Small Web September Check-In 1: Links!

[enchantedsleeper]

We’ve reached the first check-in point for Small Web September! How is everyone doing so far? Whether you’re just getting warmed up or are already ticking off goals (or maybe you just found this and want to join – welcome!), come and share your progress in the comments of this check-in.

The theme of this week’s check-in is links! Earlier this year, I came across Coy (osteophage)’s link compilation in praise of links, which led me down a rabbit hole of reading various essays about the importance of hyperlinking and being a good steward of the web. This includes not making your own site into an effective dead end, but sending people on to interesting destinations via links that you’ve included there.

I’ve always been a lover of curating cool webpages and sites, but it struck me that I wasn’t actually doing much of this on my own little website – now, it’s a personal fanworks archive, so you could argue that linking out to random pages is a bit out of step with the purpose of it. However, it broadened my thinking about where I could start adding more links: from archiving rec lists to linking out to gifts that other fans had made for me over the years.

So, the discussion starter for this check-in is: how do you link, and to what? Do you have a link hub or set of interesting finds? Would you like to do more with links?

As a bonus: share some of your favourite interesting links (this can be anything from thought-provoking essays to just cool stuff! They don't need to be explicitly small-web-themed, although that's great too).

And of course, let us know how your Small Web September project(s) is/are going!

As a reminder, this is the first of four ‘check-in’/comment points that will be published during the event – you can check out the schedule and dates of these posts over on the event intro. There’s no cut-off point for commenting on these, so you can add something at any time – you also don’t need to comment on them all or do them in order! The themes are a loose guide, but all discussion is welcome.

For the previous kick-off/goals post, check out: Small Web September: Kick-Off & Goals!

Comments

[biteshelter]

One of the first things I got done was moving my art resource links to a new section on my link page. My plan is to add more sections, but I haven't decided which links to share yet. I also added the pages I've been working on to the site navigation bar. Something I'd like to start soon is an about page, where I want to put buttons linked to other small web sites. I have a design sketch but I need to code it.

Speaking of buttons, I made some for linking back to here! I put one on my homepage for what I'm currently up to, and another on my links page as an alt-web community.



Other than that, I fixed heading levels across my site, chose a font for the headings, and started drafting the first page of a new hobby/interests section. I've got sketches for a new index page in addition to the about page, and plans for updating the static site generator. I want to clean my code up some more before trying to add new stuff, though.

[e_k_braveman]

Mind if I use one of those on my own site? :3

[biteshelter]

Feel free!

[linky]

Ooh these buttons are lovely! May I use one of them to link back to the community?

[biteshelter]

Thank you, and of course! I'm glad people find them useful.

[enchantedsleeper]

I loooove that you made buttons, including one for SWS, that's so cool! 🤩 Now that SWS has banners and a button I feel like it's really ~official 😂 I think these are going to be the first buttons on my site!

Nice work on the progress that you've made so far! A hobby/interests section sounds fun 👀