Flamed Fury

Making Websites Should Be Easy

2024-02-17T00:00:00Z

Creating a website can be a daunting task, especially for non-developers. As someone well aware of the struggles with the process, I spoke with Sara on Mastodon about simplifying the process of creating a website for non-developers on the back end of a recent post “An Easy Web”.

We came up with the idea of providing copy-paste boilerplate templates of simple single-page starter sites that are carefully commented, making it easy for budding webmasters to understand where to make changes. Including CSS variables at the top of the styles page, with instructions for changing colours or fonts, will allow changes to be made centrally without searching the rest of the style sheet and potentially breaking things.

Creating a series of similar but different single or multiple-page templates for building personal sites, whether about the webmaster themselves or a fan site, is a great way to get started. I keep talking about fan sites as they’re a great entry point to the world of web development; who didn’t have a fan site or two back in the 90s?

The process needs to be as easy as possible, so the next step could be creating a website that hosts these templates with an automated “copy to clipboard” or “download as file” feature, allowing users to drag and drop the code into a web interface to publish their website.

We acknowledged the importance of beginner tutorials to help first-time webmasters get familiar with the syntax before using the templates. These tutorials need to be simple and straightforward, avoiding things like command line and git. It was surprising how many people suggested tools or services that rely on these advanced concepts; they are definitely not beginner-friendly…

Web hosting options were another important topic. We identified places like Neocities, a free hosting service that provides a drag-and-drop website builder, making it easy for upcoming webmasters to get started. While Neocities is a fantastic platform, I wish there were more similar services; options are great.

As our crew of enthusiastic webmasters become more comfortable with HTML and CSS, they may want to explore something like PHP for its templating and dynamic capabilities. This would also require learning about dynamic hosting and technologies like FTP for transferring files from desktop to server. For those who want to remain static, static site generators like Astro and 11ty become useful as, with a bit of learning, you can cut and paste your existing website into these tools and take advantage of the power provided.

Our vision is to make creating a website easy for beginners who aren’t developers. By providing simple templates, tutorials, and web hosting options, we believe anyone can easily create a beautiful and functional website that anyone could be proud of.

I see lots of discussion about this time to time on Mastodon with lots of ideas, but never any action, so…

Over at the 32-Bit Cafe, we have a beginner’s guide to creating your own website, lovingly created by Xandra. I put together a quick guide to folder structure 101 and a guide with heaps of ideas for creating your own website.

Sara got to work straight away on two templates; check out LinkFae and Website simple templates. And I know Blake has started working on something similar, I can’t wait to see how this space progresses.

I’ll get to work on the fan site templates soon, promise.

Monthly Recap: January 2024

2024-02-03T00:00:00Z

Hello web surfers, I can’t believe January is already behind us.

I did less writing than I wanted this month. A few posts that I had drafted will transfer over to February and hopefully get finished. Most of that is due to family holidays and enjoying life outside with my friends.

What A Weekend: I got out and about with some good friends and enjoyed some live music.
Summer Days On The Beach: Developed over four years, this post has evolved from notes hastily penned during my peaceful moments at the bach each summer. It’s a contribution to the 32-Bit Cafe Holidays 2023 Event, delving into our precious holiday traditions.
An Easy Web: I jumped into some discourse on Mastodon, where people had started talking about the barrier to entry for creating websites. Every post was aimed at developers! I point out that the web needs to be more accessible for everyone to build personal websites, not just blogs!
A Simple Guide to Redirects on Neocities with Eleventy: Moving back to Neocities presented challenges with features that came for free with Netlify. There needs to be Eleventy tutorials for platforms outside of Netlify; this upsets me.
Dragonflight Season Three Recap: A great way to wrap up the end of Season 3 with my guild.

I’ve been agonising about being reliant on venture capital-funded services recently. This has kicked off a move back to Neocities. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this that will make an excellent post in the future.

