a web dyson sphere

Thinking About Going Dark

I’ve been thinking about taking this site—and a lot of my other online projects—off the public internet.

Not because I’m done. Far from it. But because the open web as it currently exists isn’t the kind of place I want to share in anymore. It hasn't been for some time, but I haven't relly had any concrete ideas on how to fix that before now.

Here’s the thing: everything we post gets scraped, indexed, ingested, and used—usually without our knowledge, certainly without our consent. Bots crawl constantly. AI models absorb everything. And meanwhile, hosting anything publicly requires fending off spam, abuse, exploits, and surveillance. It’s a constant battle just to exist quietly online.

And honestly? I’m not interested in broadcasting to the void anymore. I want to build something human-scaled, invitation-only, and resilient.

So here’s what I’m imagining:
A webring, but closed.
Actually, not even a ring. A sphere.
A Dyson Sphere of ideas.

The Shape of It

A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical megastructure: a shell built around a star to capture its energy. But metaphorically? It’s a community designed to contain and concentrate the creative force of the people inside it instead of radiating it outward into an indifferent void.

That’s the vision, anyway. A private network built with Headscale, running on mutual trust, shared keys, and human connection. Every site, tool, and service inside is self-contained, encrypted, and shielded from the parasitic public net. Not hidden to be secretive—but to be safe, intentional, grounded.

Inside this sphere: microblogs, projects, zines, trackers, experiments, file drops, forums, and federated services. All spinning quietly, feeding off each other, lighting each other up. A Jupiter Brain of sorts—a computer made of other peoples computers so large it orbits itself, powered by its own internal ecosystem.

This is what i envision for VoidCOMM.

So, do you want in?

This isn’t about escaping the internet. It’s about reclaiming it. There will be public parts to it, sure. We have to get people into it somehow. but shrink it down to human scale. Giving it reasonable boundaries of privacy. And maybe letting joy, weirdness, and creativity flow more freely within those walls.

I’m inviting fellow builders, artists, organizers, writers, weirdos, and friends:

• Want to run a node?
• Want to host something inside?
• Want to help build tools or standards?
• Want to make sure your corner of the web can still exist, even if the surface goes dark?

Let’s talk. I think we can do things in this kind of environment that can't be done on the internet as writ.

I’m still shaping the infrastructure. Still experimenting. But I’m building this with people, not for them.

While this site’s still up, you can message me through it. After that, I might ask you to meet me on the other side of the VPN.

Let’s tunnel under the panopticon.
Let’s stop broadcasting and start orbiting.
Let’s light up our own star and build the web we want around it.