In the run up to the European elections, I received a moderation report for a post that contained misleading polling information on the Mastodon server I am responsible for. As a result, AkademieNL now has a new server rule, as formulated above. This blog post dives a bit into the need for this rule and how I came to it. The reported post contained misleading election information.

If you are not familiar with why calling your organization a family is problematic, here is a very brief recap. While plenty of people have fantastic family environments, family is not a positive experience for everyone.

The most common definition of anti-semitism is the racist treatment of Jewish people. ^[1] Even though when we talk about racism we often talk about white supremacist racism towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), racism can be directed to any group. ^[2] But that also means that if you have been learning about racism since Black Lives Matter, we can use that knowledge to understand anti-semitism better.

I want to recommit to writing, to recommit to actively and publicly think about what is happening. I want to recommit to the idea that thoughts are dynamic and never settled — that thinking in public helps move away from sharing only finalized arguments. Thoughts are produced and reproduced through the conversations we have, be it directly on the phone or indirectly through writing and reading.

The social media landscape is so different today from when I started participating around 2011. Things change, and that is okay — when the old dies, it becomes the compost for something new. For me, something new sprouted from Twitter's compost beyond just joining Mastodon: I am taking over as the admin for the Mastodon server akademienl.social.

I read a lot of news, but I do not like being consumed by it. The balance between what's happening now (news), the short or long past (history), and potential futures (foresight or analysis) is a rough one to keep. This post is about making sure that sources are readily accessible where possible, straight from the news. Part of not becoming consumed by the news and its biases is doing source research and verifying information.

In October, I shared I started to look for a regular job --- last week, I started as a senior software engineer for data.org until end of 2025. In this role, I will be contributing to digital public goods using data for social impact.

Inching towards the Dutch elections, increasing amounts of claims are being made about the (micro)targeting of different campaigns. Here are some: New Social Contract does not do any online ads. The Greens-Labour Party spent €323,000 - more than twice as much as the Democrats 66 (D66), who spent €153,000. The Think (Denk) Party is profiling for Turkish ethnicity. The senior 50PLUS party microtargeted on people who listen to Angerfist.

Recently, I left the Upstream editorial team as a result of changing priorities.  I figured it would be a good idea to reflect before I forget.

I have been a bit stuck in my head over the past few months. The world's changing so rapidly, it is increasingly hard to come to grips with things big and small. This even though there is a desire to jump to quick conclusions (a typical sign of overconfidence!). As a result of being stuck in my head, I have been absent on here. I am getting back in a habit of writing, although this simple post took me almost a week to write.