creator

🛠️ A creator on the IndieWeb is someone who owns their domain, uses it as their primary identity on the web, and creates (content, design, user experience, or code) for that personal site, openly sharing at least some of those creations.

Why

“When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than your ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create.” - Why The Lucky Stiff

@dansup, 2018-06-29

"There are two reasons why you should build your own stuff. These aren't good reasons, and they're full of exceptions, but I think it's a useful template.
To own
To learn

Terence Eden, 2020-12-29

"But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there. And you never meet the people. You never shake their hands. You never hear their story or tell yours. But somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something’s transmitted there."

Steve Jobs

IndieWeb

Main article: indieweb

The IndieWeb is about owning your domain and using it as your primary identity.

You can have more than one such personal domain.
You could use your own domain for purely a professional identity facet, preferring to keep anything personal off the internet/web. That's totally fine.

Creator

Being a creator means you must do one or more of:

Code. Create or contribute to IndieWeb open source projects
Design. Create or contribute to IndieWeb designs, graphic, layout, adaptive or otherwise.
User experience. Create wireframes or other IndieWeb user interface flows

As an IndieWeb creator, you develop an instinct of making things to scratch itches, rather than (or at least in addition to), talking about them.

Participate

As an IndieWeb creator, you must be using the things you create (code, design, user experience) on your personal site as an active participant of the IndieWeb. If it's not good enough for you, as part of your online identity, then it's not good enough for the IndieWeb.

Sharing

Lastly, one of the goals of IndieWebCamp is to empower each other and interoperability among our sites, encouraging re-use of code, design, user experience and thus:

You must share at least some part of what you create.

You don't have to share the entirety of what you create or even most of it.

Just find some part of it that it at least minimally useful, and that you're OK with sharing.

It's OK to start small, even just a function or two, or some graphics files, or user experience flow diagrams, or even just wiki design descriptions, for example, URL designs, and slowly add to it over time.

The point is to take something that is powering or has empowered your IndieWeb site, that you work on, develop, improve, create, and share it with others, in the hopes that it will help empower and improve their IndieWeb sites.

IndieWebCamps

As a creator, you're encouraged to sign-up to and participate in IndieWebCamps, to meet other creators, collaborate on improving each others sites, and growing the IndieWeb.

See upcoming IndieWebCamp events.

You are encouraged to bring an apprentice to IndieWebCamp, to help them get their own domain and setup their identity and content on their own site.

Inspiration

From the early days of the web, there was a difference in the actions, interests, and implied values of web creators in contrast to start-up folks:

2000-era inspiration: 2000-04-14 Meg Hourihan: I’ve been thinking a lot
Web people can tell you the first site they ever saw, they can tell you the moment they knew: This, This Is It, I Will Do This. And they pour themselves into the web, with stories, with designs, with pictures. They create things worth looking at, worth reading, worth coveting, worth envying, worth loving. They create Beautiful Things. We need more of those.

Warnings

A prophetic warning (and example) for all creators to consider the potential negative / abuses of their work or especially repercussions or amplifications thereof: https://twitter.com/greatdismal/status/1457905598159228928
- "Reminds me of the times (not many) when I’ve deleted certain ideas, in final draft, in order to prevent this happening." @GreatDismal November 9, 2021
  "Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
  
  Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus" @AlexBlechman November 8, 2021

Humor

https://twitter.com/BeardOps/status/1091456027768250368
- "I'm a 10x developer. That is it takes me 10x the amount of time to write the same amount of code as other people." @BeardOps February 1, 2019

Articles

2021-11-17 DHH: It must be worth it even if it doesn't work
… pursue projects that'll have been worth your time even if they don't pan out. Projects that'll tickle your curiosity, flex your competency, and teach you something new regardless of where they ultimately end up. Projects that leave you better off, as a person, despite not being a commercial or critical success.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/how-creators-became-influencers/590725/ good article with some history and subtlety of the difference between creator and influencer in the social world

Why