I realised part way through the month that my contact form using Riku Forms wasn’t doing what I wanted as Riku isn’t an email form 😂 I’ve switched over to a form that will email me if you use it while I work on getting my own setup. I have an excellent idea for Riku in the works. I’ll share it as soon as it’s ready.

I didn’t get through my backlog of bookmarks this month. Out of the ones I did bookmark, these were both fun reads:

The State of the Independent Web 2022: Updated 2024 by Brad details changes across the independent web since 2022; Directories, search engines, blogrolls, links pages, RSS and static web hosting. Overall, the independent web is healthy. The one that stood out to me was hosted services. Think polls, guestbooks, and contact forms that got me thinking about what we could do in this space?
Remembering the early 00s teen website scene by Localghost takes a trip down memory lane to an era of the web that I thought was much cooler than the Geocities era before and definitely cooler than the MySpace era that came after it.

I hope you have a great February. I’ll chat with you all next month.

Dragonflight Season Three Recap

2024-01-14T00:00:00Z

This post is a week late. I wrapped up Season Three officially at the end of last week’s raid where we completed the Glory of the Dream Raider achievement.

Glory Of The Dream Raiders

With my guild, Ascent we achieved Ahead of the Curve: Fyrakk the Blazing, on 2023-12-17. This was our best tier yet, completing the raid on heroic difficulty 5 weeks after release.

A day later I completed Dragonflight Keystone Master: Season Three where you have to attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 2000 during Dragonflight Season Three. I managed most of this season with pick up groups during the day. I didn’t run much with my guild as I wasn’t playing in the evenings outside of raiding.

Finishing the raiding and dungeon achievements before Christmas was great as I didn’t have to worry about that while we were away up north for two weeks. This also made the season feel quite short, which isn’t a bad thing particularly for me as I definitely have other things to focus on.

Then again, we have the new patch dropping next week. Looking forward to playing through the story as it’s looking to be Night Elf centric. I’m unsure what the raid and dungeon schedule is but I’m sure that I will clear both as usual.

A Simple Guide to Redirects on Neocities with Eleventy

2024-01-12T00:00:00Z

Eleventy tutorials are everywhere, especially for Netlify. But what if you’re exploring platforms like Neocities? No worries, I’ve got your back.

For reasons, I’ve just moved Flamed Fury back to Neocities. Redirects is one of the things that I was relying on Netlify to handle for me. Netlify allows you to handle HTTPS redirects easily withEleventy.

After some quick web searching, it was clear that Neocities does not support HTTPS redirects, so what was I to do with my redirects where I didn’t have access or control of the server? Luckily, gold old HTML has us covered with HTML redirects.

With HTML, you can create a simple redirect with a <meta> tag.

<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; URL=https://flamedfury.com/" />
</head>

How could I do this simply in the Eleventy way? Sure, I could recreate each of the old HTML pages and fill in the <meta> tag to redirect to the new URLs, but that would be tedious to maintain.

After some more web searching I came across this post, Eleventy Redirect From by Brian Mitchell where they wanted a drop-in replacement for Jekyll redirects but in Eleventy.

Brian achieved this with a single template that I figured out after a “period of time” troubleshooting needs to be in the /src/ directory to work 😂

My redirects were configured to support the Netlify way and used the key redirectFrom.

For example, a single redirect:

---
title: I Love The Web
redirectFrom: ['manifesto']
---

Or multiple redirects:

---
title: Relics Of The Web
redirectFrom: ['/explore/', '/explore/buttonwall/', '/explore/webrings/', '/explore/blogroll/', '/explore/links/']
---

To get to work without modifying my existing frontmatter, I just had to change redirect_from to redirectFrom in the template.

