Guestbooks are cool

As I mentioned in a previous post, this site now has a guestbook. But, as someone pointed out, I didn’t explain what the heck a guestbook is. I thought it was pretty self-explanatory but I think it’s worth writing a post about it anyway. On the IndieWeb website, guestbooks are defined as:

a way to allow visitors to your site to leave a comment about the website as a whole, instead of a comment about a specific post.

I think it’s a good definition. Guestbooks are a relic of a different time, back when the web wasn’t dominated by social media and interactions among people moved at a different pace. A guestbook is like a summit book, in a way. It’s something you can use to leave a trace of your presence.

But what do you write on the guestbook? Whatever you want. You can let me know how you landed here, you can use it to suggest a topic, or you can use it to just say hi. Just be kind and respectful.

I first toyed with the idea of adding a guestbook almost a year ago, after stumbling on Sara Joy’s website. I don’t remember how or why I was there but I loved the guestbook and it took me almost a year to finally code mine.

And I’m happy to see that Kev now has one on his site as well! If you decide to add a guestbook to your site send me an email, and I’ll be happy to come sign it.