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THE WEB REVIVAL MOVEMENT:

What It Is, Why You Should care, And How to Participate.

The Web Revival. - A movement dedicated to the reclamation of technology, information, and the tools we use. Think of it as a mix of the right to repair movement and folk art!

Writers far more astute than I have spilled a lot of ink over how our rapidly increasing alienation from the tools that govern our day to day lives and the goods produced by them has had negative effects in terms of how we interact with the world. We are so removed from the production of the food we eat, the culture we live in, and the fruits of our own labor.

You deserve to know how the things you participate in function, so you know when something is bullshit. You, dear reader, deserve nothing but the best.

This document exists to bridge the gap between "tech people" and "not tech people". I myself wouldn't consider myself someone who cares deeply about technology, but I would consider myself somewhat informed, and passionate about acting on my beliefs. In todays day and age, most people interact with the internet in some form, without considering themselves technologically informed. There are a lot of advancements that are instantly vilified, because of possible use cases and just about everyone's got a negative opinion of social media. Perhaps you disagree with how social media is run, or dislike just how much of the internet is run off of amazon services (its a lot!). The good news is that what is "wrong" with the web and tech today are cultural issues, not structural, for the most part. Here, we learn.

The Indie web and Web Revival is a movement, led by folks like you or I, working to express ourselves and ideas, share information, create art, hold conversations, and use our tools on our own terms. Anyone on any street corner could tell you social media can be pretty detrimental, I won’t beat that dead horse any more than I have to, but who's doing anything about it? Paywalls are more and more common, censorship on all sides has altered the way we communicate with each other and what we can communicate about (no more un-alived, le $ bean, “shadow banning” (whatever that is), or any of that clownery!). And while one can argue the ethics of censorship, what level is permissible if any at all, one thing is obvious. And it's that we can not allow profit to be the judge, jury, and executioner. The web revival rejects algorithmic content, in favor of intentional and thoughtful expression. It is a movement that captures the excitement of the early web, and having a whole new world at your fingertips, and brings that feeling back with the aspects about the modern web that work in our favor, to create something entirely new. Break free of your box! No more “content”! We believe in a free and open flow of information and sharing of mutually developed tools! And you can do it too!

This is an accessible form of creative conflict against the preconceived notions of communication. Changing the way you communicate and interact doesn't have to be all coding your own sites and studying. Its zines, its local organizing, its changing the way you acquire information, its thinking about the ways you communicate, and its understanding the world you live in and responding to it in a way you believe in! While I emphasize the importance of independent web pages, just as much of this document will be coding-free advice, and you can skip to that by clicking the sections to the left that interest you.

(making your own website is easy though; There's loads of resources and templates linked to this document, however for a more fundamental understanding, I’ve created Hand In Hand We Will Weave The Web! A step by step easy guide where we create a cute and customized personal webpage, together!!!!! I’ll explain each step, and how to make it your own!)

This document is a thorough introduction to the indie web, and modern web in general, divided into several sections and in as simple language as possible. Feel free to skip to what ideas interest you. Although I will say, each section has interesting links and resources, so they're all worth a glance, even for seasoned webmasters.

NOTE: from this point on, there are many links in this document that will be emphasized like this! They may be to things like thinkpieces and independent publications, rather than official or academic writings. I am NOT endorsing these writers or publications views, nor am I vetting them as universally trustable sources, but rather using them as a tool to allow brief further explanations of a topic, should the reader be interested. No one is immune to propaganda. Everything is propaganda.


The Web Revival Today

The web revival, as many refer to it, is an idea with no governing body, no rules, and endless potential. It is an umbrella term for many movements or ideas. You may see people using the terms Indie Web, Small Web, Open web, Old Web, Personal Pages, and so much more. While these terms have small differences in intent, they're all common terms for the idea of the Web Revival.

