Our Favorite Void

OFV Club's Smallweb Primer

Last UpdateJune 2025, first version complete.

Literally the Tiniest

And hey, this isn't a definitive guide! It's only the tip of the iceberg.

Streamlined and updated from the blog entry, Albi's Tiny Guide to Smallweb Stuff and Getting Started, I Think, and they also strongly suggest getting out there and seeing what would work best for your use case. Experimentation is part of the fun!

Smallweb

The rejection of the commercialized Web and its goals for profit over creativity and humanity.

So you can say, in short: smallweb is opposite of the big web (think corporations), or the positive connotations that come to mind when you hear "indie:" authentic, a labor of love, independent and not reliant on profit.

Also Known As

  • IndieWeb
  • Yesterweb
  • aesthetic/tech/ideals of Web1 and Web2
  • decentralized web (as opposed to current centralized trends)

Smallweb is also reminiscent of previous eras: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, roughly the first and second decades or so of the Internet. By that measure, we're currently in the "Web3" version of things.

The Small Technology Foundation also coined "web0," and this is how they put it:

web0 is web3 without all the corporate right-libertarian Silicon Valley bullshit.

Which, yeah, that works too.

(This is also where I burn my "One Swear Word" token to remain PG. In my defense, I'm a 90s kid.)

In Contrast: Web3

Web3/Web 3.0: The movement to use newer web technologies and the singular ownership of digital assets. Contrast with Web 2.0, where everything is owned by a few central companies, and the Web Revival, where assets are created and shared freely for artistic expression. (Web Revival Glossary)

Grow Your Own Services refuses to entertain "cryptocurrencies, web3, NFTs, tokens, coins, blockchains or anything like that" due to their direct contradiction of what the smallweb is trying to accomplish:

These "web3" schemes are snake oil which everyone should avoid. They make a small number of people richer while simultaneously destroying the environment, assisting criminals and making the rest of us poorer.

Capitalism! is! Bad! When the only thing that matters is money, nothing else does. Big Tech only wants your data to sell, and they'll get it by any means necessary. And they'll keep you on their platforms using Dark Patterns and FOMO.

Yesterweb also has an article that spectacularly breaks it down even further: Keep the web free, say no to Web3. Key points from the article:

  1. predatory marketing tactics
  2. requires high tech knowledge- barrier of entry
  3. environmental harm
  4. incorporates "artificial scarcity"
  5. Investor (profit) driven

When Rejecting Web3, You Can...

  1. improve your mood and health
  2. gain more agency with your data
  3. personalize and enrich your online presence
  4. reduce information overload
  5. learn, grow, broaden horizons
  6. go where you are wanted
  7. avoid most Enshittification efforts
Our online content and identities are becoming more important and sometimes even critical to our lives. Neither are secure in the hands of random ephemeral startups or big silos. We should be the holders of our online presence. Why? by IndieWeb

Where to Start?

Remember: baby steps are better than nothing at all! Focus on doing what you can, at a pace comfortable to you.

You can start with Eliminating or dramatically reduce your reliance on Web3 corporate stuff-- and don't bother with NFTs, Crypto, and blockchain tech.

Protect yourself! Review your online privacy habits and make adjustments. Privacy Guides and Surveillance Self-Defense are great starting points. If you haven't already, install an adblocker like UBlock Origin.

Actually Interact with people. Click around and see what you can get into. Be inspired by a complete stranger's pixel art and blogs. Talk to each other. Instead of the walled gardens of Meta, consider: setting up an RSS Reader to follow sites, people, and interesting topics: A Beginner's Guide to RSS Feeds.

Open Source

You may also make Open Source projects a priority. Read up on them and whatever policies they may have.

If Not Meta, Then What?

Two protocols I'd like to briefly touch on are ActivityPub and AT Protocol.

The fediverse is vast. It's made up of thousands of communities with millions of people like you and me, wanting to connect and share. (Join the Fediverse!)

ActivityPub is a protocol that lets other websites and services "talk" to each other. For example, you can have a Mastodon account, you can interact with people on Friendica. Here is also an Introduction to ActivityPub.

While you can argue that BlueSky is just Twitter 2.0 with all the same unresolved pratfalls (among other critiques), it does use a decentralized network called The AT Protocol.

Being an "open" protocol gives it more flexibility in installation and identity... and that also means that you are not limited to the default BlueSky experience.

Hey...Get A Website!

It can be a single-page About You, a sprawling love letter to one of your favorite Sailor Scouts, or anything beyond or in between. In the pursuit of algorithmic perfection we have forgotten what it means to create just for creation's sake, and to stumble upon someone else's little room on the Internet.

Some resources to begin building a website:

There are a lot of free services, like how Geocities was back in the day. Neocities and Nekoweb are some of the most popular ones. And here are some drag-drop/WYSIWYG to get a feel for things:

Osteophage also mentions Indie Aisle and Hot Glue.

It doesn't have to be polished, and it doesn't have to be fancy. You can build a motherfucking website and just fucking use HTML.

Accessibility

People browse the Internet in a variety of ways. Some of those people are disabled, and require accommodations that improve everyone's time on the web. It is as easy as describing your images and being a considerate human being.

The Access Guide website is also a great intoduction to the concept.

There is also A11y 101.

Webhosting

Most of the the time, you just sign up for a service and be good to go. But if you're feeling extra froggy, you can just host the damn thing yourself!

If you can swing it, Self-hosting is a good idea, actually. Even more control of your data, and less concern of a service shutting down, like Glitch recently did.

This can get real thorny real fast, so we'll speedrun this section:

There is also a great blog post titled, A Gentle Guide to Self-Hosting.

What's in a Domain Name?

Regardless of how you host, you may be interested in getting your own domain name. A beginner’s guide to creating and using your own domain name by Grow Your Own Services goes much more in depth.

And Lastly

Be patient and give yourself grace! You are learning, and discovering different ways to be online.

Hey! And have fun!

Thank You For Reading!

If you have any additional questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to email some critters your opinions!