Rules
Platform comparisons data: a repeatable method
Platform comparisons data: learn how to hold controls constant, label evidence, and keep a repeatable record for a fair comparison of social platforms.
Archive
September 2026
Features
What a tick in a platform comparison table hides and what to write instead
This explains what a tick in a platform comparison table hides, offers a closed seven-value vocabulary to replace it, and shows what every cell must state.
Rules
Decentralized networks facts: six behaviors of copied posts
Decentralized networks facts in six behaviors: how a copied post travels and why deletion, edits, blocks and DMs work as they do on ActivityPub.
Guides
Platform alternatives facts from the ground up
Platform alternatives facts are mostly about the service you are leaving: what deletion does, what license survives, and what happens to your links.
Reviews
How to catalog community platforms data consistently
A consistent catalog method for community platforms data: define units, choose measures, preserve samples, and state what the results cannot show.
Costs
Measuring niche social networks data
Niche social networks data: use counts and consistent windows, account for snowball sampling, set thresholds, and record each observation.
Maintenance
Community platforms facts from the ground up
Community platforms facts that a reader can check: the four parts of a claim, the five ways a claim fails, and the sources that settle each one.
Features
Reading platform comparison updates: six triggers and when to retire
A method for keeping platform comparisons current: six triggers that force a recheck, how to scope one row, and when to retire a comparison instead of patching it.
Reviews
Platform comparisons rankings are the wrong shape: three honest alternatives
Platform comparisons rankings are the wrong shape. Three honest outputs instead: an undominated set, a partition by job, and bands with reasons.
Maintenance
Why is an empty result the most useful feature in platform comparisons search?
Platform comparisons search: the four intents hiding inside a two-name query, what each needs, and why an empty result is the most useful feature.
Rules
Accessibility standards for social platforms: defect log
Log social platform accessibility defects by WCAG 2.1 criterion, map them to US and Canadian duties, retest, and keep the evidence a platform entry needs.
Rules
ADA Compliance for Social Platforms: What US and Canadian Users Should Know
ADA compliance for social platforms explained for US and Canadian users, covering Title III, Section 508, captions, keyboard access, and rural connectivity effects.
Guides
Platform comparisons by year: A method for tracking change
Platform comparisons by year are easier to interpret when criteria, accounts, and timing stay fixed; learn how to version a method and handle changes.
Rules
Building a platform comparisons directory from substitution sets, not guesses
Platform comparisons directory built from substitution sets: which pairs are worth comparing, which should not exist, and how the index stays honest.
Rules
Platform data localisation Canada: storage versus control
Platform data localisation Canada explained through account, message, photo and moderation records, separating storage locations from legal control.
Maintenance
A four-gate test log for platform alternatives in your country
A test log for platform alternatives in your country: four gates, each marked pass, fail or not checked with a date, before you move anything.
Industry
The checked list of platform alternatives directory
A platform alternatives directory entry names a real incumbent, a real candidate, and the job the candidate cannot do, with dates on every tested row.
Maintenance
What the decentralized networks data covers
Decentralized networks data: why server figures never add up to a network, what is worth observing instead, and how to store it so it stays usable.
Rules
How to keep decentralized networks updates accurate, level by level
Where changes surface in a decentralized networks catalog, which sources can be subscribed to, the recheck cadence for each level, and what to do with findings.
Reviews
Decentralized networks search: what catalogs should record
Decentralized networks search varies by instance. Learn how ActivityPub platforms handle discovery, with named examples and the fields a catalog should record.
Guides
Photo metadata after upload: a six-step round trip test
Photo platforms data lives in the files: the Exif, IPTC, XMP and ICC fields a photo carries, and a six-step round trip test to see what a service keeps.
Industry
How decentralized networks changed year by year
Decentralized networks changed year by year through five dated shifts, from shared message formats to server-blocking fights and the search problem.
Guides
Decentralized networks have no useful rankings: six questions to ask instead
Why ranked lists of decentralized networks and servers fail, plus six questions to eliminate options and choose a server on rules, operator, funding, and exit.
Maintenance
Three levels structure a decentralized networks directory: protocol, software, instance
Decentralized networks directory in three levels: protocol, software, and instance, with the fields each needs and the health check that keeps it honest.
Features
How to assemble a decentralized networks timeline
Decentralized networks timeline kept as three streams: the protocol, the software, and the instance, with the evidence each one leaves behind.
