pages/site/garden/the-small-web/index.md

---
alias: "The IndieWeb, Personal Web, Personal Websites, IndieWeb"
public: "true"
slug: "the-small-web"
title: "The Small Web"
prev: false
next: false
---
# The Small Web

> Referenced by: [This Knowledge Hub](/garden/this-knowledge-hub/index.md)

Small personal websites created by individuals
- [My Personal Website](/garden/my-personal-website/index.md)
- A callback to how the web was before social media, which homogenized content
- These pages are diverse and typically won't have ads or marketers
	- Comparable to [The Cozy Web](/garden/the-cozy-web/index.md) in that way

The small web as a whole is [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md)
- Individual sites may be [Chronological](/garden/chronological/index.md) still
- Individual sites link between each other in ways similar to wikis
	- These can form [Webrings](/garden/webrings/index.md)

## Browsing the small web
- Follow [Webrings](/garden/webrings/index.md) or other links from known small websites
- [Marginalia](https://search.marginalia.nu) is a search engine for non-commercial content with a "random" button and filters for the small web explicitly (amongst other useful filters!)

## Building personal websites

[IndieWeb](https://indieweb.org/) contains various resources
- Their [building blocks](https://indieweb.org/Category:building-blocks) are standards people can use to help the small web connect with each other consistently
- They discourage the use of site builders or templates that end up making sites look too homogenized

<span id="665b6ac0-d3ca-41d8-9534-929ac2907c2e">Free hosting for static websites:</span>
- [Neocities](https://neocities.org)
- [Codeberg pages](https://codeberg.page) (and any other [pages-server](https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/pages-server) instance)
	- Like on [Incremental Social](https://incremental.social/pages)!
- [Github pages](https://pages.github.com)
- [Weird](/garden/weird/index.md) (in development)

### [Streams](https://indieweb.org/stream)

[Microsub](https://indieweb.org/Microsub) is a proposed protocol to support this
- That way, people could use microsub clients to subscribe to multiple streams and get them in one feed
- Effectively a [Federated Social Media](/garden/fediverse/index.md) that works through personal websites
- Announce new posts using [WebSub](https://indieweb.org/WebSub)

This also allows your personal website to be the one source of truth for your posted content
- Effectively solves the problems described in [Hey Creators, Please Make Firehoses!](https://jonbell.medium.com/hey-creators-please-make-firehoses-8d0c48c075e4)

Multiple streams can be hosted by one site/person so people can subscribe to the kind of content they're interested in

How viable would it be to include chat messages in a stream as well?
- Perhaps with [Chat Glue](/garden/chat-glue/index.md) you could link to specific branches I chatted in

### [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md)

These sites may be useful to occasionally check up on rather than get notifications from on every post/change
- Although [Garden-RSS](/garden/garden-rss/index.md) could allow those who want to receive notifications to do so

### The future

[The Internet is a series of webs](https://aramzs.xyz/essays/the-internet-is-a-series-of-webs/) talks about transitioning from our current consolidated web back to the indie web

## Why people want the small web

There are tools these days that make making websites incredibly easy
- Back in the day geocities was pretty complicated but a lot of people managed to make pages there
- Neocities has an extensive page on [Learn How to Make Websites!](https://neocities.org/tutorials)

Hosting can be expensive, but static websites are cheap
- There are plenty of free options out there for hosting static websites
	- Ideally you'd use some sort of system that is easily transferrable to other servers, and possibly even supports nomadic identities
	- [Free hosting for static websites:](/garden/the-small-web/index.md#665b6ac0-d3ca-41d8-9534-929ac2907c2e)
	- People are creative and love creating things

## Recommended videos about the small web

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/00qwzmMrtok" title="" frameBorder="0" allowFullScreen />

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTSEr0cRJY8" title="" frameBorder="0" allowFullScreen />
Make garden tracked via git 2024-06-04 03:59:20 +00:00			`---`
Update garden 2024-06-14 03:54:30 +00:00			`alias: "The IndieWeb, Personal Web, Personal Websites, IndieWeb"`
Make garden tracked via git 2024-06-04 03:59:20 +00:00			`public: "true"`
			`slug: "the-small-web"`
			`title: "The Small Web"`
Update garden pages 2024-06-06 04:25:48 +00:00			`prev: false`
			`next: false`
Make garden tracked via git 2024-06-04 03:59:20 +00:00			`---`
			`# The Small Web`

