Resources
A curated directory of tools, communities, and writing for the indie web.
Writing
Essays, manifestos, and long-form thinking about the open web.
-
The Internet is in Decline - It Needs Rewilding
John Naughton in The Guardian on how the commercial internet has been strip-mined and why the concept of ecological rewilding offers a useful framework for thinking about what to do next.
essay rewilding -
We Need to Rewild the Internet
Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon in Noema Magazine. A landmark essay arguing for applying the principles of ecological rewilding to the internet - restoring biodiversity, removing monocultures, and making space for a wilder, more resilient network.
essay rewilding manifesto
Communities
Places where people build and think about the indie and small web together.
-
32-Bit Cafe
A community of like-minded website hobbyists and professionals helping to make the personal web fruitful and bountiful again - full of self-expression and free of the capitalistic drive. Forums, resources, and a welcoming space for people building personal sites.
community personal-sites hobbyist -
IndieWeb
A people-focused alternative to the 'corporate web'. A community built around owning your own domain, publishing on your own site, and syndicating elsewhere.
community standards indieweb -
Melonking.net
A vibrant personal site and hub for the weird web - home of the XHTML Club, Small Internet advocacy, and a genuine celebration of the handmade web. An example and inspiration as much as a resource.
personal-sites weird-web inspiration
Tools
Software for building, hosting, and maintaining your own corner of the web.
-
feed-aggregator
A small HTTP API that aggregates RSS, Atom, and podcast feeds into a single sorted list. Deploy your own on Cloudflare Workers.
tools -
Neocities
Free web hosting for hand-crafted personal sites. A spiritual successor to Geocities, with a built-in social network of weird and wonderful homepages.
hosting community -
Wander
A decentralised web-wandering tool - embed a console on your site and browse random pages from a community of personal websites, linked peer-to-peer.
tools
Protocols
Open standards and protocols for a distributed, interoperable web.
-
ActivityPub
The W3C standard powering the Fediverse. A decentralised social networking protocol that lets servers talk to each other - the foundation of Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and more.
protocols fediverse decentralised w3c -
human.json
A structured alternative to humans.txt - a JSON file for machine-readable site authorship and contact info.
protocols -
humans.txt
A simple standard for crediting the people behind a website - a plain text file at /humans.txt listing whoever made it.
protocols -
RSS / Atom
The original decentralised feed protocol. Subscribe to any site without an algorithm in the way. Simple, durable, and still the best way to follow the web on your own terms.
protocols feeds syndication -
Webmention
A W3C standard for cross-site conversations. When you link to someone's post, their site can be notified. Brings replies and reactions back to the open web, without centralised platforms.
protocols indieweb w3c