Notably, this movement stands in direct opposition to the current state of "web 3.0" However, we do like a lot of aspects about the idea, like less central points of control, and prioritizing privacy to put it simply. These are core pillars of the IDEA of web 3, but not the PRACTICE. The average indie web netizen probably greatly rejects the idea of web 3, probably due to the kind of person who always seems to be talking about it the most. And I won't say that that feeling of betrayal is unfair. We've been fighting for this idea of a web since its inception, and people think they invented being able to sell digital art and think manufacturing scarcity is at all new or useful, when its just a rehashing of arguments that have been around since the dawn of internet communities. Having the kneejerk reaction of "I hate this guy" isn't unfounded, but the structure of the web does need to change (elaborated on in later sections). We just believe that the kid learning HTML and hosting his own site and truly learning how the internet works is doing significantly more for the common man, than say a crypto bro whos 5 pyramid schemes deep and whos nft and crypto collection has the same environmental impact as a car. All this to say, the future of the web is yours. Not theirs. The yesterweb simplified and summarized our grievances pretty well, and is a topic that I think deserves its own essay.



The indie web today is a vibrant, colorful, and creative place. Some of the best artists I've seen work in this space almost exclusively. There are so many bright, well written, amazing folks dedicated to making information accessible. Everyone I’ve come across is dedicated to sharing all they have and know to make the internet an all around better place.



The world we know today is built off of scarcity. Scarce things are worth more, and abundance is a pipe dream. There is no scarcity here but your own creative thoughts. Save my images, copy pieces of my code, take inspiration from my site. Any indie web participant worth anything would say the same. Copy my site page for page, but only I’ve got the mind to make new pages just as good as the old.



We believe in an open, accessible, world wide web free of corporate interest, and total power over our own spaces! No bubbles, no pay walls, no higher power! Just unstopped human interaction, flow of information, economic independence, and more.



The movement, culturally, is not without its cons, which I think are best stated here.

For more info on the current state of terminology, generally accepted standardizations, accessibility, and just generally What's What and a man to man simple explaination of current buzzwords, Check out the section Indie Web Glossary.





How To Get Involved



Well, the good news for you, is if you're reading this, you're already involved. Your on an independent and non commercial page learning about new views!

Some really basic actions I recommend as a beginner starting point:


GONE are the days of technological pessimism! We CAN save the earth! AI CAN be a good thing! We CAN have open and free speech!!! You just have to take matters into your own hands! And I want to do it with you!

The indie web is scanning old magazines. It’s It's taking pictures with an old camera and keeping prints in a box. It's no banned books, It’s understanding that even your neighbors exist in a completely different cultural context than you, it’s recycling, it’s public transit, it’s waving hello on the sidewalk. It’s a fighting chance to succeed.


When we take matters into our own hands, we begin to exist in communities by and for the greater good. Together, we can democratize and use technological advancements and the web for a better future!



Why Decentralize?

Because to work at all, the internet has to be. Let me elaborate a little bit.

There is, considering how international my site tends to be, a 65% chance, give or take, that you are from the United States. This site is not marketed in any way, I don't tell people in a specific geographic area to look at this site. And its not that 65% of all internet users are from the United States (only 59% of web content is even in English!). Its because this site exists in the U.S corner of the internet, with U.S infrastructure, and U.S standardized code.

Have you ever tried to navigate a Chinese or Japanese website? They are fairly cluttered, busy, and very confusing to the eye of someone who isn't from that country. Theres a few reasons for this (this is on topic, I promise!). A big one is that for some languages, there are so many characters that developing web safe fonts can be very difficult! And some languages also don't have simple ways of emphasizing certain text like italics and bold and underlining and about a million other traits that are baked into html. I edited the way that text appeared with code. Code that is standardized by browsers that have to know how to read it, by and for the english language. To create visual hierarchy in languages with way less support, people often have to rely on lots of graphics, dividers, boxes, and just more words. Eventually, populations just get used to getting way more information in very little space. Especially if the language allows that! So why foreign websites may look "odd" to some viewers, is a huge example of why diversification of our tools is a big deal! Ain't that neat! Not everyone can use the same tools. And they shouldn't need to! There are whole corners of the earth than can not make online transactions on most parts of the internet because the infrastructure that allows that isn't what works for them, so more regional systems are developed. There are whole vast endless corners of the internet you will never even begin to understand. And this is awesome! This can be such a cool cross cultural learning opportunity as people find different ways to use tools and develop technology further in ways that benefit them. The acquisition of knowledge benefits everyone! This divide will exist, weather you want it to or not. We can deepen it and cut of contact with our neighbors, or nurture it and grow together. Up to you.