			`> Referenced by: [This Knowledge Hub](/garden/this-knowledge-hub/index.md)`

			`Small personal websites created by individuals`
Update garden 2024-06-06 06:39:12 +00:00			`- [My Personal Website](/garden/my-personal-website/index.md)`
Make garden tracked via git 2024-06-04 03:59:20 +00:00			`- A callback to how the web was before social media, which homogenized content`
			`- These pages are diverse and typically won't have ads or marketers`
			`- Comparable to [The Cozy Web](/garden/the-cozy-web/index.md) in that way`

			`The small web as a whole is [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md)`
			`- Individual sites may be [Chronological](/garden/chronological/index.md) still`
			`- Individual sites link between each other in ways similar to wikis`
			`- These can form [Webrings](/garden/webrings/index.md)`

Update the-small-web There's some new pages that are not quite ready yet, so I left those out 2024-06-09 22:06:05 +00:00			`## Browsing the small web`
			`- Follow [Webrings](/garden/webrings/index.md) or other links from known small websites`
			`- [Marginalia](https://search.marginalia.nu) is a search engine for non-commercial content with a "random" button and filters for the small web explicitly (amongst other useful filters!)`

Update garden 2024-06-06 06:39:12 +00:00			`## Building personal websites`

			`[IndieWeb](https://indieweb.org/) contains various resources`
			`- Their [building blocks](https://indieweb.org/Category:building-blocks) are standards people can use to help the small web connect with each other consistently`
			`- They discourage the use of site builders or templates that end up making sites look too homogenized`

			`<span id="665b6ac0-d3ca-41d8-9534-929ac2907c2e">Free hosting for static websites:</span>`
			`- [Neocities](https://neocities.org)`
			`- [Codeberg pages](https://codeberg.page) (and any other [pages-server](https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/pages-server) instance)`
			`- Like on [Incremental Social](https://incremental.social/pages)!`
			`- [Github pages](https://pages.github.com)`
			`- [Weird](/garden/weird/index.md) (in development)`

			`### [Streams](https://indieweb.org/stream)`

			`[Microsub](https://indieweb.org/Microsub) is a proposed protocol to support this`
			`- That way, people could use microsub clients to subscribe to multiple streams and get them in one feed`
			`- Effectively a [Federated Social Media](/garden/fediverse/index.md) that works through personal websites`
			`- Announce new posts using [WebSub](https://indieweb.org/WebSub)`

			`This also allows your personal website to be the one source of truth for your posted content`
			`- Effectively solves the problems described in [Hey Creators, Please Make Firehoses!](https://jonbell.medium.com/hey-creators-please-make-firehoses-8d0c48c075e4)`

			`Multiple streams can be hosted by one site/person so people can subscribe to the kind of content they're interested in`

			`How viable would it be to include chat messages in a stream as well?`
			`- Perhaps with [Chat Glue](/garden/chat-glue/index.md) you could link to specific branches I chatted in`

			`### [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md)`

			`These sites may be useful to occasionally check up on rather than get notifications from on every post/change`
			`- Although [Garden-RSS](/garden/garden-rss/index.md) could allow those who want to receive notifications to do so`

Update garden 2024-06-14 03:54:30 +00:00			`### The future`

			`[The Internet is a series of webs](https://aramzs.xyz/essays/the-internet-is-a-series-of-webs/) talks about transitioning from our current consolidated web back to the indie web`

Update garden 2024-06-06 06:39:12 +00:00			`## Why people want the small web`

			`There are tools these days that make making websites incredibly easy`
			`- Back in the day geocities was pretty complicated but a lot of people managed to make pages there`
			`- Neocities has an extensive page on [Learn How to Make Websites!](https://neocities.org/tutorials)`

			`Hosting can be expensive, but static websites are cheap`
			`- There are plenty of free options out there for hosting static websites`
			`- Ideally you'd use some sort of system that is easily transferrable to other servers, and possibly even supports nomadic identities`
			`- [Free hosting for static websites:](/garden/the-small-web/index.md#665b6ac0-d3ca-41d8-9534-929ac2907c2e)`
Update garden 2024-06-14 03:54:30 +00:00			`- People are creative and love creating things`
Update the-small-web There's some new pages that are not quite ready yet, so I left those out 2024-06-09 22:06:05 +00:00
			`## Recommended videos about the small web`

			`<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/00qwzmMrtok" title="" frameBorder="0" allowFullScreen />`

			`<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTSEr0cRJY8" title="" frameBorder="0" allowFullScreen />`