The IndieWeb Carnival

2026

• Jan: 'Meaning Of Life' by Jeremiah Lee
• Feb: 'Intersecting Interests' by zacharykaiwrites
• Mar: TBD by James
• Apr: TBD by Pablo Morales
• May: 'A Love Letter' by Juhis
• Jun: TBD by Alex Hsu
• Jul: 'Masks, Identities & Cosplay' by Joe Crawford
• Aug: TBD by Chris Shaw
• Sep: TBD by winther
• Oct: 'Pages' by Marisabel
• Nov: 'Where You At?' by z1nz0l1n
• Dec: TBD by V.H. Belvadi

2025

• Jan: 'On The Importance Of Friction' by V.H. Belvadi
• Feb: 'Affirmations' by Joe Crawford
• Mar: 'Self-Expression' by Pablo Morales
• Apr: 'Renewal' by Jamie Thingelstad
• May: 'Small Web Communities' by Chris Shaw
• Jun: 'Take Two' by Nick Simson
• Jul: 'Totems' by Maxwell Joslyn
• Aug: 'Colors' by Marisabel
• Sep: 'Second Person Birds' by Sophia
• Oct: 'Ego' by Bix
• Nov: 'Cycles And Fluctuations' by Alex Sirac
• Dec: 'Where Do You See The IndieWeb In 2030?' by V.H. Belvadi

2024

• Jan: 'Positive Internalization' by foreverliketh.is
• Feb: 'Digital Relationships' by Manuel Moreale
• Mar: 'Accessibility In The Small Web' by orchids
• Apr: 'Good Enough' by Aaron Leonard
• May: 'Creative Environments' by Juhis
• Jun: 'DIY — Something From (Almost) Nothing' by Andrei
• Jul: 'Tools' by James
• Aug: 'Rituals' by Steve Ledlow
• Sep: 'Power Underneath Despair' by Matthew Graybosch
• Oct: 'Multilingualism In A Global Web' by Riccardo
• Nov: 'Impact' by Alexandra
• Dec: 'Belief' by Zinzy Waleson

2023

• Jun: 'IndieWeb And Cooking' by Sara Jakša
• Jul: 'Moments Of Joy' by James
• Aug: 'Gardening' by Mark Sutherland
• Sep: 'My Kind Of Weather' by Jeremy Cherfas
• Oct: 'Self-Care And Routine' by Pablo Morales
• Nov: 'Community And Belonging' by Alex Sirac
• Dec: 'Personal Holiday/December Traditions' by Jo

Jun 2023: Sara Jakša

In June 2023, Sara Jakša selected 'IndieWeb And Cooking' as the very first theme.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

Since I was the first carnival host and I wanted to remove the barriers to people participating, I had wanted the topic that is both easy to talk about, relevant to everybody and it had some tech IndieWeb applications.

At the time, a couple of blog posts were talking about the problems with recipes and how they are displayed on the sites and how much pain in the ass they are and on the end it simply makes them easier to steal. Which is why I figured that it would make the theme relevant also to the people that the are interacting with the IndieWeb from the tech perspective. (Two people wrote about these problems)

Plus, I figured it will only be of interest to the small amount of people and it will pepper out in a couple of months. Which is why I picked what I considered a practical choice for who might be interested. I figured that the interest would be low enough that would allow me to host with a topic that would be of more interest to me later. Well, that didn't go as expected. XD

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I think I did. It might have been books if it would not be cooking? Probably something else as well? It had been a long time ago.

The cooking also allowed me the most puns in the post. That I wrote the first post while waiting for the potatoes to cook in the oven might have helped with the final choice.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

I didn't gave it much thought once I decided on the cooking theme.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Nope.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

Not surprise in the meaning of I didn't expect it. If you read my original post you would be able to see that I have made the ways to participate very broad. If I was surprised in any way it was that nobody submitted any code for it. (We got poetry instead, so I am satisfied :) )

Feb 2024: Manuel Moreale

In February 2024, Manuel Moreale hosted on the theme of 'Digital Relationships'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

I am an odd individual. I have a very private and somewhat lonely real life, but a very active and connected digital one. I made many friends over the years through various digital channels. Some of them have even slept on my couch.

The topic of digital relationships, both at a personal, human level, but also relationships with technology itself, is core to my interests, and so it was an easy choice.

