







I originally wrote this as a general history of the #gb channel but realised that it was getting a bit too biased towards my involvement as I went on. I present this as my personally biased history of the channel, and of early British IRC. I shall try and collect a few more viewpoints to present in other parts of this site.
History of IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
Documentation and ramblings of Daniel Stenberg, founder and lead developer of curl.

Why did BBC Breakfast give Reform UK a special graphic?
A small detail in a brief report sparks some big questions about what the national broadcaster is doing during the run up to local and national elections.

Farage can't stop the Count
wife swap, supernanny & how we discriminate against kids
GitHub - iptv-org/iptv: Collection of publicly available IPTV channels from all over the world
Collection of publicly available IPTV channels from all over the world - iptv-org/iptv
Future Histories of Other Networks – Lori Emerson
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)
[2 media attachments] Another day, another opportunity to roast #WSocial. Grab your 🍿 W Social had been hyping up the live broadcast of Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address for weeks. "Watch it on W!" (You'd think they had an exclusive). Nah, it was also shown live on YouTube and X and other places. The funniest thing is that co-founder Ingmar Rentzhog bragged in the live chat: "we are doing our best. The boradcast (sic) is truly Made in Europe." You'd think they had built their own live streaming service. Think again: they used stream.place by Eli Mallon, an ATproto developer based in Seattle. Last time I checked, Seattle is in Washington state? U.S.A.? W, the social network of European digital sovereignty! So I put Rentzhog on the spot and he became all defensive: 🔗 : https://mu.social/profile/elenarossini.com/post/3mvmmu5gua225 But it gets better! W Social had been bragging that only verified W users could comment in the live chat. Yesterday I found out that people with a blue checkmark by Bluesky could also comment. And I have one! It all went by really fast... At the end of the event I made sure to credit Eli Mallon and stream.place for powering the live stream. If W Social wouldn't do it, well, I would. I find it incredible that their modus operandi is to exploit open source infrastructure, giving the impression they built everything from scratch, without ever crediting anyone. #LSocial = Leech Social. The open social web is a highly collaborative space and it pains me to see the parasitic behavior of certain players who just take, take, take without ever giving anything back. The @EUCommission was in the live chat. Von der Leyen took time out from G7 meetings in June to publicize the W Social launch. I strongly believe they picked the wrong platform, which is openwashing and sovereignwashing. I typically do not tag the EC Mastodon account in posts about W, but this time it's important. (Apologies in advance to their social med…

The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
Why the dark forests of the internet — podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels — are growing, and why might that pose a problem
Oligarchy In the UK
This week: have Reform UK misunderstood their audience; some alternative UKs; and some notes on Kiwis.

TV on the internet before YouTube
Just a little note to get this all in one place. This was prompted by my comment here: On-demand was a thing before, but it was mediated through slow, glitchy cable and satellite boxes. There was also a thriving scene of RSS-delivered web TV shows. * The technology (RSS)
Mezzanine: An Information Network Built on Bluesky's Cashtags - Nightflight
The Economics of Sovereign Media: A Roadmap for AT Protocol - ATmosphereConf 2026
The Economics of Sovereign Media: A Roadmap for AT Protocol - ATmosphereConf 2026
Britain Still Has Conversion Therapists. Here’s Why.
Was their any substantial backlash to the internet when it first started becoming popular? I can imagine that going from a comparatively disconnected world to one where instantaneous global connection 24/7 were commonplace was a rather massive (and not always positive) shift in many ways.
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