Title: Alex Kirk --- * ## 󠀁[Why My WordPress?](https://alex.kirk.at/2026/04/14/why-my-wordpress/)󠁿 * April 14, 2026 * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/my-wordpress-2.png) * Most WordPress plugins are built to grow your audience. I’ve been going in the opposite direction for years: building tools not to increase reach, but for personal reasons: to stay connected to people I care about, to keep memories that would otherwise scatter, to own the data that documents my own life. * That work has added up to something I’d call a coherent vision. And now, with [my.wordpress.net](https://my.wordpress.net), I believe I have contributed to tearing down one of the last walls that have been blocking people from joining me in this experience. * ## The wall * I have created many of the plugins I’m going to describe already some while ago. They’ve found an audience, but admittedly inside a bubble: people who already had a WordPress, or were technical enough to spin one up just to try something. * But I believe the personal use of WordPress goes beyond people who already use WordPress today. It is not well known that WordPress is a pretty good platform to run just for your own or your small social circle’s benefit. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/my-wordpress-2-655x248. png) * Your free WordPress without setup at [my.wordpress.net](https://my.wordpress.net/) * To try a plugin that makes WordPress personally useful, you first need a WordPress. And setting one up means finding a host, picking a domain, making decisions about a site you’re not even sure you want yet. That’s a publishing commitment, and most people won’t make it just to see if a feed reader or a personal CRM might be useful to them. * That’s the wall I kept running into. And that’s why I built [my.wordpress.net](https://wordpress.org/news/2026/03/announcing-my-wordpress/): a complete WordPress that runs in your browser, no sign-up, no hosting plan, no domain needed. * It just behaves like a normal WordPress: you change something, you come back tomorrow, it’s still there. Persistent, and private by default. * Which sounds obvious because that’s how a website is supposed to work. But it’s built on [WordPress Playground](https://playground.wordpress.net/), a developer tool that is fresh and forgetful by design, because that’s useful when you’re testing things. And if you’re a developer: don’t worry, [playground.wordpress.net](https://playground.wordpress.net/) will remain. * ## What your personal WordPress can do * Once you have a WordPress that’s yours rather than your audience’s, a whole different set of questions becomes interesting. * **Keeping memories.** When our first child was born, we wanted to keep a diary. We wanted more than just collecting the photos and videos, we wanted to have a place where we could also write down the stories, the funny things they say, messages in a bottle to them later on. A private blog was the perfect solution for that. And later, with [Enable Mastodon Apps](https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-mastodon-apps/), we started using a nice mobile Mastodon app to do it, and grandparents to follow along, who would have thought of that? * **Gathering memories.** My daughter had a ski day recently. Photos came in from several different group chats: parents, the teachers. Before [Chat to Blog](https://github.com/akirk/chat-to-blog), I would have to save them each and reupload them to my WordPress. But since I can now privately connect it to [Beeper](https://www.beeper.com/) (a messaging client that can talk to Signal, Whatsapp, etc), it allows me to put the media directly into a new post and the media library, without any forwarding or downloading. The chat messages can disappear someday and it won’t matter, I still have the blog post. * **Staying in touch.** There are people in my life I genuinely care about, where things have faded a little; not because either of us stopped caring, but just because everyone has a busy life. Sometimes all it would take is a reminder to send a quick hello. [Personal CRM](https://github.com/akirk/personal-crm) turns WordPress into a private contact directory for the people who matter to you. Combined with [Keeping Contact](https://github.com/akirk/keeping-contact), it tracks when you last reached out and reminds you when it’s been too long. It’s not a sales tool. It’s just the nudge to actually do it. * **What are you reading?