The "IndieWeb" feels like coming home

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Due to the convenience of not needing to code or maintain anything I’ve opted to use Squarespace or Cargo for many years. Now that I've moved this site to Eleventy hosted on Neocities, I'm having fun with my website again!

I do actually think it’s great that website builders exist for people who need or want them. I even taught myself how write HTML by modifying the source code generated by some of the original website builders Netscape Composer and Adobe PageMill.

Why move my site now? #

Over the past 10 years I've rarely updated my site or maintained a blog and I've realized that it was due to the lack of a sense of ownership over my own website. Unlike the website builders of the late 90s, most modern website builders lock you into their hosted ecosystem so you can't simply archive or move the code and content to another host. Nothing you build is truly yours and all your work goes away if you stop paying the rent.

Update July 5, 2024: I just wanted to call-out that since I published this blog post, Squarespace announced that a private equity firm would be taking the company private for $6.9 billion (yuck).

I had originally written this post not wanting to be too negative towards Squarespace itself but I now think it's important to say that Squarespace has become a worse website builder over the past 10 years as they've grown and locked most DIY customization features like code injection behind their expensive business and commerce plans.

The IndieWeb is a movement to return to actually owning and controlling your digital presence like we did 20+ years ago... I've never really considered myself a "web developer" but there was a time in the late 90s and early 2000s when working on my websites was one of my favorite hobbies. I was constantly tweaking the designs and making new content.

Before the era of MySpace lots of kids my age had personal websites and the internet didn't feel like a popularity contest. We created our own "social networks" by linking to each other, chatting on AIM, and posting on message boards. It was a much more creative and fun era of the internet.

Because I own the HTML code I still have a 24 year old complete archive of my oldest websites (worth mentioning) WebCity and The Game Brain.

Netscape

Netscape

Ethical web #

I’ve also been feeling the moral responsibility to use small independent web services instead of big corporations or startups backed by venture capital, who are all now obsessed with selling & feeding our data to their “AI” and rapidly destroying the environment in the process.

I can no longer ethically use services that don't value me as an artist or even a human... The internet and tech in general have always been at it's best when democratized, but at it's worst when monetized by billionaires and shareholders. Think "shop local" mentality of supporting indie business and artists.

omg.lol #

This cool little service and the people who use it are big part of what inspired me to get back into owning and tinkering with my website.

Primarily I use omg.lol as my Mastodon host (Twitter replacement) but they also offer all kinds of cute fun features like domain names and a home page.

It all started with a cool domain name registered in 2019. Originally intended for personal use, it didn’t take long to realize that it would be a cruel waste of awesomeness to squander such a fun name. A little creativity and programming later, omg.lol was born, letting anyone join in on the fun!

Neocities #

Neocities was an easy sell for me and I can't really explain it better than their own about page.

We are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. It's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again.

Our goal: to enable you to harness the creativity, beauty, and power of creating your own web site. To rebuild the web we lost to automation and monotony, and make it fun again.

Basically it's a static website host with a simple social network aspect somewhat akin to GeoCities. You can get started for free but even their supporter accounts cost a fraction of what Squarespace does.

Eleventy (11ty) #

Eleventy is a bit like the best parts building your own website with HTML and CSS mixed with a blog or CMS like WordPress but without the maintenance if you self-host, or subscription lock-in if you don't self-host. You get to keep all your page and blog content on your own devices in portable markdown and HTML formats, choose what tools you are editing content with, and 11ty does all the heavy lifting of the code for you.

Getting start with Eleventy #

Since I'm "not a web developer" the hardest part for me was getting the development environment setup and getting my head around it. If that part scares you too, you should start by playing with the Starter website on Glitch.

While running the local Eleventy build server (or on Glitch) all your edits can be previewed in realtime in a browser so it didn't take me too long catch-on to the basics while I tinkered and broke things.

How to setup Eleventy on your computer:

  1. Get Node.js installed using NVM: Mac, Win, Linux.
  2. Pick an editor like VS Code or Nova (I use Nova).
  3. Create a new project in your editor.
  4. Use the Terminal inside your editor to:

Update July 5, 2024: A friend of mine Keenan has done a wonderfully entertaining writeup on their new blog about the process of getting starting from a very similar minimal coding skill level as I did. I am absolutely tickled to be credited with inspiring the start of their journey with 11ty.

Closing thoughts and resources #

The "barrier to entry" can seem high when it comes to weaning our dependance on big tech but I feel strongly that it's well worth it. You'll find that there are plenty of resources and cool people willing to help.

Get your website: