Hi HN,<p>Looking forward to writing HTML together tomorrow at 2PM EST. You can join our discord to share your writing/websites [1] during the freewrite.<p>Also we just wanted to share a little more about HTML Energy. It’s still coming together but here are some of our big dreams…<p>- Create a #web0 movement: We would love to see a new movement around web0 (coding HTML by hand, personal websites, webrings, etc). Basically anything that brings websites instead of platforms into the spotlight again. We are actually pretty inspired by all the energy that is going into web3 right now. What if that same energy and capital was going into web0? What could we create together?<p>- Rebrand HTML [2]: Some people think that HTML is outdated or hard to use. We think it’s actually pretty straightforward and really powerful stuff. Stripping away all the paint (CSS/JS) really makes the content the focus and there's a raw sincerity to an unstyled page. Our goal is just to get people excited about learning & writing HTML and this is our attempt at making it "cool."<p>- Getting HTML into schools: What if more people knew how to self host/publish? Would we depend on big platforms less? Would people begin making more small community websites to chat with their friends?<p>- Create another season of our podcast [3]. Last season we talked with so many incredible people that are trying to make the web a better place. Let us know if you listened and would want another season.<p>Hope to see you tomorrow and have a great night!<p><p>'s on earth!<p>[1] <a href="https://discord.gg/SsPKzA8N?event=931711702578384947" rel="nofollow">https://discord.gg/SsPKzA8N?event=931711702578384947</a><p>[2] <a href="https://twitter.com/htmlenergy" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/htmlenergy</a><p>[3] <a href="https://html.energy/podcast.html" rel="nofollow">https://html.energy/podcast.html</a>
There's something magical about writing raw HTML/CSS. Nostalgia must be part of it -- I'm guessing many self-taught programmers growing up in the late 90s/2000s started out by learning HTML/CSS before dabbling with JavaScript, Flash, PHP.<p>It's also extremely satisfying to make a webpage with zero dependencies. No JS frameworks, no build processes; just a direct conversation between you and the Browser. That tight feedback loop is plain _fun_, especially for those of us who feel bogged down by modern software development.<p>Finally, writing raw HTML/CSS aligns with the founding vision of the world wide web, in which individuals could independently create and host content without any technical barrier to entry or dependency on corporations. The age of the personal webpage is over and I think that vision of the web is mostly dead, but I'm happy to see people keeping the energy alive.
HTML was originally envisioned as something extremely user-friendly to let people and companies customize their online presence. Nowadays multiple professional roles and software stacks are between the content and its HTML representation.<p>It tells us something, but also regularly what's easy looks hard. I have organized some hackathons and coding events for students. Some start with create-react-app for showing an image. They are very hesitant to do things the "manual" way when I suggest it. I think it's awesome that vanilla gets to have a community like this.
I understand the reasoning for using Discord/Twitter, but wouldn't it also be beneficial to have Mastodon/Matrix channels alongside, given the "minimal/small tech" style feeling of the page?
As much as everyone liked to rag on MySpace, there were valualble skills being taught. How much about web development has Facebook taught its average user?
This feels a little like IndieWeb, but focused on HTML, which is nice.<p><a href="https://indieweb.org/" rel="nofollow">https://indieweb.org/</a>
I must say that I really enjoyed creating web sites back in the 90s. I was using UNIX terminals that didn0't have graphic capabilities. I was browsing web using lynx, I've create pages in vi, nano or joe. It was all about the content and quality of the content. There were no dark patterns, scams, no spam... Just the desire to get the information out there and to find other who felt the same.
What about websites that can be sent via email? Nested tables, inlined styles, code could be copied to HTML email and the single page website would display in an email client. Animations with marquee.