If that alone isn't convincing you, Check it out. This guy just made photoshop you can run in your browser. it's just a complete recreation of photoshop. I’m a photoshop addict and i’m yet to run into any limitations with this thing. Why pay adobe when you can just donate some spare cash to this guy, have a significantly better economic impact by giving straight to an awesome guy and not a corporation where the top hordes most of the income and underpays the worker. Motivate and incentivize good work, strengthen the public's bargaining power, and keep the dream just a little bit more alive.

Imagine a whole internet of that. Actual incentive to innovate and do genuine good for the public. And you can literally just participate in it. At any time.

"decentralization" is a lofty sort of vague word for what we want. But it's an accurate one. For the readers who aren't new and have a slightly larger web vocabulary, it can look like other things too!



Why Should You Participate?

So you like the idea. But… this seems like a lot of work! Or maybe you like social media or the way things are! That's fine! Most web revivalists do exist in more mainstream web spaces as well! The web revival is the great unknown. It's your chance to participate and express yourself and your ideas, and see other peoples as well. It is a chance to truly be free from financial or interpersonal status. It's about advancing and participating in the grand conversation in the most effective way. It's about being a fucking webmaster. Your information is not packed away anywhere for a third party to sell. It is yours. Nearly impossible to be found by anything other than a human who cares.

And it's simply time to have fun again.

If you need some encouragement that there really is a whole independent web that is interested in what you have to say, you are the https://www.free-counters.org/ ‘Th individual visitor to this specific document.


One of my biggest takeaways from the indie web, personally, has been its archival capabilities. It's unconcerned with what's new, or what the trend of the week is. It is a chance to archive, collect, catalog, and share cultural artifacts far more effectively than in any other medium. The current infrastructure of the web is fragile and outdated. Until major structural change comes, archiving is still our manual responsibility.

For some easily digestible glimpses into what I mean, check out

Paintkillers collection of independent print publications on graffiti culture in many parts of the world

Heres a player you can sort by genre of the infamous Myspace Dragon Hoard. Myspace used to be THE PLACE to put your music if your an artist. Unfortunately absolutely all of it has been erased from myspace. Thankfully, web archivists managed to save about 490,000 songs. All of which now only exist in the hoard. Heres a cool player for it!

An always growing collection of early web graphics sorted by subject matter.

LocalChaos’s Skate culture archive

This guy I found recently who archives super niche info about the first half century of recorded country music.

Heres a virtual art book fair from 2021 thats fun to flip through.

And to clarify, these are just a few random examples of one of my favorite aspects . The possibilities and uses are limitless!

If you think something is cool, It is still out there somewhere, living and breathing in its entirety, for you to truly immerse yourself in. No need to cut itself down to size to fit into a social media post, or buried under nonsense in a search query.

The open web existed far before the web you know. And it will outlive you and I.

The human experience is worth more than being fit into a little box to be deleted one day. Culture is not a far away idea or abstract concept. Culture is what you like and what your wearing right now. YOU are history.

Simple as.



“Old” Web, and The Real World. Environmental Impacts, Consumerism, and Beyond.


You don't need me to lecture you on the importance of keeping our earth healthy, we’re probably already on the same page here, and seeing as this is not an academic paper or a heated debate, but an important two way conversation on free speech technological optimism, I’ll spare you the depressing statistics.

Planned obsolescence is not a secret or a conspiracy. In a lot of ways, the technology you rely on is out to get you.