Reviews
Decentralized networks list: signal versus noise
Decentralized networks classified by mechanism: where the data lives, what identity is bound to, and where the power to remove sits. No figures needed.
Industry
Niche social networks facts: how to verify four claims
Niche social networks facts: a method for checking claims about independence, privacy, community control and open-source code against available evidence.
Rules
Does the CLOUD Act reach Canadian platform data held in the United States?
CLOUD Act Canada: how US law compels disclosure of Canadian platform data held in the United States, and how PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25 respond.
Guides
Community platforms search: how catalogs make terms findable
Community platforms search works when catalogs map reader terms to recorded values, lead with facets, index useful text, and treat empty results as evidence.
Maintenance
How to track community platforms updates without missing a policy change
Track community platforms updates with six dated documents, a normalized policy diff, and a three-bin triage process that keeps every entry readable.
Rules
CRTC platform regulation in Canada: laws, powers, compliance
CRTC platform regulation in Canada: the Broadcasting Act, Online News Act, Online Streaming Act, and what platforms must do to comply.
Features
Indigenous community platforms and networks in Canada
Indigenous community platforms and networks in Canada: who owns each one, how it is governed, which data rules apply and how to work with them.
Guides
5 records to check in a Canadian platform network catalog before you cite it
Check five records before citing a platform network catalog, covering registration, privacy version, regulator reference, provinces and last-verified date.
Rules
How PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25 split platform privacy duties for Canadians
Platform privacy obligations in Canada split between PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25, covering consent rules, breach reporting and regulator powers.
Features
How rural connectivity in Halifax and Atlantic Canada shapes platform choice
Rural connectivity Atlantic Canada shapes which platforms Halifax and Nova Scotia groups can actually use, from coverage gaps to provincial online harms rules.
Costs
Social media ad prices in Canada: CAD CPM and CPC ranges for Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and X
Canadian social media ad prices: CAD CPM and CPC planning ranges for Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and X, with notes on provinces, tax and budgeting.
Industry
Community platforms rankings: the version that survives contact with reality
Community platforms rankings replaced by a sort-key contract: stated orders computed from recorded fields, plus a filter that answers best for what.
Rules
Online News Act Social Media Canada: A Guide for Small Publishers
Online News Act Social Media Canada guidance for small publishers: thresholds, Meta’s Canadian news block, Google’s collective payment, and publisher options.
Reviews
How to build a community platforms directory entry from four sources
A method for building a community platforms directory entry from four sources: terms, pricing pages, help center and a test community, plus one worked example.
Rules
What the community platforms timeline records
Community platforms timeline method: which events to record, how to date them from archived copies, and how to write an entry with an honest interval.
Costs
How to Compare Community Platform Pricing Without Hidden Fees
Compare community platform pricing hidden fees before you sign: setup, migration, transaction and state tax lines decide the real total. Ask in writing.
Rules
How Long Does It Take to Delete a Social Media Account Permanently?
How long it takes to delete a social media account permanently varies by platform, from about 30 days to 90, and state law sets the deadlines a company must meet.
Costs
Discord Server Monthly Cost for 1000 Members: Fees US Admins Actually Pay
Discord server monthly cost for 1000 members runs roughly $0 to $130 in the US, once boosts, paid tiers and card processing fees are added each month.
Guides
How to Export Facebook Group Data Before You Leave: Steps US Admins Miss
Export Facebook group data before you leave: a US admin sequence with cut-off dates, roster capture, and the CCPA deletion step most handovers skip.
Guides
Where to File a Social Media Platform Complaint in Canada
To file a complaint about a social media platform in Canada, match the issue to the right route, review planning timelines, and keep your records.
Costs
How to Budget a Social Media Giveaway in Canada: Costs in CAD
Social media giveaway cost Canada CAD runs from a few hundred dollars to five figures, with Quebec rules and skill-testing questions adding their own lines.
Rules
Which Social Platforms Must Comply with ADA?
Social media platforms ADA compliance requirements come from Title III, federal contracts and DOJ guidance, with no single statute naming them.
Guides
Community platforms list: Discord vs. Reddit by axis
Community platforms list comparing Discord, Discourse, Reddit, Mastodon, Slack, and Google Groups by hosting, conversation shape, access, and removal power.
Costs
A recheck calendar and change log format for professional networks entries
A field by field recheck calendar for professional networks entries, plus a change log format recording old and new values, evidence, and detection date.
