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POSSE – Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere

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Why This Matters

POSSE empowers users to maintain control over their content by publishing on their own sites first and then sharing links or copies elsewhere, fostering direct relationships with their audience. This approach enhances independence from third-party platforms and promotes a more human-centered web experience. It also strengthens the IndieWeb movement by prioritizing personal ownership and authentic connections over centralized social media silos.

Key Takeaways

POSSE icon

POSSE is an abbreviation for Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere, the practice of posting content on your own site first, then publishing copies or sharing links to third parties (like social media silos) with original post links to provide viewers a path to directly interacting with your content.

▶️ watch Zach’s 1min* video intro to POSSE

Why

Let your friends read your posts, their way. POSSE lets your friends keep using whatever they use to read your stuff (e.g. social media silos like Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Neocities, etc.).

Stay in touch with friends now, not some theoretical future. POSSE is about staying in touch with current friends now, rather than the potential of staying in touch with friends in the future.

Friends are more important than federation. By focusing on relationships that matter to people rather than architectural ideals, from a human perspective, POSSE is more important than federation. Additionally, if federated approaches take a POSSE approach first, they will likely get better adoption (everyone wants to stay in touch with their friends), and thereby more rapidly approach that federated future.

POSSE is beyond blogging. It's a key part of why and how the IndieWeb movement is different from just "everyone blog on their own site", and also different from "everyone just install and run (YourFavoriteSocialSoftware)" etc. monoculture solutions.

Why In General

POSSE is considered a robust and preferable syndication model for the following reasons:

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