No one’s childhood dream was to own a Substack.

In advertising school, you learn the classic Marshall McLuhan adage: “The medium is the message.” And when I see talented writers and designers use platforms like Substack or Patreon, a part of me wonders if they had the same compromise I did, that “it’s not exactly what I want, but it's good enough for now.” However, that attitude is why so much of our current internet is boring.

Websites Used To Be A Status Symbol

It was nicknamed: 'The Earning & Learning Club'

One of my first internships was at a small web design studio.

Outside of writing, my time there was spent watching the owner meticulously set scroll weights or add parallax to a page. In the early 2010s, having a premium website was a big deal. It meant you were a business, artist, or nonprofit to be taken seriously— an organization with a budget and attention to digital presence.

Then came apps. With smartphones as our primary everyday companion, having a mobile app became not only the next badge of legitimacy, but also the quickest path to acquiring clients.

Eventually, web design studios like the one I worked at became rare. The small-to-midsize business shifted to website builders like Squarespace and Wix. Record labels started using services like Linktree. For most, a custom website became a secondary budget expense.

Websites are about to have status again. Especially with vibecoding, people can build interactive blogs, streaming sites, agentic platforms, mini-games…whatever our heart desires. Apps for everyday things like social, food, and finance will always be a prevalent force; however, we also have fatigue from ‘giving away our location at all times’ to a parking service we used once on vacation. The other big reason online communities will shift homes is because the content we upload to apps like Instagram, Facebook, and X is being used to directly train AI.

Seems Dead In Here

While I can't say which platform it was, one freelance data annotation gig I had turned me off from posting to social media entirely— being sent what appeared to be complete strangers’ photos and posts to annotate one by one.

Although many of us speculated this is what happens when we scroll to the bottom of the ‘Terms & Conditions' and agree to ‘train other products and services,’ it made me think more seriously about how our current content distribution model is a race to the bottom.

Think about how influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk tell you to keep uploading your best IP onto social media platforms in hopes of going viral and getting rich. According to a 2023 survey by Linktree, only half of creators make any money from their content, and of that group, 72 percent earned less than $500. The more we aimlessly ‘grind’ and post our work without any thought to ownership and distribution, the more that content can train AI products to become better at replicating you, making your contributions worth less and less.

"Bless"

AI's rise has made more people question how much of the internet is real to begin with. Although coined in 2021, the Dead Internet Theory became popular in 2024 because of Shrimp Jesus and Facebook AI slop, sparking the idea that AI-generated content is being paired with engagement from AI bots, creating a feedback loop that appears lively but really was just empty air. And, no one likes a dead party.

Welcome To The Actual Party

Instead, it's time to make the internet fun again, which has been the theme behind one of 2026’s biggest media deals: OpenAI’s acquisition of TBPN reported for more than $100 million, betting that the future isn't AI-generated slop but real people having a good time.

The deal wasn't just to buy a popular YouTube channel but to build the future of interactive media. Dylan Abruscato, the President of TBPN, has a history of doing just that: working on HQ Trivia and co-creating Crypto: The Game. The last time I interviewed Abruscato, he was running CTG’s third season, which provided a case study for how an interactive blockchain-based game could onboard the masses (something the industry has struggled with quite a bit).

Given TBPN’s entrepreneurial, tech-focused audience, building a platform with Codex that has streaming, gamified experiences, and trading sounds right up Abruscato's alley. Then again, maybe I'm biased because of how I designed Knead.

Knead's built almost entirely on the L2 Base because it enabled us to own the experience we're giving to our readers and community. The idea of it being a magazine built on the blockchain came to me when I worked at RARE (a legacy Web3 marketplace) for a few reasons:

1. We’re not selling your personal data.
2. A magazine is a great conduit for any and all creativity— design, writing, photography, dinners, parties, concerts, etc.
3. We could create an interactive home for what we wanted to have on the internet outside of social media.

When I was structuring the Knead memberships, there were two considerations:

• First, I needed to create a free membership that makes a person feel appreciated for showing up and supporting us.
• Second, $5 per month is a lot to ask for an upstart publication. That experience should be more than just editorial; it should be an immersive platform with streaming, rewards, a chat, and more.

Still Posting Flyers

Working at Highsnobiety, I learned the hard way why ‘the medium is the message’ while running the fashion magazine’s Discord. As primarily a chat platform for gamers, it was difficult to onboard guests and influencers for activations, asking them to download an app they were often unfamiliar with.

Another struggle with social platforms has been the constant algorithm chase: “You should start posting infographics on TikTok," “YouTube Shorts are the new wave," “You have to start doing collaborative posts on Instagram, it's how you're going to get ahead.”

Every week it feels like there's some new hack or strategy to maximize today's audience. Instead, Knead's built on the idea that our best engagement and content is going to live in-house, making the website serve our community better than any social platform ever could. To us, platforms like Instagram and X are where we post the flyer, not the venue for the party.

So, Who's Knead For?

Knead's for those who used to run off the school bus to check out the latest on Homestar Runner, Newgrounds, or Happy Tree Friends. Knead's for the people who collected their favorite print issues of magazines like Rolling Stone and Thrasher as teenagers. Knead's for the person who spent their college years wanting to write for a big magazine, only to find out the dream is really owning the publication yourself. After all, who really wants to give Substack and Patreon a cut of our bread?

This is a magazine for those who understand that creating something fun isn't always a joyful process. There's a lot of self-doubt and blind faith. But, the end result is special enough that every version of yourself, from the teenager with boxes of magazines to the adult with both a New York Times and Wall Street Journal subscription, can say it's their home too.

The secret to making the internet fun again is creating things that you, yourself, would enjoy. Only then can you inspire other people to start ‘kneading’ for themselves too.