Old technology works fine. Any machine, given it is well maintained, will aid you for what feels like forever. What happens though when things move further and further away from the common populations understanding? When technology runs unchecked? We lose our incredibly critical right to repair, something that affects almost all technology in our modern era. A lot of modern technology is becoming purposefully a nightmare to repair, all for corporate interest. I'm still mourning not being able to just take my phone apart and hold its individual parts, let alone the loss of the headphone jack. It is entirely possible for new technology AND durability to coexist. We vote with our dollar these days. By keeping in the loop of newer and newer technology we become complicit in these choices. This is unfortunate not only for us as individuals, but the environment and the countless individuals who are exploited to keep the cycle going at a frighteningly high pace. The machine is powered by blood. You can decide at any time what actions you will take to fight this. As technology advances, the class divide deepens. Lucky us, theres plenty of folks dedicated to helping you!

To return to the topic of the open web, there are real world environmental advantages!
Decentralization of communication means little to no profit incentive. No one paid to sell you on a trend. Fast fashion is unmotivated, no influencers are pushing you to consume anything or act any way, none of whatever the fuck the nft weirdos have going on. You can use second hand technology, and a fanatic with a blog is probably chomping at the bit to help you fix it.



So You Want To Make A Website

Before we figure out what to put on your website and how, we have to super quickly decide how to put it on the internet! Everything on the internet is stored somewhere, if it's not on your computer, it's on someone else's. We can decide where to store it! Thankfully, there are some good free options for beginners. You can host yourself, but this is for beginners, so we're gonna keep things simple and free!

(You can save your already written code from your previous host and then just upload it on different hosts, just in case any beginners had that question.)

Neocities
Neocites is a foundational pillar of the web revival, it's where most people start and stay. Upon signing up, you'll get a free ample amount of storage space (like…a lot) and a place to put it. It has a very basic code editor to write and put all your goods in, and does the job with no issues. It also has a basic following feature, so you can follow the accounts of other websites you like. Kind of like an automatically set up RSS feed (sorta?). Which is an idea I’ll explain later. This host supports static web hosting, and free accounts are sometimes limited in what file types they can host, but as a beginner, this probably won’t matter to you. The social aspect and ease of finding other sites attracts most users. A neocities user Dimden created Nekoweb, which is sort of like a neocities equivalent that's been getting some attention.

GitHub Pages
Another super duper popular choice for basic static sites. Ample storage space, and does not have some limitations on certain files and scripts like neocities, but feel free to correct me there. It being integrated with GitHub is also super handy. It's mostly used by programmers putting their static applications somewhere handy, but there's no reason you can do anything you want with it. Lots of folks just run personal pages. Large community, lots of available help.

Glitch
A way more comprehensive basic web host. Also free. Lets you do some pretty baller stuff if you want room to experiment more with dynamic hosting. I can't personally speak about its community, as an outsider, but it seems to be very alive and thriving. I’d go here if you grow out of neocities or think you might in the future.

Heroku Good for if you're really going crazy, these guys just sorta let you do anything. Not really at all necessary if you're just running a personal site but if you really wanna get into programming, they're swell enough.

Hell yeah man. Lets do this. Now…. we discuss how.



How To Make A Personal Web Page.

 https://justinjackson.ca/webmaster/

Learning to code can seem super daunting, but I promise it's so much easier than you think! I am in no way a master at this, but once you start to understand the structure, it's quite simple!!

There are many templates out there of prewritten code for beginners to go in and personalize. Those will be linked below along with other resources. I recommend however, as a beginner, taking chunks of code and putting them together yourself!

If you feel you need a hand, I’ve made the document Hand in Hand, We Will Weave The Web!! Its a super basic tutorial on making a personalized site. I basically just state what each chunk of code means, so that you can edit it to fit your needs. If you follow along step by step, you can have your own code written for a basic (and cute!) page within 20 mins. And should you feel like sticking around, you can have a pretty baller webpage in about an hour.

If you feel comfortable in this undertaking though, here are pages that you can navigate to really get a hang of how to code.

w3 schools is awesome. Everyone recommends them for good reason. Look up any html, css, or javascript question and w3 usually has a really handy write up on the topic. They cover just about everything.

