Hello, World!
This year, 2025, I participated (both as a member in the "Best Content" category and as a voter) in PetraPixel's 2nd Indie Web Contest at https://petrapixel.neocities.org/contest. As today is the contest's final day, I've decided to do a quick reflection on it :D
# Reflection
It was fantastic. I cannot wait for the 3rd Indie Web Contest in 2026!
I discovered so many cool indie websites, and it's wonderful how this contest connects the indie web in such a beautiful emulsion. All of you are AWESOME. I recommend anyone with a substantial site to participate!
I rated every site... It took so much time :')
Also, 29 people came to say hi to me at https://ari.lt/mblog/post/76 :D
17 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 = 29. Well some might've double-reacted but hey, we're sure at least about 17 :3
# Awesome sites
Out of 175 sites in that contest, so many were awesome - I wish I could name them all, but I'll refrain from that since you can just read the contest's home page.
Here are a few highlights, in no particular order:
Shout out to DCKIM and their HTML drafting project as well for the paragraphs that stood out amongst all comments - perhaps worth doing marketing outside of the comment section next time, though ;) Still, a cool site...
Honourable mentions to my friends and acquaintances participating in this contest as well:
(dw I rated them fairly as any other site - I put all my biases aside when voting, ofc didn't vote for myself either)
# The voting system
The only thing I wish were different is the voting system - Google Forms is big tech and not privacy-respecting, contrasting with the whole indie vibe of the contest to the point that some people I sent the contest to didn't even want to vote because of that. A better alternative might be something like Palform, CryptPad, Nextcloud Forms, Budibase, or a self-hosted Flask (or some other back-end) application.
It also feels too easy to cheat: one could simply claim to be someone else. One way I can think of solving this is email verification; another is rate-limiting IP addresses (one submission a month?). For participants in the contest, the voting system could generate secret keys or passwords as well. There's a lot of potential for improvement - the system is a bit janky, but it kinda adds to the indie vibe.
However, Petra, if you're somehow reading this (first, I'm honoured, but more importantly-) - I'm happy to help, whether by writing and/or hosting the back-end, brainstorming ideas, or helping find alternatives. Just contact me or comment on my guestbook and we can make something work. I love the idea of this contest.
# The "Most Unique" category
The "Most Unique" category feels like an oddball in the contest. I struggled with it myself (and seemingly others too based on some comments) as well, and, with PetraPixel's permission, I voted twice: first time skipping that category altogether (this round of mine will be discarded and not counted in the results), then, a while later, somewhat grasping it and re-voting (only this round of my votes will be counted).
It's a very peculiar category, and I still don't have a firm understanding of it... My sense is that much of this category would fit better in the other two categories.
I can think of a few other categories to replace it:
- "Most Nostalgic" - many sites had an early-2000s vibe, like one of my favourites, ridvenge!
- In a similar vein, what about "Best Anti-Trend" / "Most Indie" - a category for sites that reflect nothing mainstream and do it well, to represent the indie web space (for example, PetraPixel's site itself does this very well)
- "Most Niche" - a category for sites covering nice/specific topics (for example Yarnfish's Crochet blog or Tofutush's "Iron Ragdoll" paracosm)
- "Mona Lisa" / "Masterpiece" (these names are a bit pompous, but I'm sure you could come up with something better!) - this category could cover sites competing across all categories - content, design, etc. - and should include only impressive sites with substantial content and effort. Alternatively, allow people to compete in normal categories and opt into this category with conditions like "at least 10 full pages" and "visually interesting and interactive" :)
- "Minimalist Prodigy" - for minimal, well-designed sites with lightweight JavaScript (for example Rose's Playground); imagine a category for Wiby sites, but a little less restrictive
- "Funkiest Site" - this could pair well with "Most Unique", but not many sites fit this description. It could include, for example, Nathan's Shitty Web and Solane's Personal Site, i.e., funky sites - though defining rigorously it is tricky
Okay, I'm out of ideas. You get the point :)
# Closing
Thanks for listening to my reflection! Good luck to everyone in the contest. It was fantastic taking part, and I look forward to doing so again in 2026 (happy new year, by the way)!
'til next time!