some of my indie web pet peeves

Apr 8th 2024

I’ve been on the fence about writing this for a while now because I was worried it would come across as too negative, but sometimes being a hater can be relatable and cathartic. Plus, these are just minor annoyances, it isn’t that serious. Feel free to agree or disagree!

  1. DNI lists - This seems to have carried over from social media and I’ve just never seen the point of them. At best you turn away a potential friend just because they’re in a fandom you don’t like, and at worst you’re telling potential trolls all the specific things that bother you. Everyone has the right to curate their online experience, but this seems a lot less effective than just blocking people.
  2. The term “mutuals” - It… doesn’t actually say much. Like, are they your friends? People you endorse? Complete strangers who happen to have cool sites?
  3. The term “clique” - This seems to be a thing from the old web, but nowadays I prefer to call them clubs over cliques. “Cliques” to me has too much of an exclusive “you’re not allowed to sit at the cool kids’ table” vibe, whereas “clubs” feels more fun and inclusive. They’re basically the same thing so it doesn’t bother me too much, but yeah.
  4. Showcasing other people’s site buttons in a marquee - This doesn’t bother me too much because it does look cool, but it also makes it harder to actually click on them. Plus if there are a lot of buttons you have to wait a long time to see them all. It’s almost like caring more about pretty site decor than showcasing other sites.
  5. And finally limiting which browsers can view your site - I only encountered this once but it baffled me. This person didn’t allow any chromium browsers to view any pages on their site except a page that described why Google is bad. It’s a valid argument, but it felt unnecessarily aggressive to gate their site like that. But whatever, people have all kinds of reasons for creating personal sites and maybe that person didn’t actually care about people viewing their site. It was just baffling to me because I found their site via webgardens, a very social community idea.

And that’s all! I feel these pet peeves are things that come across as asocial in varying degrees, and that’s why they bother me. The indie web community has always felt very friendly, welcoming, and encouraging to me, so I don’t like seeing things that seem asocial. But at the end of the day people can do whatever they want on their own personal sites.

live and let live ✌

tags: web