. Last tended to <ahref='https://code.incremental.social/thepaperpilot/pages/commit/d525a1f2c27821f6be11c20f5294832df2e5687e'title='Thu Nov 7 22:10:25 2024 -0600'><timeclass='dt-updated'datetime='Thu Nov 7 22:10:25 2024 -0600'>2024-11-07</time></a>
.</span></p><hr><details><summary>Referenced by:</summary><ahref="/garden/commune/index.md">Commune</a><ahref="/garden/federated-identity/index.md">Federated Identity</a><ahref="/garden/fedi-v2/index.md">Fedi v2</a><ahref="/garden/my-personal-website/index.md">My Personal Website</a><ahref="/garden/the-indieweb/signature-blocks/index.md">The IndieWeb/Signature Blocks</a><ahref="/garden/this-knowledge-hub/index.md">This Knowledge Hub</a><ahref="/garden/webrings/index.md">Webrings</a><ahref="/garden/weird/index.md">Weird</a></details><p>The small web (also known as the indie web, personal web, the web revival movement, and other terms) refers to small, personal, independent websites. It is seen as a direct alternative to the centralized and homogenized websites like X, Meta, and TikTok. <ahref="/garden/my-personal-website/">My Personal Website</a> is part of the small web!</p><h2id="motivation-behind-the-small-web"tabindex="-1">Motivation behind the small web <aclass="header-anchor"href="#motivation-behind-the-small-web"aria-label="Permalink to "Motivation behind the small web""></a></h2><h3id="the-modern-web-is-bad"tabindex="-1">The modern web is bad <aclass="header-anchor"href="#the-modern-web-is-bad"aria-label="Permalink to "The modern web is bad""></a></h3><p>The small web is, at its roots, a direct response to the issues with the modern web:</p><p>The modern web is dominated by a handful of large websites, sometimes referred to as the "corporate web". These websites limit personalization, how you can use the website, and are filled with ads, marketers, and influencers.</p><p>The corporate web is designed for consuming content created by a few large/popular creators. This manifests in the near-ubiquitous infinitely scrolling feed of algorithmically chosen posts, optimized to keep you on the site for as long as possible, to the detriment of society.</p><p>Websites this large are expensive and, due to Capitalism, must forever be making more money than before - which means if they're not growing users, they must grow how much money they're making per user. This process typically means corporate websites become worse for their users over time, and was coined as <ahref="https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/"target="_blank"rel="noreferrer">Enshittification</a> by Cory Doctorow.</p><h3id="the-old-web-was-good"tabindex="-1">The old web was good <aclass="header-anchor"href="#the-old-web-was-good"aria-label="Permalink to "The old web was good""></a></h3><p>In contrast to the above, the classic web was filled with many diverse sites that typically represented a single person or organization, who were able to fully tailor their site to what they wanted it to be. Websites would be more unique and interesting, since the creator would have full control over them. This also makes the whole web feel more personal and intimate, as you're looking at a closer representation of how someone chooses to portray themselves online, in a way a profile page on X or Meta cannot be.</p><p>There are still lessons we've learned over time that can apply to modern "small web" pages, like accessible design and how to be more inclusive.</p><h3id="the-small-web-is-anti-corporate"tabindex="-1">The small web is anti-corporate <aclass="header-anchor"href="#the-small-web-is-anti-corporate"aria-label="Permalink to "The small web is anti-corporate""></a></h3><p>Small static websites are very cheap to host, making anti-features like ads unnecessary and therefore rare. In general small websites are cheap enough to avoid needing to think about monetization entirely, let alone worrying about how to perpetually make more money. This lack of profit motive behind most small websites contributes to a culture of not just being "not corporate", but "anti-corporate".</p><p>In general, the corporate web seems to have values that align with those of authoritarianism - control, surveillance, and hierarchy, whereas the small we
