If you haven't noticed already, the indie web tends to attract various peculiar demographics, and if you think you aren't peculiar, yes you are, you run a personal site in 2024. These demographics all culminate to create the bullet hole ridden neighborhood that is the indie web community, yet, I don't think anyone's ever formaly declared these demographics. To be clear, I'm not going to either, but I sure as hell will try.

I feel as though the majority of indie web sites can be viewed as fitting into one of the following three categories, sites built for style, sites built for content, and sites built for insanity. The latter of the three is a more fringe definition, but you'll certainly know when you see one. It's obvious.

What I consider to be 'sites built for style' are, in effect, the sites you often see that look extremely well made, yet somehow have every link off of the homepage leading to a 404, despite being up for months. Typical standout features you'll see on sites falling into this category are heavily stylized divs (scanline filters, non-standard shapes, etc), custom made graphics, and for some reason, autoplay music. These sites are the fashion statements of the indie web, and despite having no real purpose, the indie web would be terribly boring without them.

Now, 'sites built for content' aren't inherently bad looking sites, but these are the types of sites that tend to be built for an explicit purpose. These are the types of sites that are being used as portfolios, blogs, and at times, even just as link hubs. These sites often are visually appealing, but, not at the cost of legibility and convenience as many falling in the 'sites built for style' category do. I find these sites to be the most interesting to interact with, but probably the least interesting to look at.

The last category, 'sites built for insanity' is a rather nebulous one, but I'll do my best to explain them. These are the sites solely dedicated to single characters and topics, imagine a shrine, but 50fold. There's not a large amount of these sites due to the sheer amount of effort they take, but it's always very clear when you've clicked on one. Despite the name I've given this category, I do find these sites to be rather endearing, even if they may be the product of an insane man's work. They're the web equivalent of TempleOS.

From my observations, I think it's hard to find a site that won't fit into one of these three categories, however, I could be wrong. If a new era of victims stumbles upon the indie web, and makes new sites, please do notify me, for I'll be certain to add them. I mostly just wrote this article for fun, as I'm in the middle of working on my PC-98 article, don't take it to seriously, or do, I don't really mind. TM out.