TL;DR Briefing

Attention slot machines, now with open protocols! What is the “fediverse” actually achieving?

Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is engagement casinos, attention slot machines and the fediverse rebels hustling for a social web no lone billionaire can own.

JD Shadel

17 Aug 2025 — 13 min read

I went to GifCities.org. I typed “casino” into the search box. I hit enter. I found this GIF advertising a “Windows Casino,” which ostensibly has nothing to do with the fediverse. Ostensibly.

The thing is:

If you want to understand the discourses around the future of the social web, I regret to inform you that we need to use the term “interoperable protocols.”

To understand that term, it helps to ponder what our cyber world without interoperable email protocols could have become.

And to do that, the briefing becomes inarguably more fun if we describe this alternate timeline as one in which the dot-com bubble was primarily ruled by drag queen villainesses who hate open protocols — and do not sew any of their own looks.

A little monster face screwed to a utility pole in Portland, Oregon, with a sunny street scene in the background and evergreen trees and blue skies in the distance.

What's going on in Portland, Oregon?! I read every poster on utility poles to get answers

The day after our resident street photographer landed in Portland, Oregon, the President of the United States declared it a "war zone," intending to send in troops following absurd occupations in D.C. and Chicago. But a long walk in Northeast revealed the vibe on the street was, well, not that.

Hand holding delicate white lace bird pin against gallery wall background.

The state of fashion week amid polycrisis: Dispatch from my anxiety attack at a catwalk show

This London Fashion Week has been a dazzling display of global design talent in the U.K. capital. Emerging designers turned heads. There was that upcycled parachute gown. And street style for days. But this recap is about an anxiety attack I had. Before the one show that, ultimately, gave me chills.

Alex Hanna, wearing a yellow sweater and blue jeans, kneels by a sign in a bookstore reading "queer as in free Palestine."

Ridicule as praxis, darling! Alex Hanna on busting “AI” hype and building the world we want

Between “The AI Con” book tour and marking three years of her “accidental” hit podcast, she still has time for Power Lunch. The director of research at DAIR — and ex-senior research scientist at Google — talks “AGI” silliness, the power of imagining possible futures and, of course, roller derby.

Can we create the media future we want to read? 33 journalists band together to find out

Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is the Back Indie Media Drive, Project C’s newsletter merger and the new new media ecosystem emerging beyond Substack’s walled garden.