For everything else, check out the 32 bit cafe's resources collection. No need for me to try an reinvent the wheel here, their list is better than I could do!

It really can be as simple as looking up how to set a background, copy pasting the code, looking up how to set up a header, copy pasting the code, looking up how to add pictures, copy pasting some code. Super doable stuff here.

Additionally, I’ve found that the average webmaster is so open to answering questions about how they did things. Most pages have a way to contact the person who made it, and they're probably thrilled that you like their site enough to ask how they did something!!

I would like to personally thank Ribozone" for telling me how to position pictures in certain places and sizes and making them buttons and even going as far as writing a chunk of code for me when I was just starting out. They probably have no idea how helpful that was before I had the language to know what to research.

I know I'm happy to answer any HTML, CSS, and JS questions to the best of my ability. I can be contacted at myrrhsewell@proton.me

Sadgrl is pretty much the best place I can recommend starting to learn. It has a better selection of resources and links than I could ever compile. Check out the HTML tutorials, code snippets, and even HTML template maker.

One super awesome resource has been this search engine for forums and message boards. Which is really useful when other searches haven't been useful. Someones probably had the exact same question as you before.

Zonelets is super handy for people who may just want to run a basic blog or journal, but with minimal to no coding.

Everyone's pal Melon's Image Gallery Maker is also an awesome tool for sharing things on your personal site with little to no coding knowledge!

If bots crawling your site for AI training is a concern you can do a few things about that too.

Themes! Prewritten code for you to edit, if you are comfortable with that.

5493's themes

Cephus's themes

This collection too!

This collection is in absolutely no way even close to being a crumb of whats out there. I encourage you to dig around!



What To Make

Wow, what a question!!!

If you can imagine it, you can probably do it.

I believe the majority of webmasters run small personal sites. Usually just a highly decorated and personalized home page with maybe information like what music they like, what books they're reading, current mood, maybe some brief updates (like if your friend were to ask “what have you been up to lately!), maybe interesting thoughts or links, the web is really your oyster!!! You can run a blog, make an art gallery, run a forum, do interesting interactive things, plan events, organize information, make pages for talking about topics you like (infodumping, as I believe some are calling it, we call ‘em shrines on the indie web. A much better name I think.).

I would be doing you a terrible disservice if I didn't mention melon king. This is where most folks start their indie web journey. Melon is an absolute staple in the indie web community, creating a site that pays homage to our early web roots, while pushing the medium in really amazing ways. I can not recommend a visit to Melon king enough if you're interested in seeing what it is that you can DO with the web; especially check out the guides and writing.

That not enough for ‘ya?

Check these out.

Heres a Site that archives art in which the internet was the medium Super coooooool imo. Good for looking at and being reminded you can completely restructure the way you interact with and use internet as a tool for art or utility.

Say it with software A site that archived interesting creative software and related projects. Mostly for artistic means. Mostly old and archival but you can still fuck around with a lot of it. Non utilitarian stuff. Stuff like the infamous ubermorgen Sell Your Vote online portal and what have you. Old, So in more of an archival state right now for longevity, but still awesome. You can gather some inspo.

Heres a thing called sunday sites. A project based around sitting down one day, getting a theme, making a site, and seeing what happens. It's pretty charming. it's nice to gather ideas from the archive. You should join the next one!

32 bit cafe is cool if your just getting into it all and want to participate in things!! Its a cool resource of information. Its run by some really nice folks. They also host events that seem really fun to participate in based around creating and sharing things! They have so many resources devoted to getting ideas on what to do with a webpage, as well as just really useful tools to know about!

These are just a few suggestions to get the ideas flowing and is in no way any kind of a comprehensive list. Surf around a little! See what inspires you!