** The [Friends plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/friends/) makes WordPress a feed reader: follow RSS feeds, Atom feeds, ActivityPub accounts. Everything you chose to follow in one timeline, without any algorithm deciding what to surface. [Friends 4.0](https://alex.kirk.at/2026/03/25/friends-4-0/) added three themes: a Google Reader-style interface with keyboard shortcuts ( for those who never quite got over losing it in 2013), a Mastodon-style view for people already at home in the Fediverse, and a Block Theme option that integrates with your site’s own design. On a hosted WordPress, you can also participate in the Fediverse directly: follow and be followed, post to your own site and have it federate to Mastodon; and with [Enable Mastodon Apps](https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-mastodon-apps/), you can use any Mastodon client to do it. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-mastodon- 1024x415.png) * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-google-reader- 1024x414.png) * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-block-theme- 1024x456.png) * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-default-theme- 1024x463.png) * Themes for your Friends Plugin * **What articles did you save and actually read?** [Post Collection](https://github.com/akirk/friends-post-collection) clips articles from the web into your WordPress. [Send to E-Reader](https://github.com/akirk/friends-send-to-e-reader) routes them to your Tolino or Kobo, Kindle or Pocketbook, so the things you saved are the things you actually end up reading, just maybe on a different device on which you saved them. * **Keeping family history.** I’ve always enjoyed hearing the little anecdotes from my family, but I wish I’d have a better memory for them. Thus I started [keeping a private family wiki](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/01/19/keeping-a-family-wiki/) where the we collaborate in maintaining a Wikipedia for our family. It feels great to have this family chronicle to pass on. * **Longevity.** Right now, in my family, I am the most technical person. What will happen to all those memories in our WordPress? To make sure all those stories can persist, I created [Static Archive](https://github.com/akirk/static-archive) which turns backups into easily accessible treasure troves. It works by keeping an HTML copy of your posts (and wiki pages) with inline media in your uploads folder, automatically updated every time you publish. It’s not a typical static site generator, it just quietly maintains an archive that is always current. * **What do you want to ask your own data?** The [AI Assistant](https://github.com/akirk/ai-assistant) empowers you to modify your WordPress through chat. It can create or modify plugins to your liking, theme your site, interact with plugins through abilities that they provide. It pulls AI into your WordPress instead of interacting with it from the outside. This supports local models (for example through [LM Studio](https://lmstudio.ai/)) as well as OpenAI and Anthropic if you can provide an API key. * When [announcing My WordPress](https://wordpress.org/news/2026/03/announcing-my-wordpress/) and also inside [my.wordpress.net](https://my.wordpress.net/), we’re using the metaphor of an app because they work like a web app, just hosted on your own WordPress. For the technically inclined: they are indeed plugins, but sometimes multiple working together, installed already configured through a blueprint. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04- 10-at-12.54.00-641x800.png) * The [My Apps plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/my-apps/) in action, making it easy to go into your different installed apps * ## What this is really about * WordPress is a widely available piece of open source software: you have a vast choice of hosts, or you can even install it on your local NAS (they usually already allow to install WordPress easily). While there are [many tools that you can already self-host](https://selfh.st/), each needs individual knowledge to set them up correctly. WordPress can be this one platform that can run all your apps, making it much more accessible. * The plugins I mentioned before have a few things in common. Your data lives on your WordPress: contacts, reading lists, saved articles, conversation history. They are not locked into someone else’s service where maybe you can get them out with a data export request, in a format of their choice. * But instead, everything lives in one place, and you (or a plugin) can combine it however you want, without involving anyone else. * You can modify your WordPress like you want: have plugins created for your needs, modify existing