Core ideas. Full reference: indieweb.org.
Your content should live on infrastructure you control. Platform shutdowns, ToS changes, and algorithmic suppression can't reach content on your own domain.
Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. Write on your own domain first. Cross-post to social platforms as copies, with the canonical version always on your site. Your site outlives any platform.
Make tools and sites that solve your own problems. Don't design for an imagined audience — build something you actually want to use.
Sites should work without JavaScript. The baseline is HTML. Enhancements are additions, not requirements.
Design for people, not crawlers or algorithms. Semantic HTML, readable typography, accessible markup.
Machine-readable markup embedded in HTML: h-card (identity), h-entry (posts), h-feed (streams). Enables webmentions, feed readers, and IndieWeb protocols to parse your site.
Write for longevity. Avoid platform-specific formatting. Plain HTML outlives every CMS. Permalinks should be permanent.
Joy is not a prize for getting through it all — it's a tool that enables getting through it. Create silly websites. Mix colors. Write anything. The independent web is about fun, not metrics.