Almost everything I do online (aside from my actual job) is in some way tied to the goal of connecting people and pushing for interactions that go deeper than simple social media exchanges. I genuinely believe that the ability to connect and share in deeper ways, through technology, could be a force for good, and it's currently underutilized.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

Nope. I knew what the topic was going to be the moment I got asked to host a month. Because it's a topic that's so important to me, I wanted to know what others think about it.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

There was no planning. Like almost everything I write on my blog, I sat down, and I wrote it. I usually don't even proofread it. I also didn't want to give too many instructions because I personally appreciate it when the topics are fuzzy. Makes for more interesting submissions.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

No, but it confirmed my intuition that there's a lot of value to be found in technology as a way to connect with each other in this messy world.

It was also fun to read entries from people who approached the topic from weird angles. That's probably one of the best parts of these prompts.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

I was certainly surprised by the number of replies. Previous editions were getting a dozen or so replies, and that's what I was expecting when I accepted to host it. Getting 44 of them was quite the surprise, I can tell you that. But I loved reading through them all!

Mar 2024: orchids

In Mar 2024, orchids hosted on'Accessibility In The Small Web'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

I think what drew me to this theme is just to raise awareness on a really overlooked part of web development. I've worked professionally in this industry for 10 years now, and even professional people that I work with today still don't understand basic things like "you should be able to navigate your entire website without a mouse" or "hitting the return key should submit any form you're filling out" which are 2 things I wrote about: 4 Overlooked Web Accessibility Issues. I think platforms like Neocities and Nekoweb are really cool because their creating a spark of passion in people, like the spark I had when I first discovered programming. I guess I also wanted to create an Indieweb theme that was partially educational.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

No not really - I got asked to host by someone who posts on my forum and it's the first thing that popped into my head, plus I was already planning on writing a blog on web accessibility anyway, so it was just good timing

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

The theme was called "accessibility in the small web" I think because I wanted to target hobbyists that are dipping into web development. I'm not sure how true this is, but I feel like people might think accessibility is one of those advanced skills, when in reality it's actually really simple and more-or-less just a muscle you need to keep working. I think the other cool thing about the wording is that, because the title is generic, some people interpreted it entirely differently like this fucking guy who wrote about rending math formulas. I love that.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

It definitely taught me that people interpret the word "web accessibility" very differently. Some people think it means that their website should work on browsers from 1999 (see this example), while others think it means not creating bloated websites or hijacking the natural scrollbar momentum (example here). You could honestly go down a rabbit-hole when looking into this stuff depending on how you interpret the word "accessibility" and I think that's a good thing.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

I think the one thing that surprised me was some of the neat tools that I learned are out there. I learned the Firefox has a setting where you can just override website colors for example. I also learned about this funny site about JavaScript bloat: https://tonsky.me/blog/js-bloat/ which was more of a treat than surprised lol

May 2024: Juhis

In May 2024, Juhis hosted on the theme of 'Creative Environments'. Juhis will be hosting again in May 2026!

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

My theme was creative environments. At the time, I was unemployed and spent more time than usual following my creative ideas — mostly writing — and spent a lot of time doing that outside of my home: in the libraries, pubs, trains and so on.

To me, leaving home and going somewhere with vibrant life and buzz was a major influence in my own creativity. I was wondering how others experienced the effect of their environment to their creative process so I picked that theme.

Manu's People and Blogs was an inspiration as well. Around the same time, I had read a bunch of stories from fellow bloggers on the topic through their interviews for that publication.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

No. It was already something I had been thinking about and when I was encouraged to host one myself, I immediately knew where I wanted to go with it. I have been thinking about other prompts ever since though which led me to pick up another hosting spot for this following May where we'll explore love letters.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

The main part of my prompt was:

What kind of environments you create in and what works for you or what you'd like to improve. Has things changed lately? If yes, was it intentional or forced and how has it affected your creative energy?

Do different creative efforts benefit from or even require a different environment? How does different time of the day, month, year or season play into the question?

You could also share stories from environments that you deem creative either themselves or the way they are created.

I had an idea for what I wanted to ask: how different environments affect people's creativity and output (or does it even affect at all). I wanted to keep it bit vague and open however because there are so many different people participating in these carnivals and I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to explore it from their perspective.

I added a

Or you can interpret in a different way that I didn't even consider when choosing the topic. World is your oyster.

prompt to explicitly give people the permission to write about whatever they wanted — it is their blog after all! While I appreciate the narrowed focus these kinds of thing bring, I always enjoy open prompts that allow me to write about whatever fits my blog best so I tried to offer the same to people participating in my festival month.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Not really. I expected this to be a thing that affects people differently and the posts reflected that. Some people didn't see an effect at all and they wrote wherever they happened to be at, some were similar to me that they got their ideas flowing best when they were outside of home and others found their creativity best when in familiar environment at home.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

I wouldn't say surprised by I was definitely delighted! I got 26 entries and many of them from blogs that I hadn't followed before. There was a lovely diversity of people doing different things, people from around the globe and a few that led to me staying in touch and continuing discussions about variety of topics in the year and half that followed.