Features
Professional networks data compared across three tiers of trust
Professional networks data splits into three trust tiers: what an outsider measures, what the operator publishes, and what nobody outside can know.
Guides
Professional networks by country: the fields to record
Professional networks by country entries record separate fields, not one cell, with the regulator and identity rows worked through for France.
Costs
Professional networks: how to verify claims from their own documents
A method for checking professional network claims against terms, privacy policies, help articles, and transparency reports, with a five-field record for each claim.
Industry
5 things to check in community platforms
Community platforms organised by the five shapes a room can take, the properties that decide the shape, and the moderator hours each one will demand.
Guides
What actually changes about leaving a decentralized network?
Decentralized networks explained by mechanism: what federation genuinely changes about removal and exit, and what it leaves exactly as it was before.
Industry
Major social networks by year: four shifts in who sees what
Major social networks by year, told as four shapes in order: topic first, person first, the feed, and ranking, with what each did to who sees what.
Maintenance
Reading major social networks data without fooling yourself
Major social networks data: every field has a half-life, blank means four different things, and corrections have to keep the old state beside the new.
Rules
Major social networks facts: why user counts differ
Major social networks facts: why platforms report different user numbers, what each definition counts, and how to check a figure in five steps.
Rules
Major Social Networks Updates 2027: Where to Look
Major social networks updates 2027: Ofcom's dated Online Safety Act milestones, plus the changelogs, policy pages and filings to check each month.
Guides
How to check messaging platforms facts in three sets
Messaging platforms facts in three sets: what two accounts can test, what only a policy or transparency report shows, and what nobody outside can settle.
Reviews
Messaging platforms timeline: four models, no dates
Messaging platforms timeline told through four addressing models: open address, service account, phone number, and application account. No dates, just sequence.
Rules
Telling whether a niche social network is still alive or just dormant
Niche social networks: why small ones are worth building on, how they actually die, and how to check whether one is alive before investing a year in it.
Costs
How to judge photo platforms rankings
Photo platforms rankings, examined: who pays and what that selects for, the tells that nothing was tested, and what an honest ranking should publish.
Features
A five-part framework for evaluating platform alternatives
A method for judging platform alternatives: the five things a replacement must cover, when switching makes sense, and a migration order that holds up.
Reviews
How to make platform comparisons that hold up
Platform comparisons on six structural axes instead of a feature grid, with tests you can run yourself and the traps that make a comparison useless.
Features
Professional networks directory schema: each field's source class and how fast it goes stale
A professional networks directory schema: what each entry field records, where it comes from, how fast it goes stale, and why unknown is a valid value.
Rules
Building a professional networks list from a written inclusion rule
Professional networks list built from a written inclusion rule: five observable tests, the borderline cases decided in advance, and an omission table.
Maintenance
Professional networks: how to judge profile claims
Professional networks publish self-reported profiles. Learn to assess claims, search beyond a profile, weigh independent evidence, and record your findings.
Industry
7 notes on video platforms by country worth reading
Seven country-level notes on video platforms, from India's data pricing to Canada's Bill 96, each one checkable by someone inside that market.
Guides
Video platforms by year: the constraints that lifted, in order
Bandwidth, storage, camera and screen lifted in sequence, and each one left behind a habit around length, format and audience that video platforms still carry today.
Rules
How to keep video platforms data from changing on you
Video platforms data is rented, not owned. Pull it on a schedule, keep the raw files, and know which numbers are safe to compare across services.
Features
Video platforms facts: how to interpret metrics
Video platforms facts: learn what views, watch time, retention curves, and rates can tell you by checking metric definitions, audiences, and denominators.
Features
How to respond to a video platform update without overreacting
Video platforms updates: keep your own change log first, decide whether to respond at all, and read an announcement without over-reading its headline.
Costs
Photo platforms for the careful reader in 2027
Photo platforms cost more than the price page shows: resolution, metadata, licence, attribution, and what an export really returns when you test it.
Reviews
Video platforms: what to keep and what to drop as of 2027
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Vimeo and LinkedIn compared on discovery, shelf life, file handling and whether you can reach viewers off-platform.
Features
How messaging platforms lock you in, and how to move
Messaging platforms are chosen by the group, not by you. What the identifier decides, why sealed content is not private, and how to move a conversation.
Guides
Reading a major social network by structure instead of size
Major social networks read by structure rather than size: identity, graph, who decides a post is seen, and what leaving costs, with fields to record.