Handmade Cities (HMC) calls this year a period of quiet growth: making sure offline meetups reach a critical mass of attendees. The term offline is very important, because social media may not be used for our own advertisement.

Mass-Delete Social Media

Our founder’s made it clear competent programmers must leave for-profit social media. In January 2026 the following accounts will be deleted:

  • Discord Servers (read more)
  • YouTube Channels
  • Twitch Channels
  • GitHub accounts

This includes Abner’s own profiles, not just HMC. We’re not linking them here, and we’ve already deleted Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon prior to 2026.

Since it’s impractical to leave this world completely, we do stick with Hacker News and Lobsters as needed, which we personally control through FreshRSS.

Neighborhood Marketing

Spring 2026 we’re launching a professional campaign across all Handmade cities to post flyers, pamphlets and zines for coffee shops, bulleting boards, and even out on the streets. It will be done tastefully, and for strategic reasons this is all we have to say on the matter.

World Tour

As part of the goal to grow offline, Abner is visiting most cities with a Handmade presence to attend their local meetups. As we’re based off Seattle, we’re starting with the nearest ones and expanding from there.

Interested readers should subscribe to the public newsletter to find out where Abner is located all year round. Travel begins in March.