When reproducing, using, or extracting this text, always reference the source and the author : Ignacio Rondini

It started as a mix of fatigue with the addicting way of content consumption I was having, a mild nostalgia of web exploration back in the years twenty ten, together with the need of having again some place to write in my own terms, without the need of thinking about marketing or reach. I needed the space that allowed me to have again my own voice. So it started as a small project together with a domain name and a future blog. Now it has grown a bit. It has evolved and will continue to do so with me, as I’m evolving too. This is how I see my page: as a digital home where I can experience things, express myself and where I can plant digital seeds. Where they may grow or not, but it is intrinsically mine, without algorithmic barriers: in my own terms.

And your page could be whatever you want, as perfectly write it Laurel Schulst. It could be a place to explore who you are, to write, to have another identity that you want to explore, to show you actions, your writing, what you do, your creativity. It could be a space to learn, or really, really, whatever you want. Because it is yours. And definetevely you could have more than one site.

In that sense, it is important that if you’re creating things that you’re putting online. If you are creating any kind of content that you think worth something, which deserves to live a little more than what a platform may decide, then the content that you create should remain yours and accessible to the people you want to, and who wants to, follow you: your audience.

It is with this mindset that I discovered the indie web philosophy, with their basic it principles. Of which I particularly connect with:

1. Own your data
2. Publish data for humans first.
3. Longevity
4. Pluralism.

As with all concepts, you can find different definitions, but in the core it is the fact that the content that you create should be yours, and that the internet shouldn’t be a walled collection of silos.

For me, there are other factors. One is diversity. I believe that we need more diversity of ideas and people inhabiting the web. That shouldn’t be algorithmic barriers created to exploit our data, to limit us, to deceive us, without we even notice it, and our attention shouldn’t be captured to be exploited.

That’s why I strongly believe that if you’re a creator of some kind of content, then you should have a web page, so you can create, share and grow in your own terms and not be limited by platform barriers or censored by platform rules. However, there are other ways censorship can occur. For instance, your domain name could be banned at the DNS level, or the server provider you are using could be forced to block your content. I guess even at the IP level you could get banned, depending on the control of that banning agent has over the network. Also, the internet for your audience could be blocked. If having a site doesn’t solve this, it does make it more difficult to be fully censored than with a platform. As your site could pop up with a different name, hosted in different servers etc. With a platform, it is the platform who just need to agree to block you.

Regarding other aspect, remember that mainstream platform try to capture your attention, so they can turn your existence into data, to use it and explote it, and to retain you in their walls, in their walled gardens. This is because the more you stay in the platform, the more value can extract and exploit from you.

And of course, if you are putting something online, don’t think that it won’t get extracted and exploited. If you publish online, as anyone who has hosts a website could tell you, your website will be scraped by crawlers, by bots. Which are robots that will explore your main page and then follow every link that’s on it, and so on, to have a full picture of your site and your content. And that may be or may be not okay, maybe you agree, or maybe you don’t, but it will happen.

And some of these crawlers are not harmful. They could be just used to index your site on a research engine so it is discoverable. It could be to save a copy of it on the internet archive. But it will also be AI bots, AI companies scrapping all your content and your data to put it in their models. And there’s nothing you can do besides not putting it in the first time.

There’s still some things you could do to at least to encourage the fact that you are mentioned when they use your content. You could add indications, instructions to the LLMs, so that if they’re using your content to say that comes from you, but it is not an insurance that they’ll do it. But that’s always been the case. Since the beginning of the internet, whatever you put online, it will be public. And that’s nothing new neither regarding social media. It is the same if you’re publishing on them, maybe you can restrict what other humans can see by restricting content to your “friends” or “folowers” (which still could be valuable, but that raises privacy concerns too, on how this implementation is done). In any case, it will still be most probably scrapped. Used for data extraction and exploitation.

The main difference with a website is that at least you’re not limited in the distribution of the content by any platform. And the content remains yours. So again, it is not a perfect solution, but it iss an alternative to create content in your own terms. And to be sure that your voice is not cancelled. And we need more voices on the internet.

If by any chance you create a website, or you decide to create a website, and you’re not sure how to start. You can take a look at my indie web section. Where I selected some interesting link. You can also drop me a message. I may be able to help you, depending on what you are looking for. And remember that you site shouldn’t be perfect.

It is always a work in progress.

That’s normal, that’s okay, it will evolve with you during its life, as you change and your taste change. It is okay. But you should start if you think it is worth it, so you can free yourself a little bit from the algorithmic walls.

Because your website, as a seed, will grow with time and care. And your voice will remain.