---js
{
  pagination: {
    data: "collections.all",
    size: 1,
    alias: "redirect",
    before: function (data) {
      return data.reduce((redirects, page) => {
        if (Array.isArray(page.data.redirectFrom)) {
          for (let url of page.data.redirectFrom) {
            redirects.push({ to: page.url, from: url });
          }
        } else if (typeof page.data.redirectFrom === 'string') {
          redirects.push({ to: page.url, from: page.data.redirectFrom });
        }
        return redirects;
      }, []);
    },
    addAllPagesToCollections: false,
  },
  permalink: "/index.html",
  eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true,
}
---
<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html lang="en-US">
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Redirecting&hellip;</title>
  <link rel="canonical" href=".">
  <script>location="."</script>
  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=.">
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
  <h1>Redirecting&hellip;</h1>
  <a href=".">Click here if you are not redirected.</a>
</html>f

If I did this correctly, then you should be able to click on the old Explore link and be redirected to the Relics Of The Web post.

Thanks again to Brian for doing the heavy lifting and getting me going.

Let me know if anything needs to be fixed or if this helped you with your Eleventy-built homepage on Neocities!

Summer Days On The Beach

2024-01-10T00:00:00Z

Developed over the course of four years, this post has evolved from notes hastily penned during my peaceful moments at the bach each summer. It’s a contribution to the 32-Bit Cafe Holidays 2023 Event, delving into our precious holiday traditions.

Down here in Aotearoa, our festive season coincides with summer, marking a unique celebration of Christmas and the New Year amidst sun-drenched days. These traditions offer a different charm compared to the wintry festivities of the northern hemisphere.

For the past five summers, Onetangi Beach on Waiheke Island has been our go-to spot for the holidays. Initially a familiar place for my wife, whose childhood memories were made here, it quickly became our own tradition. Yet, as life shifted gears and little feet joined our adventures, our annual Waiheke escapades underwent a delightful transformation. Here’s a glimpse of how our summer has evolved with the arrival of our kids.

The ancient Pohutukawa tree

Then: The Relaxed Rhythm

Waking up past the alarm. Before, taking it easy was our thing. Rising lazily with the sun was part of our routine.

Tomato on toast for breakfast. Simple, carefree mornings where a basic yet satisfying breakfast was all we needed.

Lounging under an ancient Pohutukawa, lost in a book. Hours slipped by as we soaked up the summer sun, engrossed in captivating stories.

Visiting wineries, platters for lunch. The indulgence of wine tasting and leisurely lunches were our grown-up delight, we had nowhere else to be and were entertained by each others company.

Reading in peace until sleep took over. Ending the day peacefully, lost in the pages of another book until falling asleep on the couch.

Now: Embracing the Energy

Waking up at the crack of dawn. With kids, the day begins early, full of their infectious enthusiasm for the day and what it holds.

A bustling breakfast scene. Our mornings are busy with Weetbix, berries, toast, bacon, eggs and juice—fuel for day ahead.

Building sandcastles, swimming in waves. The joy of creation and laughter fills the beach, even as our castles meet their demise as the toddlers foot comes crashing down upon the helpless village.

Family time under the Pohutukawa. Hours spent playing games and enjoying shared moments under the welcoming shade from the summer sun.

Escaping for adult moments. Brief breaks for wine and beer tastings up the road, leaving the kids in trusted care for a while.

Exploring new adventures with the kids. From butterfly gardens and waterfalls to impromptu bucket baths, every moment is an adventure.

Tucking the kids in with bedtime stories. The day ends with cozy tales, wrapping up an eventful day as the kids drift into dreamland.

The Evolution of Tradition

Our summers on Waiheke have seen a shift—from serene, laid-back days to vibrant, energetic adventures with our children and family. While the landscape and activities may have changed, the essence remains: creating unforgettable memories in this beloved haven. It’s a journey we continue to embrace, cherishing both the past and the present, making each summer on Waiheke uniquely special.

What’s your experience with family traditions over the festive season or summer getaways? Let me know!

An Easy Web

2024-01-10T00:00:00Z

Being busy with my return to work this year meant I missed most of yesterday’s discussions. While skimming through various websites and Mastodon, I couldn’t contribute until today. Yet, upon catching up on the posts and replies, a crucial point often overlooked hit me.

Simply put, I firmly believe the web and building a website should be more accessible—not just for developers, but for everyone.

