The Indie Web and the joy of being weird

GoMakeThings.com has been my home on the web for over 12 years.

When I first started publishing here, I had an HR blog (I was an HR professional at the time), and wanted a place to just share cool, fun, weird stuff I found on the web.

I used to post about pets and design and science and art and social issues… anything I found interesting.

And then I got serious about my JavaScript education business.

I started posting almost exclusively about web development in general, and JavaScript specifically. My audience grew. A lot!

I’ve always injected who I am into my writing, even when I know it’s polarizing or will alienate people. I bring my authentic self to my work.

But at some point, publishing here stopped being fun. It became work.

This site was my authentic self, but not my whole self. The fun stuff? That got shouted into the void on Twitter. The heyday of personal blogging faded, and “microblogging” and social media rose in popularity.

But with Twitter’s demise, the Indie Web is gaining in popularity again. People are playing with ideas like creating a digital garden.

If you were around for the pre-search engine 90’s web, it has a similar vibe of creativity and weirdness. It’s fun!

And so, for the first time in a few years, Go Make Things is getting some changes. Not big changes, per se, but ones that allow me to bring my whole self to the web again.

The homepage is less spartan. Still focused on my vanilla JS stuff, but not exclusively.

I’ve added a favorites page. It’s a big list of places, people, and things I love. If you enjoy any of the same stuff, feel free to get in touch. I’d love to nerd out with you about it!

And I spun up a second blog for Notes & Nonsense. It’s a place for me to share non-tech stuff that I find interesting, on my own platform, with more depth and permanence than on a social network. It’s still parse of this website, but with a totally different RSS feed.

I plan to grow this site into more of my own digital garden over time.