I can’t really remember when I first went into the “Small Web”, but I remember hearing about the Gopher protocol and exploring some websites with it. I came across James' Coffee Blog, read a few of his articles, and bookmarked his website. I go back to his website from time to time, but that concludes my exploration of the Gopher protocol and some part of the small web.

I continue with my usual online behavior: When bored, I read the popular posts on Reddit without following special subreddits or even having a user account. Or I open Hacker News and try to understand what the posts are about. Mostly, I’m just reading what strangers post and comment on such platforms. In a sense, I am interacting with “Big Web Communities”, which are not communities at all. I just consume what they type. I can not recognize someone by their username, and I don’t have a picture of their personality in my mind. It’s just anonymous..

Today, I was reading the submission of James for the March 2025 IndieWeb Carnival. From his previous posts, I have built a mental picture of James and learned about his interests. Reading his blog post feels like getting an update from someone I know. I can connect the content with things I have read in previous posts. And somehow it feels better to consume some content from him, a person I remember, than from a “stranger on Reddit”. Sure, I have never had direct contact with James, so he’s still a stranger on the web. But still, there is this feeling of knowing him a little better than any random person. I have a similar feeling towards two other bloggers I follow regularly on their self-hosted websites.

As you might guess, I have not really participated in small web communities, so my opinion might be way off. But, right now, I think of them as places where the feeling of knowing someone is ubiquitous. Maybe I’m romanticizing, but I imagine that interacting in a small web community feels like going for a walk through the neighborhood where you lived for many years: you meet people you haven’t seen for quite a while, see others that you never talked to but know for a long time, and meet some new people who just moved there or are just visiting. There is a feeling of being home, and this is what I also want for my online experience. When I read the line “An IndieWeb carnival will help motivate people to post more on their personal websites[…]" on the IndieWeb Carnival website, I took the opportunity to post my first blog entry. I hope this starts my journey into various small web communities.

This is my submission to the March 2025 IndieWeb Carnival. Thanks to Chris for hosting this carnival.