Laurens
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laurenshof.online
Laurens
@laurenshof.online
I care about an ethical internet.

I write about Bluesky and the ATmosphere at connectedplaces.online

🇳🇱, mostly post in English

https://ger.mx/A7wQM6oeukC5_1J8D27CvfjlUAaep5t2rcwmqEvVRRLk#did:plc:mdjhvva6vlrswsj26cftjttd
Pinned
X Is a Power Problem, Not a Platform Problem

my analysis of current events

connectedplaces.online/reports/a-po...
Reposted by Laurens
"Why do people keep calling for a 'European X' or a 'European Instagram' when instead, by sharing infrastructure as we're doing with @eurosky.social, we could have 20 or 30 social networks?" — @seabass.bsky.social
February 5, 2026 at 11:36 AM
February 5, 2026 at 12:03 AM
February 4, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Pretty sure this is what they meant with “the purpose of a system is what it does”
February 4, 2026 at 3:10 PM
The goal of going to museums is to build a collection of weird baby jesuses
February 4, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Laurens
January 30, 2026 at 6:54 PM
do i ever have something for you if youre into political yaoi analysis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m5_...
Lumie's Political Yaoi Dating Simulator Master Diagram (WITH EVIDENCE)
YouTube video by Lumie
www.youtube.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Laurens
Custom feeds are not communities. But they can become commons.
Custom Feeds Are Not Communities — A Design Theory of Feeds and Commons
plurality.leaflet.pub
January 29, 2026 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Laurens
Shout out to @laurenshof.online for yet another incredibly thoughtful take on Open Social, this time exploring the news around TikTok's sale and video on ATproto.

Thank you for including @skylight.social! ✨
January 29, 2026 at 8:58 PM
new from me: Musk buying Twitter has strongly impacted the cultures of the atmosphere and the fediverse. What impact will TikTok's new US ownership have on the open social web?

connectedplaces.online/reports/fr15...
FR#151 – TikTok Won’t Be Another Twitter
The conditions that made 'leaving Twitter' a meaningful part of the open social web's identity don't exist for TikTok. What happens when people can't see each other leave?
connectedplaces.online
January 29, 2026 at 6:21 PM
metagovernance lfggg
January 29, 2026 at 5:50 PM
id love to see this being done grassroots a la standard.site or community.lexicon, good opportunity for community members to set defaults on how bots should behave and be declared
Basically, yes, bots need to self label, have a declared human guardian, have clear rules of operation, and probably some other things. And it would be great if they were easy to not see
January 29, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Laurens
This piece is incredibly important for understanding the Trump administration and what happens next. There's a stochastic element to what they do, because social media algorithms are central, not incidental, to government policy www.theverge.com/news/869824/...
What is Nick Shirley?
Slop doesn’t need to be AI-generated
www.theverge.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Laurens
Here you go Pam Bondi www.theverge.com/policy/86857...
Best gas masks
“How did these people go out and get gas masks?” AG Bondi asked.
www.theverge.com
January 29, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Laurens
January 28, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Laurens
recorded a Windows 95 full disk defrag to soothe your timeline.
January 29, 2026 at 9:48 AM
out of curiosity, whats your consideration for streamplace over owncast or peertube livestreaming?
January 29, 2026 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Laurens
Loving that the @ec.europa.eu is faster in processing freedom of information requests from the US DOJ than from Europeans — only to then be called "Leftist Euro bureaucrats" and "misinformation pseudoscientists".

No kink-shaming but can the Commission maybe stop with the humiliation fetish?
January 29, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Laurens
From Politico, @bartgroothuis.bsky.social @barbarakathmann.bsky.social and me on how the Netherlands is about to see its national government service login infrastructure move to US spying/sanction regulation: www.politico.eu/article/neth... #digid
The Netherlands rethinks its US tech addiction
Dutch society is built on US digital services. That’s now seen as a glaring security issue.
www.politico.eu
January 29, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Laurens
🗣️ #PfP✨London SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: Laurens

📰 Reading: newpublic.substack.c...

💬 Quote: "Europe can incrementally build sovereign capacity within an open global network, ensuring that European standards and values are embedded in the foundations of future social infrastructure."
January 29, 2026 at 9:01 AM
no you do speak dutch, you just have to get drunk first
January 29, 2026 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Laurens
January 29, 2026 at 10:36 AM
no, only half of them are. as soon as you like a post, your account is visible on the firehose and you show up in the 1.5M DAU that edavis's charts report
January 28, 2026 at 5:47 PM
helpful heuristic: actual active user statistics for Bluesky that accounts for lurkers is firehose-visible active users times two

so actual MAU is around 12M, DAU around 3M

bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dev/b...
January 28, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Laurens
The way to act is not by depreciating € to bolster exports, but by using causes behind euro appreciation as alibi to increase joint & several fiscal spending funded by ROW, thus boosting € internationalization & reducing vulnerability to US sanctions and surveillance, you morons.
ECB Would Need To Act If Euro Keeps Gaining, Says Austria’s C Bank Gov – FT
January 28, 2026 at 5:36 AM