Connected Places

Thoughts on the open social web

On verification and coordination authority

Who verifies the atproto developer community, and why can't it be the community itself?

On verification and coordination authority

Laurens|April 14, 2026

Where Does Community Live? - some responses

I wrote an article this week about where community actually gets built on open social protocols, taking a closer look at what community shapes have actually been build on activitypub and atproto:

Laurens|February 19, 2026

FR#153 – What does a Discord replacement look like?

Discord has announced plans to age-verify all users globally next month, as age verification laws around the globe are taking root. As many people understand the open social web in a form of contrast with Big Tech platforms, seeing it as a refuge from enshittification, this led to another round of conversations on what alternatives there actually are for Discord.

Laurens|February 13, 2026

ATmosphere Report #147 - Year's end reflections

Some themes I'm watching for 2026: censorship resistance, the politics of interoperable spaces, and who gets to shape how atproto talks about itself.

Laurens|December 23, 2025

ATmosphere Report - #144

Bluesky grants, on Eurosky conference, and how Gander is thinking about cultural sovereignty

Laurens|November 26, 2025

ATmosphere Report 143 - Eurosky Live

on protocol architecture and power

Laurens|November 20, 2025

ATmosphere Report #142 - more new apps

The launch of knowledge sharing platform Semble, some thoughts on the evolving dynamics around moderation, and a whole lot of links

Laurens|November 13, 2025

ATmosphere Report #142

The Canadian atproto-powered platform Gander raises of 1.3M in fundraising, atproto at the IETF and Bluesky is the baseball app

Laurens|November 12, 2025

Decentralisation and blogging on atproto

The space for blogging and long-form writing on atproto is rapidly developing, and it gives some interesting insight in what decentralisation on atproto looks like

Laurens|November 03, 2025

ATmosphere Report #140 - its still all politics

Comparing the Dutch election results with how active politicians are on Bluesky

Laurens|October 30, 2025

ATmosphere Report #139 Link bag - politics, atproto, and some more links

A short report with some thoughts on two articles about Bluesky and atproto this week, as well as some additional links that stood out to me.

Laurens|October 23, 2025

The White House joins Bluesky

When a government joins a platform for the purpose of trolling

Laurens|October 20, 2025

atproto news you might've missed last month

For You Feeds, music tracking with teal.fm, and fandom communities on atproto

Laurens|October 16, 2025

Producer and Consumer apps

(a short bonus post because I need an example of a Leaflet post with an image embedding as a heading, and figured I might as well write something)

Laurens|October 01, 2025

atproto is wire services for user generated content

another way to explain atproto

Laurens|September 22, 2025

ATProto Tech News - ATmosphere Report #134

The atproto tech news of the last week or so

Laurens|September 15, 2025

atproto tech news - ATmosphere Report 132

Small note beforehand: If you've followed me before, you likely know that I write a weekly ATmosphere Report with all the news about Bluesky and the ATmosphere every week, over at connectedplaces.online. These weeks I'm switching it up a little, by splitting the report up into smaller parts and publishing them separately. The entire ATmosphere Report will still be published (and emailed) regularly as well, and this posts will be made more accessible on my own website soon.

Laurens|September 05, 2025

Recent updates in the ATmosphere - ATmosphere Report #132

Small note beforehand: If you've followed me before, you likely know that I write a weekly ATmosphere Report with all the news about Bluesky and the ATmosphere every week, over at connectedplaces.online. These weeks I'm switching it up a little, by splitting the report up into smaller parts and publishing them separately. The entire ATmosphere Report will still be published (and emailed) at the end of the week as well.

Laurens|September 03, 2025

This week's link bag - ATmosphere Report #132

Small note beforehand: If you've followed me before, you likely know that I write a weekly ATmosphere Report with all the news about Bluesky and the ATmosphere every week, over at connectedplaces.online. These weeks I'm switching it up a little, by splitting the report up into smaller parts and publishing them separately. The entire Bluesky Report will still be published (and emailed) at the end of the week as well.

Laurens|September 01, 2025

Substack and the risk of disruption

Calls for people to get off Substack pop up regularly on the open social web. People argue against writers using Substack predominantly based on three reasons:

Laurens|September 01, 2025

Bounce, bridging and language

Here's a sentence for you:

Laurens|August 28, 2025

Some thoughts on Bsky, age verification and mississippi law

regulation of the open social web is accelerating

Laurens|August 23, 2025

The Argument on staying on X

sure lets write about this

Laurens|August 22, 2025