Blog Dev
I'm a Level 1 Citizen of the IndieWeb!
It isn’t hard at all.
One of my objectives with this blog is to connect with people online. Back in the day, before the social media silos, blogs talked to each other with pingbacks and trackbacks. I was wondering if that was still a thing; I started searching and found about webmentions. Most importantly, I found out about the IndieWeb.
The IndieWeb is a community of independent & personal websites connected by simple standards, based on the principles of: owning your domain & using it as your primary identity, publishing on your own site (optionally syndicating elsewhere), and owning your data.
How to get started: IndieWebify.Me
The cool kids of the IndieWeb created a simple guide to get you started: IndieWebify.Me. These are initial steps, but I liked them because they’re somewhat gamified.
The first step is to get your own domain, which I already did when I launched this site at borghal.blog.
The next step is to set up Web Sign in, which I did today!
Web Sign In and rel=me
Before I learned about all these protocols, I knew I wanted to gather all my multiple profiles from all over the internet and link them from here. And I was already linking this site from all those profiles to make this blog more discoverable. So, I had done most of the work already!
The idea behind web sign-in is that your domain is your identity online. You confirm that identity by linking other profiles outside your domain and having those profiles link back to you. The glue that makes it all work is the simple microformat “rel=me” that you need to out to those outgoing links.
I implemented that today and now I’m a Level 1 Citizen of the IndieWeb according to IndieWebify.Me.
There’s a caveat, though.
The validator doesn’t recognize the link between this blog and my Twitter account. I believe it’s because Twitter doesn’t link this blog directly from my profile but instead uses a short link. However, IndieLogin.com works with my current implementation, so I think I’m OK.
Next Steps: more microformats!
To become a Level 2 IndieWeb citizen, I must ensure my posts are enriched with the right microformats. In particular, h-card for my main page and h-entry for my posts. That will be my focus for the rest of the month.
Then, in the future, webmentions. That’s where the fun begins!