ones to your liking. With AI this is now becoming much more feasible for anyone. * And finally, this is all free and open source. No subscriptions, no per-user fees. You can run the software yourself, for as long as you want. * ## Getting Started * [my.wordpress.net](https://my.wordpress.net) can be your starting point. It has its limitations and you might outgrow them. Because it’s a browser-based WordPress, it can reach out to the web to fetch feeds, clip articles, call APIs. But the web can’t reach in: ActivityPub federation, being followed by others, multi-device access: these need a reachable server. * But that’s just a natural progression: You start in the browser, discover what you actually want from a personal WordPress, and transfer to a webhost when the networked features become worth it. * And if you already have a WordPress, all of this is for you too. Skip [my.wordpress.net](https://my.wordpress.net/) and proceed to taking back the web for yourself straight away. * ###### Fediverse Reactions - [ ⌊Matthias Pfefferle⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle) - [ ⌊Nomad Skateboarding⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@nomadskateboarding) - [ ⌊Pixelcats⁷⌉ ](https://apobangpo.space/@pixelcats) - [ ⌊Peter Müller⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pmmueller) - [ ⌊toco⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@toco) - [ ⌊Buck Moon⌉ ](https://woof.group/@bootblackcub) - [ ⌊Andy Rush⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@andyrush) - [ ⌊John Johnston⌉ ](https://social.ds106.us/@johnjohnston) - [ ⌊The Fulcrum⌉ ](https://www.thefulcrum.dev/) * - [ ⌊Matthias Pfefferle⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle) - [ ⌊Pixelcats⁷⌉ ](https://apobangpo.space/@pixelcats) - [ ⌊Hans-Gerd Gerhards⌉ ](https://wp-social.net/@hgg) - [ ⌊Ojārs Kapteinis⌉ ](https://kapteinis.lv/@ojars) - [ ⌊Peter Müller⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pmmueller) - [ ⌊michimichael⌉ ](https://rebel.ar/@SecondChanceLemon) - [ ⌊toco⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@toco) - [ ⌊Nils⌉ ](https://hollo.weisensee.me/@nils) - [ ⌊The Fulcrum/Symfony Station⚒️⌉ ](https://drupal.community/@SymfonyStation) - [ ⌊Don Holloway⌉ ](https://infosec.exchange/@donholloway) * [Personal](https://alex.kirk.at/category/personal/), [Web](https://alex.kirk.at/category/web/), [WordPress](https://alex.kirk.at/category/wordpress/) * [ActivityPub](https://alex.kirk.at/tag/activitypub/), [Mastodon](https://alex.kirk.at/tag/mastodon/), [playground](https://alex.kirk.at/tag/playground/), [WordPress](https://alex.kirk.at/tag/wordpress/) * ## 󠀁[Friends 4.0](https://alex.kirk.at/2026/03/25/friends-4-0/)󠁿 * March 25, 2026 * It has been baking for much longer than I wanted, but today I released the next major version of my [Friends Plugin for WordPress](https://wordpress.org/plugins/friends/). * ### Focusing on ActivityPub * The biggest change is a deviation from the original idea: Friendships between WordPresses have been removed. With ActivityPub (when the respective [ActivityPub plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/) is installed, too) we have a communication protocol that is supported by many more platforms than just other WordPresses that also happen to have installed the Friends plugin. * Removing friendship functionality reduces a lot of complexity in the plugin that changed some fundamentals of WordPress. The friendship functionality had been deactivated for a while behind a checkbox. * This means that the Friends plugin now focusses on functionality of subscribing to feeds (be it RSS, Atom or ActivityPub) and integrating outward communication via ActivityPub (direct messages, replies). * ### Themes * To make the consuming more attractive, I have worked on providing more integrated themes. I had [added the ability to contribute themes](https://github.com/akirk/friends/wiki/Writing-Themes) already some time ago, thanks for the [FediPress theme](https://github.com/alquimidia/fedipress) contribution! Being more a developer than a designer, my **default Friends theme** has been deemed more functional than pretty (from what I heard). * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-default-theme- 1024x463.png) * Default theme * So, the new themes are: * A **Block Theme**, which allows you to modify the Friends page using the Site Editor and gives it the design of your own site’s theme. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-block-theme- 1024x456.png) * Block Theme * A **Google Reader Theme** makes it look like Google Reader. This comes with keyboard shortcuts and the accordion-like behavior of the posts. