Tim Chambers
@timothychambers.net
Technologist, researcher, fascinated at how new technologies enable new politics, and vice versa. @[email protected] on Mastodon, which you can follow via: @tchambers.indieweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Pinned
since this is coming up, I have nothing but appreciation for Mastodon and activitypub. We had another approach we wanted to take and that’s it
it’s pretty normal for folks to root for their communities but it’s not zero sum and we should be rooting for every baby turtle make it off the beach
it’s pretty normal for folks to root for their communities but it’s not zero sum and we should be rooting for every baby turtle make it off the beach
This remains one of my favorite quotes relating to the various flavors of the "open social web."
Reposted by Tim Chambers
@roomy.space + @stream.place is being figured out here:
discourse.atprotocol.community/t/roomy-stre...
discourse.atprotocol.community/t/roomy-stre...
There's a few super high priority things that we need to prioritize around scalability and stability, but after that I really want to get to our integrations with @leaflet.pub (streamer profiles) and @smokesignal.events (scheduled streams). What are other atproto integrations we should do?
January 17, 2026 at 11:38 PM
@roomy.space + @stream.place is being figured out here:
discourse.atprotocol.community/t/roomy-stre...
discourse.atprotocol.community/t/roomy-stre...
Reposted by Tim Chambers
This week, Ben Cerveny, member of the original team at @flickrfdn.bsky.social, joins @rabble.nz to discuss community-driven social media, how algorithms reshaped the internet, and his work as President of the Foundation of Public Code.
Full ep with @neb.me, out now.
YouTube: youtu.be/5XVHXpgwM1w
Full ep with @neb.me, out now.
YouTube: youtu.be/5XVHXpgwM1w
Social Media Should Be Public Infrastructure (with Ben Cerveny)
YouTube video by revolution.social with @rabble
youtu.be
January 15, 2026 at 10:53 PM
This week, Ben Cerveny, member of the original team at @flickrfdn.bsky.social, joins @rabble.nz to discuss community-driven social media, how algorithms reshaped the internet, and his work as President of the Foundation of Public Code.
Full ep with @neb.me, out now.
YouTube: youtu.be/5XVHXpgwM1w
Full ep with @neb.me, out now.
YouTube: youtu.be/5XVHXpgwM1w
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Critical piece about a new Palantir app ICE is using to determine the “density” of potential people to deport in a given neighborhood. Gives some indications on how ICE is deciding where to act
www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
January 15, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Critical piece about a new Palantir app ICE is using to determine the “density” of potential people to deport in a given neighborhood. Gives some indications on how ICE is deciding where to act
www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
Reposted by Tim Chambers
formats over apps
A Social Filesystem — overreacted
Formats over apps.
overreacted.io
January 18, 2026 at 7:05 AM
formats over apps
Reposted by Tim Chambers
i wrote about atproto and why it matters
Open Social — overreacted
The protocol is the API.
overreacted.io
September 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
i wrote about atproto and why it matters
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Grok lets people do this at scale and xAI has done essentially nothing about it. The request patterns are distinctive - you can easily catch them narrowly without blocking all sexual content requests. Folks aren't even particularly trying to obfuscate what they're doing 🧵 4/6
January 13, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Grok lets people do this at scale and xAI has done essentially nothing about it. The request patterns are distinctive - you can easily catch them narrowly without blocking all sexual content requests. Folks aren't even particularly trying to obfuscate what they're doing 🧵 4/6
Reposted by Tim Chambers
That's right, although these days there is a regrettable exception to it: if you are being kidnapped by the secret police, you should yell your name at someone recording with a cellphone.
You can't rely on "they'll take me to jail" anymore, they might disappear you to a foreign gulag.
You can't rely on "they'll take me to jail" anymore, they might disappear you to a foreign gulag.
emergency shut the fuck up Friday has been declared for all future public defender needers
January 15, 2026 at 10:55 AM
That's right, although these days there is a regrettable exception to it: if you are being kidnapped by the secret police, you should yell your name at someone recording with a cellphone.
You can't rely on "they'll take me to jail" anymore, they might disappear you to a foreign gulag.
You can't rely on "they'll take me to jail" anymore, they might disappear you to a foreign gulag.
Reposted by Tim Chambers
I agree with this thread, but I assign a non-zero probability to (a) Trump declares elections are cancelled/invalid (despite no mechanism to do so) then (b) SCOTUS declares that's the law now.
... which also has no true enforcement mechanism, but creates a constitutional crisis.
... which also has no true enforcement mechanism, but creates a constitutional crisis.
the question to ask about this is, okay, he wants to cancel the midterms. how does he get the VA state board of elections to cancel the midterms? how does he get the georgia board of elections to do it? how does he convince republican house members to quit their jobs and give up their paychecks?
Trump says a lot of deranged shit, but, per this Reuters article — and the threats of invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota this morning — he is very clearly exploring how to cancel the midterms.
www.reuters.com/world/us/fiv...
www.reuters.com/world/us/fiv...
