💬 Replied to: Dear IndieWeb, it may be time to start considering the user, not just the technical spec.
“I’ve been working on a series of walkthrough posts that outline how to IndieWebify a Wordpress site. I presumed the initial setup would be fairly straightforward because a) I have a vague idea of what I’m doing, and b) a suite of plugins already exists. Boy-howdy, was I wrong. (ಥ﹏ಥ)
I’ve…”
I definitely agree with you, Eli! I was wondering out loud with a half-baked thought just yesterday about how we could help ease newer “generations” into the IndieWeb. Where you are coming from the technical side of things, I was thinking more about the on-boarding process and not expecting people to read swathes of documentation to get started. Having read your post I realise both need to be worked on (in tandem?)
I couldn’t hand over even a working WordPress + IndieWeb installation to my partner and expect her to have a good time using it. I’m trying to bring her round to the idea of moving to her own site, because she’s so frustrated with the social media giants, but the tools just aren’t accessible to her level yet.
What has been built so far in the IndieWeb is amazing. I’ve not been this enthused about having my own website – or what it’s capable of – in years. But I’ve been building on the web for 20+ years; I’m impressed by the technology because of my understanding of it, and I’m the sort of user who can work past the rough edges when I need to — in fact, part of me enjoys the tinkering aspect. On reflection, I might be the worst person to be evaluating how this stuff can be made more usable and accessible for someone who wants it to “just work” as smoothly as the existing options 😅
So I guess the question then becomes – who is best placed to help with this, and how do we bring them on board (if they’re not already)?