An important thing to note is that if you are a beginner, you are probably running a static site. A static site is a website that is a set amount of information. Your website is simply the code you write, and is unable to change independently of direct input. This doesn't mean you cant have changing visual excitement! Things can move, users can interact and input information, elements can have animations, scripts can pull live information from other places and you can make elements that interact accordingly. Having a dynamic site, in basic terms, means running a site that is processing information and changing itself and its content for each viewer in response. If that didn't make sense, then truthfully its probably nothing you'll ever have to worry about for a while and you can ignore this paragraph. DREAM BIG!



Get Involved in a Community



I think people think leaving behind a typical social media structure means leaving behind connection and interaction. Couldn't be further from the truth!!

Here are some really simple beginner friendly ideas on how to find community.

Join a web ring! - Web Rings are collections of folks united under a similar idea, experience, or state of being. They will typically function as, someone makes a page explaining the web ring and its members, and has a widget you can copy and paste on your own page. This widget will usually have a left and right arrow, and visitors can click the arrows to shuffle between the pages in the web ring. To see what I mean, here's one of a few web ring databases! See if there are any you think are cool! here is a list that is in no way definitive. Every webring collection I have found is not very definitive. Theres so many webrings out there, surf around and see what you find!!

I think the creative retrocomputing, archaeologists, egg enthusiasts, amateur radio, Garfield, insect fans, and “le webring de salad” which appears to be a french webring about salad were all super awesome groups.

Find An Art Collective or Zine !-

Independent publications are EVERYWHERE! And I think they're so cool! Most of them are open call as well! Theres a million out there you'll come across on your travels in the indie web!

Additionally, You don't have to give up the idea of a social media feed to see what's new!! Check out this guide on RSS feeds, to set up a super easy feed of updates from everything you like on the internet, all in one place!(or have multiple RSS feeds! no rules!)



Other Ways To Participate



Lets get real. Coding can be hard and it's not for everyone (well, I think it is. But some may disagree). Having a webpage is a lot of work! There are other ways to participate in this movement and act on your beliefs and ideas that can be anywhere from high, low, to no effort!

lets talk a bit about that:





Acquiring Information



So we know it's important to decentralize communication, but how do we go about this?

Remember your librarians and english teachers who would make you research from a seemingly needlessly diverse pool of sources? Turns out most of us didn't really take that lesson to heart (and don't even get me STARTED on today's reading comprehension. jeez)

It's super easy though. Let's talk about it!!!!

Boooooo google!! We wanna move away from it!! (I still use it sometimes, I’ll be real with you!) Unless you've got an ad blocker you keep up to date with, the first million results are all sponsored. And even if the results aren't directly sponsored, someone's whole job is search engine optimization to make sure you see that result over others. AI populated sites are also becoming an issue! (I’m not explicitly anti AI, but come on! Some of this stuff is nonsense!) Additionally, Privacy is a big deal. People don't need to be seeing what your doing, extrapolating details about your life, and storing or selling that info!

It is also important to note, everything you see on the internet is man made, and every man has an agenda. Even you and I. So Everything we interact with should be thought about critically. This includes search engines. None of them are perfect. Not a single one. They are tools, and it is up to you to determine how you will use your tools to achieve your goal effectively.

So perhaps you are one of the folks that add “reddit” to the end of a search query to see what the common man is saying. In these instances, can I recommend https://boardreader.com/ ? This is a super great search engine that only searches forums and message boards. It's not universally useful, but I’ve found it exceptionally useful for basic coding questions. Someone out there has probably already had the issue you're having and got a real answer man to man.

Heres a search engine that only searches neocites sites. Really awesome for finding specific people and topics. I've found some really useful sites this way!

Heres one for the indie web at large! It's really neat that this exists!

I really like Marginalia! Its an independant search engine covering non comercial sites. A good way of finding stuff you never would have. As well as some really awesome resources!






Understanding How Things Work



Through webmastering, you'll end up learning how the web works over time. I think if you participate in something, you should know how it works. And seeing as you are on the internet right now, if you don't know how it works, you should learn! Here is an explanation kept as simple as I possibly could!

The internet makes the web possible! It began as a project funded by the U.S military before moving into more of a public infrastructure project. The goal: connecting computers together however possible! In the most basic way, you can form a series of computers together physically with cables, but this makes a small web. We want to connect every computer! So how does that infrastructure work?