Hosting a carnival is a wonderful opportunity to learn about new things, new perspectives and meet new people. I highly recommend it for everyone!

Jun 2024: Andrei

In Jun 2024, Andrei hosted 'DIY — Something From (Almost) Nothing'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

What made me choose this particular theme was a somewhat discontent regarding the previous themes of the Carnival, and it's something that is still continuing to this day to some extent. They weren't bad, per se, but they became more and more abstract and philosophical, so I decided to try to challenge the community into trying to get out of their comfort zone, create something and document the process.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I did have a few other ideas in mind, but eventually I chose the "Create something from (almost) nothing", because it gave the freedom to each member to choose what they want to create/build, but still be a challenge in the real sense of the word.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

I thought on various "titles" for the theme's prompt and chose actually one with a simple message, easy to transmit and to be understood, which gave the challengers a good idea of what they need to do. As I mentioned earlier, the main purpose of choosing this particular theme is to move away, even for a month, from the abstract and philosophical themes into the realist AFK space.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

There were a few projects I was considering to do, some were got to the point where they became drafts for future articles, and the biggest lesson I got from the entire experience was that not always your plans will unfold the way you want and finidng ways to adapt while progressing is actually a key factor to success. At the end of it all, I am very happy I chose this and I still think it's a good theme.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

The biggest surprise was actually to have FIFTEEN! submissions, not including my own, especially given the fact that the challenge didn't mean only to write about something, but to also do something. Among a lot of very very good articles, I was amazed by the craftiness of some of the authors, of which I want to give a big shout to Juhis for his article about crafting a tabletop game. That was an absolute unit of an article and I feel it encapsulated the theme perfectly: doing something the author likes to do, documenting it, and creating something tangible from (almost) nothing.

In conclusion, hosting the Carnival was a really fun and interesting experience, it's still one of the Internet-social events I'm attending every month, because the themes are well chosen. And if you have a website, or thinking of making one for yourself, go and do it, there are still nice people waiting around the corner!

Jul 2024: James

In July 2024, James hosted on the theme of 'Tools', exploring how they influence creative processes and practices.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

When I was first learning to code, I thought about coding as a pursuit in itself. With that said, as the years have passed, I find myself more interested in how software is designed. What tools do we most rely on? How do tools enable or interfere with creativity? What affordances do our favourite tools have that make them so compatible with how we want to work? What makes a tool delightful? What principles should we consider when we design new tools?

When I hosted the carnival in July 2024 on "Tools," I was thinking a lot about tools but knew that others' perspectives were invaluable. Part of me was interested in what attributes I like in software, but a bigger part of me was interested in what others thought and liked about the tools they use. As part of that intention, looking back I didn't limit the carnival to software, or even mention the word "software" in the announcement blog post. Indeed, while I am fascinated by software, I think we have much to learn from all tools when it comes to making interfaces.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I can't remember whether I thought about any other prompts, but if I recall correctly the topic of tools was one I was thinking a lot about so it felt like a good choice. I wanted to choose a topic that would be appealing to others, that was as open-ended as possible, and that didn't require any special knowledge to respond to. One thing I really love about the IndieWeb Carnival is that the prompts are open-ended, which encourages more voices and perspectives.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

I wanted to encourage people to talk not only about tools, but how they affect creativity. I wanted to hear about tools in many different contexts and creative pursuits. I am fascinated by how people make things.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Looking back, the topic of tools is just as present in my thinking as it was back when I chose the theme – even though the carnival was over a year and a half ago! Like all reading, I think I soaked in the responses when I read them, each one moving my thinking forward.

But, really, the most exciting part of the carnival is not how my thinking changes but how, at the end, there are a dozen or more thoughtfully-written perspectives on an idea that anyone can read. Who knows how many people are inspired in a given month by the responses people write on their blogs.

Since the carnival, there has been a specific subtle and growing thought in my mind that I have not yet written down but should share somewhere: that if we think out of the box in terms of software design, we might come up with something brilliant.

I keep thinking about software tools because I can contribute to those – software is a place where I can make a difference. But also because software touches so many parts of our lives that I think continuous discourse on how we make software the best it can be for everyone is essential.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

One of the things I look back on with joy is that, to the extent I can see, I had never interacted with several of the participants. They found the challenge and wrote something as part of the challenge. I love the grassroots nature of the carnival. All it takes to participate is a place to write on the web.

