I predict a ton of semi-popular web services will pop up over the next few years which follow this "small web" ethos. And I'll be seeking out (and building!) tools like this. Too much VC money fueled a bloated developer ecosystem which nearly destroyed what makes the web fun and special, but the rebels are fighting back and we're seeing some pretty cool stuff arise which enables solo devs and tiny teams to accomplish some mighty things.
I love this prediction, and also how you're working to make it self-fulfilling. :-) I've definitely seen it with the raft of small alternatives to Google Analytics that have popped up in the last couple of years. Do you have favourite services/apps you can link to?
Well, besides things like Basecamp and HEY, I also use FastMail—which is where I store my calendars too. (Works just fine with iPhone/Fantastical/etc.) Currently working on a newsfeed reader which I dogfood daily. SkimFeed is a nice at-a-glance dashboard for tech feeds. Posting photos on a personal Tumblog after dumping Instagram. (As Automattic owns Tumblr, I'm glad to see the preservation of some nice old-school open web conventions.) I use DuckDuckGo for all my web searches. I don't know if Discord qualifies as "small web" but I'm grateful it's not polluted with awful ad-tech everywhere.
I'm also a heavy Fastmail user and just wanted to recommend Harmonizely for integration with it. It's a service like Calendly that works directly with Fastmail. This is important as while you can kind of hack together a Calendly -> GCal -> Fastmail loop you still end up with every meeting have extraneous Google Meet links in it, etc.
I know it's a cesspit but I would add 4chan(nel) to this list also. It's pretty much a functional bare bones site that just works and has not changed much afaik in a decade or more unlike its counterpart Reddit which seems to change every week and is full of all kinds of dark patterns and bloat.
Try loading a webm video on 4chan, instant, now try streaming a cute cat video on Reddit and half the time it will get stuck buffering for me at least.
I also feel the same way about video games. There is a drive towards better graphics, larger maps, more detail and yet often times the sequels are lacking basic features found in the earlier generations, Assasins Creed is a good example, more of that on youtube channel called crowbcat.
It remind me of Nintendo's decades old ethos of finding new ways of leveraging outdated technology instead of always chasing the cutting edge.
- Also, to comment on JavaScript bloat. A lot of people don't treat libraries like React and Vue in a progressive way. You don't need to put your entire stack on React, it can literally be a tiny part of the UI where it makes sense to use it and nothing more. But most often you see the all or nothing approach which is why know you see Job Ads for "React/Vue Developer"
- I would have liked to see a plug for gemini in the small-web space.
- I'm not sure on lobste.rs. I like the content, but then Drew DeVault was banned so I wonder if the moderation is a little too arbitrary leading to an echo chamber?
- I'm not sure I agree on Ansible. First not a fan of YAML, but willing to accept maybe that's personal preference. Beyond that though there's a lot of Ansible to keep in your head. If you don't use it day-to-day I don't find it a tool you can easily set up .
