====== Staying Findable ======

Staying findable is the practice of keeping a stable, reachable identity across the web's churn: a URL and contact path that survives platforms shutting down, accounts being deleted, and friends losing touch. The dead accounts pile up: "Last online 620 weeks ago" is what happens to the people who never left a forwarding address.

Adapted from [[https://brennan.day/last-online-620-weeks-ago-why-i-m-loyal-to-the-indieweb/|Last Online 620 Weeks Ago]] on brennan.day.

===== What It Is =====

A personal domain is the durable locator. Platforms die, instances shut down, and handles get abandoned, but a domain you control can always point to wherever you currently are. [[https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/698549|Oxford Internet Institute research]] projects that dead users will eventually outnumber living ones on platforms like Facebook: a growing share of profiles belong to people who can no longer be reached.

The IndieWeb answer is the [[indieweb:domain_of_ones_own|domain of one's own]]: own the address, keep the address stable, and let everything else (hosts, platforms, communities) be replaceable infrastructure behind it.

===== What It Requires =====

  * **A URL you own** that you treat as permanent. See [[indieweb:hosting|Hosting & Domains]].
  * **Redundant copies** of the things you publish, so the content outlives the host. See [[indieweb:long_web|The Long Web]] and [[indieweb:offline_knowledge|Offline Knowledge Preservation]].
  * **A contact path** that does not depend on one company: email at your domain, or a listed set of current accounts.
  * **A way to leave well.** When you leave a platform, leave a forwarding address. See [[indieweb:deleting_corporate_social_media|Deleting Corporate Social Media]].

===== See Also =====

  * [[indieweb:start|IndieWeb]]
  * [[indieweb:domain_of_ones_own|A Domain of One's Own]]
  * [[indieweb:long_web|The Long Web]]
  * [[indieweb:internet_as_place|The Internet as a Place]]
  * [[indieweb:hosting|Hosting & Domains]]
  * [[indieweb:deleting_corporate_social_media|Deleting Corporate Social Media]]
  * [[start|Return to wiki home]]