January 15, 2026 at 6:08 PM
I agree with this thread, but I assign a non-zero probability to (a) Trump declares elections are cancelled/invalid (despite no mechanism to do so) then (b) SCOTUS declares that's the law now.
... which also has no true enforcement mechanism, but creates a constitutional crisis.
... which also has no true enforcement mechanism, but creates a constitutional crisis.
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Reposted by Tim Chambers
The standard for “cultural revolution” according to centrist and right wing commentators is “liberals being loud about their opinions” whereas Trump is making prosecution, regulatory, and funding decisions based on the politics of the speaker but that’s also libs fault for making him mad
January 17, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The standard for “cultural revolution” according to centrist and right wing commentators is “liberals being loud about their opinions” whereas Trump is making prosecution, regulatory, and funding decisions based on the politics of the speaker but that’s also libs fault for making him mad
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Trump is privately worried about the "optics" of ICE raids and his advisers are looking for ways to soften them, Axios reports. I'm calling bullshit: The terror and violence cannot be hived off from the broader policy agenda. They are 100% intrinsic to it.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
Trump’s Own Advisers Suddenly Unnerved as ICE Raids Take Horrific Turn
So the president doesn’t like the “optics” of what ICE is doing. But there’s no such thing as sanitized, popular mass deportations—and this is by design.
newrepublic.com
January 16, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Trump is privately worried about the "optics" of ICE raids and his advisers are looking for ways to soften them, Axios reports. I'm calling bullshit: The terror and violence cannot be hived off from the broader policy agenda. They are 100% intrinsic to it.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Over the weekend I used Zentropi to build a labeler that blocks requests to use AI to undress or sexualize real people. The labeler itself took maybe 30 minutes to a first solid draft, with another 30 minutes of tweaking. In my testing it's got an F1 of .98 on real examples pulled from X. 🧵 1/6
January 13, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Over the weekend I used Zentropi to build a labeler that blocks requests to use AI to undress or sexualize real people. The labeler itself took maybe 30 minutes to a first solid draft, with another 30 minutes of tweaking. In my testing it's got an F1 of .98 on real examples pulled from X. 🧵 1/6
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Reposted by Tim Chambers
This was such a cool experiment that I created a Zentropi labeler with a simplified version of the authors' Partisan Animosity criteria. Now anyone can experiment directly with using this labeler to try to reduce the temperature of affective polarization in their feeds. zentropi.ai/labelers/b30...
December 3, 2025 at 12:53 AM
This was such a cool experiment that I created a Zentropi labeler with a simplified version of the authors' Partisan Animosity criteria. Now anyone can experiment directly with using this labeler to try to reduce the temperature of affective polarization in their feeds. zentropi.ai/labelers/b30...
Reposted by Tim Chambers
This is what powers Zentropi. If you want to see CoPE in action, we offer custom content labeling at scale: zentropi.ai. For full details, read the paper on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2512.18027 🧵 6/6
CoPE: A Small Language Model for Steerable and Scalable Content Labeling
This paper details the methodology behind CoPE, a policy-steerable small language model capable of fast and accurate content labeling. We present a novel training curricula called Contradictory Exampl...
arxiv.org
January 15, 2026 at 6:51 PM
This is what powers Zentropi. If you want to see CoPE in action, we offer custom content labeling at scale: zentropi.ai. For full details, read the paper on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2512.18027 🧵 6/6
Reposted by Tim Chambers
For 17 years working in trust and safety, I've watched talented people burn out on impossible tasks. The problem isn't the people, it's the systems. Traditional moderation requires months of retraining for every policy change. Only big companies can afford it, and even then it works poorly. 🧵 1/9
July 31, 2025 at 7:11 PM
For 17 years working in trust and safety, I've watched talented people burn out on impossible tasks. The problem isn't the people, it's the systems. Traditional moderation requires months of retraining for every policy change. Only big companies can afford it, and even then it works poorly. 🧵 1/9
Reposted by Tim Chambers
We just published the methodology behind CoPE, our 9B parameter model that matches GPT-4o at content classification at 1% the size! The model is already open source, but now we're sharing our training technique. blog.zentropi.ai/how-we-built... 🧵 1/6
How we built CoPE
We just published the methodology behind CoPE. This is the model that powers Zentropi, and we think the approach might be useful for others working on policy-steerable classification systems.
We had ...
blog.zentropi.ai
January 15, 2026 at 6:51 PM
We just published the methodology behind CoPE, our 9B parameter model that matches GPT-4o at content classification at 1% the size! The model is already open source, but now we're sharing our training technique. blog.zentropi.ai/how-we-built... 🧵 1/6
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Why are we just giving away all our secrets? Well, it is our hope that it helps the ecosystem further advance the state of the art in policy-steerable content classification, which is foundational to a more trustworthy internet.
