires.", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:40:57 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=37", "source:markdown": "You don't find people to follow here. We're just getting started. You do not have to set up an instance. Give a few more months of a bootstrap before all that stuff exists, and the hope is I won't have to provide it. I'll keep building until other developers see that they could be part of this too. Also I don't think all social networks have to behave like Twitter. I feel very strongly about that. They did a lot of things that hurt the web. I want to undo the damage finally get out of the grip of the billionaires.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=35", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/37.xml" } }, { "description": "WordLand is designed to work with WordPress. This is a similar idea but without WordPress, entirely based on feeds and APIs.
I didn't see a path for WordLand to be a success, but it's not going anywhere people can use it, and if the WordPress community discovers it and starts using it, then it might be worth connecting up to this system.
I would actually prefer at this point that WordPress hook up to this network. I expect they will do so, because there are no hurdles in the way, they don't have character limits, and support all the text features of the web. Other services which do limit what people can type will have to relax their limits before it makes sense to connect here.
", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:53:58 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=29", "source:markdown": "WordLand is designed to work with WordPress. This is a similar idea but without WordPress, entirely based on feeds and APIs.Ā \n\nI didn't see a path for WordLand to be a success, but it's not going anywhere people can use it, and if the WordPress community discovers it and starts using it, then it might be worth connecting up to this system.Ā \n\nI would actually prefer at this point that WordPress hook up to this network. I expect they will do so, because there are no hurdles in the way, they don't have character limits, and support all the text features of the web. Other services which do limit what people can type will have to relax their limits before it makes sense to connect here.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=16" }, { "description": "I take it back -- we do have user docs.
You have to switch into markdown mode, see the M with the downarrow icon. Then your text will be interpreted as Markdown.
Suggest you select all, copy, delete, switch to markdown mode, paste and switch back to wizzy mode.
", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:46:07 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=26", "source:markdown": "You have to switch into markdown mode, see the M with the downarrow icon. Then your text will be interpreted as Markdown.Ā \n\nSuggest you select all, copy, delete, switch to markdown mode, paste and switch back to wizzy mode.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=24" }, { "description": "Howard we haven't done the docs yet. We're mainly focused now on supporting developers, this is an open source project to seed a new kind of social network, based entirely on open formats and protocols that are widely used on the web. Think of this as playing the role that MacWrite played in bootstrapping software development on the Mac. People needed something to play with to get an idea of how to copy it. ", "pubDate": "Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:39:42 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=23", "source:markdown": "Howard we haven't done the docs yet. We're mainly focused now on supporting developers, this is an open source project to seed a new kind of social network, based entirely on open formats and protocols that are widely used on the web. Think of this as playing the role that MacWrite played in bootstrapping software development on the Mac. People needed something to play with to get an idea of how to copy it.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=21" }, { "description": "Welcome to the demo site for rss.chat.
Anyone can create an account here, and there is no moderation, but we will block anyone who creates a stink. For a clear idea of what that is, check out the comment guidelines.
Now I can't edit a post that I wrote?
Something funky is going on here.
", "pubDate": "Mon, 13 Jul 2026 20:49:35 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=6", "source:markdown": "Now I can't edit a post that I wrote?Ā \n\nSomething funky is going on here." }, { "description": "I made a mistake when initially setting up this site, didn't specify where the S3 files would be written and how they would be accessed. By posting this I'm causing the feeds to be built again.
Forgot to restart the server. ;-)
", "pubDate": "Mon, 13 Jul 2026 20:15:04 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=4", "source:markdown": "I made a mistake when initially setting up this site, didn't specify where the S3 files would be written and how they would be accessed. By posting this I'm causing the feeds to be built again.Ā \n\nForgot to restart the server. ;-)" }, { "description": "Just checking to see if this is ok.", "pubDate": "Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:27:47 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=2", "source:markdown": "Just checking to see if this is ok.", "source:inReplyTo": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=1", "source:comments": { "count": 1, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/2.xml" } }, { "title": "Welcome to demo.rss.chat", "description": "It was time to test the instructions for creating a new server, and I worked with my buddy Claude to get everything nice and neat. When it came time to play, I forgot to launch the freaking app. But everything else was just fine, and here I am grinning from ear to ear with my new rss.chat server.
I'm leaving this one open, no whitelist, so anyone who wants to kick the tires, can do so. Not sure how long this will be up. I sure don't want to get into moderation, and if things spin out, I will shut it down. And that's one of the advantages of a fractional horsepower social network, if we're all friends, the need for moderation can go way down (depends I guess on who your friends are). Also a disclaimer, I may shut this down if everything is cool.
", "pubDate": "Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:32:13 GMT", "guid": "https://demo.rss.chat/?id=1", "source:markdown": "It was time to test the instructions for creating a new server, and I worked with my buddy Claude to get everything nice and neat. When it came time to play, I forgot to launch the freaking app. But everything else was just fine, and here I am grinning from ear to ear with my new [rss.chat](http://rss.chat) server.Ā \n\nI'm leaving this one open, no whitelist, so anyone who wants to kick the tires, can do so. Not sure how long this will be up. I sure don't want to get into moderation, and if things spin out, I will shut it down. And that's one of the advantages of a fractional horsepower social network, if we're all friends, the need for moderation can go way down (depends I guess on who your friends are). Also a disclaimer, I may shut this down if everything is cool.", "source:comments": { "count": 2, "feedUrl": "https://demo.rss.chat/users/dave/comments/1.xml" } } ] } } }