h-cards

[di]

Does anybody here have an h-card on their website?

I found out about them from Flamed Fury's IndieWeb 101 blog post:

An h-card is a way to represent information about yourself on your website in a format that both people and computers can understand. It’s like a digital business card embedded in your site. For example, it might include your name, photo, email, and a link to your external profiles. This information is marked up using HTML, making it easy for other websites and tools to recognise and use it.

I really like this example from the bottom of dead.garden's home page. It's been styled in a way that fits nicely with the rest of the website:



What do you think?

[candycanearter07]

This is a really cool idea, but I'm not sure exactly how it would be useful for someone? Is there any public parsers for this you can use that are available? Collections of these "buisness cards"? Or is it just like something neat that you can implement bc it is pretty neat and I might implement it in the future

[xixxii]

i do not have one or plan to include one. it seems like a way to make an "about" page more useful, though, especially when interacting with people in the indieweb side of the indie web, which is a good thing for people with about pages! (i don't have one or want one!)

it'd be interesting in general to see more crossover between the neocities community and the indieweb! it seems like at the moment there's not a ton of connection points between the two and the cultures are very different. it'd be nice for the indieweb to get a bit more colorful and for neocities to get a bit more social i think.

[di]

Is there any public parsers for this you can use that are available? Collections of these "buisness cards"?

The IndieWeb webring parses h-cards on its directory page. It reminds me of our Surf Club, but a bit plainer and a lot more cyan.

it seems like a way to make an "about" page more useful, though, especially when interacting with people in the indieweb side of the indie web, which is a good thing for people with about pages! (i don't have one or want one!)

You're right! In fact maybe I can implement an h-card into my About page once I make it.

Interesting point about not having an About page, I've been dragging my feet on making a proper About for years. I feel like my site speaks for me in a way, but maybe an h-card can give me an outline for making a very basic one.

it'd be interesting in general to see more crossover between the neocities community and the indieweb! it seems like at the moment there's not a ton of connection points between the two and the cultures are very different. it'd be nice for the indieweb to get a bit more colorful and for neocities to get a bit more social i think.

I agree, I find many indieweb practices and protocols aspirational, especially when I see them in use. I think there is a place for the uniformity and structure that the indieweb encourages. It seems like it helps non-corporate sites feel less isolated from one another.

However, it's funny that I say all that, because I haven't felt moved to put any of those protocols on my site yet. I kind of like the freedom of entering my name in plaintext without worrying about whether I'm following a proper protocol. & while I think h-cards are very cool, I don't really expect to be contacted about what I post on my website... but then again, maybe I'm being asocial?

I guess there's also a little hurdle for me, because the indieweb community often tends to seem a little more technologically advanced, and I'm still catching up.

But overall, it's a movement that seems to want to bring positive and pro-social changes to the web, and I'm definitely for that.

[Melooon]

I've been dragging my feet on making a proper About for years

i don't have one or want one!

I would like to hear more about why you feel this way, since I think we both had a slimier reaction to reading this!

For me I'd like to do as much as possible to make my sites less machine readable and less profile-like ~ however I'm also aware I'm not coming at it from a "lets replace professional social media with personal sites" perspective. I think for me the entire idea of having a definitive identity or profile is quite unnatural.

Though, I also wish there could be more of a crossover with IndieWeb stuff; however Iv watched them from the corner of my eye since I first got into web crafting and they've always been the same; well meaning, super smart, and very boring 

Maybe we could start by taking the core idea and making it more fun.. like a h-puddle! Instead of a profile; you have a puddle on your site full of things you like (or don't like); and instead of collecting business cards, you can collect puddles from sites you like, and build your own pond full of all the junk people put in their h-puddles 

[xixxii]

I would like to hear more about why you feel this way, since I think we both had a slimier reaction to reading this!

For me I'd like to do as much as possible to make my sites less machine readable and less profile-like ~ however I'm also aware I'm not coming at it from a "lets replace professional social media with personal sites" perspective. I think for me the entire idea of having a definitive identity or profile is quite unnatural.

it's sort of hard to articulate for me, because the answer to "why not have an about page" is, for me, "why would i??" i don't really understand the point of an about page! i don't find them especially interesting, for one thing, and i'm not going to put something i don't find interesting on my website. it's for me to have fun with, not homework!

"too much rambling not about h-cards, sorry di!"

]but also, i don't like talking about myself or trying to describe myself and i'm not good at it! and i don't really know what other people would even want to know about me. if something about me is relevant then it's probably obvious in context, and if it's not obvious, i mostly don't think it's relevant.     or, the things that might not be obvious which i think are relevant i don't see a need to gather in a dedicated page because i just put them on my homepage. i have some names you can address me by, and i have a trans flag, the anarcho-communist flag, and an ACAB stamp on my home page, because i think those are pieces of somewhat useful contextual information for someone to know about me that are not otherwise communicated. if someone doesn't know what they mean then they can google it if they wanna; i don't care! they're there to let people opt out of the website if they don't want to look at a website webmastered by someone of my persuasion and to remind people that people like me exist and have hobbies and interests besides "being trans" and "being an anarcho-communist" and that it is a perfectly normal way to be. same reason i have a progress pride flag hanging on my house, i guess.

apart from that... if someone wants to contact me they can use my guestbook, if someone wants to know what i put on my web site then they can look at my web site! they're already on it. it's not that many more clicks; if they don't care additional clicks worth, then there's no particular reason to make sure they get that information anyway. nobody's dying of what-are-xixxii's-favorite-video-games-deficiency.

there's plenty of information on my website about me! it's not really a privacy thing. it's just that i don't see why someone would want to know what type of video games i like outside of the context of the page where i talk about video games i've played.

also, i'm just not a very social person in general! my website isn't supposed to be a "profile" or a representation of myself or something through which people can "get to know me" or an invitation to socialize. it's not a blog or a networking tool or a replacement for social media for me, either! it's a collection of things i made or found or gathered up and i think are fun or interesting or useful. it all just feels very "not applicable" to me and how i'm using my web site! i am on discord and social media and forums and such to socialize, not my website. if someone can't find me through any of those places AND doesn't want to use the guestbook, then.............. too bad, lol!

i don't have anything against it as a concept; it's just not what i'm doing or interested in for myself! i like looking at blogs and portfolios and profile-type sites, i just don't want to make one.

[close]

[di]

"too much rambling not about h-cards, sorry di!"

Don't be sorry, your "rambling" actually articulates a lot of the feelings I've had about About pages for a while

I also am quite unsure whether my website is a way to "connect" with me, or simply a showcase of who I am and what I make.

I also feel like my site speaks for me in a lot of ways. "Show, don't tell."

I think for me the entire idea of having a definitive identity or profile is quite unnatural.

I think I've felt the same way. I've attempted my "About page" many times. I've tried

• general statements about me
• strong beliefs I have
• random pictures that tell the story of my life
• lists of likes and dislikes

Every attempt I've made either felt like an explanation or an apology for who I am, in a way.

Like, I was trying to be assertive about who I am, but it seemed more rooted in insecurity about who I want to present myself as.

Sometimes I have trouble knowing when something is worthy of sharing on my site and when it's TMI, so About pages have been tricky for me.

That's a me problem.

At least the "h-card" gives a sort of template and a purpose and a structure. "If you had to make a little business card for your site, what would it look like?" I think I could design that, & even make it look a little bit whimsical at the same time.

I do like the thought of an "h-puddle" though! LOL. I think what I'd want h-puddle to include are core memories, favorite/least favorite lines of poetry, thoughts, strong beliefs, favorite flavors..

Collect h-puddles... dump them all into an absurdist h-stew?