about
"About" is a commonly occurring page or section on a site that describes who is behind the site and a summary or the purpose of the site. On a personal site, this would be usually be in the form of an expanded h-card about the person. About information can either be on a dedicated page, on every page (e.g. in a footer), or often on the site home page.
The key part of the About is the p-note of the h-card, which attempts to introduce the site visitor to the person in a simple and plain manner.
Why
An about page or section is a single place to which you can point people who want to learn more about you.
You may choose to share your about page or section with:
- People you meet in-person with whom you want to keep in touch
- People who reach out to you and who are interested in learning more about your work
- Your friends and family
About Section Guidelines
A good About p-note should be brief. There is always the opportunity to expand later. This is not a resume (that's what h-resume is for). This is to introduce people to the author and owner of the site.
An about section may link to a full about page (see About Page Brainstorming below) that talks about you and your history in more depth.
IndieWeb Examples
on homepage
Tantek
Tantek Çelik on tantek.com: "Hi. I work on web standards and the IndieWeb. I like to run trails, practice yoga, go bouldering, code & design my website, and write when I can. My pronouns are he/him."
Barnaby Walters
Barnaby Walters on waterpigs.co.uk: "I am a British web developer and luthier working at Vísar in Reykjavík, Iceland."
Aaron Parecki
Aaron Parecki has a small section at the top of aaronparecki.com with a short bio and some links to projects. He also links to a full/expanded biography as well as an about page.
Ryan Barrett
Ryan Barrett on snarfed.org: "I live, work, and play in San Francisco. I code, write, and post pictures here."
Bear
bear on bear.im: "Opsasaurus Ursus - professional curmudgeon currently working at &yet on the Operations Team."
capjamesg
capjamesg on jamesg.blog: "I am a technical writer by-day. In my free time, I love to code, make websites like this one, and spend time in cafes and drink coffee. I don't have much else to say because I am still figuring out what I enjoy. I like photography too."
separate page
gRegor Morrill
gRegor Morrill on http://gregorlove.com/about/ since 2011-??-??
Jeena
Jeena Paradies on https://jeena.net/about is the main h-card with all the detailed data which shouldn't be on the homepage because it is just too much.
Jarema
Jarema on https://jarema.me/about: "I'm an undergraduate student on a mission to learn, build, and contribute." His about page is way too long to be put on the homepage.
Kartik
Kartik Prabhu has an about page on https://www.kartikprabhu.com/about#me (2023-07-06 archive without www.) with an h-card with a p-note which read -
"I think, discover, compute, make, build, code, design, write, paint, photograph, am!
I study mathematical properties of black holes and their effects on other things in the Universe. I spend my spare time on photography and, sometimes, painting. I write short stories, and haikus on occasion. I am also excited by the wonderful ideas in web design, and play around with the them on this site."
There is a minimal h-card with photo and name in the footer of the site on all pages that links to the full one using u-url u-uid.
Zinzy
Every page on 
Zinzy Waleson's website has a Thank You For Reading footer which doubles as an h-card with a p-note. It contains a link to a longer About page.
Organization Examples
Inspirational About Page examples from organizations:
- https://826national.org/about/
- https://buynothingproject.org/about - this one's pretty simple but community-based so somewhat comparable
- https://www.charitywater.org/about
- https://gotgreenseattle.org/home/who-we-are/
- https://www.apopo.org/en/who-we-are
Brainstorming
An about page can contain any piece of information about you.
A bio
You can reserve your about page as a professional bio. This bio may contain information about your work history, your interests, and your hobbies.
Professional history
On your about page, you may want to share your professional history. This is different from a resume, which uses a more structured approach. On an about page, you can talk about your professional history as if it were a story, rather than a list of accomplishments or bullet points.
Fun facts
An about page could share fun facts about who you are.
- capjamesg shared a geek code (now on his home page) as a throwback to the 90's geek codes.
Lowering the Barriers to Contact
The about page could also be used to lower the barriers to contact or make them, if you don't want contact to other people. This could include the way to contact but also possible topics and situations and type of communication one would be open to.
Discussed through blogs of 
Tracy Durnell and Sara Jakša.
Tracy Durnell has a good example of emphasising the openness to contact on multiple places in her about page.
Downsides
About pages force you to sum up your life into words. Your view of what you have accomplished or dream about may change often which means that your about page may quickly become obsolete.
- capjamesg removed his about page. He was changing the page too many times because he was unsure how to best present himself and his skillset.