You probably have a router in your house! A router is a kind of computer with a specific job, and that job is sending the correct information to the correct computer thats connected to it. So our chain of events right now is Router -> Computer. Imagine a bunch of routers, everywhere that people are connecting to. Imagine it like a funnel! Routers connected to routers! Theres also modems. The allow different networks to connect via telephone infrastructure. Big source to small source! This still leaves questions though, where does it all come from?

So. Right now we can see how information gets relayed to our computer, and how we can reach other networks of computers. The big part of the job is handled by your ISP, or internet service provider. They bridge the gap between computers on different ISPs for you. Aint that nice! So the ISPs can talk to each other to sort information into the right destination, To modem, to router, to you! (with a bunch of stops in between!)

But what is being transmitted? A lot! To look at the page you are looking at right now, your computer needs to know where this is coming from and all the code I wrote is read by your browser to convert into colors and letters! The code was written by me, I used HTML and CSS on this page. Theres also images, and that is hosted on a computer far away from mine where im writing this, Theres a lot of stuff coming from a lot of different places! just to form this basic page! and now you get to ask the host to send it to you, and it does! so cool!!

When people talk about security on the internet, they could be referring to a lot of different aspects! In the big picture, the internet is actually super fragile. Its a million computers all working in a chain to do very specific things. If one thing goes wrong, then the whole instance falls apart! (or maybe a shark is chewing on your cables!) People can also be referring to privacy. Your information passes through a LOT of places very quickly. Can you name all those places, every time you send information somewhere? Probably not! Or even if the chain of events is quite small, computers are still all on the network together, and can see each other. Whats protecting you from other people? Much to think about!


Politics of the Web Revival



Everything that we do in life is inherently political. There is not a single piece of media that does not have a political agenda. Everything was created by someone who was physically motivated by a lifetime of experiences that specifics manifested in a certain way. Every single thing that you do, or don't do, is political. You do not exist in a vacuum, every one of your actions have consequences, weather you acknowledge them or not.

The politics of this document are not a secret. I have made it very clear what my motivation is. I am aiming to educate people who may be interested in a topic, while simultaneously urging folks to analyze how they contribute to culture and what tiny actions the common man can take to shift it in a way that benefits us all.

The concept of the web revival is a free speech oriented space, dedicated to the open and free dissemination of information and resources to all people, regardless of class, location, social standing, age, race, gender, and everything else. This may seem like the obvious desire of the web, something we can all aspire to, right?

We vote with our feet. What we use and support speaks to what we believe in.

Who made the platforms and tools you use? What do they believe? Who profits? Because someone does. Someone always does. Where does that money go? To the workers? Probably not much of it. By the way. Have you checked what lobbyists affect your current location, where ever you are in the world?

You are one fish in a very big ocean. But you have friends. And your friends have friends. And those friends have friends too. And your voice means more than you think it does.

Indie Web glossary for Web Beginners



Here's a basic glossary of terms and standards currently used in the “indie web” sphere you might come across as someone who may wonder what they mean. These terms are explained through the lense of someone existing in 2024, and may be redundant or incorrect in a few years, and an interesting time capsule in a few more.

Indie Web- An umbrella term for independently made websites.

Web 3.0- A term referring to the idea of the new "era" of the internet. Based in decentralization, which we like. And Blockchain and token economies. Which we don't like, unless some major changes take place. This is an abstract concept describing systemic changes in how the internet works. Change is necessary and inevitable.

ISP - Internet service provider. The guy that you pay to let you connect between networks.

DNS - Domain Name System. Everything's got a name. That name is in the phone book.

Browser - What you are reading this on right now! The tool that reads and writes basic web languages like html, css, javascript, and other stuff. Reads the information from a specific domain and shows you what it is!

