Small Web September: Coming back to a comm near you! (...This one. It's this comm)

[enchantedsleeper]

Hi, everyone! Though I can't really believe it's almost September, we're fast approaching the month in question and that means it's nearly time for... Small Web September! \o/

I'm pleased to say that I'm bringing back SWS for another year and I hope you'll join me in doing small web stuff for the month of September! If you aren't familiar with Small Web September or can't remember exactly how it works, that's okay: all the information you need will be in this post!

What is Small Web September?

Small Web September is a month-long event run right here on smallweb, and it's designed to be a chill, friendly and accessible event for anyone to make progress on a small web project. This can be anything from a personal site/indie archive to a shrine or directory, or maybe it's a list of resources you've always wanted to put together, or a set of graphics for small web projects! Whatever you'd like to work on, as long as it's small web-related (by the helpful definition in our comm intro post), it belongs in the event and we'd love you to bring it to Small Web September.

How does the challenge work?

Throughout the month of September (although technically this year the first post/check-in point will be 31st August because I like the idea of having these on a Sunday), I'll be posting 'check-in points' to the comm for people to set goals related to their small web project(s) or report how they're getting on, share discoveries and help each other out. There'll be five of these in total throughout the month (the schedule is a bit further down this post!). They're designed to be open-ended, and there's no 'wrong' way to interact with these, but I'll be sharing some ideas and prompts to give everyone a jumping-off point.

Last year it seemed like a weekly frequency for check-ins worked pretty well to give everyone time to make progress in between, but I'd also like to encourage anyone who wants to share thoughts, ask for help, rec a great resource, or start a discussion to make posts as well! That way, there'll be even more opportunities for people to chat and show off their projects. As long as posts follow the community guidelines laid out by kalloway, you are good to go!

Also, there's no cut-off time for participating in Small Web September. If you want to join at 23:59 on 30th September in your timezone, you can! If you find this late, don't worry, just jump in - we're delighted to have you. All posts will stay open for comments at any time and you can go back and comment on a past check-in point or just start with whichever one you feel like.

What's the schedule?

Here's what things will look like for Small Web September 2025!

31st August: Kick-off and goal-setting! What's your project, and what would you like to do with it during the month? Come and tell us all about it!
7th September: Check-in 1: Links! This check-in will be themed around how you approach links on your site (and what you link to) and will be an opportunity to recommend any cool links you want to share.
14th September: Check-in 2/Halfway point! This check-in will be themed around troubleshooting: have you run into any issues, and how did you solve them/are you still stuck? Help each other out in the comments and share your progress!
21st September: Check-in 3: Communities! This check-in will be all about communities for or about (or adjacent to) the small web, whether they be social media-based, webrings, directories, or anything in between. Where do you go for help and inspiration?
30th September: Check-in 4: Wrap-up! You've made it to the end of the month \o/ How did it go? Share your progress, and also rec any resources or guides you found particularly helpful along the way!

After the event wraps, I'll also likely make a post for feedback sometime in October to get everyone's thoughts on the event and whether aspects of it could be improved.

Can I help with anything?

I'm so glad you asked! During Small Web September, I think it's great if everyone who leaves a comment on one of the check-in posts can receive a reply, whether it's encouragement, questions, or anything in between. Last year, I set out to try and make sure of this myself, but I'm only one person, and it becomes a pretty big job fairly quickly!

Therefore, I'd love to have some company this year - would anyone who has a bit of time and enthusiasm like to help out by looking for comments that don't have a response and leaving a reply? You can wave a hand here, or just do this on the fly when you can! You'd have my immense gratitude for helping to make the event a great time for everyone taking part.

Otherwise, spreading the word about the event to anyone you think would be interested would also help a lot in making this a fun, lively month!

Edit: And to help you do that, we now have two wonderful event banners made specially for Small Web September by javert! Thank you so much! \o/ Feel free to use these to promo the event or just show you're taking part (with attribution wherever possible!)





I have a question!

Nice! Please do add it in the comments, and I'll reply as early as I can. If I think the answer should be made more visible, I'll add it to the end of this post in a FAQ style.

'See' you in September!

Comments

[javert]

Yay, I'm super excited for this! \o/ Looking forward to it very much!

I'd love to help with leaving comments! I don't know if I'll always be available right away, but I'll do my best to give feedback and reactions to what other people are sharing whenever I can. :D

I might make a banner to advertize it on my journal (and elsewhere!) later this week, too! o7 I think most of my subscribers already know of this comm hahaha, but you never know!

