mission

To encourage people to build a better web.

The web is humanity’s means to have important global conversations, an avenue for free expression via writing and other art, and it is under siege.

While the early web proved difficult to control, increased consolidation of power into the tech giants has changed the situation dramatically. Most content shared online now is done through corporate channels which time and time again prove poor stewards of humanity’s means of talking to itself.

If we are going to face the threats of the 21st century together, it is clear that the web will play a large part in that victory.

strategy

There are plenty of technical tutorials out there, but I find that even among programmers, the web is still quite mysterious.

How do all of the pieces fit together?

Why do things work this way?

Where do I begin?

When asked questions like this of people just a bit younger than me, I realize how much growing up alongside the web provided helpful context. Something that those of us born in the 1980s might not recognize is how much of the design of the modern web already seems incomprehensible.

Articles should focus on the what and why. What does CSS do? Why does it work that way? How to write CSS is a topic well-covered already.

contact

If you’d like to get in touch, hi@view-source.org

Feedback & suggestions are very welcome!

gardening

The format of this site is a digital garden. Instead of blog posts organized by time, the goal is to create a living body of knowledge.

• 🌰 - seed - A placeholder left for later, a fragment of an idea. Perhaps just a collection of links.
• 🌱 - sprout - An initial burst of information or inspiration, still potentially riddled with gaps.
• 🪴 - sapling - Something that’s been given the chance to mature a bit, hopefully in useful form by now.
• 🌲 - evergreen - Mature and more or less complete, will be kept up-to-date.

It’s possible other kinds of plants will emerge too.

colophon

This site is created using Hugo and the risotto theme with custom modifications.

This site is human-made, with extremely limited use of Generative AI for generating example code snippets in a few places to save time.

All copy is written by humans.