This train of thought originated from Giles’s post Let’s make the indie web easier. I resonate with the idea of website ownership being an excellent avenue that we genuinely wish more individuals would embrace.

If we want the future web we’re all clamouring for, we need to give people more options for self-hosted independence. If we seriously, truly want the independent, non-enshittified personal web to flourish, we need to make it easier for people to join in.

Giles effectively highlights the need for developers to create simpler tools for personal web publishing, eliminating technical barriers. Although platforms like WordPress and static site generators exist, their installation and usage still present significant hurdles for many, especially those unfamiliar with development.

Kev’s response in Let’s Make the IndieWeb Easier echoes this sentiment:

SSGs and their ilk are simple for developers but not simple for the vast majority of people. We need tools that are simple to use, simple to manage, and simple maintain.

Kev swiftly points out that while these tools may be straightforward for developers, they present formidable challenges for others interested in the concept.

As I caught up on additional responses throughout the day from various sources, the discussion seemed primarily fixated on blogging.

This got me thinking: “What about individuals seeking to create a website that doesn’t align with traditional blogging?” Consider those who want to showcase collections, whether it’s Hardrock Cafe pint glasses, Matchbox cars, or any other passion. Platforms like WordPress, Ghost, or Bear Blog may not be the best solution.

My side project ideas aside, there’s a lot to be said for websites that don’t need to be or want to be blogs:

Showcasing Collections: Are you passionate about collecting items like Hardrock Cafe pint glasses, Matchbox cars, stamps, coins, vintage toys, or any niche hobby? A website offers a fantastic platform to proudly display and share your collection. It allows for organised galleries, descriptions, and detailed insights about each item.

Documenting Personal Journeys: Do you frequently undertake unique travels or have lived a life worth living? A personal website provides an ideal space to document and present your journeys in a structured and organised manner. Share your narratives chronologically or thematically, offering visitors an easy-to-navigate window into your stories.

Creative Expression: Engaged in creative pursuits like writing, artwork, photography, music, or other forms of artistic expression? A website can showcase your creations. Display your work in galleries, portfolios, or virtual galleries, offering visitors an immersive experience. Owning your content through a website allows you to step away from sole reliance on social media platforms. However, exposure and discoverability might be the next challenge.

Knowledge Sharing: Dive deep into a particular interest like history, vintage computers, bicycles, or even a fascination with Disneyland? A personal website is an excellent avenue to share your insights, research findings, DIY projects, or any content that goes beyond a typical blog format. It’s more than just a list of posts—it’s a comprehensive resource hub.

Family History: Are you keen on documenting family histories, genealogies, personal achievements, or preserving memories? You can create dedicated sections dedicated sections for family trees, photo albums, timelines, or personal anecdotes. It becomes an extensive archive that encapsulates your unique life story.

These examples underscore the personal aspect of websites catering to individual passions, hobbies, expressions, or documentation without focusing on business, sales, professional branding, or self-promotion. Websites offer an adaptable canvas for self-expression and sharing, going beyond the conventional structure of a blog. Sure, they could be smashed into blog format, but they would lose appeal and charm.

The emphasis lies in propelling the small, open, and independent web to greater heights by empowering a broader spectrum of people to commence their online journey. What’s indispensable here are tools that can be effortlessly set up and used by non-developers, devoid of complex coding or terminal usage. These tools should ideally be easily deployable in a self-hosted or shared hosting environment.

Enhancing the accessibility of independent web creation will enable more individuals to freely share their diverse experiences across the web. Ultimately, it’s about creating a more inclusive digital space for everyone.

What A Weekend

2024-01-07T00:00:00Z

After two weeks up north in Auckland and on Waiheke Island for our family summer break my wife gave me the best thing I could ever ask for as a dad. A night and morning at home without the kids and dogs. She’s the best.

After family duties had been done and they were on their way over the hill for the weekend I was droppped off at my favourite brewery where I met my good friends for lunch and a few beers. The beer is good, the food is good, the company was good, what more could I ask for to kick off the day.

