Small Web September Check-In 1: Links!
Sep. 7th, 2025 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enchantedsleeper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
smallwebWe’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!
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!
no subject
Date: 2025-09-10 11:20 am (UTC)I surprised myself and managed to get the technical part of my September goal done! And so behold, https://annathecrow.net/ is live!
I even wrote a tutorial on self-hosting static sites in Docker. That was probably a waste of time, who's gonna read this kind of stuff here on DW? But hey, maybe I'll be surprised :D
This is probably more on the borders between small web and self-hosting. I still think it belongs though, since the form is small, if not the setup. And really, this kind of thing - a low-powered computer running a few Dockerized apps, including something public-facing like a static site or a blog - is really damn "small web", IMO.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-10 09:56 pm (UTC)Hey, this place exists, doesn't it? xD But also, a good resource is a good resource, and it can be shared around and linked to regardless of where it's published :D I love that you wrote up a tutorial on what you accomplished! And congrats on completing the technical part of your SWS goals!
Oh, absolutely it is. Besides, I don't think that self-hosting precludes something from being small web? 🤔 I'm pretty sure that's how a lot of people used to do it, back when the web overall was 'smaller'.