rumorsmatrix_

One of the core principles of the IndieWeb movement is that you're supposed to document what you're doing:

You've made a place to speak your mind, use it to document your processes, ideas, designs and code. Help others benefit from your journey, including your future self!

I haven't been doing a very good job of that, so in this post I'm going to lay out a little of how this site works, how I'd like it to work, and what I'm planning on next.

Behind the scenes

This site is pretty simple. I opted for a no-database, text file based system, so I can easily create and publish content without a CMS. Each piece of content is a Markdown document with a YAML metadata header. I have a script that I run manually that loops through published content looking at publication dates, tags, and post types, which then generates a collection of HTML snippets representing tag and archive pages, recently posted lists, the RSS feed, and other content that would otherwise be considered "dynamic".

When a vistor arrives, the article they request and these previously-generated snippets are then parsed by a PHP script and injected into a HTML template for viewing. It's kind of a half-way point between a dynamic template site and a static site; and I think it's fine like that. It means I can fix minor things without regenerating a bunch of assets, but all PHP is really doing it glueing pre-generated static HTML together, so it's got pretty low overheads.

Post types

The site currently support posts, which are traditional blog-style entries like this one, and notes, which are smaller microblog sized tweet-equivalents. I'm working on POSSE'ing notes to Bluesky and mastodon; at the moment that's a cut-n-paste manual process. I'd feel more pressure to get that working quicker if a) I could decide which of the two platforms to invest in (I think I prefer Bluesky), and b) I used them more than I do. Since Twitter went down the Musk sink, I've really stopped tweeting (or tooting, or skeeting, or whatever the cool kids call it nowadays).

I also have checkins, to record significant (or just fun) places I've visited. I use Openstreetmap to show a map.

All post types support comments and tags, and some tag pages have what I'm calling a "subject page", essentially a tag archive with extra commentary, like the one for Blaugust 2024.

Lastly, I have a /now page and it's archives, wittily called /then. These are like a combination of monthly catchup posts and the old "finger" .plan files, and the nownownow.com about page explains the reasoning behind them. I really like my now-and-then pages, which I update basically whenever I remember throughout the month.

Future plans

Blaugust 2024 is already paying off for me. Yesterday JCProbably left a comment on my first post, which lead me to check out their site, which is fantastic and very much in the same IndieWeb mold that I'm aiming for.

One feature JC has that I'm absoultely going to steal is a "postroll", an interesting combination of blogroll and bookmarks -- here's theirs as an example. They also published a great blog post on their thinking behind using a postroll, which aligns 100% with my own thoughts. Thanks, JC!

For a good few years, I maintained my own bookmarks in a big JSON file, so I have an archive of content available already (I recently switched to raindrop.io). I just need to dust it off and code up a front-end to it...

Lastly, I don't handle photos very well -- online or in real life. I don't take many, I don't back them up properly, I never committed to Instagram or before that Flickr or before that photobucket, or... anything. What photos I do have are scattered between an external hard drive, google photos, dropbox, iCloud. I never cared. I do now. I need a photo storage plan and a photo publishing plan. I have no clue.

In summary

I've written way more than I expected here. Basically, I love maintaining my own little corner of the web that's entirely mine; I know that it'll never be finished or perfect, and that's part of the charm. I still have a lot of work to do.

I whole-heartly encourage you all to check out the Indieweb folks yourself, and to do whatever you can to claw back a bit of space and inject a bit of personality into the increasingly corporate walled garden of the web.

The internet was more fun when everyone had a homepage.