The sky was overcast but it was warm. We had a 3.5 km walk to the venue for Juicy Fest. The walk was easy and more time to catch up with my mates.

We picked up tickets months ago with the main draw card for us being Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Unfortunately due to Krayzie Bone’s recent health issues the group decided it was not a good time to tour, however Bizzy Bone would represent Bone for this set of shows. I was also looking forward to The Game, but he pulled his usual bullshit of not showing, it sounds like he has trouble leaving the States.

Once inside we only had twenty minutes to wait until Bizzy Bone got on stage so we grabbed some drinks. The lines weren’t long and gave us time to chat to other people and hear who they were looking forward to seeing today.

Bizzy’s set was great, he a couple verses from early Bone classics, Crossroads, For Tha Love Of Money, Thug Luv, Notorious Thugs, and a verse from Eazy E’s Boyz N The Hood. I think the set only ended up being twenty minutes which was a bit short for my liking and I would have hoped it would be longer if the whole crew were there. Anyway, praying for Krayzie for a speedie recovery and hope the group can tour later this year.

For the rest of the gig we traversed the crowd having a chat and enjoying the rest of the show. We decided to leave a bit before T-Pain’s set was finished to beat the crowd at the end which was a good move. We had to walk a bit from the venue to get a taxi for a fair price.

It was great to get out and listen to live music again with friends and am looking forward to seeing Blink-182 in a few months when they come to the country!

Monthly Recap: December 2023

2024-01-02T00:00:00Z

Hello web surfers, Happy New Year and welcome to December’s recap. I’m writing this on our last day on the beautiful island of Waiheke, where we spent the last week on Onetangi Beach.

This month, I continued to be inspired by and continue writing about the Web and podcasts!

Build Personal Websites: This one resulted from a discussion in the 32 Bit Cafe about building more personal websites. I need to take my own advice and get these projects out the door!
My Podcast Rotation: Keeping It At Four: Where I read a post from Brain Baking and just had to reply with my perspective and asked for your podcast recommendations.
Podcasts Worth Exploring: Recommendations Received: The community responded, and I shared the podcast recommendations.
My Year In Bear 2023: I’ve been tracking unique beers since 2013 with Untappd. I jacked my end of year report and posted it here!
Spring 2023: Automated post with the books I read, songs I listened to and pages I bookmarked this Spring!
Relics Of The Web: Another post about the Web. This results from a few abandoned pages that I had drafted but wanted to change their direction. This post turned out much better.
My Year In Books 2023: Reading stats from the past year and a few of the standouts.

I added two vinyls to the collection over on the Recordshelf page:

Mac Miller Swimming: I Shouldn’t have to say anything about this. Go listen if you haven’t
Home Brew Run It Back: A local Aotearoa hip-hop group that last released music eleven years ago. A fantastic album.

I’ve talked about Webmentions frequently in these monthly recaps. This month, I’m happy to report that I’ve finally got them working in a state I’m happy with. Thanks to Chris Burnell’s handy plugin, eleventy-cache-webmentions. The plugin handles the difficult configuration by caching Webmentions using Eleventy-fetch and making them available in collections, templates, pages, etc., in Eleventy. All I had to do was create the Nunjucks loops. You can check the commit and follow up to see how it works.

Another improvement to the website is the contact form now uses Riku Forms rather than Netlify Forms. Riku is a small indie project by m15o. As well as Riku, m15o has many other great projects. I’ll put together a quick post on how I got Riku working with Eleventy; it was really easy!

