Top all-time · #1227
Ben Werdmuller
Personal blog · werd.io · on HN as benwerdwebculturepolitics
Ben Werdmuller's personal blog at werd.io covers web, culture and politics. Since 2013, 59 different Hacker News readers have linked it 295 times, most often “Lessons learned building an open source business”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.
Most-linked posts?
- Lessons learned building an open source business6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2015-11-08
- Why RSS Matters4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-12-09
- Good Vibes, Bad Vendors3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-02-25
- Private data isn't as private as you think2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-01
- Persuading people to use ethical tech2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-12-07
- Gendered pronouns in software: a quick primer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-12-01
- Build what makes you special. Buy the rest2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-13
- Who Owns Your Data?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-20
- Stripping the Web of Its Humanity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-01-30
- Dispatches from the Media Apocalypse2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-05-23
What Hacker News says?
Nice video. I've definitely heard this narrative before. There was a great blog post on HN a while back bemoaning feature lists but I couldn't find the one I am remembering on google. I found two other on-point articles of interest, though: https://www.cmswire.com/information-management/everything-yo... https://werd.io/2016/stop-writing-specs-start-finding-needs-...
Comment linking /2016/stop-writing-specs-start-finding-needs---what-ive-learned
on “Why Enterprise Software Sucks”Submitted Why the open social web matters now as a story · 225 points
HN discussionThe 19th | Remote (USA) | Full-Time | https://19thnews.org/ The 19th is a non-profit newsroom that reports on gender, politics, and policy. We make the content created by our diverse newsroom available with a Creative Commons license, and have been republished by The Guardian, USA Today, Teen Vogue, and many more. Our mission overall is to make the news more representative. I'm looking for a web applications enginee…
Comment linking /2022/building-an-inclusive-independent-open-newsroom
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2022)”Submitted I just want to say "fuck everything", hold up my hands and walk away. as a story · 184 points
HN discussionForUsAll | Ruby on Rails Engineer | Remote | Anywhere in the US | Full-Time | https://forusall.com ForUsAll is helping everyone reach financial safety in retirement using tools, advice, and assets normally reserved for the 1%. We’re hiring experienced Ruby on Rails engineers to help us push the envelope of what’s possible inside a 401(k), including by providing crypto investments as part of a retirement savings plan…
Comment linking /2021/hiring-senior-ruby-on-rails-engineers-anywhere-in-the-us
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2021)”Submitted Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser as a story · 130 points
HN discussionI write regularly at https://werd.io - about tech, politics, the intersection thereof, and some personal stuff. I use Known, a platform I cofounded, which supports the Webmentions / IndieWeb ecosystem described in the article. https://github.com/idno/known
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on “Into the Personal-Website-Verse (2019)”Submitted Share Openly as a story · 87 points
HN discussionFor those who don't know the background of the story: [1] http://werd.io/2013/gendered-pronouns-in-software-a-quick-pr... [2] http://strongloop.com/strongblog/collaboration-not-derision-... As said in [2]: If Ben can’t learn, we’ll fire him. [Edit: See comment below. This is not meant literally.] that seems like the result.
Comment linking /2013/gendered-pronouns-in-software-a-quick-primer
on “Ben Noordhuis's Departure”Submitted I Tried Tesla FSD as a story · 84 points
HN discussionI like the idea of stating your communication preferences but it seems strange to put that right in your bio like he's done at http://werd.io as if where you keep your documents says a lot about you as a person. Unrelated, this was difficult to read with that blog styling. "font-size: .9em" for body text seems like a bad idea. Raising the font-size and line-height makes this whole site look much cleaner.
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on “I just want to say "fuck everything", hold up my hands and walk away.”Submitted Unions Work as a story · 52 points
HN discussionI’ve definitely let the project fall quiet, but I’m planning on spending more time on it. I use it on my own site at https://werd.io and there are quite a few others.
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on “Known: A collaborative social publishing engine”Submitted The web was always about redistribution of power. Let's bring that back as a story · 45 points
HN discussionIf it’s a matter of proof, these are all links already posted on this site: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/union-effect-in-california-... https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-decline-inequality-ri... https://werd.io/unions-work/ https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-06-13/unions... https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/19/20727283/u...
Comment linking /unions-work/
on “GTA 6 Developers Unionize”Submitted The political effects of X's feed algorithm as a story · 42 points
HN discussionIf Substack really wants to be the Nazi bar [1], then that is their prerogative. But if some of their writers don't wish to be patrons of the Nazi bar, then it is their prerogative to urge Substack's leadership to change their minds. [1] The bartender: "You didn’t see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them... You have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in…
Comment linking /2023/leaving-the-nazi-bar
on “Platformer announces it's leaving Substack”Submitted Platforms are selling your work to AI vendors with impunity. They need to stop as a story · 40 points
HN discussionI'm working on an independent web publishing platform with decentralized social networking features: http://idno.co/ You can see me kick the tires over at: http://werd.io/ I'm considering funding further development through a patronage model (like NPR: "brought to you by ..."). I wonder if anyone else here has attempted anything like this?
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on “Ask HN: What are you working on?”Submitted Trump administration orders enhanced vetting for applicants of H-1B visa as a story · 30 points
HN discussionFinally, X hasn’t allowed researchers access to the platform for auditing purposes, violating a principle of transparency which is enshrined by the Digital Services Act. Following changes to the platform, access to data for research purposes has been severely curtailed: Social media researchers have canceled, suspended or changed more than 100 studies about X, formerly Twitter, as a result of actions taken by Elon M…
Comment linking /2023/x-and-the-digital-services-act
on “EU opens proceedings against X over efforts to combat information manipulation”Submitted The IndieWeb as a minimum viable social web ecosystem as a story · 28 points
HN discussionLocation: Philadelphia, PA Remote: Yes (only, but willingness to travel to the office from time to time) Willing to relocate: No Resumé: https://werd.io/cv.pdf Email: ben@benwerd.com I'm a serial CTO and startup founder with an engineering background and a focus on the intersection between tech and media. I founded one of the first open source social networking platforms, was a VC at Matter Ventures, and was the fir…
Comment linking /cv.pdf
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2023)”Submitted Helping to build the open social web as a story · 23 points
HN discussionThanks. I also just saw Ben Werdmuller recommends Zen https://werd.io/why-im-all-in-on-zen-browser
Comment linking /why-im-all-in-on-zen-browser
on “Ask HN: What browser should I use? (RIP Arc)”Submitted Tech on Juneteenth as a story · 18 points
HN discussionHello! I've created two open source projects (elgg.org and withknown.com). I'd advise you to wait. Also, I wrote a long post about open source businesses. http://werd.io/2015/open-issues-lessons-learned-building-an-... And here's a different take, from Lightspeed Ventures. http://venturebeat.stfi.re/2015/12/06/its-actually-open-sour... Note that we both argue against a support model. That's a very difficult, unscala…
Comment linking /2015/open-issues-lessons-learned-building-an-open-source-business
on “Ask HN: Poetic.io, super easy file transfer – make it open source?”Submitted Europe Can't Defend Democracy on US Servers as a story · 17 points
HN discussionList of references https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine https://blog.archive.org/2025/09/02/looking-back-on-preservi... https://archive.org/web/petabox.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PetaBox https://ipfs.tech/ https://github.com/internetarchive/dweb-archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive https://www.eweek.com/storage/making-web-memories-with-the-p... https://internetarchive.archiveteam.or…
Comment linking /update-on-the-20242025-end-of-term-web-archive/
on “Internet Archive's Storage”Submitted There's no such thing as neutral technology as a story · 15 points
HN discussion