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-google-reader- 1024x414.png) * Google Reader Theme * I had already done a [prototype](https://github.com/akirk/friends-mastodon-like-interface) of a **Mastodon Theme** and have now added a functional one that is shipped by default. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-mastodon- 1024x415.png) * Mastodon Theme * All the themes now support light and dark mode (which makes the Mastodon theme look a bit unusual in light mode). * I hope that the screenshots above highlight the versatility of the plugin and how much the visual appearance can shape the perception. * ### Migrations * A big reason for the 4.0 version number was the number of migrations of internal data structures towards more taxonomies (the Friends plugin did not and does not use custom tables). This removes the last bits of supporting WordPress users as friend users and adds proper term relationships between friends and subscriptions. This also allowed to add support for folders. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-4.0-notification- 1024x147.png) * But it makes a transition from an earlier version potentially a bit tricky. With this amount of changes and migrations, I opted to make it easier to discover what’s new and what is already migrated. I hope that all migrations go smoothly but if they don’t, this gives you insight into where things might be stuck. * ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/friends-news-567x1024. png) * The amount of necessary fundamental changes and migrations made this release somewhat risky and was a reason for the long time since the last release. I am hoping that with these changes now shipped, I can provide more frequent updates again! * Oh, I also shipped a new version of the [Enable Mastodon Apps plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-mastodon-apps/)( 1.5.0) which makes use of some of the taxonomy changes in Friends that now allow to distinguish between mentions and direct messages, and there should be a speed- up in many endpoints, especially the notifications endpoint. * Enjoy this new release, which I hope will make it easier and more feasible to use [Your WordPress as Your Personal Mastodon Instance](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/06/13/your-wordpress-as-your-personal-mastodon-instance/). * ###### Fediverse Reactions - [ ⌊George Hotelling⌉ ](https://a2mi.social/@george) - [ ⌊The Fulcrum/Symfony Station⚒️⌉ ](https://drupal.community/@SymfonyStation) - [ ⌊The Fulcrum⌉ ](https://www.thefulcrum.dev/) - [ ⌊Simon Wood⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@simonwood) - [ ⌊Matthias Pfefferle⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle) - [ ⌊Andy Rush⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@andyrush) - [ ⌊leobard⌉ ](https://digitalcourage.social/@leobard) - [ ⌊freistilbox⌉ ](https://mstdn.social/@freistilbox) - [ ⌊Lutin Discret⌉ ](https://mastodon.libre-entreprise.com/@lutindiscret) - [ ⌊nicole mikołajczyk⌉ ](https://pl.fediverse.pl/users/mkljczk) - [ ⌊fedicat⌉ ](https://pc.cafe/@fedicat) - [ ⌊@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman:⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@reiver) - [ ⌊william.maggos⌉ ](https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos) * - [ ⌊Deniz Ege Tunçay⌉ ](https://mastodon.art/@egetun) - [ ⌊Matze⌉ ](https://dewp.space/@matze) - [ ⌊Dana Skallman⌉ ](https://tech.lgbt/@danaskallman) - [ ⌊Matthias Pabst⌉ ](https://mastodon.pabst.me/@matthias) - [ ⌊James⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@nonzerosumjames) - [ ⌊Matthias Pfefferle⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle) - [ ⌊Robin Hüskes⌉ ](https://mastodon.grml.de/@robin) - [ ⌊André Menrath⌉ ](https://graz.social/@linos) - [ ⌊SteveRudolfi⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@SteveRudolfi) - [ ⌊wakest ⁂⌉ ](https://social.wake.st/@liaizon) - [ ⌊leobard⌉ ](https://digitalcourage.social/@leobard) - [ ⌊Domingos Faria⌉ ](https://s.dfaria.eu/@df) - [ ⌊Lutin Discret⌉ ](https://mastodon.libre-entreprise.com/@lutindiscret) - [ ⌊william.maggos⌉ ](https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos) - [ ⌊Steffen Voß⌉ ](https://social.tchncs.de/@kaffeeringe) * [Enable Mastodon Apps](https://alex.kirk.at/category/wordpress/enable-mastodon-apps/), [Friends Plugin](https://alex.kirk.at/category/wordpress/friends-plugin/), [WordPress](https://alex.kirk.at/category/wordpress/) [Next Page](https://alex.kirk.at/page/2/?output_format=md&term_id=44047)