Robb Knight
Maker of web things, Lego builder, sometimes blogger, sporadic pizzaiolo, fortnightly podcaster. Cat dad and human dad.
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Reading the title you might be thinking "Yeah no shit Robb of course the web[1] is fantastic it's literally the cornerstone of all commerce and communications in the modern world". Or maybe you're not thinking that. But I'm not talking about the web as a whole, I'm talking about the open web. The come-do-cool-things-with-our-api web. The open standards web. The indie web.
Services like Linktree exist because Facebook, TikTok, et al decided that links are okay but only if it's to their stuff. You, the creator of the video/photo/whatever only get one link, better make it a good one. Even then, my wife sometimes sends me links of Facebook don't-call-it-tiktoks and unless I install the mobile app, those links just don't work.
The real web is built on links. Hyper ones, in fact. Links you can share on your website. Links you can send to your mates. Links to pages that can be indexed by search engines so you can find things again (in theory).
Look at this journey Chris went through to stumble upon the App Defaults project:[2]
I was adding a link to omg.lol, a blog and email hosting service that's cute AND easy AND (relatively) cheap, to my newsletter.
While browsing their help and info page, I saw that they offer a /now/ feature that lets you update the world on what you're working on, reading, watching, etc... now. Old school internet at it's best.
I clicked through to the omg.lol /now garden which has examples of how people are using /now to update the world.
I randomly picked Rebecca Owen's /now page.
Then I clicked back through to her omg.lol page to see how she was using it.
I saw she had a blog, so I checked that out.
The most recent post on Rebecca's blog was one called Default Apps 2023. That's clickbait-up-arrow.gif material for me.
She had included a link to an episode a podcast called Hemispheric Views, and this defaults page.
That is cool. That is how we should find interesting things. With links. The big social media sites have decided that actually no, we don't like links. Just sort of "find" things and if you don't find it well tough shit. Sharing interesting websites, blogs, and articles on your own site is the way to go. Make a blogroll. Make a podroll. Share links on your Mastodon account.
Check out About Feeds to see how RSS works and apps that work with it. I use NetNewsWire.
Blogs and RSS never died. Some of us just took a little break from it while we all shitposted on Twitter for likes, retweets, and validation. While we wrote long, unfindable threads instead of blog posts. I'm as guilty of this as anyone.
Get an RSS app or service and install an extension that auto detects RSS feeds. Keep an eye on it while you're browsing around and grab every feed you see. You can easily unsubscribe if it's not for you. Here's over 300 blogs to get you started.
Chris McLeod said this about blogging in his post, "Blogging is where it's at, again":
stumbling into such a trove of active blogs has enthused me about blogging as a medium again
He's right. Blogging is where it's at. Get a blog. Post some stuff.
If you have a website, don't forget to expose your RSS. Have a big prominent button. Make sure it's in your head for auto-detection. Maybe start an RSS club. Post some wonderful things, or sad things, or only-interesting-to-you things.[3]
/now page to your site. Check out a whole load of them here and on the now garden./uses page to list what apps and hardware and whatever else you use. uses.tech has nearly 800 examples.It's your website, you can add literally anything you want[4] and no one can stop you.
This is all well and good but if you don't already have a website it can be daunting to know where to go.
Reach out to me on Mastodon if you have questions and I'll do what I can to help get you started.
The real web, the small web, the indie web is amazing. Don't give Facebook and the rest of these clowns your content. Don't give them the time or your attention. Get a blog, a website, a Mastodon account, something you control, and share links to cool things you find. Make a list of your favourite blogs or websites or photos of cats. Write about a pizza you had that was delicious. Share a recipe. Go down a rabbit hole for hours on end adding weird stuff to your site. Just do it somewhere you control because the real web is fantastic.
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@robb Love it
@robb I like that you used “clowns” as a noun.
@robb it's like we think and say the same things
@robb Oh this is some good stuff right here!
@robb I liked very much the topic and the way you write, thanks for sharing your article, it feels like we're rediscovering the web again
@robb Yet another awesome post from Robb Knight. Your enthusiasm is damn infectious, Robb. Please don’t stop…and thanks for being you.
@robb Great post Robb, it exactly describes how I got introduced to social.lol, Default Apps and the Hemispheric Views Podcast. I’m glad you pressed ‘post’.
@robb Good idea: I should add a "recommends" category.
@robb Thinking about the Substack drama going on, I can't help but think those writers would be in a much better situation if they had been posting/linking under their own domain names.
Would you consider adding a blurb encouraging bloggers to get a domain name, instead of being held hostage by "substack.com" or whichever companies address? Small/indie web should be big on personal domains.
This post is page 2 of hacker news right now if you fancy giving it an upvote https://news.ycombinator.com/?p=2
Hacker News@robb
"Get a blog, a website, a Mastodon account, something you control, and share links to cool things you find. Make a list of your favourite blogs or websites or photos of cats. Write about a pizza you had that was delicious. Share a recipe. Go down a rabbit hole for hours on end adding weird stuff to your site. Just do it somewhere you control because the real web is fantastic." - https://rknight.me/blog/the-web-is-fantastic/
Thanks for this piece. I still see RSS as powerful and sustaining.
The Web is Fantastic@robb great blog post - we need more of this!
@robb I’m seeing it on the first page now! I really love this piece, and hope that more people build out their own spaces on the indie web this year!
@robb thanks for the article I enjoyed it!
@robb Nicely done!
I said it in the post but I’ll say it here too: if you want help or advice on setting up your own website, I’ll do whatever I can to help.
@robb can you help me make a website I will actually stick with and not keep moving elsewhere?! :)
@andyn That might be a job for a therapist
@robb I've mentioned before how your posts inspired me to:
- finally make my own site
- make a Now page, powered by automatically pulling in data from other feeds
and I've enjoyed it so much! Thanks again for posting on this topic, it's one that really hits home as we watch Twitter fall apart and Meta try to scoop up the remains for themselves.
Rambled too much already but quick question: do you recommend Atom over RSS at all?
@robb oh actually I thought of a better question I'd love your take on:
I was stubborn about wanting my blog posts to show up on my site but didn't want to build a CMS lol so I used my Wordpress blog and then I read the RSS to my own site (I still link Wordpress's generated RSS feed though)
This is obviously hacky (though a fun experiment), is there a better solution than Wordpress+reading RSS for something like this?
Blog for reference: https://www.rardk.com/blog
rardk64