Defining the indieweb for 2026

Weather talk in The Betwixtmas

Although normally spoken about as a cohesive whole, different aspects of the indie web ethos can wind up in tension with each other, which raises the question of which one ultimately takes priority. On the one hand, we have the general interest in onboarding, i.e. helping more people onto the indie web; on the other hand, the issue of onboarding can place some strain on other commonly touted ideals. At the end of the day, which form of independence matters most? And what does the answer entail for our understanding of who the indie web is “for”?

Large language models and their associated bots are bad for the indie web in at least three ways: 1) their logistical consequences are bad for bandwidth, 2) their social consequences are bad for guides, and 3) their citational consequences are bad for surfability.

V.H. Belvadi’s personal website and blog

This was my longest length of time between Weeknotes but come on… you didn’t even notice, right? The holidays and new year were nice and I certainly enjoyed two weeks off from work. There was plenty of time with family and friends, nice downtime to read and watch movies, and I started thinking through how we’re going to redesign our front room (finally). I started my break by faceplanting on the sidewalk in front of my house at the very end of a run (seriously, I was in my last 10 or 20 steps), which resulted in a gusher above my eyebrow (I see why pro wrestlers blade there - it’s impressive!