One of my besties, Xandra, has also started blogging in anticipation of the 32 Bit Blog Club; go check out her writing on libraryOS. This reminds me that I better sit down and finish that project 😱

Speaking of blogging, I’ve been getting into Mastodon recently. Not as a tool for building a brand or self-promotion, but discovery. Okay, I can’t help but share a new post when I’ve published one. There’s been so many people posting great things about the Web recently. Let’s hope 2024 continues the trend. Some of my favourites recently are:

omg.lol: an oasis on the internet by Blake shared a love letter to omg.lol. The post talks about the beauty of the Web, where lovingly handcrafted services like omg.lol exist. Omg.lol provides various services through custom subdomains like email forwarding, web pages, blogging, and image hosting. Omg.lol is the result of a single developer, Adam. He is praised for his responsiveness to feedback and constant work improving the service. Like me, Blake enjoys exploring personal websites and the small, personal corner of the internet it enables.
The Web Is Fantastic by Robb talks about themes familiar to readers of this website. The Open Web of links, blogs and RSS feeds is better than social media platforms for discovering new content. The joy of discovering an interesting blog post by following links from one website blog to another, the independent, link-based nature of the real Web, makes discovering new ideas and information more enjoyable.

I still have a few drafts to carry over and can’t wait to finish them to share with everyone.

I hope you had a great end to the year and had a break of some sort, and I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.

My Year In Books 2023

2023-12-31T00:00:00Z

During 2023 I managed to read 86 books. All I can say to this is that your public library is your best resource for reading books.

This year I shifted to audiobooks and this has changed the way I consume books. Up until now I would read before bed and I would get anywhere between three to ten minutes in before I would fall asleep. As you can see this doesn’t give much time for reading and it took a long time to read an entire book.

Audiobooks have opened up more opportunities for me to read or listen to books, whether I’m walking the dogs, driving (by myslef), cooking dinner or other household chores.

I’ve also found that many American narrated books are really slow and that I have to crank up the listening speed, otherwise it feels like time is slipping backwards. The Aotearoa books that I’ve read are read at a pace that I’m familiar with and I can listen to at 1x speed.

Anyway, here’s my 2023 reading summary…

Total books: 89
Average read time: 4.4 days
Month with most books: April (11 books)
Month with least books: December (5 books)
Top genres:
- Fiction (31 books)
- Biography & autobiography (7 books)
- Business & economics (7 books)
Read in a day:
- “Excellent Advice for Living” by Kevin Kelly
- “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy
- “How to Loiter In a Turf War” by Coco Solid
- “Exit Strategy” by Martha Wells
- “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
Average book length: 305 pages
Longest book: “Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire’s End” by Chuck Wendig (512 pages)
Shortest book: “Everyday Information Architecture” by Lisa Maria Martin (126 pages)
Top authors:
- Martha Wells (7 books)
- Chuck Wendig (3 books)
- Jessie Mihalik (3 books)
- Peter F. Hamilton (3 books)
Total pages read: 24,068

All of these books I enjoyed. There were a few books that I started and quickly abandoned that I didn’t finish reading that aren’t part of these stats.

Out of all these books there are a few that I want to share with you and maybe you’ll check them out…

“How to Loiter In a Turf War” by Coco Solid
"Poor People With Money " by Dominic Hoey
“Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts” by Josie Shapiro
“Uncanny Valley” by Anna Wiener
“The Woman In Me” by Britney Spears
“The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August” by Claire North

Let me know if you do decide to read any of them and what you thought.

Happy New Year.

Relics Of The Web

2023-12-28T00:00:00Z

One of the great things about the World Wide Web is the ability for websites to link to each other, providing a never-ending stream of websites to explore.

This interconnectedness lets surfers quickly discover new content and information, enabling a rich and diverse online experience. It also creates complex and comprehensive resources that draw from various sources, making it easier for surfers to find the necessary information.

Overall, linking websites is a crucial feature of the World Wide Web that has greatly enhanced the accessibility and usefulness of the Internet.

Buttons

An 88x31 button is a small image used to link to another website. The buttons are called 88x31 buttons because they are 88 pixels wide and 31 pixels tall. These buttons were commonly used in the early days of the Web to promote websites and to help people navigate from one site to another.

The idea behind an 88x31 button is that it would be placed on a website, and when someone clicks on it, they would be taken to the website to which the button was linked. Website owners often use these buttons to promote their own sites or to link to other websites that they find interesting and valuable.

