PUSSY Goes Yonder
Bringing Nostr and X into a calmer, more intentional publishing workflow.
Since introducing PUSSY: Publish on Ur Site, Syndicate Yonder, I’ve received a lot of thoughtful feedback. Some people have questions about portability. Others have questions about the name.
Today, I’m pleased to answer both by announcing something else.
PUSSY now supports syndication to Nostr and X.
At first glance, these might seem like very different destinations. But the open web has never been about everyone agreeing. It’s about everyone having the freedom to disagree beneath identical copies of my blog post.
Nostr: independence, without all the independence
I’m excited about what Nostr represents: a different way of thinking about identity, publishing, and the relationship between people and platforms.
Naturally, our first priority was making sure you could use it without having to think about any of those things.
We’ve tucked the keys, relays, and configuration behind a simple checkbox. You write on your blog, and your post appears on Nostr. There’s quite a lot happening behind the scenes, but I don’t think people should need to understand infrastructure to feel strongly about it.
Some early testers asked whether we should expose more of the underlying controls.
I appreciate that perspective. For now, I’ve chosen sensible defaults, which are like choices except you don’t get to make them.
This is what makes PUSSY different. We take the intimidating parts of digital sovereignty and put them somewhere you’ll need to contact support to reach.
You’re not dependent on a platform anymore.
You’re dependent on our interpretation of a protocol.
X: leaving has never been so convenient
I know many of you have complicated feelings about X.
You want to invest in your own websites. You want healthier conversations. You want to stop organizing your creative lives around a service you no longer feel good about using.
You also want the people there to know you’ve done that.
PUSSY makes this possible.
Write a thoughtful post about leaving X on your own site, and we’ll automatically publish a copy to X. Follow it with occasional updates about how much better life has been since leaving. Those will go to X too.
Your departure can now have a consistent publishing schedule.
A few people have asked whether continuing to supply a platform with content really constitutes leaving it.
I think that’s an unnecessarily narrow definition of leaving.
What matters is where the post began. Once your words originate on a domain you control, everything that happens afterward becomes distribution. This is a useful distinction, especially when you’d prefer not to make a decision.
You’re not back on X.
You’re maintaining an external endpoint for your absence.
Different destinations. The same principles.
Supporting Nostr demonstrates our commitment to decentralization.
Supporting X demonstrates our commitment to meeting people where they are.
Not supporting another service demonstrates our commitment to focus.
I think it’s important to have a philosophy that can grow with the product.
The PUSSY way isn’t about telling you where you should publish. It’s about giving you the tools to publish wherever you like, accompanied by a short essay explaining why the destinations we currently support are the right ones.
Your website remains your home. Nostr and X are simply places your words visit.
Of course, the replies may stay over there. So may the conversations, the audience, and most of the reasons you find yourself checking your phone.
But the original is yours.
There’s a link and everything.
Available today
You’ll find the new integrations under Settings → Publishing → Yonder.
Nostr and X appear side by side, with equally sized checkboxes. We spent some time on this. I didn’t want the interface to imply a philosophical preference that might complicate a future announcement.
Both integrations are included in the Independence plan. As always, you can disable syndication at any time. This stops future posts from being sent, which is the sort of decisive break we recommend practicing on a smaller network first.
I’m proud of this update. It brings us closer to a web where you don’t have to choose between owning your content and participating in the places you’ve publicly outgrown.
PUSSY. Leave on principle. Stay through syndication.