Aug 2024: Steve Ledlow

In Aug 2024, Steve hosted on the theme of 'Rituals'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

I've always been fascinated by human behavior when it coems to rituals. I think they're so important to what defines culture and, more personally, what makes each of us tick in our own unique way.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I'm sure I did. Coffee was likely high on my mental list, but by recognizing the ritualistic aspects of my coffee making, I knew I'd found my theme.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

Nothing grand here. I just sat down and wrote out the launch post. I felt like it was something people could immediately interpret without a lot of leading them down a path.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Absolutely. I had no preconceived notions of what others would write. I was so honored to have people choose to write about their rituals and I learned so much from reading them. It added to it that I knew I wanted to write a round-up post, so I was more intentional with my documenting my thoughts on each one.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

I was surprised by the sheer number of people that submitted posts. Other than that, each one was interesting and surprising in its own way.

Oct 2024: Riccardo

In Oct 2024, Riccardo hosted on the theme of 'Multilingualism In A Global Web'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

The choice of speaking of the plurality of languages was a thing I had already been considering for a while, well before I pondered the idea to submit it as an IndieWeb Carnival theme: the Internet, and social media in particular, cause a non-negligible tendency to conformity, and language reflects this tendency. In my recent experience, most new jargon is directly taken from English-speaking meme trends, even in political discussion. While this may help in easing some connections, I feel like we are losing something else, maybe uniqueness.

In the context of the Small Web, conformity may be less of a concern, but language can still be a barrier, especially if it isn't a "common" one. Since, however, we are from all over the world, I was curious of other web surfers, writers and creatives' opinions on this. All I can say is I was pleasantly surprised of the response.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

At some point, I had the idea of suggesting something related to information order, as I was neck-deep in the 2nd brain / Zettlekasten productivity rabbit hole. However, I never felt ready to deal with such a topic in public (even though I'd like this to change someday), so that idea remained in the "Maybe" pile.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

I brain-stormed everything in Italian, then kept the one which sounded okay in both Italian and English. To be honest, it was quite a quick process, so there is not much to discuss.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Not quite. Most submissions focused a lot on personal experiences and restrained from drawing high-level arguments or general conclusions. This is good, because the whole Carnival felt more fun than I had anticipated: everybody had an interesting linguistic balance to show and funny little quirks that, in my opinion, only something like the small web has the time to ponder.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

First of all, how many Italians are here in the scene! I only knew of Manuel's blog, but we are legion, I guess.

Then, I didn't expect so many submissions from different parts of the world: we almost covered the entire globe with this one.

Dec 2024: Zinzy Waleson

In Dece 2024, Zinzy Waleson hosted on of 'Belief'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

One thing that is central to everything I do is this gravitational pull towards spiritual praxis. People often seem surprised when I tell them I'm Christian, because I live in a post-religious country as a queer person of colour. Because of the apparent unusualness of that part of my identity, the declaration often triggers not disappointment but bewilderment, after which I can do what I love: speak with others about what, how, when, and why we believe what we do, My decision to host the IndieWeb Carnival with the theme Belief is just my excuse to exercise this social dynamic in a digital space.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I did. I had a lot of time to settle on a theme, because I put my name on the list at the beginning of 2024, and my month as a host was December. I imagined my friendly fellow IndieWeb nerds would shy away from writing about a topic like this. I also expected people would consider the theme an act of evangelism, a tradition I happen to be vehemently against. But, you know, I yam what I yam, and so Belief it was.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

The wording I chose helped me frame the theme broadly, which I believe helped elicit submissions that were about more than "I hate the church" (if you do, more power to you, she's a sh*t show).

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

It most certainly did, in that it broadened its scope. There was such diversity in the submissions I got, and I really love that people weren't afraid to dig deep to share their perspective with us.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

Aside from the substantive diversity, I was surprised by the sheer volume of submissions. My favourite thing about my corner of the IndieWeb is that it is entirely devoid of what is central to my working life: analysing user behaviour. I have no idea you've seen what I've written unless you explicitly tell me so. That sense of vagueness is what I cherish most about the IndieWeb.

Feb 2025: Joe Crawford

In February 2025, Joe Crawford hosted on the theme of 'Affirmations'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

Affirmations have been on my mind since my first marriage imploded. I found them really useful to me in hard times. I had always been the most rational of rationalists and the idea that an aphorism, or even a cliche, could be useful to me was anathema. Up until I was 30 I'd have looked down on a person who appreciated an affirmation.

