https://ploum.net/2026-03-20-social-smolnet.html

Blog Livres Software A Propos

The Social Smolnet

by Ploum on 2026-03-20

It might have been an email thread. Or a lobste.rs comment. It was a
discussion about yet another attempt at a new decentralized social
protocol. And we reached the conclusion that with blogs and email, we
already had a decentralized social network. We only needed to use it.

This was the last push I needed to implement in Offpunk the social
features I had imagined years ago. Share and Reply. Available since
Offpunk 3.0.

  * Offpunk 3.0 Release (ploum.net)
  * Offpunk.net

Share

Are you reading something interesting in Offpunk and want to share
it? Well, simply write it:

    share

or

    share myfriend@example.com

A new mail containing the URL to share will be opened in your email
client of choice (as determined by xdg-open). The title will be the
title of the page. You only need to add some text to explain why you
want to share that page.

Reply

Ever read a blog post and wanted to send feedback or a simple thank
you to the author? Simply write:

    reply

Reply will try to find a mailto link by exploring the page, root
pages and, since 3.1, potential "contact" pages. It sometimes works
really well. Often, the mail address is obscured or hidden. That's
not a problem. You only need to find it once because Offpunk allows
you to save it for the page or the whole online space.

Give an email address as an argument to reply and it will be saved in
Offpunk for the page or the whole online space. Give an email address
as an argument to reply and it will be saved in Offpunk for the page
or the whole online space.

If you come across an email address that may be of use in the future
but don't want to react now, use "save":

    reply save author@example.com

or, if you want to use autodetection:

    reply save

Yes, it is enough

It looks like nothing. It looks like trivial. But for me, this really
transformed Gemini/Gopher and the Small Web into a social network. As
I use neomutt+neovim as my mail client, I don't leave my terminal. I
simply write "reply", neovim opens, I write "Thank you for this nice
post", :wq, ,and voila. The mail will be sent during my next
synchronization.

  * My disconnected email workflow (ploum.net)

Almost as easy as clicking a "like" button but way more personal.
Even easier if, like me, you dislike touching a mouse or opening a
browser!

Replying to my own post in Neovim Replying to my own post in Neovim

This is the Social SmolNet

In less than two months, I already used this feature to react to 40
different online spaces, not counting that I've used it multiple
times with some people.

40 saved reply addresses (41 but the first line is wrongly counted)
40 saved reply addresses (41 but the first line is wrongly counted)

I even started using Offpunk as an address book for my blogger
friends. Instead of laboriously autocompleting their email addresses,
I go to their blog/gemini capsule/gopher hole and write "reply".

The biggest lesson I take is that "social networks" are not about
protocols but about how we use the existing infrastructure. Microsoft
and Google are working hard to make sure you hate email and hate
building a website. But we don't have to obey. We can enjoy writing
lightweight HTML and sending quick emails to each other. We have the
right to read, write, and have social fun without Javascript and
centralized platforms. We have the duty to keep this torch lit.

In the meantime, if you receive from me very short emails reacting to
some of your posts, now you know why.

But, of course, feel free not to reply!

  * Do not apologize for replying late to my email (ploum.net)

About the author

I'm Ploum, a writer and an engineer. I like to explore how technology
impacts society. You can subscribe by email or by rss. I value
privacy and never share your adress.

I write science-fiction novels in French. For Bikepunk, my new
post-apocalyptic-cyclist book, my publisher is looking for contacts
in other countries to distribute it in languages other than French.
If you can help, contact me!

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