X-Clacks-Overhead

This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.

X-Clacks-Overhead is an extra HTTP header that some websites (including some IndieWeb sites) added as a tribute to the late fantasy author Terry Pratchett.

The header name refers to clacks, a fictional communications system in his Discworld novels, and always contains the contents "GNU Terry Pratchett" to ensure that his name lives on, always traversing the internet.

In the fictional context, the "GNU" prefix indicates that a message should be forwarded, not logged, and sent back when it reaches the end of the line, repeating forever. A character in one of the novels is memorialized in this way.

IndieWeb Examples

Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmüller includes this header on his primary site https://werd.io/ since at least 2015-03-23 by way of using the Known CMS (notably by way of eating his own cooking).

... add yourself ...

If you know of any IndieWeb Examples, especially yourself, please document here.

Software Examples

Known

Known includes this header since at least 2015-03-23

For example: https://werd.io/ running Known

Articles

2015-03-17 The Guardian UK: Terry Pratchett’s name lives on in ‘the clacks’ with hidden web code