Our principles
A manifesto for a web worth keeping
These are the beliefs that hold the project together. They are simple on purpose — principles you can act on this afternoon, not abstractions.
Own Your Space
A profile is not a home. When you publish on a platform, you are a tenant who can be evicted, throttled, or erased. A site on your own domain is land you hold — the canonical copy of your work, under your control.
“A profile is not a home.”
Own Your Media
A license is not ownership. Streaming and digital storefronts sell access that can be revoked, edited, or shut down. Keep the disc, the file, the backup — the version no one can reach in and change.
“A license is not ownership.”
Preserve What Matters
The internet should not forget everything that lives outside major platforms. Archive, mirror, and back up. Culture and knowledge deserve to outlast the company that happened to host them.
“If it matters, make a copy.”
Favor Open Systems
Open standards — HTML, RSS, email, open protocols — create resilient communities that no single company can switch off. Build on ground that will still be there tomorrow.
“Open standards outlive their owners.”
Build for Humans
The web should feel personal, weird, and alive — made for people, not optimized for a metric. Charm and personality are features, not bugs.
“Make it personal. Make it yours.”
Resist Algorithmic Dependency
Discovery should not be controlled entirely by black-box feeds. Choose links, directories, RSS, and human curation. Decide for yourself what reaches you.
“You choose what you see.”
Keep the Web Weird
Small communities, odd hobbies, and pure experimentation are where the web has always been most alive. Protect the strange corners. A weird web is a healthy web.
“Long live the strange corners.”
We are not trying to go backward. We are bringing the best of the early web forward.