So when I considered what to host for IndieWeb Carnival in February 2025 I knew it would be the first topic I'd choose. I figured there would be folks on either side of that idea: those who would appreciate them, and those who wouldn't.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

Not at all. As the entries came in I started to think about other, further prompts, and how I could have steered it, but I was delighted to read the entries.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

I had a draft for maybe a week and looked at it every so often. When I post something longer to my site I often will make edits in the next 24 hours. I wanted to avoid that editing impulse as much as possible since I'd be making a formal request to folks.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

Not changed, but enriched. Reading more stories about what affirmations could mean: for mental health, mourning, loss, illness modes of thought, hope, and strength was deeply meaningful to me.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

The Roundup Post for Affirmations has the results. Britt made a zine. ava made a playlist. jo made an illustration. Surprises, all! All 30 responses are worth a look, I feel funny highlighting any to the exclusion of any others.

As to the alternate medium posts: I did invite alternative modes of creative work but that was more to allow folks to feel free to express themselves in whatever way they could. It was in case folks not practiced at "finding the words to express" could use some other mode.

Jun 2025: Nick Simson

In June 2025, Nick Simson hosted on the theme of 'Take Two'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

I liked "Take Two" as a phrase open to several interpretations. I was drawn to the idea of a second take (or third, fourth, etc.), or second chances. I was also curious if the idea of going back to do something different would result in any interesting time travel conundrums.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

My original idea was to host a Carnival about "personal style". I was thinking how artists each have a unique style; how someone may choose an outfit or a hairstyle; or even writing a style guide like Strunk and White. But there was another recent theme on "self-expression" that I felt might be a little too close and recent for regular participants, so "Take Two". But someone else should take up the personal style idea and run with it on their own website!

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

This was the most challenging part of hosting! I wanted to provide a few ways of interpreting the theme without writing too much of anyone's post for them. Mostly I wanted to plant the seeds of the idea through my own voice.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

I did try to sit down and write a post of my own responding to the theme, a couple times. In the end, I was happy just playing host. I received so many submissions (37!) in that month I was pretty busy reading and responding to all the great writing each week.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

Overall, folks had a variety of diverse takes on the theme, which was very satisfying. I was delighted that a few people even submitted more than one post to the "Take Two" Carnival. The biggest surprise came early in the month when Christian Tietze reached out and asked about using the same theme for his community's "Emacs Carnival". Who am I to turn down such a request? I agreed, and suggested folks participating in the Emacs Carnival also submit their blog posts to the IndieWeb Carnival.

Oct 2025: Bix

In October 2025, Bix hosted on the theme of 'Ego'.

Q1: What drew you to this theme?

I'd happened to write about the matter of ego for a prior Carnival, November 2024's on "impact", and it was on my mind as a subject because October is my birth month and my birthday post the previous year also heavily focused on ego. Since that post had long become my blog's manifesto as October 2025 approached, I was thinking about ego once again. I thought it likely that it would generate interest from a variety of different angles.

Q2: Did you consider any other prompts before settling?

I did not.

Q3: How did you decide on your prompt's wording?

Pretty much the same way I come up with any blog post: after varying degrees of unconscious noodling around, I sit down and write the thing in one go, start to finish. It helped that I had only just recently had a dream in which I lamented in response to a dream character that I was "still nobody", which gave me an introductory hook. For the rest, I simply cited my own previous writings on ego, tossed in some relevant Beach Boys lyrics, thought about some example ways to tackle the subject from either a personal perspective or an IndieWeb one, and it was good to go.

Q4: Did hosting change how you think about the theme?

In fact it did. Although I didn't necessarily give it direct conscious thought beforehand, I'm pretty sure my conceptions of ego tended toward it being an inherently negative impulse. Over the course of reading people's submissions, and certainly over the course of writing about those submissions in my roundup post, I came to think about ego more in a sort of Freudian-lite sense as a mediator between and among other dominant inner and outer forces and voices. More akin to the drive to exist and to matter in ways that help create a balance among yourself, others, and the world itself.

Q5: Did the submissions surprise you in any way?

I think I might have been somewhat surprised that while I went out of my way to suggest ideas for tackling ego in the context of the IndieWeb community itself, in addition to more obvious personal ideas, most people in fact tackled it from the latter viewpoint. I'm not sure why I found this surprising; it's not as if the Carnival is full of people only ever blogging about prompts as they relate to the IndieWeb. Mostly, I was grateful for the range of approaches and takes on the subject.