My Indieweb Definition

March 06, 2026

Tags: Web Mastery

This all started with Shellsharks sharing thoughts on what the "human web" is. This then led to Brennan Day attempting to redefine the indie web based on a separate set of principles. Both articles are really good and absolutely worth reading, nor can I say that either them are wrong (or right!) in their posts.

But they did get me thinking... How do I want to see "indie web" and the like defined?

After seeing so many different ways people have used indieweb, smallweb, ect. I think I have come to a conclusion.

And that conclusion is we are over-thinking this and providing too narrow of definitions.

The fact that "indieweb/smallweb/etc." (henceforth just "indieweb") has no solid meaning across groups of people means it is not currently all that useful as a term. Everyone will end up reading and interpreting it differently when it's used to describe a site or community or whatever. And so many definitions I come across ultimately end up excluding sites that also describe themselves as indie. But of course, there must be something that makes the indieweb the indieweb when compared to stuff like YouTube and Facebook.

To me, what counts as indieweb is very simple and very broad: a web independent from capitalistic interests, based on personal websites, reference sites, and small project sites (and similar sites that I'm probably failing to think of!). A web independent from shareholders, sensational algorithms, surveillance, etc. That's all. If you host your website with a service like Neocities, cool! You're indie. Use a VPS? Fully self host? Just as indie! Hand code every last bit? Use a static site generator? Or a content management system? All indie, and all fair ways to make a site. Use traditional HTTPS? Use Gopher or Gemini protocol instead? All equally indie. The indieweb simply exists as a opposite (but not nessisarily the only opposite) to the corporate web.

As Brennan mentioned, there will always be dependencies. We will always be reliant on registrars for our domains. Some VPSs are more corporate than others. So on and so forth. But getting away from the corporate web itself does so much for people that I think making that the core of it is plenty enough.

And the only reason I specify "based on personal websites, reference sites, small project sites, etc." is because, while generally opposite to the corporate web (if managed properly), forums and fediverse are more social focused and thus not indie in my opinion.

Of course, these are all just my thoughts. I recognize my definition is fairly broad and the one exception fairly arbitrary. I think this is something the indie web is still trying to figure out, so I'd be very curious what everyone else thinks! I don't have webmentions set up yet, but this is the first post I'm cross posting to my Dreamwidth if you would like to leave a comment there (currently does not require an account). You can also shoot me an email at grubdog@proton.me if you'd prefer B)