Article URL: https://en.andros.dev/blog/0b8e451e/i-joined-the-indieweb-heres-what-i-learned/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48966984 Points: 84 # Comments: 56

Driven by curiosity, I decided to find out what the IndieWeb tag that kept showing up on some blogs and Mastodon toots was all about. I quickly discovered it was more than an empty concept or a feeling of nostalgia for the web of the 90s. It was a movement with concrete ideas, protocols and an active community! As I read through their wiki, I understood their position and the intelligence of their proposals more and more. Such was my enthusiasm that I decided to follow their advice and adopt the protocols that made sense for my site. After finishing the tests and adjustments, I can confirm that the experience has been very positive: I have learned a lot, the UX of my website has improved a bit more, and I enjoyed the process. That is why I decided to write this article, cleaning up my notes from these last few months. Maybe it will help someone else discover it, and along the way, improve the health of the web. And for the nosy ones, I will also tell you which pieces I implemented, which ones I discarded and why, and which pieces of advice turned out to be the most useful. The IndieWeb defines itself as "a people-focused alternative to the corporate web". It does not propose a piece of software or a framework, but an ideological foundation. It deliberately embraces a plurality of approaches and projects. As its homepage says: "we are people-focused instead of project-focused". It all started in 2010, when Aaron Parecki and Tantek Çelik attended the Federated Social Web Summit in Portland. They left with the feeling that a different approach was needed: fewer protocols and more creators. In 2011 the first IndieWebCamp was held in Portland, and they have been celebrated every year around the world ever since, along with the Homebrew Website Club, meetups where people get together to improve their personal websites. So we could say it is a community of personal, independent websites that share these commitments. That is also why it does not forbid you from using social networks, but it does fight against walled gardens. The entire IndieWeb vocabulary is built in opposition to one concept: the silo, also called a walled garden. The wiki defines it as a centralized website, typically owned by a for-profit corporation, that claims some rights over the content you contribute and restricts access in some way. Its characteristics: Why is this a problem? Because silos die, and when they die they take your content with them. The site-deaths page ("Where incredible journeys end", a nod to the corporate euphemism our incredible journey) keeps a devastating chronology: