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I joined the IndieWeb, here's what I learned

238 points by andros

by TheOtherHobbes

14 subcomments

If IndieWeb wants content, burying it under a ton of tech soup is the exact opposite of what they claim they want.
How do the developers not realise that this set of protocols is completely unworkable for 90% of users?
Please stop developing systems where the engineering is front and centre. If you want to put content UX first, you need to do exactly that, with a one-click solution that gets users up and running instantly.
If you users have to go anywhere near a command line, or Docker, or they have to hand-edit HTML or CSS, you're creating walls most users aren't going to scale.
At the moment this looks more like NerdNet than IndieWeb.

by rjakobsson

2 subcomments

Really cool! Have you checked out Nostr as well? I prefer the mental model of Nostr, it seems to be more in line with POSSE than Mastodon and the AT protocol.

by rmdes

1 subcomments

Good work! Both the explainer and the implementation! I'm using indiekit which basically comes with IndieWeb batteries included! https://rmendes.net and I'm working to get it implemented on https://textcaster.app

by myzek

1 subcomments

This intrigued me a lot! I have been searching for a way to break out of the social silos, but all the other alternatives just weren't doing it for me. They usually chased thr nostalgia of the 90s for nostalgia's sake, but apart from making me nostalgic for 10 minutes I haven't found much use of them.
This seems different. It embraces the modern web and tries to fit in, while still giving the creator full control over their yard.
I might be overly optimistic, but I'm excited for this! I will try to make my myzopotamia.dev blog join the IndieWeb as soon as I find some time

by ronbenton

2 subcomments

I feel like the DRY concern with RSS feeds is overstated. I can’t remember the last time I had trouble with automagically generating an RSS feed using whatever open source framework I was authoring with at the time.

by fernly

0 subcomment

I've done, and still do, regular blogging. I have a domain, and everything I post is mine. However it can't be "indieweb" because I used Wordpress. Hence my current blog is dependent on a corporation, as were a couple of older ones that were built in Blogger (and still exist, last updated nearly a decade ago).
That dependency is because isn't feasible for me to own my own server. If I did, it would either be virtual, in amazon's or microsoft's cloud, or it would be real hardware but still in some corporate server farm. It just wouldn't be practical for me to own (and maintain) a physical server with an UPS and permanent uplink to the net.

by pibaker

4 subcomments

I feel some uneasiness when I go to a website branded as "indieweb," and see a link to the author's CV prominently on the page. Sometimes you also see a professional taken headshot of the author or an enthusiastic description of his work history at prestigious institutions. And it's always a professionally made blog. You know the drill.
It feels like walking into a brightly lit clothing store in a fancy mall and seeing the anarchy symbol on all items. Look closer and you'll see an almost four digit price tag.

by nicbou

1 subcomments

Great writeup, and welcome aboard!
A few things I would add:
- Make it a habit to share other blogs that you love. The IndieWeb relies on word of mouth and human curation. I love "what I enjoyed this month" posts.
- Be lavish in your praise and hearty in your approval. Email your appreciation, initiate conversations. Static sites without user tracking can feel like talking to yourself at times. Reader mail feels awesome.
- Have fun! Personal sites should be personal. Allow yourself to be incomplete, to be whimsical.
- Digital gardens are great. Not everything needs to be a chronological feed. This is your space. Arrange it as you please.

by inigyou

1 subcomments

Were you aware that the .dev domain name belongs to Google?

by account42

0 subcomment

> microformats2 solves one problem: making your content machine-readable without publishing parallel files or building an API.
Which isn't generally a problem that ever needed solving. Just like the previous onthologies, all this does is feed your adversaries while being useless to your human visitors.

by exiguus

1 subcomments

IndieWeb is a form of social media. People have a certain image of themselves, and the internet helps them live up to it. Whether we're writing comments on HN, posting toots on Mastodon, uploading videos to TikTok, or writing a post on our own blog, there’s a lot of self-expression involved.
However, for a lot of people, platforms like TikTok are more appealing than IndieWeb, but for some, it's fun to set up an OpenBSD VPS, a static web server, and learn to write better in text files using their favorite editor.
A self-determined workflow can be more important than being seen. However, one doesn't rule out the other, and the Author and IndieWeb offers some good tips.
Thanks for the post.

by slmjkdbtl

0 subcomment

> MySpace: in 2019, during a server migration, it lost all the music uploaded during its first 12 years, more than 50 million songs from 14 million artists.
How much of these are archived by third party? If not it's huge loss to humanity...

by Insimwytim

0 subcomment

So many numbered and non-numbered lists...

by newsomix9xl

0 subcomment

What about all my content on Friendster ?
Man was I bummed.

by hoyd

0 subcomment

«Keep the web weird and interesting.»
This made me smile and I agree.

0 subcomment

by superkuh

2 subcomments

Although not explicitly part of the indieweb protocols, RSS and Atom feeds are important too.

by xtiansimon

1 subcomments

> “Use what you make: use what you build every day. ‘If you aren't depending on it, why should anybody else?’”
Having difficulty imagining this constraint.
For example, I use my iPhone’s Note app daily for personal notes. I don’t currently host a site, but if I did I might have content/write on no more than monthly cadence, or per-project.
Does this rule suggest that I should ‘publish’ more (ie. elevate private note content to public more frequently) or build something for my private notes to be hosted on my server? Or something else?
In the first instance we’re talking about that micro commentary you get with social media sites. Becomes something like Kottke’s site. A feed of interesting things.
In the second instance you’re using your server infrastructure more, and so it’s not a machine you interact with only infrequently.
Or am I totally missing the point?

by smcg

1 subcomments

Once again I will say my theory of how the internet became a few walled gardens: NOBODY WANTS TO HOST. Hosting sucks. It costs time and money. There are constantly new exploits to work around.

by sourcecodeplz

3 subcomments

so indieweb is like your own personal website?

by jdw64

1 subcomments

I also have my own personal homepage [1]. The content isn't that great, but I do have some curated content on there. What kind of topics and people are usually involved in the IndieWeb community? I'm thinking about joining, but I'm still debating it.
[1] https://www.makonea.com/en-US

by EGreg

0 subcomment

Today we've added support for IndieWeb to the Qbix Platform, so people can have a powerful way to publish and maintain sites on the IndieWeb: https://github.com/Qbix/IndieWeb
Qbix Platform is based on PHP, and everything else (MySQL, NginX, Apache etc.) is optional. PHP can be used by itself to host your site, including turning it into a static site, and even manage HTTPS certificates for you.
But even beyond that, it can also enable personal mesh networks without the Internet. It's completely free and open source, and designed to work out of the box. Here is the overview of how it all works:
https://qbix.com/server.html

by sara011

0 subcomment

[flagged]

by yevhen_builds

0 subcomment

[flagged]

0 subcomment

by AndrewKemendo

2 subcomments

The Internet is already independent - warez and torrents amd smuggling sites and groups prove this
Anyone can go right now to a DNS registry and set up a url with tld and as many redirects as needed and host locally or remote servers.