We just published the methodology behind CoPE, our 9B parameter model that matches GPT-4o at content classification at 1% the size! The model is already open source, but now we're sharing our training technique. blog.zentropi.ai/how-we-built... 🧵 1/6
How we built CoPE
We just published the methodology behind CoPE. This is the model that powers Zentropi, and we think the approach might be useful for others working on policy-steerable classification systems.
We had ...
blog.zentropi.ai
January 15, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Why are we just giving away all our secrets? Well, it is our hope that it helps the ecosystem further advance the state of the art in policy-steerable content classification, which is foundational to a more trustworthy internet.
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
Breaking news: The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation alleging that they are impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state.
Justice Dept. launches criminal investigation of Minnesota governor
The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation into impeding law enforcement.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
Reposted by Tim Chambers
💯, and this *is* the process through which web standards typically emerge.
A web API only works in one place.
Then another.
Then another.
And then we call it the web.
Or it doesn't replicate, and we don't.
A web API only works in one place.
Then another.
Then another.
And then we call it the web.
Or it doesn't replicate, and we don't.
Some web APIs don't need all browsers to support them for you to use them as a dev.
I don't think FedCM not being in Safari or Firefox right now is a deal breaker for Bluesky or Mastodon.
You don't even need to fully commit to the tech (Google doesn't even use every feature at the moment).
I don't think FedCM not being in Safari or Firefox right now is a deal breaker for Bluesky or Mastodon.
You don't even need to fully commit to the tech (Google doesn't even use every feature at the moment).
January 15, 2026 at 9:09 PM
💯, and this *is* the process through which web standards typically emerge.
A web API only works in one place.
Then another.
Then another.
And then we call it the web.
Or it doesn't replicate, and we don't.
A web API only works in one place.
Then another.
Then another.
And then we call it the web.
Or it doesn't replicate, and we don't.
Reposted by Tim Chambers
The #forkiverse team shares an update on their first week.
"To me it does feel like a community. It feels like a bunch of strangers, politely, friendly, jokily [saying] 'Here's where I am!' I've really liked it!"
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...
(Jump ahead to 50:56. Sorry, no transcript!)
"To me it does feel like a community. It feels like a bunch of strangers, politely, friendly, jokily [saying] 'Here's where I am!' I've really liked it!"
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...
(Jump ahead to 50:56. Sorry, no transcript!)
Jonathan Haidt Strikes Again + What You Vibecoded + An Update on the Forkiverse
Podcast Episode · Hard Fork · 01/16/2026 · 1h 14m
podcasts.apple.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The #forkiverse team shares an update on their first week.
"To me it does feel like a community. It feels like a bunch of strangers, politely, friendly, jokily [saying] 'Here's where I am!' I've really liked it!"
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...
(Jump ahead to 50:56. Sorry, no transcript!)
"To me it does feel like a community. It feels like a bunch of strangers, politely, friendly, jokily [saying] 'Here's where I am!' I've really liked it!"
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...
(Jump ahead to 50:56. Sorry, no transcript!)
Reposted by Tim Chambers
Hard Fork / Search Engine reports 4000 sign-ups for their #forkiverse instance in the first week. HF already has a Discord server for paid subscribers. Curious to see how these two spaces interact. Here's the episode with updates: https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
Hard Fork
Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the rapidly changing world of tech.
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Hard Fork / Search Engine reports 4000 sign-ups for their #forkiverse instance in the first week. HF already has a Discord server for paid subscribers. Curious to see how these two spaces interact. Here's the episode with updates: https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
Reposted by Tim Chambers
NYT's Hard Fork and Search Engine podcast started a #mastodon site in the #fediverse called the #forkiverse.
"Can We Build a Better Social Network?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/podcasts/can-we-build-a-better-social-network.html
I've talked before about the inherent limitations of […]
"Can We Build a Better Social Network?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/podcasts/can-we-build-a-better-social-network.html
I've talked before about the inherent limitations of […]
Original post on indieweb.social
indieweb.social
January 16, 2026 at 5:32 PM
NYT's Hard Fork and Search Engine podcast started a #mastodon site in the #fediverse called the #forkiverse.
"Can We Build a Better Social Network?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/podcasts/can-we-build-a-better-social-network.html
I've talked before about the inherent limitations of […]
"Can We Build a Better Social Network?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/podcasts/can-we-build-a-better-social-network.html
I've talked before about the inherent limitations of […]
Reposted by Tim Chambers
In the age of Trump, journalists are failing to push back against disinformation. @markjacob.bsky.social highlights 10 ways news outlets can counteract the twisted reality being pushed by others and become radically truthful in this week's Stop the Presses.
How to build a radically truthful news outlet
The old ways don’t work. Time to declare war on the liars.
www.stopthepresses.news
January 12, 2026 at 7:05 PM
In the age of Trump, journalists are failing to push back against disinformation. @markjacob.bsky.social highlights 10 ways news outlets can counteract the twisted reality being pushed by others and become radically truthful in this week's Stop the Presses.