Blockchain - A database, essentially. Spread across multiple nodes or "sources" kinda. By buying into it, in a way, you are now part of the network that holds it together. A blockchain, while "decentralized", is still only essentially a singular database. But now a singular database that you are now a part of. There are currently a few different blockchains. Unlike running a singular web server, where you as the individual can choose what content and where to move it and it exists singularly on your machine. A neat idea, but anything that exists in a blockchain is functionally pointless outside of it, even in other block chains. See "Cryptocurrency" bellow.

Cryptocurrency - A decentralized currency that exists in a blockchain. Since the blockchain is a decentralized system, no body governs it. This is appealing to some, and is comparable to libertarianism. No one party is accountable. True equity and equality takes work, effort, organization, and vigilance. Absolutely no system is perfect or exists in a vacuum. In common terms, you can contribute to a blockchain by providing computing power. This is what upholds the idea of the blockchain. In return, what you contribute is assigned worth. This is what the idea of "bitcoin mining" is loosely based around, if you recall every hearing about that. Most people will buy and sell it like a stock these days. The worth is assigned arbitrarily. Sort of like the dollar. People just decided it had value. Cryptocurrency only has the amount of power we decide it does essentially. Except unlike the dollar, its existence requires notable amounts of electricity to exist and if you decide it doesn't matter, than it doesn't.

NFT- See "blockchain" and "Cryptocurrency" above. A dataset that is stored in the database of a specific blockchain. The ownership of which is tied to a specific person. Because ownership is determined digitally, there is computing power devoted to tying it to the owner 24/7. This adds up over all the NFTs in the world. NFTs will generally take the form of images, gifs, or ideas. Just about as functionally useless as it sounds in its current state. Used most commonly as trading cards or signifiers of class, social status, and wealth at the time of writing. You probably wont have to worry about them until someone finds a better system.

Server - A kind of computer. Stores and shares information. Where is your information stored at? If its not your computer, it's someone elses!

Buttons- these are a common link sharing tool. The internet is held together with links, and pretty useless without them. Personal sites are no exception!! The standard button is 81 by 33 pixels, although this is just the standard, you are of course free to do as you wish. The standardization however creates a cohesive and unifying language denoting “hey, these are links to other peoples pages!”. If you run a web page, its a good idea to create a button and put it somewhere people can find it, so they can put your button on their page and link back to you. These buttons can be .gifs or still images.

Any 81x33 file will do in any image maker of your choice, but if you'd like, here's a links to different styles of basic button makers

https://hekate2.github.io/buttonmaker/.

https://goblin-heart.net/sadgrl/projects/88x31-button-maker

Web Ring- This is an organized gathering of sites. Usually around a collective idea or theme, but not always. A webring is typically ran by one person or organization, who allows people to join. Once permitted to join a web ring, the site is added to a registry of sorts, and a widget can be placed on the webpage that allows people to cycle through the pages in the web ring. Can be official and professional, or deeply silly and goofy.

Webmaster- This is the standardized term for someone who runs a web page. https://justinjackson.ca/webmaster/

RSS feed- A manner of setting up a “feed” comparable to a social media feed. Allows users to very easily keep tabs on personal sites, news sources, publications, and anything in between. Currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity, for good reason.

HTML- Basic coding language of websites. Dictates the content on the site.

CSS- Cascading style sheets. allows for a standardization across web pages. For example, keeping font information or header style universal among multiple pages.

Stamps- A sort of standardized image, similar to buttons but less functional. Its common behavior to hoard these whenever you see one you like. Used as decoration and to signal personal interests. Some of them are impressively ancient. Some arent. Universally beloved and fun to look at.

Zines- A popular form of independent media and publication. Short for “magazine”, an art form with an incredibly rich history. Zines are often small books or magazines, produced independently and cheaply.



In Conclusion

I am glad you're here.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure, I really appreciate your time. I hope this has been of some use to you. And please send this page to anyone who you think will like it, or link this on your own websites!

The idealized web of complete freedom and free open access to information is a reality that we can exist in together.

Please reach out to me if there's any information you think should be changed, added or removed, or just to say hello, at myrrhsewell@proton.me

Myrrh.