What Community Activities Does the IndieWeb Offer Beyond Blogging?

The IndieWeb community runs activities that go beyond publishing posts on your own site. The main ones described on indieweb.org are monthly collaborative blog carnivals (IndieWeb Carnival, Movie Club, Book Club, and Fiction Carnival) and Homebrew Website Club gatherings. You take part by posting on your own site, so you keep your content and your domain while joining a shared theme with other people.

Monthly collaborative blog carnivals

The site describes these as monthly collaborative events: each month has a different topic, theme, or movie, and you join by writing about it on your own site. The four named carnivals are:

The common structure is the same in each case: a prompt is set, you publish your response on your own site, and the community reads and links to the responses. Because the post lives on your domain, it stays yours and remains reachable at a permanent link such as example.com/ideas.

How to take part

1. Check the current month's prompt. Each carnival has its own page on indieweb.org; look there for the theme, topic, or title in progress.
2. Write and publish on your own site first. This is the community's core principle: publish on your own site, optionally elsewhere afterward.
3. Share the post with the community. The site points to the #indieweb chat (with a real-time log) as the place to share your website, get inspiration, or ask about services and projects.
4. Verify it worked. Your post should be live at its own permanent URL on your domain, and you should be able to point others to that link directly.

A common sticking point is treating the carnival as a platform submission. It isn't: there is no central host holding your entry. If your post isn't on your own site, you haven't really joined in the way the community intends.

Homebrew Website Club

Homebrew Website Club is listed among the site's main activities as a gathering. The page presents it as a community meetup rather than a publishing format, so it complements the carnivals: the carnivals give you a monthly writing prompt, while the club is where people meet around building and improving their own sites. The site's broader ethos supports this — "show before tell," make what you need, iterate on your site, and design first with formats and protocols second.

If you want to attend, use the Homebrew Website Club page on indieweb.org for the current schedule and location details rather than relying on secondhand summaries.

Why these activities are structured this way

The IndieWeb describes itself as a people-focused alternative to the "corporate web," built on owning your domain as your primary identity, publishing on your own site first, and owning your content. The community also states that it favors "principles over project-centrism" and a plurality of approaches rather than one monoculture project. That explains the activity design: a shared monthly theme creates the social occasion, but the artifact always lives on each participant's own site. The site also notes a code of conduct for the community.

A concrete example: if the month's Movie Club pick is a film you've seen, you write your reaction on your blog at your own URL, then share that link in #indieweb. Readers reply on their own sites or on other services, and those replies can come back to your site so the conversation collects in one place — the site's stated benefit of being "better connected."

Choosing which activity fits you

• You want a low-pressure writing prompt: start with the IndieWeb Carnival, which is theme-based and not tied to a specific work.
• You prefer reacting to a shared text or film: the Book Club or Movie Club gives you a common subject.
• You write fiction: the Fiction Carnival is the themed option for stories.
• You'd rather talk than publish this month: Homebrew Website Club is the gathering-oriented entry point.

All of these assume one prerequisite: a personal site on your own domain where you can publish. If you don't have that yet, the site's "Get Started Now!" path and the #indieweb chat are the places it directs newcomers to for setup help.