[enchantedsleeper]

It's so great to hear that you're excited for the event! ^^ I'm looking forward to running it :D And thank you so much for being interested in helping with comment replies - of course it's fine just to get to them when you can! I'll be doing the same xD But anywhere you can help will be really appreciated 😊❤️

A banner sounds really cool! If you were okay with sharing it here, I'd love to add it to the post so that other people can also use it if they'd like! Also, just because banners are great :D No pressure to make it, though, just if and when you do :D

[javert]

I made a note to get back to you and then stuff happened and I forgor, lol. Here are the banners I made! They're nothing special but I hope you enjoy them anyway o7

[enchantedsleeper]

Ohhhh, these are fantastic, thank you so much! 😍 I'll add them right up on the post :D

[javert]

I'm so glad you like them!! 😊

[linky]

So excited to see this event return!! Looking forward to it! <33

[enchantedsleeper]

Yay, that's great to hear! \o/ And I love how apt your icon is 😂

[thatjustwontbreak]

How cool! I want to participate. I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'm sure it will come in time.

[enchantedsleeper]

Yay, that's great! :D Hopefully inspiration will find you, but hey, it's also fine to just be like "I'll work on ~stuff during the month" or join in with the community aspect and get some energy from that ^^

[got_quiet]

This might give me a good excuse to finally sit down and figure out how to install multiple processwire sites on the same host. But mostly I'm curious to see what other people will be working on!

[enchantedsleeper]

Eeeexcellent C:< And me too, it's so cool seeing the variety of projects everyone has going on and drawing inspiration from them ^^ If I had more time, I'd love to work on more than just the one personal archive that I've been slowly chipping away at since 2023 xD Maybe someday...

[axolotls]

Oh, oh, perfect timing, as my plan was to return to webdev in September! :D Excited~

[enchantedsleeper]

:O It was meant to be! \o/

[finch]

Excellent timing, I just started feeling like working on my site again!

[enchantedsleeper]

Amazing, I hope you can ride that wave as far as it'll take you! :D

[tarlanx]

Looking forward to it as it gives me the enthusiasm to tackle some of those tasks I have left hanging :)

[enchantedsleeper]

Woo, you and me both! Apart from this past weekend, I hadn't done anything to my site since May 😅 I definitely want to tick off a few items from the to-do list that keeps getting longer rather than shorter xD

[larissa]

I'm excited for this! I think this is how I found the community last year, so I'm hoping I can participate this time around — I didn't get much done last year, haha, though I did make a dent. Will have to mull over what I'm working on.

[enchantedsleeper]

I'm really pleased that this event led you to the Small Web community! :D I feel you on only achieving a bit of what you wanted to, since I had a pretty good start to the event last year but tailed off xD But all progress is good progress! Good luck with the goal brainstorming 🍀

[althea_valara]

Yes... something to get me off my butt and finish transferring over my FFXIV/FFBE fanscripts to my Neocities site... looking forward to this!

[enchantedsleeper]

Woo! \o/ I'm also hoping that this will get me off my butt to archive some more fic, along with a few other things (exact list TBD xD). Here's to momentum!

[toothpastepancake]

I enjoyed it so much last year and my skills have only improved since then, so I'm even more excited now!! :D

[enchantedsleeper]

:D! I'm so glad you had a great time last year! \o/ I'm excited to be running the event again and seeing what everyone works on!

[falkner]

Maybe I'll finally do something fun with my domain! I just renewed it for the next ten years, so it would be nice to actually use it for something personal as well.

[enchantedsleeper]

That sounds like perfect timing! :D I wish you luck (and enjoyment!) with brainstorming ideas for what you'd like to do ^^

[e_k_braveman]

Ooooh, I just happened upon this by complete chance and it could not have come at a more opportune time! Just today I overhauled a NeoCities website I hadn't touched in almost a year. And now I have this feeling like... man, it would be so nice to connect with other people making their own websites but I have no idea how! Soooo, hopefully this challenge help with that :D

[enchantedsleeper]

Heeey, welcome! \o/ (Also, I love your icon omg 🩷) I'm so glad you found this challenge at just the right time! Please do stay a while, and I hope you enjoy doing more stuff with your site (and/or any other projects you choose)! <3