2023/Nuremberg/block-icons
Building Block Icons was a session at IndieWebCamp Nuremberg 2023.
Notes archived from: block-icons
Participants
- Paul Lloyd
- Jeremy Cherfas
- Jeremy Keith
- Tantek Çelik
- Roma Komarov
- Tom Arnold
Notes
Paul’s initial blog post on the topic: https://paulrobertlloyd.com/2023/298/a1/indieweb_identity/
Lots of different indie web protocols and formats. Some have a well-defined identity, like microformats. But some don't. People have tried creating some icons in the past but there's no concensus.
Paul asks: Is this a problem? (He thinks it is, but maybe the anarchic nature of the indie web means a cohesive identity isn't a big idea)
Jeremy says: it could be a fun indie web camp activity to add one more building block icon to your website.
Paul mentions simpleicons.org — no indie web technologies on there. Paul thinks that's a shame.
Tom thinks recognisable indie web technologies with the same sort of identity would be good.
Jeremy worries that there could be gatekeeping "I've got my own website, but I'm not on the indie web because I'm not using specific formats or protocols."
Paul points to the indie web homepage with some icons on there, but not for formats or protocols.
Paul then pulls up some previous work done on building block icons: https://github.com/sebilasse/indieweb-origami/blob/master/CI.pdf
There's also an indie web branding in the github repo done by Shane Becker:
Here's Paul's proposal: https://paulrobertlloyd.com/2023/298/a1/indieweb_identity/#proposal
All have a line and a shape combined in one form (optionally against a certain background color).
Paul asks: what are the things that should have icons?
Roma answers: an icon for just having a domain! Secondly, having some content on that domain—an icon for that too.
How about icons for specific microformats: h-card, h-entry. When you mark up your content with one of those, that's another icon.
These icons could be added to indiewebify.me
Icons for protocols: webmention, micropub …perhaps of more use to third-party suppliers like Bridgy. (Jeremy asks why put a micropub icon; unlike webmentions, you can't receive micropub.)
Tantek shows the original Indie Web Camp iconography.
There's an existing webmention icon: a W with an arrow coming out of it.
Tantek shows tutorials and diagrams on the wiki that try to explain indie web workflows: cohesive iconography would be useful for those.
We use emoji for different post types: https://indieweb.org/posts#Types_of_Posts
Use-cases:
- third party tools showing support for building block standards (mf2, webmention)
- individuals showing support: "I have a valid h-card", I support "rel-me"
- sites saying what they accept: receving Webmentions
- indicating the origin of a comment, from a Webmention
- ways to follow: h-feed, Atom, RSS
- developer intro / tutorials to IndieWeb building blocks
Paul worries that if he just puts his proposals on the wiki, there's not much point if there not adopted. Tantek disagrees. Let people decide.
Jeremy K says: make it easy for people. Paul agrees: maybe a link to a Github repo with downloadable variations.
Tantek says: start small. Add your icons to the relevant wiki pages.
Tantek tells the story of the evolution of the Indie Web Camp logo. Shane tweeked it, showed it to the community, took on feedback, tweaked it some more. Then organisers (of camps and clubs) reached consensus. It took over a year. During the site redesign, the new logo got incorporated, but again, constantly asked for feedback or objections.
Tantek reckons there won't be many objections to new logo proposals, especially where there's currently no logo.
Paul's going to update the wiki (probably the building blocks page) with a link to his proposal.