88x31 buttons were trendy in the late 1990s and early 2000s but have largely been replaced by other methods of linking to websites, such as text links and banner ads. However, they are still used by some websites as a way to provide a small, unobtrusive link to another site.

They were introduced by Netscape, an early web browser, in the late 1990s. They quickly became popular with websites such as Geocities, a popular hosting service for personal websites during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Geocities and similar services allowed users to create homepages and customise them with various features, including 88x31 buttons.

While experiencing a resurgence through platforms like Neocities and communities like the 32 Bit Cafe, the prevailing presence of 88x31 buttons raises a question about their compatibility with today’s digital landscape, characterised by larger monitors and high resolutions.

Considering this, one might question the relevance of 88x31 buttons in the modern Web. Yequarri delves into this in his post “Why Are We Still Using 88x31 Buttons?”, highlighting how these small buttons appear minuscule on today’s expansive computer screens.

I’d like to create and use a 200x40 banner instead. I encourage fellow webmasters to consider similar adaptations for their websites.

If you want to check out the wild world of buttons check out these pages:

Webrings

A webring is a collection of websites linked together in a circular structure. Webrings were popular in the early days of the Web before search engines became as sophisticated as they are today. Webrings were used to help people find similar websites on a particular topic.

Here’s how they work: A webring comprises a group of related websites with a common theme or topic. Each website in the webring has a unique link that allows the surfer to navigate to the next website in the ring. The visitor can continue to follow the links around the ring, visiting each website until they return to the starting point.

Webrings were created as a way for people to discover new websites on a particular topic and for website owners to promote their sites to a broader audience. Webrings were particularly popular in the late 1990s. They have largely been replaced by search engines and social media as a way to discover new websites.

Check out Ray’s Webring History page for an in-depth history of webrings.

Webrings are making a resurgence, and many new webrings with modern underlying technology are being created. Ray is also maintaining a Webring List, which is the most comprehensive list of webrings that are both active and inactive.

I love a good webring, but I’m not a fan of surfing through a webring and seeing the same sites tha are in all the other webrings. A webring should have a niche and connect websites within that niche together. Otherwise, what’s the point?

A Modern Web

In today’s digitally driven world, where algorithms and corporate interests often steer our online experiences, the resurgence of these relics serves as a reminder of the communal and authentic nature of the early Web. Their return suggests a longing for the intimate, handcrafted browsing experiences of years gone by.

While blogrolls may not adorn every website today, and the tiny 88x31 buttons have dwindled, their legacy lives on through the resurgence of personal websites and the celeb ration of independent content. However, these relics must adapt and evolve with us to remain relevant in the ever-evolving Web landscape.

It’s essential to reimagine their role in today’s digital arena by drawing from the past to navigate the future of the Web as we treasure and reflect on these remnants from the Web’s earlier days. Remember, beyond serving as mere tools for navigation between personal websites, these relics embody connections and the spirit of discovery.

One of the recent additions worth mentioning about building connections in the world of personal websites is Webmentions. Webmentions are an open standard protocol notifying webpages about links, likes, or comments.

I’ve finally got Webmentions up and running here! Now, I can showcase boosts, likes, and mentions from Mastodon and replies from other sites. The real charm lies in enabling others to respond to my posts by sharing them on their websites. That’s the true essence of the Web’s magic.

However, using Webmentions does come with its challenges. The initial setup can be complicated, demanding precise configurations from the sender and receiver to ensure all parts of the mentions are included. There’s a heavy reliance on microformats, so the Mastodon connection has gained popularity and become the default. It simplifies matters for the receiver, requiring correct configurations to harness the frictionless posting Mastodon provides.

My goal for the new year is to advocate and encourage using our websites as communication tools, reducing reliance on social media platforms. After all, that’s what our websites are designed for!"

Let’s continue embracing the old and new, ensuring the Web remains an endlessly fascinating and ever-evolving space for future generations.