Smolweb and HTML for People
Hey friends,
Quite possibly the most divisive candy this season: candy corn.
Love it, hate it? (Someone told me to try it mixed with peanuts, but I remain very suspicious of this combo...)
Thinking Too Hard 🤔
I got stuck this week chasing a rabbit of: what is the small web or smolweb?
I originally thought that the small web referred to self-published websites, somewhat similar to what Parimal Satyal wrote about in 2020 with a focus on creative, non-commercial site. But Satyal emphasizes a strong leaning towards a retro aesthetic.
To others like Aral Balkin, the small web is the antithesis of the Big Web, "people-farmers" like Google and Facebook. This reads more of a manifesto and less of a definition.
Ben Hoyt stated that the small web has to do with serving small, server-side websites with a push away from JavaScript and into the arms of HTML and CSS.
And we continue to add even more definitions through the Gemini (an alternative to the HTTP) protocol's definition. Now we have only simple HTML elements, no required JavaScript or trackers, and must be viewable as text, but maintain the anti-commercial definition.
In 2022, we see the smolweb as a continuation of the Gemini protocols definition, leading to the creation of guidelines in 2023, complete with legal-style jargon, that are even stricter than before. No images, JavaScript, or custom fonts (unless necessary). We've arrived at smolweb as developer tech blogs ...
This is one of the most BORING definitions we could have arrived at when we started with some great principles. Some of the most interesting examples on the web slide off of these definitions.
Everest Pipkin creates thoughtful experiences. But they use JavaScript! Required JavaScript!
Steve Garders site and codepens are delightful explorations, but don't fit in the smolweb. 3D WebGL renderings? Not smol.
What about this amazing satire piece?
... or even Green Day's recent demaster?
Small shouldn't mean boring.
I think the temptation is to alter the definition but that feels like narcissism. I don't think it's IndeWeb or Small Web or smolnet...
Just gimme the weird stuff, the creative stuff... that freak-energy-powered creation.
Interesting Web Bits 🍿
- Neat generative piece from Victor Odo: Fish Hunt
- LOTS of progressing JS proposals from the folks in TC39.
- Deno 2 has been announced.
- Blake Watson announced HTML for People, a book intended to help anyone learn enough to build their own website... which I would LOVE to see, more sites, more people, more weeeird!