I created this website for a few reasons. I want it to be a place I can post my thoughts on a myriad of topics, as well as a place for my childhood and/or early internet nostalgia before corporations took over the internet. It's also a place to play around with HTML/CSS/PHP/Javascript. I have experience with backend programming, but rarely do anything on the front end. This is meant to be a mostly static website, so any front-end skills I gain from this will have little commercial value; it's just a place to have a hobby.

The IndieWeb

There is a growing internet movement (it's still a very small relative percentage of people) called the IndieWeb. Essentially, it's built around the idea that the current internet has become too commercial and too centralized. Think about it, when was the last time you logged into the internet and ventured too long outside of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, or a few news websites? I'd wager that the majority of your time on the internet is spent with those 6 companies I named.
A lengthy blog post from neustadt.fr titled "Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web" describes some of the sour feeling I've had towards the modern web quite well:

It all comes down a simple but very dangerous shift: the major websites of today's web are not built for the visitor, but as means of using her. Our visitor has become a data point, a customer profile, a potential lead -- a proverbial fly in the spider's web. In the guise of user-centered design, we're building an increasingly user-hostile web.

Any other websites you visit probably have a similar look and feel as 99% of websites online. UI and UX designers dictate to companies what makes a "good" website, and, while many modern practices are definitely a good idea to make sure everything works well, it has turned the internet into a much more boring and less creative place for people to visit.

For a more formal definition of the IndieWeb, the below description suits it quite well:

The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the “corporate web”.

We are a community of independent and personal websites based on the principles of: owning your domain and using it as your primary online identity, publishing on your own site first (optionally elsewhere), and owning your content.

As it is decentralized, I don't agree that there can be an "official" definition like the one above. I don't necessarily agree that it needs to be your primary online identity. A fan website devoted to "The Brave Little Toaster" movie would still fall under the IndieWeb in my opinion.

In my opinion, the appeal to the IndieWeb is that it is more about personal expression and avoiding giving your info away to companies that track and sell your data obtained through their platforms. Sure, a webscraper can still come across this website and find my info, but it's far less likely to be seen by anyone unless they are seeking out the website. I have more control over what ends up on here.

Topics I’m interested in: