Things that made me think: Digital gardening, web degradation, and digital ghosts

By Tom Renner

September 1, 2025 - 3 minutes read - 540 words

This series is a place to collect interesting things I’ve seen, read, or heard, along with some brief thoughts (often incomplete and/or inconclusive) that they provoked.

Garden History – Maggie Appleton

I’m so happy I stumbled upon this article. I am always grateful for new vocabulary that allows me better to express myself, and this is perfect - I want more Digital Gardens in the world. I do see the value in polishing content, but this is where the epistemic status tagging system laid out there really comes to the fore. Do I now want to convert this to a full garden-style site? Or perhaps just introduce different “feeds”, laid out by theme, epistemic status, etc?

This is also how I make my personal notes, using my favourite lightweight tool for everything, Obsidian. What is holding me back from just publishing that as-is? Do I really need to appear so perfect? This TTmmT series is intended to give me a space for less polished thoughts, and now, on post #2, I’m already wondering whether it’s just an urban balcony to the wild garden I truly deserve.

The Failure of the World Wide Web Project – Atanas Georgiev

Another history article - clearly I am trying to do some learning! This is a “rage against the dying of the light” situation, but I am proud to stand alongside the author as a part of the resistance. It lays out clearly the reasons the web feels so stale now - and forms another argument for POSSE (Post on Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere). If anything, Atanas doesn’t go far enough in my opinion. “You are the product” doesn’t capture it; certainty about your future behaviour is the product - and if that doesn’t ring true for you, go read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

Pieces like this make me so sad and angry about the state of the digital world, and what we have lost. I’m seeing more of this in my media recently, and am very happy to see personal accountability being highlighted by projects like Who broke the internet?, or The man who killed Google Search - we as engineers are responsible for what we build. If you make shit worse, that’s on you. No hiding behind your employer.

Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission – Emanuel Maiberg, 404 Media

Speaking of taking responsibility for what you build, this is fucking horrific. And to quote the article itself:

“They could fix this problem. One of their talented software engineers could stop this fraudulent practice in its tracks, if they had the will to do so.”

Which is exactly my point. Follow your morals, if you have some, and refuse to build tools that can be abused in this way.

I can’t even believe this is hugely unexpected - the article points out that Spotify page owners don’t get the chance to approve new tracks before they’re made public. Erm, what? Why the fuck not? Do artists only get to protect their reputation and output if they have Taylor Swift levels of legal backing? Fucking nuts.

Apropos of nothing, I’ve recently switched to Qobuz for my music, and Pocket Casts for my podcasts, and am very happy with both.